It’s no secret that Malaysians have experienced discrimination while visiting Korea.
Now, an Australian woman is condemning the behaviour of certain Koreans after recounting how her Malaysian co-worker at a restaurant in Korea was treated badly after her nationality was exposed.
The woman, Jazmyn, took to her TikTok page to share the incident.
She wrote, “I know having this conversation won’t win me many Korean friends but xenophobia and colourism are the 2 biggest downfalls of Korean society. People die because of this discrimination and there still aren’t any laws to protect anyone.”
In her video, Jazmyn explained how quickly things changed for her Malaysian co-worker the moment people found out her nationality.
“I used to work in a restaurant in South Korea and I was a waitress, and my co-worker at that time was Malaysian. Now, at this time I did not know that xenophobia was a thing in South Korea.”
“It became apparent very, very quickly that something was not right with the way that she was being treated, and it was very apparent that it was different to how I was being treated,” she said.
The Malaysian woman also has amazing skills in conversing in Korean thanks to her efforts in learning the language at a Korean university during her years of staying there.
This image is for illustration purposes only.
Though, her hard work did not matter as the moment people found out she was Malaysian, she immediately didn’t like her and wasn’t afraid to show it.
“As soon as people found out that she was Malaysian, they instantly had a problem with her. They would refuse, they would just flat out refuse to speak to her.”
“They would call me over, I couldn’t speak, like; a word of Korean, I knew probably 3 words of Korean, and then she would stand there like translating things to me that they were saying and then I would say something and then she would translate because they did not want to speak to her,” Jazmyn explained.
She also recounted an incident where a Korean taxi driver also refused to speak to the Malaysian woman purely because of her nationality.
But, the Malaysian woman’s troubles at the Korean restaurant didn’t just stop at not being spoken to
“That whole restaurant was just really f*cked up, she had tea towels thrown at her, she was sworn at, by the way for doing nothing. If anything, I stuffed up more than her but I was treated differently because I was white.”
“This is definitely an attitude that I would say is more prevalent within older Koreans, I don’t really find many younger Koreans who have this kind of backwards thinking. But if it somehow comes up, you accidentally compare a Korean to looking Chinese or Malaysian or Taiwanese or Filipino, that is going to be taken as an insult,” she added.
Jazmyn ultimately found the experience disgusting, especially considering that the Malaysian woman was her best friend at the time so seeing her best friend being treated that way was insane for her.
You can check out her video here:
@jazmynjenningss I know having this conversation won’t win me many Korean friends but xenophobia and colourism are the two biggest downfalls of Korean society. People die because of this discrimination and there still aren’t any laws to protect anyone. #storytime #koreanstorytime #korea #southkorea #koreanworkingholiday #workingholiday #dewyskin #koreanskincare
Have you had similar experiences in Korea? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
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