UNSRC Korean Cultural Society

JoongAng Daily

	Ansan has about 34,000 foreign residents, making up 4.5 percent of its population. The city government’s active measures to cope with a growing foreign population have been widely held up as an example for other regions. By Jeon Min-kyu

ANSAN, Gyeonggi - Last Wednesday morning, two Sri Lankan men arrived at the office of the Migrants’ Helpcall group. They’d come to keep themselves from being declared illegal aliens.

“I came here to get help with reporting the change of workplace while looking for a new job,” said 30-year-old Nishshanka Wijerathne.

According to Hwang Yu-jin, director of Migrants’ Helpcall, who is also in charge of Sri Lankan translation services, this is a vital issue. “The change of workplace issue is critical for foreign workers because if a person fails to report it to the authorities after he or she quits a job at one place and gets another, that person can become an illegal alien.”

It’s just one of the services provided by this agency on the second floor of the Ansan Migrant Community Service Center in Wongok-dong, Danwon District, in the Seoul suburb of Ansan, Gyeonggi.

“I quit my previous job at an automobile parts company in Ulsan after I got hurt in the back during work,” said Wijerathne, who said he came to Korea about two years ago to earn money to support his family in Sri Lanka.

Explaining Wijerathne’s case, Hwang said, “He initially applied for an industrial compensation with the authorities, which was not accepted. It happens a lot with foreign workers. When a worker reports a backache, it is considered more as an individual disease rather than an industrial accident.” Hwang said he has seen similar cases many times before.

In the two years since it opened in March 2008, the Ansan Migrant Community Service Center, which includes Migrants’ Helpcall, has worked to integrate itself into the local foreign community, offering help and information for immigrants, whether newly arrived or experiencing difficulty.

It’s one of many institutions to help expatriates, including the Seoul Global Center, but what sets the Ansan Migrant Community Service Center apart is the diversity of the services offered, from language interpretation and help with cultural differences to legal advice and even health care.

But why is such an important facility located on the outskirts of the capital?

	Top, Migrants’ Helpcall runs translation services in 10 languages out of its call center, open from Tuesday to Sunday, dealing with about 6,000 visits and calls a month. The other two photographs above depict the Ansan Danwon Health Center, which provides foreigners with various medical services free of charge, including dental work and general checkups. By Jeon Min-kyu

“As early as the 1980s a number of foreigners had flocked to Ansan and settled here,” said Kim Chang-mo, the director of the center. “This had to do with the Banwol-Sihwa industrial complex here in Ansan. As Korean workers who were involved in the so-called 3D jobs [for dirty, dangerous, difficult] at the industrial complex started to move out in the early 1990s, they were gradually replaced by foreign workers.”

The foreign population in Ansan is now about 34,000 from about 60 different countries, including 27,000 foreign workers and 4,000 marriage immigrants, accounting for 4.5 percent of the city’s total population.

“There was support from some religious groups and individuals for foreign residents in the early years, but with the foreign population exceeding 30,000, the city felt the need to come up with measures to deal with the town’s expat community for the sake of its existence and development,” said Kim.

Migrants’ Helpcall, which is the best known facility at the center, runs translation and interpretation services between Korean and 10 languages: Chinese, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Indonesian, Burmese, Pakistani, Thai, Sri Lankan, Filipino and Russian. All 10 translators are native speakers, except for the Korean assigned to Indonesian.

“We have about 5,200 visitors and 1,200 calls a month on average, which translates roughly into 200 cases a day, visitors and calls combined,” said Ahn Jeong-ja, an administrative official at Migrants’ Helpcall. “Unlike other workplaces, the busiest day for us is Sunday when migrant workers have the day off and have some time to come here.

“While we are located here in the Ansan Migrant Community Service Center, our services are not limited to people living in Ansan. We have visitors from all around the country, including even those from Jeju Island on weekends,” said Ahn.

Poe Poe, the Burmese translator at the agency, said, “Mostly I receive inquiries about how to report a change of workplace. Inquiries about what to do about delayed wages are also frequent.” Poe Poe, 33, goes by the name Kim Hana in Korea and has been working at the call center for about two years. She married a Korean, then moved here in 1994.

In the face of so many chronic problems, including delayed wages and sometimes harsh immigration standards, one might think Korea would lose its luster for workers from Southeast Asian countries. But Hwang at Migrants’ Helpcall said it does not “because the procedures for them to enter Korea are less complicated and less expensive compared to other [advanced] countries.

“Furthermore, most Korean companies offer foreign workers room and board, which is not the case in, say, Japan.”

That sentiment was shared by Hasan Nabik, who also works at the center.

