Gwangju International Center

The presenter, Joo Yeon Cho, talked about living in Korea as a gyopo.

She was born in Korea, and is originally From Gyeonggi province. She immigrated to the United States on October 30th, 1990.

It wasn't always easy to adapt but the relocation provided her with the chance to experience things she couldn't have in Korea and likewise have relationships that would have been otherwise unavailable, as well.

When she reached adulthood questions about identity began to come to her mind, such as, "Who am I?” and “Why am I here?".

The reason she came back to Korea was to find the roots she belongs to.

Once here, she was faced with the question of, "Am I a foreigner or not?".

She looks Korean, speaks fluent Korean, loves Korean food, and even is of Korean descent. However, she discovered she can still be foreign from a cultural basis.

She had always thought of herself as Korean, but she discovered so many things in which she was different.

Particularly, the way of people who have spent their entire lives in Korea think was totally different. She also found out that the Korean perspective on Korean immigrants wasn't especially positive.

The presenter found herself feeling as though she was bounced between two cultures.

The things that Koreans typically think about goypo include the following: gyopo are egotistical and too self-involved; they don’t think about what’s good for everyone… only what is good for themselves; they do not know the culture of respecting their elders; they’re too free; they’re foreigners, but there’s also an unspoken expectancy that they know Korean culture and language, resulting in a double standard.

There is also the conception that gyopo are only who they are today because they were blessed with parents that had the money to give them a life abroad.

Many of these conceptions are not true at all, but result from a general misunderstanding of gyopo but Koreans.

Conversely, Korean immigrants have their own perspectives concenring native Koreans, which include the following:

native Koreans are too conservative and judgmental; they don’t understand foreigners and understand gyopos even less; they don’t really care to know or want to change their way of thinking about them. There is also the conception among gyopo that they are living in “their country” so there is no compunction for native Koreans to have to get to know gyopo or to try to understand them.

Many gyopo have expressed the feeling of "feeling more foreign in Korea than they do back home".

This is currently happening in our country.

Korean says "We have a lot of affection(情) and We are so proud of that."

Then why can't Koreans be generous to gyopo. They are, after all, part of our Korean national family.

It's time to open our mind to gyopo and accept them.