By Han Un-juThe eyes of crestfallen Jin-kyong and some other girls welled with tears while I was trying to quiet the chatty kids in the school cafeteria. My curiosity prompted me to ask what happened to them.
Jin-kyong, who is always cheerful and lively, told me that Jae-beom, one of the singers in the boy band 2PM, left the group. When asked why, she told me that he had once posted complaints about Korea and its people on MySpace ― a popular social networking site ― and this had caused a huge controversy. I was sorry for the children and for my daughter, as she is also one of his biggest fans.
While standing and supervising the kids, I had quite mixed feelings. Korea has inured itself to the trend of gradually globalizing, just as many other countries have done. Many parts of our society have insisted that we should conform to and get used to these trends and demands of being a multi-faceted society. Along with Jae-beom's case, however, I am wondering if Koreans are keeping up with this trend.
Globalization requires us to understand foreigners' certain adaptive phases into a new culture and to be more generous about their negative feelings toward our culture. Now we can see a lot of foreigners everywhere in Korea, and they have naturally brought their own cultures with them. In their initial adaptive stage to our culture, they can experience culture shock: While comparing their culture with ours, they might complain and criticize ours, thinking everything in Korea is strange and incomprehensible. Once they have gone through this phase, they can gradually grow accustomed to our culture.
Globalization has made Korea a multi-faceted society. We should not expect all foreigners living in Korea to comply with our culture. Especially those who are going through culture shock; naturally, they can harbor some negative feelings toward our culture. To vent such emotions, some might discuss their feelings with their close friends. Unfortunately, though, Ja-beom might not have had such a close friend to confide in during that phase, so he turned to a poor substitute ― MySpace.
In fact, his controversial words against Korea and Koreans have triggered various reactions: Some of his former and present fans have decided to support him, while others have decided to ostracize him. I do not wish to take a stance on his behavior and support it or criticize it, but it is understandable when I take into consideration his age and the fact that cultural confusion might have led him to some foolish words and rash judgment.
Before we condemn him, we need to consider his circumstances. When his culture shock is taken into account, his unpleasant remarks about Korea are capable of being understood. In addition, that event happened about four years ago, when he had just started settling down in a new and unfamiliar culture as a foreigner. When he came here to become a singer, he didn't seem to have had any personal history of being raised in Korea and experiencing all it has to offer. With these factors in mind, he might have been incapable of understanding the Korean language, the culture and the way Koreans do things. His words can also be tempered with the knowledge that he must have been quite miserable with his mother in the U.S. It is also likely that he was not mature enough to overcome every problem he faced at the time
Maybe this controversy came to a head because a few tech-savvy Internet surfers had discovered his remarks against Korea on the Internet. In my view, the younger generation living in this globalized society should be more open-minded to this kind of incident. They are also young so that some day they may commit the same kind of faux pas as Ja-beom did, especially if they are surrounded by a foreign culture. As the saying goes, "Don't throw stones if you live in a glass house." All things considered, they should be the last people who should be that critical of him. However, they seem to be harsher in criticizing him. Even some of them allegedly suggested that he should kill himself.
In addition, since he has apologized, it shows he is fully aware that he committed a big mistake. Perhaps this was an awakening for him and it forced him to be responsible for his actions. In this situation, should we be constantly hard on him?
He is still a young star who shows much promise. He might have gone through really tough times to attain his current status in the dog-eat-dog world of showbusiness. Should his star be pulled from the sky simply because of one immature act during his culture shock? Why don't we give this young man one more chance? Think about the times when his music and dance used to make us happy.
The writer teaches English at a high school near Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, and can be reached at unjuny@hanmail.net.
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