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Mar. 29  2024
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**People Live Not Always By Choice**

Just over twelve months ago my husband, John, and I quit our jobs, packed our suitcases and said good-bye to our friends and family in Melbourne, Australia when we embarked on a once in a lifetime experience to live and work in Korea. Korea! everyone exclaimed when we told them where we were going. Adding, What was in Korea?

Source  :  Asian Workers News

By Cassandra Beardsley
Staff writer

Just over twelve months ago my husband, John, and I quit our jobs, packed our suitcases and said good-bye to our friends and family in Melbourne, Australia when we embarked on a once in a lifetime experience to live and work in Korea. Korea! everyone exclaimed when we told them where we were going. Adding, What was in Korea?
All we knew about Korea was that The Korean War was there; as were the 1988 Olympic Games, it had numerous car manufacturers and Koreans ate something called Kim-chi. And although we had bought a couple of books on Korean language and culture, we arrived in Pusan wide eyed and naive, not really knowing what to expect for the next six months.
What struck us foremost was that we were the only Westerners living in Kumgok-dong, Pusan. School children would chase us, calling out, 'Hello!'. I don't think they knew anything else to say in English, while the adults would just stare. We made babies cry; especially John with his blonde curls and blue eyes, because they had never seen anything like us before. It was like being a celebrity or an alien from another planet. Coming from a country that has more than one hundred nationalities and cultures all living together in relative harmony and where nobody gives you a second look if you aren't a white Anglo Saxon, made all this a little unnerving.
Then there was the language barrier to overcome. Luckily for both of us, we're able to pick up languages quite well and we soon impressed our neighbors and Korean friends with our ability to say basic greetings and order meals in restaurants. Communicating in English wasn't so easy though.
As we soon discovered, the English Koreans are taught is American English, which is absolutely useless for understanding any other kind of English, especially Australian English, because of the pronunciation differences. We quickly learnt to slow down our speech and clearly pronounce every word with an American twang whenever we spoke to anyone because they found us just too hard to understand. Even John's secretary, who had studied English at university, had trouble understanding us. When a colleague of John, also from Australia, came to do some on the job training, John had to act as interpreter because the Korean employees had absolutely no idea what he was saying.
It wasn't through lack of trying on the Korean in behalf though. Whenever we were out somewhere it wasn't uncommon for someone to come up and ask if they could practice their English on us. Most expected us to be American English teachers, as that's what most Westerners in Pusan are, and were always surprised to learn that we were Australian and John working in shipping.
Another common question we were asked was how we found Korean food. I guess that most people who have never tried Korean food before don't like it very much, as we always surprised our questioners when we answered that we found it quite enjoyable and had actually never felt better since making it the majority of our diet. My mouth waters every time I think of be-bim-bap, bulgogi, samgye-tang or dwen-jang-gook. John and I agree that quite is the best beer we're ever tasted and even developed a liking for mak-gollee. Developing a taste for kim-chi took us a while though. Soon after coming into contact with Asian Workers News however, I came to realize that the wonderful encounters John & I were having, were a far cry from the experiences of others who had come from overseas to work in Korea.
I was horrified to learn of the plight of migrant workers being underpaid, overworked, physically abused & discriminated against. Nobody should have to work under conditions of that kind in this day and age. Unfortunately however, people are subjected to these conditions because they have no other choice.
All around the world, men women and sadly, even children, work in environments not unlike those of European Industrial Revolution more than one hundred years ago. Even in Australia, the so called lucky Country - workers slave away in sweatshops, earning less than 2000 Won for each designer garment they make which then sells in the stores for more than 200,000 Won.
Why? Not for the adventure & wonderful opportunity to see the world, like John & I. Instead they are hoping to create a better life for themselves & their families. The hope of their children being educated, parents not having to suffer through illness in their old age and maybe one day, having a job that they like and with better conditions.

John and I are now living in Malaysia, where the exploitation of young women from Indonesia and The Philippines who come to work as nannies and maids has been featuring in the news. Having had my eyes opened by Asian Workers News, I've come to realize that one can't turn a blind eye to such matters. Living overseas, experiencing different cultures has also made me more aware of the different ways people live not always by choice.


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김정우   patcha@patcha.jinbo.net


 
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