What is a “Koreaboo”? A Koreaboo is generally defined as a non-Korean person who is obsessed with Korean pop culture. Occasionally, the definition is broadened to include those who appropriate Korean culture to the point that they have surgery to make themselves look East Asian (think Oli London) or pretend to be Korean.
Koreans opened up about what they find most disturbing about Koreaboos — although, please bear in mind that these are their personal feelings and opinions on the topic.
1. Peppering sentences with random Korean words
just because you have watched k dramas and know the words 오빠 and 진짜* doesn’t mean you have to include it into your day to day sentences. like it instead of showing off your supposed knowledge, it’s kinda just funny lol idk. *others include 언니, ㅋㅋㅋ, 어머, 사랑해 and the lot
—Chaemin Lee, Quora user
2. Calling everyone “oppa”, “unnie”, or “sunbaenim”
they start calling everyone ‘oppa ‘, ‘unnie’, ‘sunbaenim’, and all sorts of korean words that even I don’t know how they fell into such categories
—Cathryn Yoo, Quora user
3. Pretending to be Korean
i personally follow a lot of fan accounts of iz*one and stray kids on instagram, and many of them claim to be korean, but once i tried to converse with them in korean, none of them could respond to a simple 안녕♡ this just shows how desperate some are to be ‘of the same ethnicity’ as their k pop idols (yes i realise that some idols are foreign, but you know what i mean)
—Chaemin Lee, Quora user
4. Having surgery to look East Asian
im sure that most kpop fans have heard of the guy who got surgery to look like jimin for bangtan. he spent a good $100 000 on surgery. you can be the judge…
—Chaemin Lee, Quora user
What I find the most disturbing are the non-Asians trying so hard to “act” and look Korean.
—Mina Kim, Quora user
5. Fetishizing Korean people
What I also forgot to mention are the fetishists who are actively looking for a Korean boyfriend/girlfriend (probably a little less common), solely for the reason of him/her being of Korean descent. I didn’t know being a certain ethnicity is considered “trendy” now for y’all to use us like accessories.
—Mina Kim, Quora user
6. Stereotyping Koreans
Whenever I meet one of them for the first time, they immediately start asking me about which K-pop group I like, which idol I like, etc. I’m a person who doesn’t like any of those things much, so they’re all kind of disappointed when they figure out I’m a book person instead. I mean, that’s stereotypical, isn’t it? Just because I’m Korean doesn’t mean I have to love and memorize all those songs and groups!
—Hyrein Park, Quora user
These things aside, Koreans are genuinely delighted to encounter people who are interested in their culture, whether it’s something as simple as saying “annyeonghaseyo” to greet them. What they are creeped out by, however, is when people who forget to treat them like real, living beings instead fetishizing them and their culture.
In conclusion, if you are interested in my culture and language, I appreciate it. Just please have respect, treat us like real humans.
—Mina Kim, Quora user
Source: Koreaboo
