The nice, the curious, and the racist.

Like most foreigners, I've had several bad experiences during my stay here in Korea. Koreans in general are well educated with extensive knowledge in world history, politics, and current affairs. But inspite of being well-informed, some of them are still prejudiced and judgemental toward foreigners. I don't really think their society is as multi-cultural as what they've been claiming to be. Koreans afterall are homogenous and exclusive people.. They've always been proud of their pure race, and I don't think they're ready to handle the huge influx of people coming to their country. But I'm not saying that all Koreans are like that cause I've met a lot of really good people here who value friendship, honesty, and trust more than anything else. Sometimes, I get really surprised how kind Koreans can be... They share their umbrella with strangers, and someone even gives gloves in a cold winter night.. They could be very nice, polite, and overly helpful that sometimes it gets to a point where it's annoying already. We think Pinoys are the most hospitable people on earth, but wait till you visit a typical Korean house. They totally give a whole new meaning to the word 'hospitality'.

With my 3-year observation, I've come to categorize Koreans in a 3 point scale.

1. "The Nice" - these people are generally nice to foreigners and are open to other norms and culture. They welcome people from other countries with open arms. They also consider interaction with foreigners as a good thing. They would usually go the extra mile to make you feel comfortable and not alienated in anyway. They ask a lot of questions about your country, only for the purpose of getting to know you more and understand your culture.

2. "The Curious" - these people tend to ogle a lot in buses or subways, only because you look and sound different from them. They're the ones who have limited interaction with foreigners so they're curious about what you do, what you eat, how you talk, etc. They like asking a lot of questions about you, your country, your culture and compare it with theirs. Most of the time, they're cautious and watchful because it's harder for them to trust you cause you're different. But if you've proven yourself trust-worthy, you'd be surprised how nice they could be. It might take a while for them to open up, but when they do, they immediately fall under the "The Nice" category.

3. "The Racist" - these people are plain nasty with despicable attitude. They don't want you in their country, so they'd bash you with every hurtful, offensive remarks possible so you'd just go away and leave their 'purest of the pure' race alone. They like playing power-tripping cause they think they're better than everyone else. They could be mean to others just because they think can, and they have the right to. They disregard everything about you cause you're different, and supposedly 'lower' than them. They discriminate not just according to race, but also religion, skin color, and socio-economic status. It's difficult to change or bend their ideology, so it's best to just ignore them and forget they exist.

Most of the people here fall under the first two categories, and the racist comprises the smallest percentage. The worst I've got from them are just stupid glares and incomprehensible racist remarks which I usually ignore. I've experienced far worse than that here... But it didn't come from those racist Koreans, but from fellow Pinoys, and that makes it all the more harder to swallow.