What no one tells you about living in Korea (racism, r*pe culture, dating)

hi everyone it's sienna welcome back to today's video please bear with me the sun is going down um or it's it's not going down but it's snowing today so the lighting isn't as great so i'm just gonna have to work with it um lately i realized that it's kind of a big trend to like come to korea and experience all the great things here and you know with the rise of k-waves and stuff like that there's a lot of people that kind of romanticize what living in korea is really like and then i see a lot of videos that are these foreigners coming into korea making videos about how koreans are racist or there's really thirsty guys here and they end up miserable actually living here so i just wanted to make this video to talk about what living in korea is actually like in today's video i just wanted to touch on a couple topics that are kind of triggering and also i want to touch on them not in a way of saying like i hate korea don't come here but just to have realistic goals of um what your life might be like when you actually do end up moving just hope that it would just be like a friend that is actually living here giving you advice to other people that might be wondering what it's like to live there so the first subject that i want to talk about is racism so if you are not white white people you don't have a problem you guys are going to find a great job here no matter what if you are a white blue-eyed person you have you probably will have no trouble coming here and adjusting i mean there are still some like rude comments that you might face but nothing quite compared to what other you know people of color might face that is you know obviously um including southeast asians they kind of have a feeling i'm talking about koreans that uh they kind of have a feeling that you don't speak any korean so that's why they would just say really rude stuff like right in front of you you know my filipino friends who would um just daily interactions that they would have like a cab driver calling her but pretty for a filipino so stuff like that like there's always an underlying like racism undertone there which is really awful and i feel like still a work in progress like korea if you don't know the whole history of korea it's just a we we've developed um really really quick and we've globalized a lot of our culture so it attracts a lot of overseas like tourists and just people that want to come here and buy the makeup products or go to places that the korea stars promote but i think our culture in a way just can't keep up with how we are attracting all these people so fast um in schools we don't talk about racism we don't talk about colorism anything like that and it's just if you make a racist joke there's no one to call you out on it everyone just laughs it's in a lot of comedy shows and um like i'm not blaming koreans per se it's just there needs to be more um development in educating ourselves with what is hurtful what is racist and what is you know not okay to do or say so racism you are going to experience racism um i think just anywhere you go there's also like really nice people here so don't like be scared that everyone's gonna be racist there's also really nice people here that are going to be so intrigued that you decided to come to korea and you're exploring like you know we don't really have culture appropriation in our culture if that makes sense so we would culture appropriate all these other countries without thinking that it's cultural appreciation the same way that you can wear hanboks like the korean traditional dresses for halloween you can do that i guess for the majority of koreans um even for me as well like i don't mind what other people wear like korean traditional dresses because it's like you're appreciating our culture like we take pride in that instead of saying that it's appropriation it's always good if you speak a little bit of korean um they obviously no one would kind of expect you to um but it is always her staying like you're coming here and you know at least show like oh you're trying to kind of pick up on the language but we don't expect you to learn it or speak it fluently of course um but people are just going to think that it's really great and also this is kind of like a weird thing but this only like applies to people that are working in business environments i've seen that a lot of people are scared or like they're they've stressed over the korean culture right like the business environment of it like am i supposed to shake hands and we're supposed to like bow whatever um i guess like my advice is don't stress out about that too much um i've worked in business environments i've faced talked to a lot of people that came from america or australia or wherever and they always like ask me like hey is it okay if i do this is it okay if i do that no one's really gonna care like they know that you're different they know that you're not korean so they wouldn't really expect you to to do the same things that koreans would um but it is always respectful to you know bow and just kind of know like the basic etiquettes before jumping into the business world because if anything you might be surprised of the things that goes on another topic is freaking i don't want to say the word but the [Music] sexual assault culture that goes on here in korea it is freaking insane like it is insane i didn't really think that it was insane until i started living in another country and experiencing their culture their night culture korea is known for the night culture that we have you know there's all these great clubs that you can get