Life and Seoul

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Disoriented
The word "oriental" seems to be not offensive here. In the States, using that word to describe an Asian immediately brands the speaker as either ignorant or, at worst, racist. But here, I've come across the word many times in newspaper stories, although I usually edit it out. In addition, people here can get degrees in Oriental medicine and get an Oriental massage. No one seems bothered by it.

1 Comments:

At 9:55 AM, Blogger g^2 said...

I believe the Asians in US really don't find offense with the use of the word Oriental, as long as it's referring to "things". You can say Oriental food, Oriental medicine, Oriental whatever. Just don't call people as Orientals, or you may hear back "hey, do I look like food to you?" ;-)

 

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