Korea Haters

Korea is a place that many English speakers on the blogosphere complain about. Kushibo calls them 'kvetchpats'. I feel that this is much too euphemistic a term to cover the broad range of expats who complain about Korea on the web. When I think of 'kvetchpats', I think of elderly men and women complaining about how the water is too cold or their restaurant meal is too salty. The term, I feel, is more accurately applied to expats who make mild, benign complaints. But I would say that they do not represent the majority of the English blogosphere regarding Korea, most of whom post negative rants about how Korea is so backwards and unjust.

There certainly is nothing wrong with constructive criticism of Korea, pointing out the wrongs and errors of Korean society. But far too many English bloggers use their 'criticism' as an excuse to bash and degrade Korean society, people, and culture. I used to be a frequent reader of such blogs, but then came to realize how pointless it was. Reading those blogs was not helping me understand Korea or expats themselves in any meaningful way. What I did conclude, however, was that there were a lot of angry people in Korea who used their frustrations about living in Korea to bash an entire culture/people. They were not trying to understand why Koreans acted in "incomprehensible" ways or why the society functioned the way it did. All one got was a sense of malice and ill will. They had a beef with Korea and were using that to justify their own offensive behavior.

For all the lack of critical thinking and backwards ways they criticized Korea for, they were unabashed and unaware of how lacking they themselves were in that department. Because Korea did not make sense to their Western mentality, it was illogical. Because Korea did not operate in the same way as their home countries, it was backwards. All throughout their criticism, I could detect their Western mentality imposed on a Korean context. There was no willingness to understand, no sense of goodwill or giving of a benefit of the doubt. So it is not hard for me to remain skeptical about such blogs. There are good ones here and there that look at the positives AND NEGATIVES of Korea in an objective light with a sense of respect and empathy for the humanity of the Korean people. But there are far too many blogs in the Korean expat blogosphere that have no good will and are just an excuse for bloggers to bash/hate on Korea. I call such bloggers Korea haters. I feel that is a more appropriate name for them as that is what they do, hate on Korea.