I went to the Immigration Office in Mokdong yesterday to update our Alien Certificate of Registration (ACR) card. I should have done this three months ago, right after we transferred apartment but the great motivation just came recently.
As a resident foreigner here in Seoul, we need to inform the Immigration Office about any changes in our stay here. As a F-3 visa holder, I am glad that things were easy to me. I actually applied for a C-3 visa (tourist visa) back in Manila in 2006 thinking that I would only be granted the F-3 visa once I apply here in Seoul. The Korean Embassy granted me the F-3 visa in Manila. When I arrived here in Seoul, I only had to process my re-entry permit. Two years ago, the processing would take several days and the applicant could opt to go back for the card or have it delivered for a minimal fee.
The update that I had to do this time for the change in our residence was more easy and more convenient. I made an online appointment for 2:30 pm yesterday. I brought the printed online appointment receipt and went directly to the window specified in my appointment receipt. I only had to wait for less than thirty minutes and I had our ACRs back. This is a big improvement from two years ago. The processing for this particular change is also gratis.
While waiting, I saw two Filipino men who were also waiting for their ACRs. They are factory workers who just asked their employers that they be released from their current employment. They will be busy in the next few days (hopefully, not weeks) job-hunting. I feel for them but I think it was not such a good idea to ask to be released from your contract without any job to look forward to. And they are in a foreign land. But I feel lighter because they are legal foreigners here. Upon knowing where my husband works, they immediately asked if my husband could possibly know a good job for them. I had to politely tell them that my husband doesn’t know any as he is in a different line of work. This is precisely the reason why we used to be wary of meeting fellow Pinoys here, most especially the illegal ones. I wished them luck. One has a baby the same age as LeRuof’s.
I met a Filipina, too. It irked me seeing and listening to her. She is one of the reasons why Filipinos married to Koreans do not have good reputation here. My apologies to the decent ones, but it is a reality that there are pre-conceived ideas as to why Filipino women marry Korean men: Money and a promise of a better life here in South Korea. I know this is an everyday burden to the smart Filipino women here married to Korean. The woman I met yesterday makes it hard for them to rise above this prejudice. I never bothered to get her name. Call me a snob but I don’t want to be associated with the likes of her. She was very loud: loud voice with a loud personality. While waiting for her card (she applied for a single re-entry permit, said she’s going on a vacation to the Philippines with her family) she sat down with us and talked with someone on the phone. Her voice was loud that the other nationalities were looking at her with annoyance. After ending her conversation on the phone, she repeatedly complained why the processing of her re-entry permit is so long. One of the two Filipino men jokingly told her: kasi ang ingay mo. Di nila pinaprocess ang mga maiingay. She laughed it off and said: maingay ba ako? Ano ba?
It would be too narrow-minded of me to judge her based on her loudness. It was the over-all personality which turned me off, big time. There are Filipino women here married to Korean men who are smart and who have immersed into the Korean culture well. Some are well-educated. It’s a sad reality to them that they sometimes have to confront the not-so-good reality of some biases brought about by the behavior of some of our kababayans. Of course, we all have different personalities. But it would be good if we all become conscious of how we conduct ourselves in public. In a society like South Korea, whose feeling of superiority over Filipinos who they know are the poor neighbors in Asia is very evident, it is imperative to keep our heads high all the time. It comes as a surprise to some that some Filipinos they actually talk to work here as professionals.
We are lucky to be living in a safe and comfortable environment. I think we have become “regulars” here as the only Filipinos in our neighborhood. It helped that we have a son who is always conspicuous because he does not look the same as the other toddlers. He receives a lot of attention… and candies. I am witness to how some Koreans’ faces change from curiosity to respect when they learn my husband’s position and where he works.
Yes, at the end of the day, our relationship with the people around us will not be based on the color of our skin or our citizenship or the English twang (very important to the English-obsessed Koreans) we have, but I still wish that as individual Filipinos, wherever we are, we help uplift our image as a people and as a nation. This is an over-used plea. But really, there is so much uplifting that we have to do if we don’t want to go around the world and be recipients of negative biases against us as a nation.
The Stanford diploma helped - a lot; the rest came from her own abilities and skills. 