한국친구들! 밑에 영어 많이 나오는데 주우우욱 내려가시면 Update의 얘기 무시하시고 편지 나오고 맨 밑에 comments들이 직접나옵니다. 맨 밑에 서명하시면 됩니다. 만약에 comments들이 안보이시면 : "1xx Comments" 링크를 클릭들하세요.
UPDATE #1: If you are wondering what this about, please read the post on The Marmot's Hole that reported it first, then read my previous post "또! 깜둥이 대접!" as a bit of explanation.
UPDATE #2: Also, here is the URL (Episode 3, Broadcast 2006-12-10, around the 32:00 mark (Thanks, Sungwon!) Can anyone access this (I have a Mac) and even better yet, upload this to YouTube?
UPDATE #3: Korean translation added! Thanks, SKFK – this is saving me a LOT of trouble and potential misunderstanding, while allowing this petition to reach a much wider audience. Coming home and seeing this comment and translation waiting was a great gift to discover. This displays the true power of the Internet.
한국인 독자분 - 밑에 편지하고 동의하시면 사인해주시기바랍니다. 이 편지가 한글로 나오니까 편하게 읽으실 수 있으 겁니다.
UPDATE #4: Shanti한테 - 고마워요! 한글 감수를 해줘서! Thanks to Shanti for editing the Korean translation.
UPDATE #5: As the result of suggestions from my friend Albert H., who drafted the initial text that I integrated into the end of this letter, I've included a more inclusive statement that adds a more inclusive statement from where the end of my letter naturally broadens out to include other "voices" of the many out there who agree with me. It includes more official "demand for redress" kind of language. and will be marked in purple until translated (Shanti?!). [It's been translated.] We made sure not to add any new conditions or stipulations that weren't included in the initial letter, which many of you have already signed.
Also, I plan to walk this down to KBS myself if they don't offer an apology by next week. I'd like to print it up, with all signatures attached, and present it to someone who would have to officially accept such a letter from me.
I am also very grateful to the supportive community of signers our there. Blogs are certainly powerful tools around which real communities form, and I'm glad we have a chance – as Koreans and non – to come together and demand something better, to make a real change.
Please keep this letter going! Pass it on!
UPDATE #6: We've gotten a lot of support from Korean friends at a Daum online petition, which has included this letter's demand for an apology with their own demands. If you have a Daum ID (foreigners can indeed register and they have a handy callback service that gives you an ID over your phone line, since that is usually registered in your name – smart!), simply sign in and leave a message of thanks to our many Korean national supporters, who say they're also sick of such embarrassing displays on major broadcast networks – and which also acts as a signature. (Thanks, Nova!)
UPDATE #7: New part to the letter translated! (Thanks, Junyoung!)
UPDATE #8: The scene on YouTube – uploaded by Bulgasari! Thanks!
EXPLANATION
This is a letter I have written to demand an apology to the foreign community from KBS, on behalf of both myself and those who want to virtually "sign" a petition as a comment to this post. Korean blogosphere, it's time to use our connections to actually do something, and I consider this post to be the most important one I've ever written. I finally feel like I/we have a chance to make our voices heard, and not just amongst ourselves.
Please link back to this post and encourage your site's readers as well as offline acquaintances to sign it, if they agree with its sentiments and specific demands.
It's time for foreigners, who have very little voice here in Korea, to finally do something to change one of the things that we always are blogging and complaining about. Isn't getting our voice out there the main reason we blog in the first place?
Since I am at work, want to get this document out in a timely fashion, and have Korean skills under par to the task of translating this demand for an official apology to the level of releasing to the public – I humbly request the help of bilingual Korean friends in translating this letter into high-quality Korean.
Even translating a single paragraph and including both the original and the translated version as a comment below this post would be greatly helpful.
For linkers, please don't link to just the blog, but the permalink:
http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2006/12/demand_of_an_of.html
Please submit any signatures and translations as a comment at the bottom of this post. Thank you.
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THE LETTER
I, as a black person and foreign national living in Korea, continue to be shocked and offended at the Korean media's continued racist and sexist stereotyping of foreign people.
대한민국에서 거주하는 흑인이자 외국인으로써 나는 한국 언론이 여전히 외국인을 인종차별적이고 성차별적으로 형식화하는 것에 대해 경악과 불쾌감을 느끼지 않을 수 없습니다.
From the Bubble Sisters to now, the excuse has always been "we didn't know" or "the intention wasn't to offend" – but is that really an excuse? Many of your general viewers and citizens' organizations seem to know. Why doesn't a national television station?
버블 시스터즈에서 오늘날에 이르기까지 언제나 "우린 그걸 몰랐다"거나 "감정을 상하게 하려는 의도가 아니었다"라는 변명을 늘어놓았지만, 그것이 진정한 변명이 된다고 생각하십니까? 수많은 일반시청자들과 시민단체들은 다 아는것으로 보이는데, 왜 국립 TV방송국만 모른다는 것입니까?
I am one foreign national who works in Korea, pays taxes, rent, utilities, and otherwise participates in the economy here. I have done good work here that has benefited the Korean economy as well as the countless Korean students, researchers, professors, and other working professionals I have come into contact with, as much as I have benefitted from working with them.
