Blog post #4 : Interview Synopsis

Interview #1 – Multicultural people in Korea by Dongwon Yi

   We interviewed a multicultural family’s son (who is 23 years old) who I met from the SNU Buddy. His name is Jimmy Crawford born from a British father and a Korean mother. Jimmy came from England and started to live here in Korea from September 2014. He is an exchange student in SNU and majoring business and has a hobby that is sports. Also he is interested in K-POP like any other foreigners. Just a normal man he is. He was really willing to take the interview and also opened for the picture. Here we started.

Daily life and family life in Korea

     As many biracial people are who could experience and learn about 2 cultures we thought they will have a confusion about their identity. As we thought when we questioned it, Jimmy said he had been questioned a lot about that question. He added that this kind of topic is the main thing he talks with other biracial people. We said he had some confusion and went back and forth. It was usually the environment that made him feel that and now as an adult he now feels a neutral person who is an English and Korean. Through this we could see that the surroundings could impact an adolescent and we should keep in mind that environment is a factor.

    The most interesting and curious from him was the life in Korea. But we noticed when we prepared these questions I also had a stereotype. We thought that biracial people would have harsh experiences and rude treatment from others. Jimmy didn’t actually experience discrimination. We did have a hard time to think if he had that kind of experiences. Rather than discrimination he just experienced some high attention from people. As he looks like a white person people just see him as a foreigner just like any foreigners who came to Korea for a visit. He felt uncomfortable and wanted to get rid of the attention from those people but his attitude was positive. What made him feel like was from the education and from his mother and other Korean acquaintances. He thought that it was totally contributed to the Korean’s way of thinking and a normal attitude to a foreigner. He understood with large tolerance.

    Jimmy’s family is a harmonious family. A father who is let’s him free and a mother who is a traditional Korean always think that he should study a lot. Jimmy still feels like a little boy took care by her. They two met at England when his mother came to study about arts and met a workingman who is his father. As a stereotype many people think that international marriage is not exactly 100% genuine love and think there should be other factors that are related. According to a report one third of foreign wives answered they want to return home and this made a problem between the relationships. Some was right and some was wrong. Jimmy’s mother was very lonely and sad because she could not visit her home often and that made a fight between his parents. We could know when someone is in a foreign country they want to go back their home and this was the exact case. But this does not make the love between his parents weak or altered. They are known to be lovebirds making a harmonious family.

Welfare system and the community in Korea

   Next we were interested with the welfare system here in Korea and wanted to the reaction about what Koreans were thinking, which could be called as stereotype. Jimmy however answered experiencing no hard time in public institutes and was very comfortable living here. Also he didn’t know any of the national welfare system that means there is not enough support yet spread. So we asked him what Koreans thought about the increase in financial support with the welfare system. As a stereotype people think this is over-spending and actually those people gets a lot of support. About this Jimmy thinks this is not responsible for this but actually the people traditional thoughts are responsible. As more foreigners come in and globalization increases the new generation experiences various kinds of things and could get a wider view. But, what Jimmy says, the old generation are not ready to accept the foreigners and feel they are intruders. This might be related to the traditional thinking, ‘a single-race nation’.

Ending the interview

    As the interview was going to the final, we wanted to know what Jimmy wanted to say to the public and how he thinks about international marriage. To the older generation we should just leave them because it would be hard to change what they think about international people. However to the younger generation we should teach and make them understand the world’s changing and should follow the trend. Teach students to not look down on those people or shocked by those people but embrace them and think that they are just a normal person as they are. As a biracial person, Jimmy encourages international marriage because someone could experience more cultures and could get more opportunities. And through that someone could open his/her mind much wider and receptive.