Irish person denied job in Korea due to ''the alcoholism nature of your kind''

Fr_Dougal · 06-11-2014 11:58PM

mikemac1 wrote: »

So when are we invading?

Half past.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 07-11-2014 12:18AM

Yurt! wrote: »

I love Koreans and Korea, but they can be a profoundly xenophobic and ethnocentric people. The notions they hold about Africans, Chinese and South East Asians are ridiculous. Get a Korean drunk and ask them about X nationality and listen to the ridiculous rumours ,urban myths and stereotypes fly.

I don't think it's racism per se, more like a defence mechanism by a country that has been incredibly ethnically uniform for so long and have had a history of being China and Japan's whipping boys for centuries.

Still, it gets out of hand at times. A pub in Itaewon (the most diverse quarter of Seoul) banned Africans outright because he didn't want anyone contracting Ebola.

It's also an amazingly homophobic society for such a developed westernized nation.

DarkyHughes · 08-11-2014 12:56AM

Didn't see a thread on this so...

Apparently a Irish school teacher who has been teaching English for a number of years has been rejected from job because of the "alcoholism nature of your kind" and when they say "your kind" I'm guessing they don't mean Women or Teachers.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29929333

teacher from the Republic of Ireland has been turned down for a job in South Korea due to the "alcoholism nature" of Irish people. Katie Mulrennan, from County Kerry, had applied for a teaching job in Seoul.
She was told by an agency that their client did not hire Irish people due to their perceived drinking habits.
The 26-year-old told the BBC that she could not believe the email was real at first.
"Usually when you apply for a job and they don't want you, they don't send a reply," she said.
"Or they tell you they would prefer someone from North America, because some schools prefer the accent.
"But this reply was a first. When I got the email, it was so abrupt and short. I actually laughed when I read it initially.
"But then I wanted to write back a really angry response.
"In the end I took a deep breath and sent back a reply, that was a little bit sarcastic as I couldn't believe the email I had received. But I haven't heard anything back since."
Katie Mulrennan received the reply after she applied for a job teaching English in Seoul
'Your kind' The teacher had emailed the application when a job was advertised on listings website Craigslist in September.
She told the agency that she had been teaching English for over three years, in Barcelona, Oxford and Abu Dhabi as well as South Korea.
Last week, she received a reply that said: "I am sorry to inform you that my client does not hire Irish people due to the alcoholism nature of your kind".
Ms Mulrennan said she did not know who the recruiter was as their details were not listed on the site.
However she has reported the advertisement to Craigslist.
"It was disappointing because these employers did not even get to see me," she said. "They never spoke to me and didn't get a chance to hear what I sounded like."
The English teacher has since found a job and said that she can laugh about what happened.
"I was annoyed about it. But I can also see it was a little bit hilarious as well. A friend saw it and encouraged me to post it online as it might go viral.
"I thought: 'Really? It's just another silly thing poking fun at Irish people'. But then I put it online and people started getting in touch.
"I still love the country and being in Seoul."

steddyeddy · 08-11-2014 12:57AM

Anyone familiar with the drinking habits of South Koreans will correctly determine this to be a pot-kettle black scenario.

Macavity. · 08-11-2014 12:58AM

There's two threads on it.

Fr_Dougal · 08-11-2014 01:02AM

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

Yellow Privilege

Bit racist.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 08-11-2014 01:07AM

TheZohan wrote: »

Bit racist.

I was asked by several students that if I was white and some people were black, what colour were Koreans? I couldn't really answer that question.

Kevin McCloud · 08-11-2014 01:11AM

They must still be on the sauce.

BoJack Horseman · 08-11-2014 01:13AM

Been there, done that

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057321398/1

Kevin McCloud · 08-11-2014 01:17AM

This topic is becoming as popular as irish water

Allister_M · 08-11-2014 01:19AM

DarkyHughes wrote: »

Didn't see a thread on this so...

Apparently a Irish school teacher who has been teaching English for a number of years has been rejected from job because of the "alcoholism nature of your kind" and when they say "your kind" I'm guessing they don't mean Women or Teachers.

Funny. They probably think we're commies - wouldn't be far wrong.

Love the name - Darky!

ireland.man · 08-11-2014 01:32AM

the evasion_kid wrote: »

Here's google translate version: " 'Irish drinking culture' to blame Yeah rejected that online discrimination controversial Irish damsel days' Irish Mirror has reported 5 days (local time). A recruitment agencies in Korea, according to official reports of job applicants 'catty' women of Ireland recently sent In the e-mail. "For Job a request by the customer due to Irish drinking culture would not hire you'

Basically the article talks about how strange it is for the recruiter/ school to be so open and blunt and then goes on to ask readers to imagine how they would feel if they were applying for jobs overseas and received such a negative reply.

Most of the commentators are finding it funny that the reply talked about the drinking habits of Irish people when they all admit Koreans themselves have huge rates of socially accepted alcoholism!

Billions have been spent by the government there on English teaching initiatives and cultural awareness programmes but they end up hiring as teachers mostly good looking, tall, blonde North American women... I'm not surprised you have incidents like this.

Irish person denied job in Korea due to ''the alcoholism nature of your kind''

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