into for free if you're a girl um guys are always looking into talking to you obviously trying to get in your pants but talking to you buying new food buying new drinks and a lot of people just kind of like naively get into it for girls it's free drinks free food of course but there's always always always going to be like they want something from you but it's like i know that's like that in every single country but that you really need to take care of yourself when you go out because um there's no one that's i don't want to say but there's really no no one that's going to help you because in our culture you know um no one really checks up one another you are basically strangers you know when you are out in public no one's really going to be like hey how are you know we really make small talk here so you know everyone just minds their own business and then if they see something shady going on they also mind their business because they just don't want to get into it so you really need to take care of yourself or you really need to go out with people that are going to take good care of you i was really shocked when i went out for the first time when i was like 18 i guess when i first turned legal which was 18 19. i don't go out anymore but um when i went out i was so shocked because people in korea are very conservative or i thought they were really conservative they don't really talk about actual things i guess but then when you go out it's like after 9 00 p.m or 10 p.m when you go out to all these places they are like it's like all that they've been like suppressing and hiding just kind of blows up and it's just insane like i went out in canada a couple times with friends i've never been touched i've never been groped that has never happened to me in korea that happens every time i go out so that is just something to be aware of i don't want to bash all guys out there obviously that's not what i'm trying to do but it's not okay for you to do that and they're just i don't know i get like heated every time i talk about it because there's just so much [ __ ] that goes on and then i went out not intentionally but i was kind of dragged out with friends i didn't intend to go out but it was like a year ago i guess when i first came here and there was a little i want to say a little but she was like 18. so that's like little to me she came with us and she was just so naive and she was just clueless of what was going on and i was just so shocked because there's guys that are going to take if there's a huge lineup of guys that are trying to take advantage of you every time you go out so i don't want to scare anyone but um especially if you are a foreigner um there's a lot of guys that just want to hook up with a foreigner just to say that they've hooked up with a foreigner and they think that they have a stereotype that in you know the western cultures you are more sexually active or more not what's the opposite of conservatives so when you're in high school you start talking about these things but then i'm like getting here i think that the majority of guys in korea they don't really know that every single individual is different when it comes to how active they are in that sense they just think that oh if you are from overseas or if you're foreign you're just more open to it which is not true if anything i feel like they're more conservative in canada like if i was going out if i was like a little bit like tripping over a little bit there was always people to check up on me and say like all these strangers be like hey are you okay which was so freaking nice because i've never had that here like i've had guys trying to pull me like forcefully pull me into their cars late at night when i was trying to go home and everyone just looked away they're like we didn't see anything she'll figure it out so that was really really nice um but i've just had so many experiences here that i just really want to warn everyone they really need to be careful i advise on not going out honestly but if you are gonna go out then just go out with a big group of friends that are going to check up on you no matter what careful of that there's always people that are going to roofie you i don't want to say it but you know they play all these like sick drinking games it's not just like never have i ever put a figure down they're just always trying to take advantage of girls and it's so gross and i just would never stop speaking out about this because it's a huge problem that does need to change here just because you're drunk there's still a couple laws here that apply that um can accept you from getting punished or a lawsuit happening if you say oh i was drunk then they're like oh then you weren't really yourself huh so that is also really messed up um no one talks about this but in schools and subways in public bathrooms in spas there are secret cameras right there's freaking secret cameras that are installed by these pervs and um they are spying on these people i don't know it's so sick especially like um in the subways if you take a subway here there's all these like ads that are saying oh if you take a picture that is you know punishable by law so if it's there in the subway as an ad then you know that it's actually happening too much right on an everyday basis so um girls are always wearing like little shorts underneath their skirts especially if you are taking the subway or if you're taking public transportation because there's guys that are going to like sneak their phones under you and try to take a picture which is so freaking gross yeah so there's a lot of that speaking of night culture as well let's go back into it there's