“Korea is much more convenient for foreign workers than other countries and a favorable place because they can send about 60 to 70 percent of their earnings to their families back home with room and board provided in most cases,” said Nabik.

Nabik, 43, originally from Bangladesh, came to Korea in 1991 and settled here, marrying a Korean in 2005. Before coming to the center, Nabik worked at an auto parts maker in the Banwol-Sihwa complex.

Now he is part of the Wongok Special Patrol, another unique service of the Ansan Migrant Community Service Center. The nine-member crew was launched when the center opened in March 2008 by the Ansan government. It serves dual functions, helping foreign residents learn local laws on garbage collection, traffic safety and others, and offering linguistic and cross-cultural support in disputes with other locals.

Nabik and the Chinese immigrant Bang Gyeong-ho were specially appointed to the patrol by the government to act as interpreters and to be a calming presence for foreign residents in tense situations.

“Ansan has a large Chinese population in particular, and Mr. Bang, who is Chinese, can act as an efficient Chinese translator when quarrels or physical fights involving Chinese people occur. And Mr. Nabik speaks four languages - Korean, Bengali, Hindi and English - so he also does us great service,” said Hwang Yu-gyeong, the official in charge of the patrol.

Nabik has lived in Korea for about 20 years now and considers Korea his adopted home - so much so that he is currently going through the naturalization process to become a Korean citizen. Though he said he still feels discrimination against foreigners in Korean society, he attributed that to the country’s homogeneous history.

“It seems that many Koreans still find it awkward to think of a foreigner as one of them, an equal constituent member of society,” Nabik said.

Migrant workers can have trouble acquiring proper medical care, and people often say that it’s when one falls ill that one feels most homesick. That’s why the Ansan Migrant Community Service Center also houses a clinic, the Ansan Danwon Health Center Wongok Branch. It offers various medical services free of charge, including internal medicine, dentistry, ophthalmology, obstetrics and gynecology and even Oriental medicine.

The clinic also offers free checkups, which can be quite costly in general hospitals and are sometimes required as a condition to receive a work visa here.

“All foreigners, regardless of their nationality or job, are allowed to receive these medical treatments for free,” said Lee Young-hee, the manager of the Danwon Health Center. “It has been made possible thanks to a number of doctors who volunteer to treat foreign patients without a fee. We are all very thankful to them as we know that they are doing this despite their very hectic schedules.”

There are about 10 local medical institutions that contribute volunteers for the program, including Seoul National University Hospital Gangnam Branch, the Ansan Medical Association, the Ansan Dental Association, the Association of Ansan Oriental Medicine and Hando Hospital in Ansan.

“Three doctors are on duty on weekdays, when we have about 30 patients a day on average, while dozens of doctors come to serve on weekends when this room is filled with more than 200 visiting patients,” said Lee.

Nancy Das, 29, from Bangladesh, was one of the weekday visitors. “I came here today for the fifth time for dental treatment,” said Das, who came to the center last Wednesday evening - the only weekday when the clinic is open at night. “Over more than five visits, I have had my teeth treated well. I’m very satisfied with all the services they provide here.”

Another patient, a 48-year-old ethnic Korean living in China who gave his name only as Zhang, said he comes to Korea twice a year to visit relatives, and they introduced him to the clinic six months ago.

“I became a regular visitor here at least once a week to receive Oriental medical treatments,” Zhang said. “I love Oriental medical treatments, and there is no charge for this great treatment here, which couldn’t be better.”

The people at the Ansan Migrant Community Service Center hope to set an example for other governments in services they can and should provide to the growing number of foreign residents in Korea, and the center has new plans for 2010 to make Ansan even more welcoming.

“While Korea is now changing quickly into a multicultural society and the foreign population in Ansan also keeps increasing, Koreans and Ansan citizens’ awareness of foreign people and culture is still low,” Kim, the director, said. “So we plan to focus on developing various programs to raise the Korean people’s awareness of foreigners and various cultures this year.”

He added, “Furthermore, since Ansan has now become a role model of multicultural society, we will also come up with guidelines on future policies for other local governments.”

*For more information about the Ansan Migrant Community Service Center, visit http://global.iansan.net or call (031) 481-3301~4. Migrants’ Helpcall can be reached at 1644-7111 or www.mhelpcall.org.

By Park Sun-young [spark0320@joongang.co.kr]

News Clippings

KOREA HERALD

At the end of December 2009, the Chosun Ilbo published an article stating that the current spelling of “Makgeolli” might cause some non-Koreans to mispronounce it as Mak-jolee. The author suggested that the spelling should be changed and this would popularize this alcohol overseas. He recommended a few different options such as Maggoli, Makkoli, and Makoli.

