Sounding Korean; Looking Other

By Dorry Guerra

Iden* Image source: author’s own.

In my interviews, I include questions that get at my biracial interviewees’ perceptions and experiences of how they are racially appraised. In simple and direct terms, I ask the question “In Korea, do people see you as Korean?” To this question, Iden* immediately responds “No,” but then makes an amendment to his answer. He says, “When there is no image involved, they [Koreans] think I’m Korean. When they see my face, their reaction automatically changes.” So, when Iden is talking on the phone; texting; or, for whatever reason, when only his voice can be heard, most Koreans do not question his “Koreanness.” (This report hopefully gives the reader a fairly good idea of just how proficient Iden’s command of the Korean language—in terms of accent, vocabulary, idioms, nuance, and the like—is.) However, because Iden does not necessarily look Korean (or at least not “fully” Korean) phenotypically, most of the time, he is not viewed as Korean.

Interestingly, though, Iden’s language ability is so “convincing” that there are Koreans who say to him “Oh, you must have lived abroad for a long time,” as if to provide an explanation for why, although Iden may not look Korean, he speaks Korean so fluently. It seems that the underlying implication is that non-Koreans could not possibly speak Korean so fluently, and indeed, this is how Iden interprets it. He says, “It’s so ingrained within [Koreans] that Korean is too difficult to learn that if you’re that good at Korean, there’s no way you could not be Korean.”

“What Are You?”

By Dorry Guerra

Jaisey* Image source: author’s own. 

 

“What Are You?” This is a question with which many multiracial individuals are familiar. When I ask Jaisey* how she feels when she herself is asked this, she tells me that it depends on the context. It means something different to be asked this question in the States versus in Korea. In the States, her response to the question is something along the lines of “What do you mean ‘What am I?’ You hear me talking; I’m American!” In Korea though, Jaisey considers the question more of a compliment. She feels that it is an expression of Koreans’ “picking up on” or acknowledging (and accepting) her part-Korean heritage, and this is especially significant because while she is indeed half-Korean (her mother is Korean), most Koreans assume she is just “American” (or “Caucasian”). 

A (1/2) Korean among Koreans

By Dorry Guerra

MB as a child in Seoul. Photo courtesy of MB.

The first time I met MB* was in 2011. We summer-students at Seoul National University (SNU) were getting dinner in the city, and I recall MB ordering, in more or less flawless Korean, something off of the menu. I was admittedly shocked; due to his phenotypic features, I thought that MB was Caucasian—and while a person’s race certainly does not preclude nor predict the language he can speak, it is not everyday that you see a white man speaking fluent, accent-free Korean.

It turns out that MB is half Caucasian, half Asian: his father is Australian and his mother is Korean. When I met up with MB again to interview him this past fall, I learned about his childhood, the majority of which he spent in Seoul, and was able to visit the schools and church he had attended during that time. His nostalgia and affection for this city and country are palpable. He speaks of his childhood in Korea fondly, and comes back to Korea as often as he can: he spent a semester at SNU during his undergraduate career; he visits the country on holiday; and he mentions that he would like to come back to live in Korea in the future. He considers this place home, and considers himself Korean, despite that most Koreans do not necessarily view him as such.