The Korean Wave
By Mylah Reyes Roque
Newsbreak Contributing Writer





AFTER a year in the Philippines, “Mrs. Pung” doesn’t need to go to a Korean store to make traditional kimchi. She uses ingredients from the local market: Baguio cabbage, garlic, siling labuyo, ginger, and her special discovery, patis (fish sauce).
A mother who takes care of two children and six other young relatives, she lives in a spacious three-bedroom condominium unit in an upscale Metro Manila neighborhood, just a breath away from life’s necessities: school, supermarket, shopping mall. It’s a bonus that a golf course is a few minutes’ drive from home.

Mrs. Pung’s husband is a pilot in South Korea, but they brought their kids here to study. “I visit him regularly because he is only three and a half hours away,” she says. The children are having a grand time here. They keep to their own group, enjoy the local cuisine like sisig, tocino, bulalo, adobo, patronize local fashion, and look forward to trips to Boracay. On weekends, they organize trips to Pagsanjan or Tagaytay.

Mrs. Pung is only one of the 46,000 Koreans who are in the country at any given time, according to Myung-Hwan Yu, South Korea’s ambassador to Manila. “Thirty-nine thousand Koreans came to the Philippines in 2004,” he told NEWSBREAK. If one counts those who are illegally staying here, the number could reach 60,000, says Dong Won Choi, secretary-general of the United Korean Community Association.

The Philippines hosts the biggest community of Koreans in Southeast Asia. They could be students enrolled in a regular course, student-tourists combining a holiday with a short-term English-language course, honeymooners, Christian missionaries, or businessmen. A few are representatives of international organizations or investors based in the export-processing zones.

University of the Philippines (UP) Asian Center Professor Lily Anne Polo has been studying the Koreans in the Philippines. “They are the third largest foreign presence here now after the Americans and Japanese,” she notes. “They are smaller in number, but they make sure that their presence is felt.”

Countries like Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia are going through a “Korean Wave” inspired by Korean artists, pop music, and the Korean telenovela, according to Polo. Just where lies the attraction to the Philippines? “For them, the Philippines is the most inexpensive place to learn English before going elsewhere for studies in preparation for working in Korea’s chaebols (industrial giants),” she explains. “They are nationalistic. They will return to Korea.”


Learning English
Koreans find the Philippines “cosmopolitan,” Polo adds. “We are more open to foreigners [unlike other countries] and we offer amenities of global standards” such as golf courses, comfortable condominiums, good schools.

Koreans are here not just for language studies but also for high school or college education. Aside from the attraction of cheaper tuition, Koreans think that they have better chances of finishing college here than in Korea, where education is becoming “hard and difficult” for most students, according to Chul Kyou Kim, head of the Koreans’ community association in Makati.

Many Koreans like Kim prefer to take up medicine courses here. A student of medicine in the Philippines would spend roughly US$5,500 or P300,000 a year while a year’s medical study in Korea would cost $10,000 or P550,000 annually.

And, of course, the Korean won can buy a lot here, thus the growth of many Korean businesses.

Byung Koog Jo, a farmer in Korea who is now the community director of the Korean community association in Quezon City, came here eight years ago with his wife and two kids. Now, his Filipino is even better than his English. After he bungled a business with a relative here, he put up his own restaurant near the main station of GMA-7 TV in Quezon City. Two years ago, he sold the restaurant, thinking it wouldn’t earn. He has since regretted the move because Korean restaurants have turned out to be profitable.

Now, Jo runs a grocery that sells produce from his farms in Batangas, Laguna, and Baguio. If he were in Korea, he would need at least P8 million to put up that kind of grocery; here, he needed only P3 million. “Foreigners like me are prohibited to own land, so my properties are owned by a corporation owned by five Filipinos. I just supply the Korean seeds to the land owners and farmers,” he says.

Like Mushrooms
The Korean community is growing so fast that its Makati-based association has formed seven branches in the country, each one representing a community with a designated leader. The biggest outside Metro Manila is Cebu, followed by Baguio. In the past few years, communities have also sprung up in Boracay, Angeles, Subic, Bataan, and Davao.

In Metro Manila, the biggest number of Koreans live in Makati, Quezon City, Manila, and Parañaque. Most of their communities are self-contained. What’s common to them is the presence of English-language schools that are usually owned by the Koreans themselves.

