Why South Korea Needs More Foreigners Now

South Korea has just said that they want to let in 300,000 foreign students by 2027. Now, this sounds like a good idea to boost funding and also keep their universities competitive. But David, so many Asian Americans are opinionated about this. We need more foreign students. They don't want to sign with JYP. They want to become a researcher for LG. Yeah, that is actually the situation, David. Guys, if you guys are excited to see the comments section, please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the HopHopBoys because a lot of people are weighing in. But essentially, David, the situation is this. South Korea has a lack of college-age students from their own domestic market. What? Due to the declining birth rate? Declining birth rate. Maybe they're doing other... Maybe they all want to be in Netflix and K-pop groups. I don't know. Okay, there's just not a lot of South Koreans going to South Korean colleges. Possibly a lot going abroad as well. And I heard there's 210 universities, Andrew. They're lacking enrollment. And enrollment leads to admissions fees, which leads to funding. So they started the Study Korea 300K project. This is from Education Minister Lee Ju-ho. To stimulate the regional economy, enhance the global competitiveness of domestic universities, as well as the country's high-tech industries. So are they talking about Koreaboos who love K-drama and K-pop? Or are they talking about grad students from Poland and the UAE? No, no, no. I'm so sorry. I don't mean to be confusing. But we don't want 30,000 more English teachers. We need 30,000 scientists and smart people from Poland and UAE. You know, so I'm sorry. Koreaboos, we're not talking about you. We need more global strategic partnerships. We're not talking about Eat Your Kimchi YouTube channel. There are a lot of vloggers in Korea. But anyways, guys, on a real serious note, they're not the only country doing this. Japan's also doing it. France is also doing it. UK is also letting in a lot of foreign students. Because basically, all these countries are like, yo, guys, we don't have a lot of domestic students that want to go into STEM. So we need these foreign students that want to be in our countries really badly. I mean, America has been doing this type of thing for decades, essentially. Yeah, I mean, to be fair, Andrew, you look at that list, South Korea, Japan, France, UK, those are places that a lot of people would want to live. Obviously, do I think the studying in South Korea and Japan is a lot harder than the France and UK? Probably from an academic rigor standpoint, I do think so. Andrew, why do you think so many people are chiming in on things that's like even unrelated to the education process as like racism culturally? Like, why is everybody commenting? Like, if you look at the Next Shark post, it's all about racism in social society in South Korea, not about this 3,300K project. Everybody like, you guys talking about something else? Like, talk about this. Yeah, well, that's because I think a lot of people commenting have visited Korea as a tourist or an international student or to teach English, you know, kind of like a fun job, you know, fun. And they did have fun in Korea, but also probably experienced some racism and discrimination. And I'll be honest, I think Koreans wear their discrimination on their sleeve. They're a little bit more like open about it versus other countries maybe might be more low key if there is that. Oh, for example, Japan even. They're also discriminatory there, but they don't like to speak it out. They don't say it as much. Yeah, and I think that that's what a lot of people are commenting because that's the only thing they know about South Korea. But this actually really has to do with like the university. Do you think that it is the whole you wave created something so attractive in the way that, you know, to be honest, I think South Koreans interpersonally ping and they have the egg yo and all this, all these different things. It makes people want to be a part of something. But if they have enough experiences that make them feel rejected from that thing, they feel dejected. Yeah, no, I think maybe there is such thing, David, as a soul syndrome where you have your image of Seoul, Korea, based off K-pop and media. It's like XO Kitty. Yeah, and you go there and you do enjoy yourself because it is a cool place. But also you find out like, oh, South Koreans are not too welcoming to at least to my kind, you know, which is totally reasonable. It's probably happened. And I understand that feeling. But I guess I could see some people being disappointed. And that's what they're doing. Hey, guys, like we said, we're just going through the comments section. I'm not saying it's true. These are just people's personal experiences. I do think for a country to be attractive for foreigners to stay there for four to eight to 12 years, right, and start their working career there. Andrew, there's two aspects. There's a structural aspect. And then there's a cultural aspect, right? The older generation in South Korea may be a little bit more isolationist in terms of, you know, they want to use the partnership with America, but they don't necessarily want to be American. The younger generation may be more into globalism, right? That's an older, younger split thing. We're talking about Japan and Korea specifically. Those are very homogenous countries. They're essentially made from one ethnic group. Japan's a little bit more diverse. But Korea is made from one ethnic group of people. And some people may value that. And some people may be, like, ready to move away from it, right? Well, David, I can tell you that for so long, we thought South Korea could be competitive with just South Koreans. And we were doing pretty good. But I think now we realize we need help. Yeah, I think there's places, Andrew, that always have had a lot of foreign workers in Asia, specifically Hong Kong and Singapore. Let's be honest, though, those are former British colonies where you can kind of just go and speak English, and none of the locals are going to really require you to speak the local language, right? You've met people who grew up in Hong Kong who don't speak