Cool Koreans in the Netherlands

밴쿠버 조선 news@vanchosun.com 기자의 다른 기사보기

최종수정 : 2006-10-12 00:00

Cool Koreans in the Netherlands challenging my stereotypes

By Justin Park

I have a confession to make. I stereotype. While I lived in Canada, I held a number of stereotypes about Koreans (and about Asians more broadly): Korean immigrants own grocery stores, restaurants and dry cleaning facilities; their children become lawyers, accountants and engineers. In short, Koreans are business-like, nerdy and totally uncool.
Stereotypes often have a grain of truth, so I can't be faulted for beliefs that, at least to some extent, represent reality. The problem with my stereotypes was that Korean immigrants in Canada don't reflect Koreans in general; so my stereotypes were based on a biased sample.
I have now lived in the Netherlands for about a year, and in my little town of Groningen, I've come across about a dozen Koreans. A few of them are exchange students at the university where I work. Several others are jazz music students at the widely recognized Prins Claus Conservatorium. I've been told that there are 17 Koreans studying jazz at this school, which apparently exceeds the number of Dutch students. There are also a couple of other Koreans studying painting and dancing.
So, given the absence of Korean immigrants, most Koreans in Groningen are musicians and artists. If you ask me, nothing exceeds jazz musicians in coolness (some may even argue that jazz musicians invented cool). Painters and dancers are not too far behind.
Naturally, my stereotypes about Koreans (based, admittedly, on another biased sample) have been changing. Being one of the nerdy and uncool Korean Canadians, it's difficult not to be proud of my compatriots who are portraying a very different image of Koreans to the citizens of Groningen.
They have even inspired me to shed my nerdy uncoolness. I'm taking saxophone lessons from one of my new Korean friends.

Justin Park is a 1.5 second-generation Korean Canadian living in the Netherlands. To submit a column to C3 News and Views, contact Angela MacKenzie at aymackenzie@gmail.com.

밴쿠버 조선일보가 인터넷 서비스를 통해 제공하는 기사의 저작권과 판권은 밴쿠버 조선일보사의 소유며 저작권법의 보호를 받습니다. 허가없이 전재, 복사, 출판, 인터넷 및 데이터 베이스를 비롯한 각종 정보 서비스 등에 사용하는 것을 금지합니다.