The Dangerous Sub-Society

During my three month stay in Korea I learned a lot about the way different cultures work, think, and interact. I met people from all over the world and learned so much about many different ways of life. But before I came to Korea my primary goal was to learn mostly about Koreans and interact with Koreans. I learned the basics of the Korean language in an attempt to show my willingness to try to connect with Koreans. But my experiences kept making me feel like I would never be able to truely connect with Koreans and be part of the Korean society.

As I tried to connect I faced several different obstacles that blocked my path to reaching my goal of emercing myself in Koeran society. The first obstacle was language. In my attempts to learn the language I faced a lot of adversity. Most of the time when I would try to speak to Koreans in Korean they would either interupt me and tell me they speak english or just respond in english.  Occationally they would respond in Korean. It was very difficult for me to practice Korean and get comfortable speaking because there is an expectation for caucations like myself to only speak english which has arisen because the majority of foreigners in Korea are there to teach english. But I was not an english teacher, and this led me to feel disconnected from Korean society and amplified the fact that I was an outsider. 

It is also very hard to break into the Korean society because they have a very strong 'in-group out-group' system that was explained to me by a Korean and a Korean-American now living in Korea. They tried to explain that in Korean society people tend to form very strong 'in-groups' with people that they are friends and family with. Anyone who is different or not part of the 'in-group' is henceforth, in the 'out-group.' People who are in the out-group will have a very hard time fitting into an in-group. Many Koreans whom I have talked to that have spent time abroad said that they even have a hard time fitting back into Korean society because people imidiately notice they are different. This system tends to create gaps between those in an in-group and outsiders. I want to clarify that this is not because Koreans are rude people, it is simply based upon their set of values. They highly value harmony in relationships and avoid conflict and dissagreements whenever possible. So creating an 'in-group' helps to maintian that harmony. Koreans are deffinitely nice people, I believe that this is just their way of forming a social system based upon their set of values. But this does pose a problem for those who want to be a part of the main society because any type of difference may cause a native Korean to feel uncomfortable fully letting someone into their 'in-group.' 

As somone who was different in Korea I felt that I was not being fully accepted into Korean society and never made my way into an in-group. Instead I found myself in a sub-society of other foreigners. Most other foreigners agreed with me that it is hard to fully assimilate into a purely Korean society. It seems that some foreigners thrive on this idea of being different because it brings a lot of attention to them. As I was explaining before, Koreans are nice people and tend to be very generous when dealing with foreigners, expecially caucations. This attention can lead to being complaicent because one may feel priveledged. I was having a conversation one evening at dinner with an American, a native Korean, and a Philipino. I was expressing my frustration about how I'll speak Korean and people will respond in english and how I felt on the outside of society because people treated me differently. The girl from the philipians told me that most people thrive on the feeling of being different and being a foreigner because they enjoy the attention and priveledges. To me, this didn't really cross my mind. To me, I wanted to be part of the 'main society' but instead I was forsce to be a part of a 'sub-society.'

It took me several weeks to even become part of a sub-society. And before  I became part of the sub-society of foreign friends I made I went through a lot of frustrating times feeling lonely and stressed. It made me very uncomfortable with my situation. And as I went through the adventure of adapting to a new society I started to draw connections with my struggles and that of homeless people. The only problem being, homeless people have it even worse. 

Homeless people are living in a sub-society. One that is not formed by choice, but one that has resulted because they have been sheilded from the 'main society.' Just as I was ousted from the 'main society' in Korea, I took refuge in a 'sub-society' of foreigners. But unlike myself homeless people do not recieve special attention and they definitely don't recieve generous hospitality. Instead they recieve hostility. The 'main society' tends to view them as lesser people because of their situation and rejects them from the main society because they are viewed as different and outcasts. The problem with homelessness is not that they are financially poor or because they smell bad it is because they are relational poor. They are limited with who they can interact with because they are rejected from interacting with the 'main society.' 

To people that are not homeless, the answer to how to help the homeless may be found by looking at how to integrate sub-societies into 'main societies.' There are clearly more complexities to the homeless situation, such as finances, jobs, housing, health issues, addictions, and other such issues, but the biggest problem is when someone has lived in the sub-society of homeless for many years they may have a hard time assimilating back into the 'main society.' Some may integrate easily, while others may not. But this is an issue of homelessness that needs to be addressed and I feel has been widely overlooked.

-Andrew Breighner