Cantonese, right? Right. And that's sort of the nature of being a former colony. Exactly. I don't think Korea at its core feels Western to me. It feels like a very Eastern Confucian place, Andrew, that made, like, a sharp turn in the past 70 years. That's very different than, like, a submarine taking, like, a wide, long turn. If you're, like, very this way, and then you, like, take a sharp turn, I think it creates, like, I think that that's what's so dope about South Korean culture, but it could create a lot of, like, complexities when you're trying to integrate other people into that. I'll be honest, though. I don't think the Ministry of Education really cares that people think Koreans are a little bit racist on some day-to-day, person-to-person basis. Like, I don't think that's their concern. They're just like, we just need to make it appealing for these foreign grad students that are going to possibly add to our industries or add to our country in the future. Right, some global partnerships. I think everybody in Asia right now, Andrew, in 2023 is wanting to be more global and wanting to be well-rounded because they saw what it did for America, but they just, it's difficult because, like, the old ways die hard, right? For example, Andrew, Japan, they really want to be more stronger, right, because they have a declining birth rate, but they're just mostly importing Nepalese people to work at, like, Lawson's, and they're focusing on robots. So, obviously, there's a disconnect between what they're saying and what they're doing. Andrew, China wants its sport teams to be way better domestically, right, but are they going to change the training system from the Soviet style? Are they? Because you want the results that America and Canada and the other more, like, you know, Western countries have, but you got the Soviet style of gymnastics and all this stuff. Are you going to change it? And, of course, like we said, Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, but is it structurally or culturally, I guess, like, good soil for foreigners to come and stay long-term? Yeah, I don't know. You let us know in the comments down below, guys. Somebody said, don't let the Koreaboo see this. Yeah, everybody's, like, saying that everybody who studies in Korea right now is a Koreaboo. And someone said, yo, correction, when they say they want 300,000 students, they just want 300,000 white women who love Korean men. And then this white girl from Eastern Europe said, oh, I'm on my way. Actually, I don't think that's true. I don't think that they're only thinking about white women, guys. That would be some, that might not have to do with education. Trust me, I think that they really do want smart STEM students. I really think so. From primarily, and then they would take them if they were white. Listen, Korean guys, like, getting with Eastern European women from, like, Estonia, that is not the point of the study 300K project, okay? The government will not get involved in that type of thing. I think there's a whole tourism bureau that can handle that, guys. Somebody said, only if Koreans can fix their racism and be open to other people. Andrew, this turned into a gigantic string of arguments between non-Koreans and Koreans in a neck shark competition. Because South Korea has a reputation of being a very exclusive, discriminatory place. I will say this, that, of course, I cannot speak and say that South Korea is not discriminatory. I believe it. I've heard tons of stories. We were there for a little bit, felt it a little bit, but I've even felt discrimination from South Koreans in America, Korean Americans. But I will say this, like, I think that when it comes to, like, grad students or people that are there for STEM, they're not going to look at it the same way as you are if you're somebody who's a tourist there. And you're like, I'm here to have fun. Oh, it's not as fun. The people who are coming there for STEM, they're like, oh, yeah, I'm just here to study and I want to do better. And then I want to bring the knowledge back to my country, you know? Right. You're saying they're just coming with a different mission. Like a lot of Koreaboos that are vacationing there or studying English or doing a semester abroad, they almost, like, want to live their K-pop fantasies there. Exactly. They're not talking about the K-pop fantasy here, OK? They don't want 300,000 people to live out XO Kitty, all right? That's what I'm saying. Andrew, this is the argument back from a couple of Korean commenters. Somebody said, every country has racism, including Korea. Shocker, right? And some guy said, I mean, it is like a one race country. And there's a difference between racism and xenophobia. Like, we are just like indigenous people to Korea. Like, South Korea is like indigenous Korean land. So we might be just like xenophobic and we have every right to be because, like, we, like, got attacked a lot by, like, Chinese and Japanese and, like, Mongolians in the past. They try to, like, erase our identity. So, like, we reserve that, right? It's, like, more us, like, protecting ourselves. Interesting comment. Yeah, I mean, from a historical standpoint, there is something to that, yeah. Yeah. Why do you think that there's so much back and forth arguing? Is it, does it just go back to, like, people can't live their XO Kitty fantasies? So they're, like, feel dejected. Because it's like, I'm talking about, we can't even get to all of it. I'm talking about, like, hundreds of comments in this lane. They're not even talking about this Polish UAE, like, astrophysicist thing. Let me say something to all the Koreaboos out there, all the people who are a little disappointed with South Korea. Why don't you do this? Instead of fantasizing and dreaming about living in South Korea, why don't you let South Korean culture influence your life here? And I think that actually makes a big impact. If you become Koreanized here and you take on some of their values versus believing that South Korea is a dreamland for you. Because it's not. They don't build it just for you. It's not going to be a dream. So I'm saying. So do you think it would be a better way to hedge against this by moving near Koreatown LA or Koreatown New York? Because those are your only