In Quezon City, for example, Jo’s Korean grocery is on the ground floor of the Kalayaan Plaza Bldg., which houses apartments leased by Koreans, a small wet market, laundry, Korean video shop, English language center, barbershop, restaurant, and the Philippine Korean Church. Koreans have seven to eight churches in Quezon City, four groceries, four video shops, and five travel agencies, according to Jo. In Makati, most Korean establishments are located near Makati Avenue and Burgos Street. Many shops catering to Korean tourists are also in Parañaque, which is close to the airport.

The phenomenon of Korean communities in the Philippines has also given birth to the rise of Korean-speaking agents who run a profitable business arranging deals between Koreans and Filipinos. They are not just in travel and tourism but even in education. They assemble groups of students in Korea and offer them to schools here usually for a fee equivalent to 10 to 15 percent of the tuition. The same agent would make a similar profit from boarding homes, restaurants, even transport and laundry services.

The community associations regulate themselves and provide a support system to newcomers. This has apparently been effective in ensuring peace in the communities. Immigration officials say that, in general, Koreans respect local laws and are not involved in criminal syndicates to the same extent that some other nationalities are. Cases filed against them usually involve petty violations.

Outside their communities, however, Koreans find themselves in a culture clash with their Filipino hosts. This has caused what Polo calls “irritants, cultural-related issues that need to be ironed out” between Koreans and Filipinos. “Because of their geographic location and bitter history of occupation by Japan, Koreans distrust foreigners and keep to their groups.”

Polo believes that Koreans, in general, are condescending to Filipinos because “they feel superior, and it doesn’t help that they are richer and have fairer skin.”

Nadia, a Filipino coffee-shop barista, finds many Koreans abrasive and ill-tempered.

Kim says that the cultural gap has brought him countless times to police stations, where Koreans have been detained because Filipinos thought they were shouting at them and picking a fight. “I explain to Korean newcomers that the culture here is different. We should not raise our voice. We also can’t drink or carry beer bottles in public.” Kim, 47, who has finished dentistry, now runs a clinic with his Filipino classmates in Bel-Air.


Overstaying, Too
Filipino girls who work for Korean businesswomen in tiangges find them generally distrustful as employers. Choi acknowledges this, saying, “It is generally hard for us to trust Filipinos.” Among members of the association, there are stories of Korean businessmen being betrayed by Filipino managers or secretaries where it would hurt most: by reporting them to the Bureau of Immigration (BI) if they are staying illegally.

Because of their number, Koreans have been classified by the BI as “restricted aliens” along with Chinese and Indians. This gives them a harder time extending a visa and renewing it. As tourists, Koreans can stay here for 59 days. Beyond that, they can apply for an extension every month for a maximum of six months. Choi said this system exposes Koreans to extortion. Choi himself admits that probably 20 percent of Koreans living here don’t have permits.

Despite all this, Korean communities seem to be here for the long run. And even if Mrs. Pung doesn’t have the time to make kimchi at home, she can always run to a nearby restaurant or hotel that certainly will have a Korean dish on its menu.

Hmmm interesting article, its good to know that they think that the Philippines is Cosmopolitan.

additional news:

Learning from Koreans' success in entertainment

Posted 05:58pm (Mla time) May 20, 2005
By Nestor Torre
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on Page A2-2 of the May 21, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


LOCAL viewers and media observers have been struck by the popularity of Korean telenovelas on Philippine TV. Many of them think this is better than the "invasion" of Latin-American shows some years back, because this time, the characters at least look Asian.

Colonial mentality
Others, however, remain dissatisfied, because they still see colonial mentality at work here, and because they feel that, foreign productions, no matter what their provenance, "steal" work opportunities away from local TV people.

So, they hope that, sooner rather than later, the current Korean "wave" of TV shows will lose its ability to fascinate viewers here.

Seen from a wider perspective, however, it doesn't look like the trend will be running its course soon, because it's only part of a larger Korean pop-culture initiative that has been enjoying spectacular success, not just in the Philippines, but also in many other countries in Asia.

The latest statistics show that more than 100 million people in Asia are viewing Korean entertainment each day, and South Korea's culture industry is growing four times more briskly than other businesses in that country, with sales almost doubling in only one year's time (from US$42 million in 2003 to $72 million in 2004)!

In addition, the entertainment that Korea has exported to other countries has boosted its tourism figures, with more tourists making it a point to visit the beautiful locations featured in Korean productions, contributing to a 40-percent increase in tourist arrivals in only one year.