나는 한국에서 일하고, 세금, 집세, 공공요금을 내고, 기타 다른 방법으로 한국경제에 참여하고 있는 외국인입니다. 나는 한국경제에 이득을 주고, 내가 만난 수많은 한국인 학생, 연구원, 교수, 기타 전문직업인들과 함께 일하면서 그들로부터 내가 얻은 이득만큼 그들에게 이득을 주는 좋은 일을 하고 있습니다.
I am tired of seeing overtly crude representations of foreign workers as supposedly being unable to speak proper Korean (most foreign migrant workers here speak Korean very well, actually), or hearing the "ching chong" parodies of supposedly Chinese speech, ridiculing Japanese for the wooden footwear they rarely even wear any more than Korean wear traditional rubber shoes, or the constant efforts of the Korean media or the Kyeonggido chapter of the Korean Teachers' Union implying or outright saying that foreigners have "low sexual morals" when in fact no scandal involving foreign teachers and student minors has ever been reported, even against the context of a media that constantly reports about incidents involving Korean teachers and students, as well as "wonjo kyojae", a set concept that doesn't even exist in American culture, are regularly reported as major social problems.
나는 외국인 노동자들이 한국어를 제대로 못한다는 노골적인 저속한 묘사를 보고 (사실 대부분의 외국인 노동자들은 한국어를 상당히 잘 합니다), 중국어를 풍자하는 "쏼라쏼라" 소리를 듣고, 한국인들이 전통적인 고무신을 자주 신지 않는 것처럼 일본인들이 더이상 신지도 않는 게다에 대해 일본인들을 조롱하고, 언론에서 한국인 교사와 학생간에 일어나는 불미스러운 사건들이 지속적으로 보도되고 미국문화에서는 개념조차 존재하지 않는 "원조교제"가 중요한 사회적 문제로서 정기적으로 보도되는 가운데에서도, 외국인 교사와 미성년자 학생간에 스캔들이 신고된 적이 전혀 없음에도 불구하고 한국언론과 한국교원노조 경기도지부가 외국인들이 "저속한 성모럴"을 가지고 있다고 암시하거나 대놓고 말하는 것을 더 이상 참을 수가 없습니다.
This distorted view of foreigners is merely on example of the simplistic stereotypes through which foreigners are seen in Korea.
외국인에 대한 이같은 뒤틀린 시각은, 한국 사회가 외국인들을 바라보는 단순한 형식화의 한 예에 불과합니다.
Frankly, television shows that showcase non-Korean people merely performing Korean songs, dancing around in hanboks, or playing Korean grammar games solely to amuse a sense of nationalist Korean pride are patently offensive and have always turned my stomach.
솔직히 말해서, 오직 국수주의적인 한국인의 긍지를 높여주기 위해 외국인들이 한국 노래를 부르고, 한복을 입고 춤을 추고, 한국어 문법 놀이를 하는 것만을 보여주는 TV 프로그램은 분명히 모욕적이며, 그런 프로그램들은 언제나 나를 불쾌하게 만들었습니다.
I have been approached by several "PD's" during my stay in Korea to go on television and do things such as dance on stage clucking like a chicken does "in my language" and other ridiculous, humiliating antics. I have always refused, but they always come back, attracted by my ability to speak Korean and stroke a sense of simplistic nationalist pride at watching the foreigner "try to act Korean" (but fail).
내가 한국에 사는 동안 여러명의 PD들이 나에게 접근해서, TV에 출연해 "내 모국어로" 닭우는 소리를 내며 무대에서 춤을 추라는 등의 터무니없고 굴욕적인 짓을 하라는 제의를 받았습니다. 나는 언제나 거부했지만, 내가 한국어를 할 줄 안다는 사실때문에 PD들은 계속해서 나에게 와서, 외국인이 "한국인처럼 행동하려고 하지만 실패하는것"을 보면서 유치한 국수주의적 긍지를 자극하는 프로그램에 출연할 것을 제의했습니다.
Where are the shows that include foreigners as guest to discuss serious issues? Where are the shows that include foriegners as fully-formed human beings and not just comic fodder for the Korean masses. Blacks in America were once made to dance, sing, and act silly for the white masses, as foreign nationals are made to do now.
외국인들을 게스트로 초청해서 심각한 이슈를 토론하는 프로그램은 어디에 있습니까? 외국인들을 그저 한국인 대중들을 위한 웃음거리로 삼지 않고 완전한 인격체로써 포용하는 프로그램은 어디에 있습니까? 옛날 미국에서는 한때 흑인들을 백인 대중들을 위해서 춤추고, 노래하고, 바보처럼 행동하게 만들었고, 오늘날 한국에서 외국인들은 그와 똑같은 취급을 받고 있습니다.
And it is time for it to stop.
이제 이런 일은 없어져야 합니다.
I, as a foreign national who has been subject to this kind of offensive imagery and representation for far too long, demand a formal, written, and publicized apology from KBS, the producers of the "미녀들의 수다" show, as well as from Cheon Myung-hun.
