A few days ago I had to go the bank. I had to send money, overseas transfer obviously. I use Moneygram usually. I’ve been doing it for so long, in the same bank. So what happened last week was a surprise, well, a little bit…
When you’re sending money abroad, you need to present your passport (if you’re a foreigner) or your ID (if Korean). The lady asked for my passport. Okay, can’t blame her for that, I don’t look Korean. I didn’t mind that. I just continued taking out my ID. She saw what I was doing and she almost blocked my hand and told me she needs my passport. This irritated me. I pulled out my ID and looked at her. “I’m Korean”. That’s all I said. She still didn’t seem apologetic.
She asked me to sign some documents. I told her I don’t need to. I only need to fill-out the Moneygram form. She insisted that it’s procedure and that I have to do it. I told her that I’ve sent money before and that I don’t need to sign an ‘overseas transfer form’. “Just fill this out. In case there’s no record”. She said. I didn’t. I told her to check and I’ll wait.
I am annoyed because right when I was taking my ID she had already judged me. She assumed I was a foreigner although I was talking to her in fluent Korean (I don’t hold this against any Korean, I DO understand this part). When she almost blocked my hand just to tell me again to present my passport, that’s what annoying. It’s very unKorean-like. They’re mostly the best when it comes to customer service and respect. What she did there, she wouldn’t do to another Korean. She’d be yelled at!
This isn’t my first experience with Korean bigotry. I had to deal with a lot of that here. I usually let it go, you can’t change the whole society anyway. But sometimes it gets in my nerves, especially when I’m in a hurry and I could tell that I’d be having a bad day.
The World As I Feel It 