Even the more positive showing of Korean airline companies in the stock market has been attributed in part to the popularity and tourist-drawing ability of Korean entertainment, resulting in better business for Korea's air travel firms.

Laurels
But, South Korean government and entertainment industry leaders aren't resting on their laurels. They know full well that viewers can get bored in quick order, so they're bent on further improving the shows they're exporting, to make sure that their popularity will be sustained.

And they're putting their money where their mouths are: They're bankrolling a billion-dollar entertainment complex, schools, marketing offices--whatever it takes to keep the good times rolling.

Attitudes
Filipino entertainment industry leaders and their counterparts in government can learn a lot from the attitudes vivified by these initiatives.

In this country, we tend to think of entertainment as fluff, but the Koreans have proven that it can be big business, with similarly important effects on other industries. That's why they're more than willing to invest a lot of money to make even more in the future.

Are we prepared to do the same?

i hope. the filipino showbizness is probably one of the oldest if not the oldest in Asia. i hope that it evolve from just localized preferred media.

Yes, one of the oldest and now slowly dying with barely 30-50 films being produced per year from 300- 350 films in the late 1980's - early 1990's

Korea is now slowly becoming a film hub in Asia.

That is right! The Philippines should learn its lesson from Korea.

True, sad to say...Philippines will just be overshadowed by that reality.

Yeah, and evolve soon. Oh my, we need to be growing and evolving ASAP...

Did anybody read this? I say send their @$$ back home if they don't like the country they are living in.

Hmm, I grew up with Korean Americans and met some nice Koreans here in Chicago and I never felt any superiority complex from them. Must be different in Korea. Some of my best friends were Korean Americans. If you know about their history and lived in Korea or was stationed there, they might be impressed if you tell them about this in a Korean store in Chicago or LA. The same way if you’re non-Filipino that visited the Philippines or a veteran stationed in Vietnam and you tell them about some of the provinces and cities there like Cavite, Visayas, Batangas, etc or Hue City, Da Nang, etc.
As for Korean shows, we have a large Korean American community like the Filipino Community in Chicago and neighboring suburbs. So we have the Korean Channel on channel 28. But the only Korean shows I’ve watched are historical dramas like Wang Gun, Age of Warriors, and currently the Immortal Admiral Yi Soon Shin. They feature a lot of action, massive armies fighting like in the movies, samurais, ninjas, mongols, khitans, jurchens, pirates, naval battles, people getting tortured, lots of beheadings, Royal Court intrigue, etc. You don’t see this in American TV. However, the majority of Korean shows, which are soap operas, are as boring as American soap operas and ABC, Fox, and HBO dramas but without the gratuitous sex like how Hyun secretly love Kyung who loves Jin but is in a coma or fled to America and all that jazz. Some of my Korean American friends in another Korean board I visit said this. It might be boring for Americans. The only other Korean shows I watch other than those historical dramas are those Korean Idol shows where they’re singing in Korean. Apparently these Korean shows are all over the world. They’re shown in Britain, Mexico, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, etc. A friend of mine in another board, a fellow American businessman who’s white, lives in Mexico and saw some Korean shows in a motel in Mexico. He knows it’s Korean because his girlfriend is Korean. And a Briton Chinese from the UK on this board says he started watching that show Dae Jang Geum about a medicine woman in the Chosun King’s court.

And if they raise their voice it’s because of their language not because they’re ill-tempered. Watch those Korean dramas and you’ll see. There probably is a cultural gap there but I nor my fellow Fil-Ams never experienced any tensions with our Korean American friends. Koreans more often have been victims of colonialism and invasions more than the Filipinos who actually were wealthy during colonial times with Spain and in the early 1900’s before Marcos. The Koreans have been constantly invaded by the Khitans, the Mongols, Jurchens, Japanese Samurai pirates, Imperial Japanese Army in 1900, had their ports opened to foreigners by force by the US Navy in 1871, had to kowtow and bow to the Chinese even now, and have been the battleground between the Soviets and the US in the Cold War.

Richer during the Spanish period???? I do not think so.

We are better off during the pre-Hispanic rule.