guys that are i don't know i've noticed you know it's like a whole like fantasy when you come to korea you want to party all night take the first train home i'm telling you when the club start closing which is i guess like around 5 6 a.m that's when the guys really get this for i've had incidences where i've had like three incidences where it was just me and my friend were waiting for the train or the bus to go back home and these guys would literally just like hold you up and try to like put you in their cars and the taxi drivers are just like sitting there like okay another another round you know no one speaks up no one's like hey leave that girl no one does that which is so freaking sad i literally have to like kick someone and these are normal ass people these are like normal people that you know in the daylight they would just look like a very respectful korean guy like i just want to keep saying that it's not all guys but it's just because of the whole culture that is rooted in the system that if you are a guy you're gonna have one or two people in your friend group or just someone that you know that do this that do roofie girls that do take advantage of these girls their age or not they don't give a they don't care about that and no one i guess we need more people we need more people to um speak out against it and say this is going on and it is wrong because there's not a lot of people doing that it's kind of being brushed under under the rug and i hate that that's why i hate it when people like fantasize over these korean guys and they're like oh my god he's cree no because you know just because they're korean doesn't mean that they're freaking perfect be you know very mindful of that that not every single guy out here is trying to make you a main character of you know whatever drama that you're fantasizing about i guess you can tell by now that the people that you do need to be careful about are people in the industry or just um people that are also an industry but they're they're on a streaming platform something related to streaming platforms when i was under age and i feel like when i was underage i was in a lot more dangerous situations than i am now simply because i was just so naive and i just thought like wow that's an amazing opportunity every because when you're young you want to seize every moment you want to take every opportunity you never know when you're going to meet the right person that's why you meet everyone and i had just had more awful experiences more when i was younger than i am now and um of those experiences is when i was like going out or i had igdms of these from these um quite famous um streamers and they would say i'm going to pay you x amount of money it actually happened very recently i just blocked it but when i was younger i did not block it and i entertained it and they would say i'm going to pay you 100 for an hour and all i want to do is have you on my streaming platform and we're just going to drink and just talk i went with my friends i went with my friend and they were just pouring drinks and other other drinks over drinks and they're just talking questioning like what is your type what is you know just making like talk i guess it's a live streaming platform so they would have people constantly like ask questions or comments and the people and the person is just kind of like like asking us and just entertaining the people at the same time so um they were kind of the host i guess and comfortable because on those streaming platforms people say the most rude most rudest things and they're kind of hiding behind a face so you don't really like it's kind of weird for you to call them out oh um we're just laughing it off and then they were pouring a lot of drinks and then um i just said at one point in the middle of the whole thing i think i was just like i'm under age and then we left sorry i wasn't underage but i was like just legal but that was like a weird experience and then i've actually had after that i've had people um not my friends but my friends friends friends who would say that they actually went um to these opportunities and they were roofied and they were assaulted later that night and um they just couldn't get anything done because like i said the korean legislation sucks that if you are drunk you are just kind of let go right it's awful it happens it does happen unfortunately anywhere in the world and then they have other people to back them up saying like it's not everyone does it it's fine but it's not fine it's what i'm trying to say and then the reason why i personally don't really go out anymore that when i like speak up about this and i say that is not okay um people just brush it under under the rug and it's not like we need to get that guy we need to tell them that that was [ __ ] up but they're just kind of like yeah it's wrong but like everyone does it so when do you want to go out next and i hate that that turned into a red really quick but that happens and um another thing that no one really talks about is the body shaming here and obviously you see all these k-pop stars that have the perfect body they're so skinny um but it's actually so sad because i've actually seen some people that say that they are the reasons why their eating disorders kind of came back which is so awful because you know in the western world you're all about like i mean not just in the western world but in the whole world in general um you're just more like accepting the curves and all that but in korea being skinny is still the top of the top of the thing um that is everyone's goal is just to be skinny and it's just so sad because you see all these like ig or