Language Learning Forum: Just been to a Korean language forum

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Just been to a Korean language forum

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Forum Name: Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages
Forum Discription: The place to share your personal cultural experiences in foreign languages: books you read, trips, Zeitgeist abroad and other memorable things you did in a foreign language.
URL: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=38213
Printed Date: 13 June 2021 at 5:24am

Posted By: Jiwon
Subject: Just been to a Korean language forum
Date Posted: 01 March 2014 at 9:30am

Well, not exactly a forum, but a board with lots of trolls on it. I've spent my last
couple of weeks contributing to the language section of DCinside (more or less Korean
4chan), because I wanted to mingle with fellow countrymen who were also interested in
languages.

Turns out it was a big mistake. These people are full of prejudice, lots of trolls and
racists, making discriminatory comments about Chinese and Japanese learners for being
짱께 and 쪽바리 (these words are too derogatory for me to translate, but are a more
perverse version "chinky"). The past few days it was full of comments by some weirdo
who went of swearing at anyone who would study any language other than Korean("our"
native language) and English("THE" international language). He believes learners of any
other language to be wasting their time.

All this put me through too much of culture shock. Now I fully understand the perverse
and low nature of Korean online culture and why this country will never be able to
reach any collected consensus regarding any political agenda.

So much for my "fellow" countrymen... In comparison, this forum is a serendipity in the
ocean of online trolls and spammers. My appreciation for this forum is sprialling in
frozen fractals all around.

Replies:

A conversation I had just yesterday went in the lines of Japanese netizens hating against a certain area in Japan, because everyone follows some public opinion. It made me think about the way the internet is used in different languages, and more than that; which language people use for a certain task. I guess many languages have 4chan equivalents, but you need a large enough potential userbase to support a forum that is interesting to a fairly low percentage of the user base.
Bao on 01 March 2014

I've seen people make the link between 4chan and DCinside, but I personally don't see the
connection. 4chan is an anonymous imageboard and DCinside doesn't give me the vibe of
being either of those (with its posts that are almost exclusively text and login boxes
plastered everywhere with some links on the site even requiring login). In fact the main
page of DCinside doesn't look all that different in design from a place like Naver or Daum.
Perhaps the connection being made more applies to the type of posters you find at each
place (particularly those in a board like /b/) instead, whereas I'm more comparing the other
aspects of the site (since I rarely if ever visit /b/).

I have come across what seems to be the Spanish equivalent of 4chan (Hispachan), though.
Warp3 on 01 March 2014

Jiwon wrote:

Racists, ignorant people, and jerks exist in every country, culture, and language. The problem with just focusing on a few online forums is that you probably just talked with the worst examples of Korea. Small sample size, brah.
culebrilla on 01 March 2014

culebrilla wrote:

Jiwon wrote:

Well, not exactly a forum, but a board with lots of
trolls on it. I've spent my last
couple of weeks contributing to the language section of DCinside (more or less Korean
4chan), because I wanted to mingle with fellow countrymen who were also interested in
languages.

Turns out it was a big mistake. These people are full of prejudice, lots of trolls and
racists, making discriminatory comments about Chinese and Japanese learners for being
짱께 and 쪽바리 (these words are too derogatory for me to translate, but are a more
perverse version "chinky"). The past few days it was full of comments by some weirdo
who went of swearing at anyone who would study any language other than Korean("our"
native language) and English("THE" international language). He believes learners of any
other language to be wasting their time.

All this put me through too much of culture shock. Now I fully understand the perverse
and low nature of Korean online culture and why this country will never be able to
reach any collected consensus regarding any political agenda.

So much for my "fellow" countrymen... In comparison, this forum is a serendipity in the
ocean of online trolls and spammers. My appreciation for this forum is sprialling in
frozen fractals all around.

Racists, ignorant people, and jerks exist in every country, culture, and language. The
problem with just focusing on a few online forums is that you probably just talked with
the worst examples of Korea. Small sample size, brah.

The sad part is that, although I really shouldn't want to admit, this is NOT the worst
example of Korea. There are countless numbers of worse websites and "cafes(online
groups) where Korean people spit out derogatory remarks at all kinds of people for no
reason, whether it be the other gender, sexual minority, foreign tourists, immigrant
workers, Kosians(kids with a Korean dad and a Southeast Asian mom), Chinese or
Japanese. It is considered quite cool to shout out derogatory remarks at "inferior"
people, and combined with strong peer pressure and mob mentality of Korean culture,
this is just a step away from hate crime.

The scarier part is that this practice does not only stay online, but is quite
widespread even online, especially among youths.

If you don't want to believe all this, well, I invite you to read the replies and
comments people post on newspaper articles online.
Jiwon on 01 March 2014

Jiwon wrote:

If you don't want to believe all this, well, I invite you to read the replies and
comments people post on newspaper articles online.

Those are horrible in Sweden too, and they're definitely not representative for normal people. Normal people don't
have neither take the time to write comments on newspaper articles. Most Swedish papers nowadays remove the
comment function on any article about equality issues, immigration and other things they know attract the biggots
with too much spare times and too few brain cells.
Hampie on 01 March 2014

Jiwon wrote:

culebrilla wrote:

Jiwon wrote:

Well, not exactly a forum, but a board with lots of
trolls on it. I've spent my last
couple of weeks contributing to the language section of DCinside (more or less Korean
4chan), because I wanted to mingle with fellow countrymen who were also interested in
languages.

