How International Marriage Is Related With Intercultural Issue in Korea - Research Paper Example

My job was to help the KBS staff in conducting interviews with Korean men who got married to non-native Korean women and have non-native Korean children. As part of our research activities, we went to some local schools where many non-native Korean students experienced difficulties in fitting in among their peers. We also met the parents of these students and talked to them. We encountered some resistance among our interview subjects during the course of our interviews. Although we explained to them that we will keep their identity a secret and will not mention their names in the interview transcript if they don't want us to, still some of them were hesitant to tell us their views and ideas.

Fortunately, there were a few brave people who eventually acceded to our request for interviews. Some of these people who acceded to our request for interviews lived in the rural areas. This means that the KBS crew members, including me, have to travel from Seoul to the countryside. Luckily, all our efforts and travel expenses did not go to waste. Our interviews with these families who are products of international marriages were very enlightening. My conversations with the interviewees opened my eyes to a lot of issues and concerns among interracial marriages.

According to Cho, The number of international marriages has increased drastically in recent years in Korea. About 13.6 % of marriages involve a foreign spouse. Among these interracial marriages, cultural differences and language barriers are often the root cause of many problems. During our interviews with Korean farmers who married Vietnamese women, we learned that miscommunication often leads to several forms of domestic violence. No, this should not be taken as an indication that Korean men have a violent streak in them. We must understand that most of these Korean men we interviewed are farmers who did not have any formal schooling. These men have very limited exposure to foreign languages. As a result, communication between these Korean men and Vietnamese women depends largely on the ability of the Vietnamese women to understand the Korean language.