Koreatowns, in my opinion, in America, that remind me of Seoul. Yeah, and North Korea, I mean, sorry, South Korea and Korean Americans are going to be more open to you than maybe Korean Koreans. Right. That is logical. Hey, guys, that might be a nice in-between point. I see people doing it in 2023. Somebody said, no, but South Korea is about to lose its culture. We can't let that happen in Japan. I'm sorry. That was supposed to be in the Japanese accent. So some people were basically saying, even though the birth rates in South Korea and Japan are incredibly declining, the opposite argument is like, what do we do? Because we don't, we want to maintain what it means to be a homogenous society. But that's all right, right? And I do believe that is within the right of them, to be honest. I mean, if the country wants to do that, they're just going to have to deal with all the issues that come along with it. And these are the issues that come along with it. Trust me, if they take on these students, they know some of them are going to stay and a lot of them are going to go back. But some of them are going to stay and mix in, learn Korean, work in industries and add to it. That's what they're hoping. Yeah. Somebody said, let's be realistic. They are going to, they want grad students from Poland and UAE, but they are going to get 200K rich Chinese students out of the 300K. And someone said, oh, God, please no. That's pretty funny. But if they're grad students, they're not necessarily rich. Like grad students are more of the people who really want to be in school. Yeah. If you take on 200,000, just rich international kids who want to party, that's different. Yeah. Some people were saying that they need to change the visa laws to make it easier for Americans or Western people or anybody from another country to work there, buy land. I guess you can't even buy real estate, Andrew, unless you pay all cash upfront and you have a fellow Korean citizen on the ownership slip. A lot of these are like governmental, like structural things, like how much do you need to learn Korean? Does it need to be seven out of ten, eight out of ten, nine out of ten? I believe, Andrew, in Japan, you cannot become a Japanese citizen as a foreigner unless you pass this language proficiency test, which shows you at least a seven out of ten at the Japanese language, which is very difficult in a written format and using formals because they have a lot of hierarchy in their language. It's very difficult to pass for non-Japanese. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how high their standard is, to be honest. Yeah. Anyway, Andrew, like we said, we're not subject matter experts, guys. Listen, if you're on the South Korean internet and you're coming for us in the comment section right now, these weren't my opinions. I'm just reading what other people wrote. Why don't you hit them up on Instagram? What is your main takeaways? My main takeaway is that Korea is definitely going through some tough decisions because basically their homogenous population is not enough for the future, essentially. And this is actually what they're going through is what a lot of places are going through, but maybe they're going through it a little bit worse. Well, they're going through the most extreme version of it, right? Yeah. And also, there's the whole like reunification with North Korea thing that's like kind of, I don't know if that's going to actually happen, but that's something that they would have to deal with if there was an influx of North Koreans, right, from a different country, a different society, to be honest, you know, although that they were one at one time. And from what I've heard, and this is a little bit of an aside, Andrew, from our really smart South Korean friends, they're saying that one generation in South Korea would just have to eat the bitterness of like the reunification generation because there's going to be so much mishaps and discomfort. But it's going to be ultimately the right thing to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that ultimately, listen, man, Korea is a trendy place. A lot of people have visited it, and that's why they have a lot of opinions about it. And a lot of people visited South Korea on like kind of fun, frivolous reasons to have fun, to experience the K-pop. They were they romanticized it. I'm saying that there is some like Korea syndrome, like there's Paris syndrome, like their soul syndrome. Well, feeling like you didn't meet your expectations of whether it's acceptance or I'm sure it's still really fun, but you didn't feel like people accepted you. Yeah, I mean, we had fun there, but like I didn't feel like I was part of it. Do you think ever white people are like welcome South Koreans to a little taste of what it feels like to be white? Everybody wants to be you and speak your language and then rip you apart because we don't let you into every single level of society. How's it feel to be us now, huh? It's lonely at the top, isn't it? South Koreans. Yeah, I guess so. You know what, though, from an educational standpoint, David, I mean, it does make sense. Everybody's going to have to open up their borders, at least to students, which are usually high level. Students are usually the first people they let in, like 1965, right? In America, we had the Hard Seller Act. They let in a lot of students. Primarily, that's who they they let in at that moment. And because they knew Asian students were more likely to add in the way that they wanted, like on a structural, not a cultural, social level necessarily, but more of a structural, like we need to build rockets. This is kind of the beginning of immigration policy change in South Korea. Yeah. What do you guys think is going to happen, guys? Like we said, a lot of opinions across the board. I think there's a lot of valid arguments. Obviously, it just depends on who you are. I don't really fully believe when it comes to opinions on this issue, there's a right and a wrong. It just depends on your perspective. Let us know what you think in the comments section below about the 300K Korea project and Korea boos and the increased scrutiny. Is it fair? Is it unfair? Keep it civil. Until next time, we're The Hop Hop Boys. We out. Peace!