너무나 오랫동안 이처럼 터무니없는 이미지와 묘사의 대상이 되어왔던 외국인으로서, 나는 KBS와, "미녀들의 수다" 제작진과, 천명훈씨가 공식적인 서면상의 사과문을 발표할것을 요구합니다.
The woman ridiculed one the show, Leslie Benfield, was lauded as Seoul's first foriegn civil servant, and this is how she is treated?
"미녀들의 수다"에서 조롱의 대상이 되었던 레슬리 벤필드씨는 서울시 외국인 공무원 1호로써 칭송을 받았는데, 이런 대접을 받아도 옳다는 말입니까?
The excuse of having "no intention" to offend will no longer hold water, especially because of the fact that even after many people spoke out against the show, the studio refused to apologize, truly adding insult to injury. So an official apology, as a symbol of both KBS and the Korean media's contrition, is in order.
"감정을 상하게 하려는 의도가 아니었다"라는 변명은 더이상 통하지 않습니다. 특히 많은 시청자들의 항의에도 불구하고 KBS측은 사과하기를 거부함으로써 엎친데 덮친격이라는 사실을 보면 더욱 그렇습니다. 그러므로 KBS와 한국 언론 양자의 참회의 표시로써 공식적인 사과가 있어야 마땅합니다.
This is the "post-Hines Ward" era, so Korean society can no longer hide behind the excuse that it "didn't know." South Korea represents itself as a "globalized" society, takes pride in being the 11th largest economy in the world, and at having developed the most advanced broadband, cellphone, and semi-conductor sectors in the world, yet it still hides behind a shameful veneer of "innocent ignorance as a developing, pre-modern country" when issues such as these come up.
"하인즈 워드" 신드롬이 거쳐간 오늘날의 한국사회는 더이상 "그걸 몰랐다"는 변명뒤에 숨을수 없습니다. 대한민국은 스스로를 "세계화"된 사회로 내세우고, 세계 11위 규모의 경제를 자랑스러워하고, 전세계에서 가장 발달된 고속인터넷, 무선전화, 반도체 산업을 개발한 것을 자랑하지만, 이같은 문제가 생기면 "현대화되지 않은 개발도상국으로써 순수한 무지때문에"는 수치스럽고 얄팍한 변명 뒤에 숨으려고 합니다.
This is, frankly, hard to swallow. Korean society now "knows." It is time to for the media to behave responsibly. Media images have power, and they lead to stereotyping, which leads to discriminative behavior. In the end, they are dehumanizing.
단도직입적으로 말해서, 그런 변명은 받아들이기 어렵습니다. 한국사회는 이제 더이상 "몰랐다"라고 할수 없습니다. 언론의 책임감있는 행동이 필요한 때입니다. 언론에서 보여주는 이미지에는 강력한 힘이 있고, 그것은 고정관념화로 이어지고, 차별적인 행동으로 이어집니다. 결국은 인간성을 말살하는 것입니다.
One voice among the many foreigners living, working, and paying taxes in Korea, along with others signed below in this virtual document, has spoken.
대한민국에 거주하고, 열심히 일하고, 제대로 세금 내고 살아가는 많은 외국인들 중 한명의 목소리로써, 나는 이 가상문서에 서명한 다른 사람들과 함께 이같이 선언합니다.
We, the undersigned, demand a public and formal apology from KBS, the producers of the show “미녀들의 수다” and from Cheon Myung-hoon for this latest debacle.
아래에 사인한 바와 같이 우리는 최근의 이러한 사태에 대해 천명훈씨와 "미녀들의 수다"의 제작진과 KBS에 공개적이고 공식적인 사과를 요구합니다.
We, the undersigned, share a common outrage with the Korean media’s crude and irresponsible depiction of foreigners, as well as its passing off the lowest and crudest possible forms of so-called "comedy" as "entertainment for the masses." Incident after incident has proven that this pattern of petty pandering to the lowest common denominator, typified by unchecked displays of racism and sexism as displayed on the show in question, will not cease on its own.
아래에 사인한 바와 같이 우리는 한국 미디어의 외국인에 대한 노골적이고 무책임한 묘사와 "대중을 위한 오락"으로 "코메디"라는 이름을 빌려 저급하고 노골적인 프로그램을 방영하는 것에 대해 분노를 느낍니다. 이런 저속한 패턴의 프로그램이 끊임없이 방송되는 것은 앞으로도 이런 인종차별적이고 성차별적인 프로그램이 자체적으로 사라지지 않을 것임을 보여줍니다.
We, the undersigned, can no longer sit by and watch as the country of our birth, of our homes, of our workplaces, and of beloved friends and colleagues, continues to allow and even celebrate such displays of ignorance, for in today’s globalized era, they are seen not only by Korean viewers, but by the entire world.
전세계 시청자들이 함께 TV를 보는 오늘날과 같은 국제화시대에, 우리는 아래에 사인한 바와 같이 우리의 일터와 집 그리고 우리가 태어난 나라에서 이런 프로그램이 방영되는 것을 사랑하는 친구들 그리고 동료들과 더 이상 볼 수가 없습니다.
PLEASE SIGN BELOW!
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