Emigrant
Sensibility in the Age of Globalization (6):
A Vietnamese Woman Who Became a
Korean Citizen ②
By
Nguyen Thi Hien
Published:
September 4, 2015
Translated
by Marilyn Hook
Editor’s note: Vacation,
business travel, migrant labor, language study, study abroad, international
marriage, immigration—many of us have such experiences of crossing national
borders, and there are many immigrants living in our country. Ilda examines the
emigrant sensibility we will need in order to live equally and peacefully in
the age of globalization. This series is supported by the Korea Press
Foundation’s Press Promotion Fund.
Marrying a Korean man
 |
| Wedding photos with my family © Nguyen Thi Hien |
While I was living a lonely life as an illegal alien after my labor
contract ended, I met the man who would become my husband when I was visiting
the house of a friend who had married a Korean man. When we first met, I didn’t
notice anything special about him, but he liked me and asked me out, and as I
spent more time with him, his reliability began to grow on me. The idea of
being able to live proudly in Korea without worrying about my visa helped me
decide to marry him.
We’ve now been married 7 years, and our daughter is already 5 years old.
Married life hasn’t always been as happy as I’d imagined it would be. But I
think that this is what human life is like, and that we always have to work
enthusiastically toward becoming happier.
After we got married, I followed my husband to Seoul. At first, at my
husband’s suggestion, I worked at the same factory as him. While I was working
there, I once made as much as 2 million won in a month by working extra hours.
But saying only a few words and doing the same work, the same movements, all
day from morning to evening made me think more than once that the life I was
living might be too boring.
It was at that time that I heard that one of my friends was working as a
translator and interpreter. Thinking I would try to do the same work, I took
the exam [for translators/interpreters] and passed Level 4 on my first try. I
saw a job advertisement for a Vietnamese translator/interpreter at a
Multicultural Family Support Center in Seoul and applied for the position.
Luckily, because there were no other applicants, I was hired even though I had
no idea how to use a computer.
3 years as a
translator/interpreter for marriage migrants
 |
| Enjoying a break at a coffee shop © Nguyen Thi Hien |
With a happy heart, I started my job as a
translator/interpreter for Vietnamese marriage migrants. A
translator/interpreter’s main duty is to help a new arrival who has trouble
communicating in Korean in her family life (communicating with her husband and
in-laws) and public life (going with her to the hospital, bank, court, police,
etc. and translating). Besides that, we translate the Multicultural Family
Support Center’s newsletters, advertisements, surveys, etc. into our mother
tongues and help marriage migrants understand and participate comfortably in
the center’s programs.
In my 3 years as a translator/interpreter,
I learned several things. My experience as a translator/interpreter for
marriage migrants allowed me to improve my job skills through training, built
up my work history, and gave me many connections, all of which served as a
stepping stone to a better job. Since I had only worked at factories before, I
had few skills that were useful at an office, but this work taught me about Korean
office culture, gave me the knowledge necessary to work in an office, and
improved my “white collar” skills like administrative and basic computer
skills.
By my third year I had become pretty good
at the work, so I took on additional administrative tasks at the center such as
sending and receiving official letters to other government agencies and editing
newsletters. I often had to work
overtime because of these new duties. Even though my workload had increased, my
pay was the same. Every time I signed the sheet listing center employees’
paychecks on payday, I was upset by the large difference between Korean
employees’ pay and mine. I felt like I as a marriage migrant was being looked
down on and discriminated against by the Korean government.
The center’s translator/interpreters play a
large role in all programs - including Korean language education and other
kinds of multicultural education - from start to finish, in every part from
advertising to enrollment and satisfaction surveys. They are such an important
part of the center that without them, all programs would grind to a halt. They
may be less skilled in composing formal documents than Korean staff members,
but it is a fact that they contribute greatly to the center’s success. This
point should be recognized in order for the situation to be fair, but the pay
that translator/interpreters receive is incomparably lower than that given to
Koreans. I had to bear the injustice of this wage gap even though this was a
public organization, not a private company.
I wanted to quit rather than receive such
discriminatory treatment, but I was afraid. “If I quit this job, will I be able
to find work that I like? Can I work at another place with the skills I have?”
I pushed the thought of changing jobs aside.
Hierarchical Korean organizational culture
In 2014, I began an online degree program
in order to challenge myself. I planned to continue working as a
translator/interpreter until I graduated and then find a different job.
However, three weeks before my contract was to end, I was suddenly notified by
the center director that it would not be renewed. They unfairly decided not to
renew it because I “don’t obey authority.” I was so shocked at this facet of
Korean organizational culture that I felt like the sky had fallen down.
While I had questioned things that seemed
unfair, I had also made efforts to please my boss, and so this result made me
feel unspeakably wronged. I realized yet again that even in supposedly
progressive Korean organizations there is a definite division between higher-
and lower-status workers.
The boss asserts his authority, demands
loyalty and forces obedience from his subordinates, and the subordinates have
to do as he says, unquestioningly. I think that this is quite unfair, and it
made me uncomfortable. We are all people, so wouldn’t it be nice if we worked
together, helped each other, and acted considerately, which would allow work to
get done more effectively and us to enjoy it more? I can’t understand why a
boss has to make a show of her authority.
It was a disappointing turn of events, but
I also have tried to take a positive view of it as an experience good for
helping me to live a more developed life. Asking what I did wrong and what
points I need to reflect on, I’ve taken a look at myself. If nothing else, I’m going to work hard to
fix my remaining faults, and since I’ve learned the hard way how important
interpersonal relationships are, I’m going to approach whomever I meet more
cautiously and work harder to make my relationship with that person a
harmonious one.
Korea is my destiny
A
while after being let go from the Multicultural Center, I saw an ad for a
Vietnamese counselor at the Seoul Migrant Women Counseling Center. I wasn’t
completely qualified, but I gathered my courage and applied anyway. I was very
happy when I received the call notifying me that I got the job. I was filled
with worry that I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my counseling duties well, but
luckily, the Seoul Migrant Women Counseling Center is filled with friendly and
good-natured people, so I have been working in a family-like atmosphere.
 |
| Enjoyable conversation with Vietnamese marriage immigrants living in Korea (Author is in the center) © Nguyen Thi Hien |
Thanks to my colleagues who answer my every
question wholeheartedly, I’ve learned a lot. My pay is also much better than
before. Being able to work freely is another point that is incomparably better
than the Multicultural Center, where I was monitored and controlled every day
while I worked. My negative perception of Korean organizational culture has
also changed.
Multicultural Family Support Centers are
operated with government funding, and the Seoul Migrant Women Counseling Center
is operated with Seoul city funding, so I think Korean society needs to think
hard about why the atmosphere and pay are so different in the two
organizations.
I know that the Migrant Women Human Rights
Center, which the government tasked with operating the SMWCC, kept the
personnel expenses allocated for migrant women from being set at minimum wage
by advocating strongly against it from the very beginning. I think that we need
more places like the Migrant Women Human Rights Center, which always listens to
the voices of migrant women and fights for their rights, if Korea, with its
diverse migrants, is to become a beautiful society.
I’ve now fallen in love with Korea to the
point where I can’t return to Vietnam, and I think that I became a Korean
person because Korea is my destiny. I want to live in Korean society forever,
with my Korean husband and my child. While watching Korean society mature, I
want to study endlessly to correct my own shortcomings, always make an effort,
and live passionately.
*Original
article:
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