I wish that the author had done some research to test this opinion, because it caused quite a stir with the aT Center (The Agro-Trade Center) and amongst the Korean public. The aT Center is a government organization that has been heading the Korean Food Globalization project and my company (O’ngo Food Communications) has been working with them on several different projects including how to market makgeolli overseas.

Back in October of 2009, our company and the heads of many makgeolli companies had a meeting to discuss changing the name of makgeolli. I will tell you the same thing I told them: it is not cost efficient, it will cause needless confusion, and it won’t put the drink in people’s hands.

If you Google the current spelling of makgeolli, you will get 75,800 hits on the traditional rice alcohol. This is the spelling accepted by CNN, the Lonely Planet, Wikipedia, Korean newspapers, the Korean government, and overseas newspapers. If you search for maggoli (which sounds like maggots), you will get 103 hits — most are about a Scottish family. Makkoli has 35,000 hits (the top hits refer to a Japanese sushi restaurant in New Jersey) and most of the hits about “makoli” are of a famous chess player with the same last name.

Changing the name of something that is obviously accepted would cost the Korean government millions of dollars and cause endless confusion.

As for the pronunciation, I went around and videotaped 10 non-Korean speakers to see if they would pronounce makgeolli like mak-jolee. None of them did. Of the different pronunciations the ones that sounded closest to the original Korean were “Makgeolli” and “Makkolli” and I also interviewed linguistics expert Kara MacDonald of Hanyang University and asked her if she thought the spelling should be changed. Her response was, “Why change and generate confusion domestically and internationally?”

Makgeolli is an example of how Korea has a lot of fervor and passion to globalize, but has yet to do the research. They should also think of their audience.

Case in point, let’s take the full page “Bibimbap” advertisement that was in the New York Times on Dec. 21. First of all, I applaud the Korean show “Infinite Challenge” for the initiative. The ad had a great headline: “How about Bibimbap for lunch today?” There was a gorgeous picture and they gave the phone numbers of several Korean restaurants in New York.

The text is what I have a problem with: “It is said that this dish came from the customers of memorial service and rural villages. This dish is very convenient to provide, just mixing of cooked rice with various vegetables, namul, and red pepper paste together.”

First of all, death (customers of memorial service) doesn’t arouse my appetite and non-Korean speakers will not know what “namul” is. It was a great idea, just poor execution.

The way that Koreans market Korean food for Koreans will not work overseas. Korea’s “four seasons,” “well-being,” “good-for-health,” “kimchi,” and the “5 colors” will not convince the average person to try Korean food.

There are also differences in food textures. Some cultures don’t like the chewy texture of the rice cakes in “tteokbokki” or the salty-sour taste of kimchi. Furthermore, not all foreigners are the same. What works in France doesn’t mean that it will work in the United States and vice-versa.

Over the summer, my company was working on a project for a government tourism organization to write a brochure and make a PowerPoint presentation on Korean food to encourage the American press to come visit Korea. We were told to then translate this brochure into French to encourage the Michelin Restaurant guide to come. Obviously, just translating the document wasn’t going to work because different cultures have different perspectives on food. Let’s face it; food is very cultural.

For our project, we interviewed many non-Koreans on their impressions of Korean food. Once we explained Korea’s cultural concepts of sharing, we found that the idea of sharing the side dishes, entrees, and soups was generally accepted and the idea quickly grasped.

Interestingly, the side dishes were considered by most to be the most noteworthy part of the meal. Korean barbecues were also a favorite and what most were most ecstatic about.

We found that Americans tended to favor dishes that involved using chicken — chicken galbi was an overwhelming favorite. I believe it’s because chicken is the most popular meat in America.

We also found that cucumber pickles were more popular than regular kimchi. I think it is because it reminded people of pickles.

Surprisingly, we found that many French people liked chicken and ginseng soup. They said it reminded them of a popular French dish: poule au pot.

My point is we shouldn’t simply group all foreigners into one category. In order to globalize the food, we should do research to find which foods are best for different countries.

Korea should have a more cultural approach to food. Chinese cuisine is a perfect example. Chinese food is popular all over the world because they adapted the food for the local countries. Trust me, you won’t find General Tso’s Chicken, fortune cookies, or chop suey in China.

If Korea is to take Korean food to the world, they should know who they are taking it to and they should work to put the food in peoples’ mouths.

The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of The Korea Herald. Daniel Gray works for O’ngo Food Communications. You can follow his food adventures at www.seouleats.com — Ed.

By Daniel Gray

News Clippings