 So you say hello? So say hello. So hello guys! Hello! Hello! I'm Nora. Nice to meet you. I'm J.K. Mo. Hello! Hello! Okay, so nice to meet you. Nice to meet you! Again! So how have you been? I've been good. How have you been? I'm really good. I became a Muslim. Oh! Hey, watch out! What's your name? My name is Dina. I'm from America. My name is Nora. I am from France. My name is Rukhaya. I'm from France. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Today's topic is hijabies who work in Korea. Yeah, I think many people told me that oh, can hijabies work in Korea or are there any prejudice or stereotype? So I want to ask you something, some questions that people wonder. The first question is what is your job? I teach English to elementary schoolers in the countryside. Conversational English in particular. Teacher! Teacher! Dina teacher! I found a part-time job as a barista in Gangnam. It took me like maybe two weeks to find it. Yeah, two or three weeks. I think I was lucky. Thanks God. I had several positions in Korea. For one month I was a cafe manager. Nine months I was a digital project manager in a trading company in Gangnam. And I also had like let's say I was a cleaning team in a guest house also. Yeah, I had several jobs in Korea. You had a lot of jobs. Yeah, I tried several positions in Korea. Master of career. Many people asked me this question. Was it hard to get a job in Korea as a hijabi? How do you think? Well, the job itself, they didn't really look at my hijab. They just looked at if I met the qualifications of the job. No one mentioned anything about my hijab. People, the only question they asked about my appearance was how many ear piercings I have. Really? Yeah! Doesn't they care about your hijab? No, I told them I was like Well, you can't even really see my piercings most of the time. I'm like, I have six and they're like Oh! I'm like, but you can't see all the time. It's like scandalous to have six ear piercings. Korea has freedom of religion. So technically they're not allowed to discriminate against you because of your hijab or because of your religion. It's really more, at least with my experience, do you meet the qualification? Jobs are hard to find anyways. Yeah, I know what you're saying. You, the only time I have problems with my hijab when it comes to jobs is if it's like acting or modeling. Then people are like, oh, can you take that off? And obviously I say no. Like, this is part of the package. I have to admit it's a little bit hard. For me, thanks God, it wasn't really hard for me because I find a boss who lived in America so he was like open-minded. He asked me first, what is that in your head? Do you have any religion? Are you Muslim? And I said, yeah. And he was like, oh, that's okay. Okay, I was just wondering. Sometimes they ask you the question just because they want to know that they're not racist or anything. And that's it. Yeah, that's it. And he said, oh, okay, oh, it's pretty. I think honestly, it's hard actually as a hijabi. I was really blessed and grateful that my former boss, he was French. So they didn't ask that question, like, do you wear the hijab or anything? So I was just like hired upon my skill. So I am expert in digital marketing. I am expert in managing project. That's why my main reason, the hire me. Not because I am Muslim and I wear the hijab. If I apply for a Korean company, like apart from being hijabi, is can I speak Korean? I think that's the main point in Korea. If I target, yeah, not the hijab. But maybe it could happen because they will ask you, how about Hishik? Do you drink alcohol? If we do Hishik, do you eat pork or something like that? The question might pop up. It's difficult, but it's challenging everywhere. So I don't think Korea is a special case. So the main point was, you can speak Korean or not. Ah, I can speak a little Korean. Oh, you're good. I'm so curious about this. I'm so curious that how do your co-workers treat you in your job? They're very nice to me. Oh, nice? Yeah. No one's mean to me. I'm the youngest. I'm the youngest. I think the only thing is like, my principal likes me a little too much. And so, too much. Too much. And so I'm like, I always like, there's a line. There's a line. You stay over there. Yeah, yeah. They're all really nice. People feed me a lot because Korean culture involves a lot of food. People feed me all the time. Eat this, eat this. Yeah, yeah, eat this. The only thing is sometimes I'm like, oh, I can't eat that because you know, there's like spammers and they have this gimbap. I'm like, I can't, I can't. There's spam in it. Thank you though. Too nice, too nice. Yeah. They're really nice. How about your students? Like, how do your students treat you? Like, I'm so curious. They just ask weird questions about everything. Where are you from? Are you married? Do you have a boyfriend? Do you have any kids? What's on your head? What color is your hair? Teacher is hot. Why are you