Being Black in South Korea Vs Being Black in New York

This past July, I had the opportunity to visit Seoul, South Korea with a friend. My stay was a week. Being there for a week my life was so much different from New York City. Prior to my trip, I had seen several YouTube videos of foreigners talking about their experience living in South Korea. I was well aware of some of the challenges I would face such as Korean people staring at me, trying to talk to me or and touch my hair or face.

To begin my journey I had to take a plane from New York City to Shanghai, China. Once I got to Asia, specifically Shanghai the awkward foreigner interactions started. On the airport shuttle bus, one Asian woman stared at me the whole ride to the airport. At the airport, the workers directed me to the wrong counter. The counter worker had an attitude while talking to me. In Shanghai, I got my connecting flight to Seoul. When I got to South Korea the cultural curiosities continued. I eventually met up with my friend who is also a woman of color.

Throughout my stay there my friend and I had different interactions with people. Someone touched my friend’s hair. Her hair was also styled like mines in braids. While we were outside many shop owners tried to persuade us to visit their shops. One incident occurred when I was in Hongdae. I walked by a clothing store. The shop owner saw me glance briefly at the clothes that were outside of the shop and was persuading me to come in saying “I have your size.” I decided to go in and ended up buying a shirt from her. For some reason, she decided to touch my face. It really surprised me and I was shocked. I think she wanted to see if my skin was smooth or not.

Another encounter was when an elderly Korean man decided to randomly talk to me on the train. He caught me off guard when he approached me and I was tempted to yell at the man. I am not used to people randomly coming up and talking to me. During our trip, we also experienced the Korean nightlife. We went out to different clubs. At the clubs, a lot of Koreans males were trying to flirt with my friend and I. My friend told me they have a fascination with foreigners. They were trying to speak to us in English. Also, they were trying to grab us to dance with them. A Korean man asked my friend and me where we are from and we told him we are from America. He told us that we are beautiful.

In New York, I don’t attract much attention as compared to Seoul. Since NYC has all sorts of people I don’t stand out. While in Korea there were instances where I was homesick and the missed the concept of not having someone staring at you while you are outside. In Korea, many people stared at me and my friend. At times it became very annoying. I don’t like people staring at me. I knew it was just people being curious but it felt awkward. Back at home a lot of foreigners visit NYC and their presence doesn’t bother me and I don’t pay them any attention.

My experience in Korea is very common and that’s due to the country being homogeneous. Despite what the issues I faced in Korea, I would definitely visit the country again. I enjoyed my stay and the experience of being in another country. If you have the opportunity to travel abroad you should. Living and visiting a country abroad teaches you so much. You will gain a lot of knowledge.