Turns out it was a big mistake. These people are full of prejudice, lots of trolls and
racists, making discriminatory comments about Chinese and Japanese learners for being
짱께 and 쪽바리 (these words are too derogatory for me to translate, but are a more
perverse version "chinky"). The past few days it was full of comments by some weirdo
who went of swearing at anyone who would study any language other than Korean("our"
native language) and English("THE" international language). He believes learners of any
other language to be wasting their time.

All this put me through too much of culture shock. Now I fully understand the perverse
and low nature of Korean online culture and why this country will never be able to
reach any collected consensus regarding any political agenda.

So much for my "fellow" countrymen... In comparison, this forum is a serendipity in the
ocean of online trolls and spammers. My appreciation for this forum is sprialling in
frozen fractals all around.

Racists, ignorant people, and jerks exist in every country, culture, and language. The
problem with just focusing on a few online forums is that you probably just talked with
the worst examples of Korea. Small sample size, brah.

Dude, I believe it. But the problem is that a lot of people also do NOT think as they do. Have I been discriminated against in the US as a minority? Yes, plenty of times. But xenophobia or hate in general has, exists, and will always exist in the world.

Should we just let it continue? Of course not, we should condemn it. But I don't pay as much attention to these things as I used to. A lot of people are dumb and easily swayed by mass media that says that certain groups are evil. Me, I don't care as much now and just try to lead a good life.
culebrilla on 01 March 2014

Jiwon, you went to DC Inside, I don't really know what you expected. DC Inside, 일베 and
the others are known for precisely that.
I get what you mean anecdotal-ly though- despite the selection bias there's quite a bit
of racism on the Korean web, sure.
Leurre on 02 March 2014

Sadly bigotry is running rampart all around the world since the begining of this millenia. And it goes hand to hand with fellow friends; xenophobia, racism, discrimination, fanaticisim and sexism. That is not the case only in Korea but all around the world. Internet has much to do with this. First, it did let us be able to see what's there in their brains of the people who we never had to see before; ones who lived in distant neighbourhoods or cities. Seconds and more important; there is a huge wave of rage and hatred growing all around the world. New ultra capitalistic global world order created two generations of people who have access to every knowledge of mankind via their phones and computers which has no prospect for future. As i see it, there are around a billion young people on earth at the moment who has %0,01 chance to become "somebody" yet they are growing up watching and admiring sucessful and good looking "celebrities". That much hatred combined with anonimity of internet creates amazing amounts of hate speech. For those people anything that doesn't grant you instant superstar status or enormous amounts of money is useless and stupid. For them there are no ladders to climb or no paths to walk. Everything should be theirs instantly because they simply "deserve it". Language learning therefor is useless because they don't want to understand other people, they just want to "beat" other people, become better than them and rule them.
Jarel on 13 March 2014

Hampie wrote:

Jiwon wrote:

If you don't want to believe all this, well, I invite you to read the replies and
comments people post on newspaper articles online.

Well, without getting too off topic, I've heard quite a few and have seen a few negative things about immigrants in Sweden myself. It's not really fair to say someone is or isn't normal based on their stance on political issues, to an extent. Of course racism and discrimination can be negative, but it's also part of human nature. It will never go away. But, it shouldn't necessarily be ignored/brushed off easily.
sillygoose1 on 13 March 2014

Jiwon wrote:

There are countless numbers of worse websites and "cafes(online
groups) where Korean people spit out derogatory remarks at all kinds of people for no
reason, whether it be the other gender,

Not to derail the discussion too much, but http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2006-03-08_146#accept _ranting - it's not quite the same thing. Forgive me for making too many assumptions, but if we put it in terms of language learning, I bet women are complaining that they have to do so much housework that they don't have time for learning languages, whereas men are complaining that a potential language partner they really wanted rejected them.
Serpent on 15 March 2014

Serpent wrote:

Jiwon wrote:

There are countless numbers of worse websites and
"cafes(online
groups) where Korean people spit out derogatory remarks at all kinds of people for no
reason, whether it be the other gender,

Not to derail the discussion too much,
but http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2006-03-08_146#accept _ranting - it's not
quite the same thing. Forgive me for making too many assumptions, but if we put
it in terms of language learning, I bet women are complaining that they have to do so
much housework that they don't have time for learning languages, whereas men are
complaining that a potential language partner they really wanted rejected them.

This does kind of derail the discussion a bit. Perhaps Jiwon could give more specific
examples of what he experienced, but the site he went to and a bunch of similar ones
include posts which could not by any stretch of the imagination be considered simple
ranting.
Regarding the content you linked to, I'm not sure that one needs to accept racist
posts, 'all foreigners are dogs and the Africans are all monkeys' calibre attacks as
'attacks on privilege,' most especially when the groups in question (in the case of 일
베 this ranges from women to left-leaning political ideas, to foreigners...) are hardly
privileged groups in the country/society. I'm not sure one needs to 'accept' rants on
privileged social groups either. So yes I think this is unnecessarily
sidetracking the discussion.

Leurre on 15 March 2014

It was about the non-privileged groups' right, though. Their ranting about the privileged ones is NOT the same thing as what you described. As I tried to demonstrate, the ranting of men about women is very different from the ranting of women about men. And it was specifically about ranting in minority spaces, which privileged people should enter with caution.
Serpent on 15 March 2014