like youtubers and people always ask them like how much do you weigh and they answer and usually it's like not healthy it's borderline not healthy but they promote it and then you know when people ask like how do you maintain your weight they say i eat an apple and a sweet potato and i starve for three days and it's like that is not okay like but it's just so normalized and i'm ashamed to say that i was doing it for a while um especially if you are in korea like most clothes are only one size well that are kind of bigger they still buy those free sized clothes because they're like oh i want to wear this when i lose weight and that is always in the back of my the back back of their heads that i can't really wear like pretty things right now because i'm you know not the size that everyone else seems to be those things that i touched on i think those are all of it um i could expand a little bit more on each of the subjects but i just don't want to go too overboard i'm making this video not to scare you it's not coming to korea or you know saying like i hate korean men i'm making this video to like boycott you know our country in general i love living here i definitely think that for a lot of people you can come here and you can have the best years of your life and i've had many friends that come here and then they end up just wanting to live here which is so great and there's a lot of great things that do happen there's a lot of great people that you are going to meet but i just don't want you to come not knowing of anything else because people don't people in the yeah people in the media don't really talk about those things um we are still we're like a group culture so um i actually heard just a little side note that the main reason why the coronavirus isn't spreading as much in korea is because not that we're like terrified of the disease but more so that we're terrified of what others might think when we get it so when i go to work right and when i get it then i have to go into quarantine but so does everyone else everyone else need to be tested everyone else needs to be you know everyone else is going to be worrying that they are going to get and spread it to their families or their loved ones so i you know we just don't want to be the person that is like [ __ ] i'm so sorry i got the curtain virus that's the main reason why it's not spreading and that word we have a word for that it's called nunchi and that's just kind of like um you're always being mindful of other people what other people might think or say around you um i personally struggled a lot with that you just need to learn more about the culture as well so that i just don't want you to come and be like [ __ ] like why is this happening to me experience like a bad incident and suddenly it's like you want to go back you hate korea like i just want you to know that this happens and i hope that you can come and speak up for all the people that have been hurt or victimized by these situations create more of awareness around it even if it's just you coming here and then making friends and then telling them like i don't think what that guy did was okay or i don't agree what that person said about this like that is not okay and then you're just kind of like opening the minds of the people in your atmosphere that's how change happens it doesn't happen by you know this whole big phenomena unlike the current advice but you know what i'm saying like it doesn't happen overnight it happens gradually especially if it's something that is so deep rooted in the culture it needs to happen gradually you need to um have more people standing with you and spreading the message and that is just what i'm trying to do if that makes sense like i just want you to come with a thick skin and same thing for me i when i go overseas i go there with the fixing skin i know that i'm probably gonna get some racist moments here and there i know that you know i always need to be careful the world is not peaches and rainbows and i need you to understand the same thing about korea that it's not just peaches and rainbows but you'll be okay you'll have fun you'll survive you'll be fine if you have any other questions if you have you know if you just want to tell me anything if you feel like you came to korea with all these great expectations and none of them are happening or you're just going through a really rough patch right now i want you to know that you're not alone and you can reach out to me anytime anytime literally anytime like i'm not not approachable if that makes sense i am approachable you can dm me on instagram you can shoot me a message you can comment below um and i just love talking to people so i would love to know more about you and your experience i love to hear about your experience and if you have any questions again let me know and i will do my best to answer them all but i hope that you found this video very helpful i hope that you learned a couple new things i'm sorry if maybe in some parts i was talking too fast because there's a lot of things that i wanted to touch on i'm not sure if i touched on everything but i can always make a part two if i haven't or if i feel like i missed out on something or on something like this video give it a big thumbs up if you enjoyed this video if you found it helpful um and subscribe to my channel for more videos that really helps me a lot and i'll be back next time bye

Channel: Sienna Hong

Views: 1,681,101

Keywords: Korea, Living korea, K drama, Kpop, Korean girl, Life vlog, Date culture, Korean dating, Racism, Vlog

Id: b9FC9X3ol08

Length: 23min 16sec (1396 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021