Yes it was as well as in the early 20th century, well not that wealthy like the US, but the Philippines use to be a center of trade between Latin America, China, and other countries in SE Asia. They use to have a large galleon shipping lanes in the Pacific between Mexico, Philippines, and Asia. A lot of Filipinos served as sailors and Marines in those Galleon trade and there’s a lot of connection between California/Mexico and the Philippines. There are some Mexican Criollos/Mestizos who have Filipino ancestry from those Filipino sailors in colonial times that settled in California and Mexico. I met some of them in Chicago. I read this in some Philippine history books. It was colonial corruption in later years of the 19th century made the economy bad and caused discontent. I’ll post some info from these Philippine history books when I have time from work. Some of the younger Filipinos might be interested about our history.

*edit* BTW, I heard from other Mexicans on other boards that our people is famous with the Mexicans because some of those Filipino sailors helped gave independence to Mexico from Spain and some of them lead their armies in the early 1800 against Spain. What’s funny is that those Filipino sailors kept two families both in Mexico and Philippines at the same time! Here’s some links on info about the Galleon trade:
http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/eloisa.borah/egbgalle.htm
http://filipinokastila.tripod.com/FilMex.html
http://www.ezilon.com/information/article_476.shtml

The only ones who got rich from the galleon trade where the spanish...but for us joe filipinoes we were nothing but second class citizens, living no better that medeival peasants.

Korean telenovelas "click" here since they, like Filipinos, like to watch shows with love in it. they also produce good stories for that matter compared to Filipino stereotypical shows na nakasanayan na pero in the long run, i think people will notice too that korean shows with love stories are becoming redundant.

a few more episodes/shows of "baguio-broom-haired" actors and masasawa rin ang mga tao. the problem is that ang mga filipino actors/actresses ay gumagaya sa porma ng mga ito which for them would make them "in".. which is wrong. they should make their own identity. but for the moment, the tv&movie industry is focusing on fantasy-related shows.

anyway, who's watching "La Visa Loca"? lol today's the nationwide screening

i second the motion. filipinos, especially chics, love love, drama,...which according to many asian friends here in america "koreans are good at delivering".

i mean it's not the first time that PI is acknowledging other medias ie MARIMAR CRAZE/Thalia/Latino craze in the 90's

and most of the shows in PI, as well as cartoons, are American and Japanese anime/power ranger type of shows. What's new?

To sum it up, most Filipinos love "trends". Thalia/ any Latin American showbiz personalities isn't the talk of Filipinos anymore, but the Korean Actors/Actresses Hindi nga masyadong naghit yung Drama series nina Iza Calzado at yung taga-Argentina...-lol

hi! i'm a newbie here. found this topic very interesting as i am following this korean wave and believe me...i became a fan of these actors. besides the anime-ish looks of the actors, i love how they tell stories. a typical korean korean novela lasts about 16 episodes. so fast-paced ang storyline. unlike dito, it will take at least 1 and half year bago matapos ang isang serye. i remember esperanza noon, isang diary lang ang hinahanap..umabo ng 3 taon yung series. and yes...korean novelas has all the elements filipinos love. like love story..conflict bet siblings..mga kuwentong mayaman na guy nagkagusto sa mahirap na girl or vice-versa. even their movies are worth watching. kaya nga mga hollywood producers kandarapa sa pagre recreate ng korean movies. example na nga nito is yung il mare. keanu reeves and sandra bullock will star in it.

like you, i also hope mag evolve din yung yung pagawa natin ng series at movies na gaya nila. i still believe in filipino talents. at mas naniniwala akong mas magaling pa rin ang mga pinoy.

just a thought!

There was alos a news that a Koreanovela was shot in Cebu last year......

When is Sandara Park returning??

after 5 months , I think she will take a short film and acting course in Korea

thank God she and her management now understands that beauty isnt everything in the entertainment industry.

forgive me but i think the problem with us filipinos in general is that we tend to be shallow. problema kasi sa atin, puro ganda lang, not to mention the "uso" thing", ang naaappreciate. i do not want to compare pero its really obvious that the pinoy film industry is full of crap. as long as its embedded with gorgeous actors, patok na at dudumugin na ng mga tao.

my point is, as long as filipinos patronize "pwede na yan!" quality films, nothing will happen if this kind of mentality continues.

as portrayed by this local advertisement hitting the local scene, "Di ba mas maganda kung may art ang buhay?"

Tama ka, There is uity among diversity

I've had the opportunity to interact with some Koreans in the Philippines.

I'm actually still tutoring them English.

They're both pastors and are very nice people.

They care a lot about the Philippines and will stay here at least for the time being.

It just bothers me that they have a lot of stories about their personal experiences

regarding Philippine corruption.

Some of our elders are really not good people.

i just remember my grandfather's story about World War II, he said that it was the Koreans, and not the Japanese, who do the most attrocities against Filipino civilians. Japanese culture see head decapitation by samurai as an honorable way to die, but with koreans, it is the most gruesome way to kill...they were the ones who throw kids then catch them using bayonets....

I do not hate Koreans, I do have korean friends, and I did not have problems encountering with Koreans. They usually walk nearby my girlfriend's house and I like the way they try Filipino food like Bulalo, Tapsilog and Sisig.... just sharing this story and I hope it does not make any flame replies....

Koreans fought the Filipinos in WWII?

^yup. kasi sa pagkakatanda ko sa history class ko. sakop din ng japan ang korea nun kaya ginawa nila, inutusan din nila ang mga koreans na maging sundalo para sa japan. basta parang ganun. hindi ako magaling sa history eh. hehehehe.

pero yun nga sabi ng histo prof ko maraming korean soldiers dito nung wwII.

^ well then thats Emperial Japan, they didnt actually represent under the Korean flag didn't they?

^yeah they weren't here on their own volition. pero kahit na, hindi mo makakaaila na maraming krimeng ginawa yung mga korean at japanese soldiers nung nandito sila.

pero may mga kwento nga na mas marahas yung mga koreano. hindi ko lang alam kung paano na-differentiate ng mga tao nung ang mga koreans at japanese.

yung nga eh, how would they know if its a korean or a japanese unless you can understand their language or have some kind of an identity on their uniform.

^i don't know but there is probably something that distinguishes the korean from japanese soldiers because a number of historians support that belief. historians base their conclusions on physical evidences (written documents, etc.), not merely on tales accounted by the people.

hmm...interesting Koreans in PI during WWII.

hey didn't we send troops to Korea to defend against the N. korea?

edit:

yup....

Korean marines! Korea was once colonized by the Japanese and about 30% of the troops who entered in the Philippines were actually Koreans !

Many people thought that the Koreans were Japanese because they could understand Nipponggo

Korean factory openings draws flood of applicants


By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 08:35pm (Mla time) 04/02/2007


EDITOR’S NOTE: Reposting to correct the figure on the average monthly wage for jobs in South Korea, which is $700 not $7,000 as inadvertently written in the original post. Our apologies for the oversight.

MANILA, Philippines -- The announcement about 10,000 openings in South Korean factories has drawn a flood of jobseekers that swamped the Occupational Health and Safety Center (OHSC) in Quezon City Monday, the first day for applications for the fifth Employment Permit System-Korean Language Test (EPS-KLT).

Rosalinda Baldoz, chief of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), said because the application process is on a first-come, first-served basis, many applicants had camped overnight at the OHSC, although other sources said early birds began lining up as early as Friday.

“We transferred [the acceptance of applications] to OHSC because we don’t have much space here,” Baldoz explained in a phone interview. “But they were swamped there too.”

The first time applications for the EPS-KLT were accepted at the POEA office some three years ago, the lines of jobseekers extended way past the SM Megamall on EDSA. The ratio of applicants to jobs at the time was at least 1:50.

The acceptance of applications, which ends April 20, will be suspended on April, Holy Thursday, for the observance of the Holy Week, and will resume on April 10.

The EPS-KLT, a requirement for those seeking for employment in South Korea, will be given on May 6. The hour-and-a-half long test has listening and reading components.

Of the 10,000 job openings this year, 9,000 are for male workers.

Baldoz said her office had wanted to institute an online system of registration, but the Korean Ministry of Labor adopts the same system for all foreign workers.

“We hope that they would see the effect of their system on our job applicants and understand why we want an electronic registration year-round,” she said.

Factory jobs in South Korea pay an average of $700 a month, excluding overtime pay, which is pegged at 150 percent of regular rates.

Baldoz said over the past three years, the EPS has employed 14,000 overseas Filipino workers.

Aside from the OSHC offices in Quezon City, applications for the EPS-KLT can also be submitted to the POEA regional centers in Cebu and Davao cities.

Details of the application process and requirements are available at http://www.poea.gov.ph/eps/5thKLT.pdf.

The names of successful candidates for the available jobs will be announced online on May 25 at http://ww.glokorean.org and http://www.poea.gov.ph.