wearing long sleeves? My older kids don't question me. My younger kids are the more, the more. Usually I change my scarf color every day, obviously. So kids are more interested. Oh, teacher, what color are you gonna wear tomorrow? That's their question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tomorrow, can you wear the blue one? I'm like, okay, I'll wear the blue one. I'll wear it for you, Heddin. Okay, that's cool. Oh, I'm glad to hear that. At least they don't like judge that because of your hijab. Well, they're kids. I mean, as long as you're nice to them, they'll learn that you're a nice person and they might even think, oh, maybe other people that look like you are nice people. I think that's good education to them, I think. Like, hiring hijabies in school, I think it can be a really good education for students. It's a diverse of people, diversity. Yeah. Yeah, my students, that first they thought I was from India or like Malaysia or something because they thought only people from those countries wear hijab. And I'm like, no, I'm from America. They're like, what? People in America look like you? Like people in America look like everything. My co-worker were really kind. I had the chance to make my prayers on time when I was working. I say to my co-workers, okay, it's time to pray. And she tells me, oh, it's okay, you can go. It's like only five minutes. My co-worker were really nice. Well, they were kind and in my company, I worked for the most nine months. My boss is French, so we speak in French. You know, we, everyone make a effort to understand each other, so it's fine. And I don't think they treat me like badly. They were fine. That's cool. And most of the interns, they were younger than me. So, and I was the daddy. So, you know, you can't really say, but I really realized it's, work culture is different. Very hierarchy. Yeah, hierarchy is really like, thank you, my boss. Next question was, are people biased towards you because of your hijab in here? When it comes to my job, no. I'm sure some people experience it, but I personally, in Korea, have not experienced it. In America, yes. In Korea, no. People are curious. Actually, Korea is good for Muslims. Food is difficult, boss. You can live here for a month until you starve. I'm just kidding. Not really discrimination or offended, but I think what I felt, it's maybe as Muslim people, there are not a lot of Muslims here. They don't really want to mix because as they know that Islam really restricts religion and as they drink and stuff like this, so they, as they don't want to offend you, so they just stay far. I don't blame them because they don't really know, but I think step by step, they're gonna know more about Muslim people. Of course, religion, it's a part of us, but we're first human, especially as a Muslim girl because they will always crushing you to take off your hijab, but you have to be strong. Nobody can make us take it off because it's for God, yeah. If you don't respect what you decide, you're gonna lose yourself, I think so. I think they might have some prejudice, but they don't show it. Or maybe, you know, they kind of just ignore it because at work, I'm supposed to work. You know, like, let me see if it's outside of work. We go to cafe, we discuss, maybe the vibe is different, but at work, we are so busy with the task we are supposed to do so. At work, you should just work. Like, why do you have to worry about, oh, I wear the hijab? No, work is work. Focus on work. Yeah. Okay, so my last question is, do you have any message for people who want to work in Korea but who are afraid because of their hijabi? Because I got a lot of messages that were afraid of because they're hijab. Like, at least for me in my comments or when they send me messages, oh, can I find a job as a hijabi? I think it's all in your mind. It's not really, can you find a job as a hijabi? It's like, can you find a job? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, why are you limiting yourself? Like, oh, I can't do this because I have a hijab? No, you can't do this because you don't have the qualifications. Get your qualifications and then you can do it. Don't hurt yourself and make yourself handicapped for no reason, you can do it. Get your qualifications together and good luck, you can do it. If you really want to. I think. We believe you. Yes. If you wanna come here and work, just come and work and try. If it doesn't work, it's okay. So you don't have to be scared. Current people are really nice and they're really welcoming and warm people. So I think you don't have to hesitate coming here, really. First of all, I would say, you know, prepare your trip. Like, you know, it's not easy. You can't just come to Korea and be like, okay, I'll come to Korea. I'll meet my oppa and like, well, that's not true. I was French, so I had the opportunity to come with a working holiday visa. Others can come with like work visa. The company can, you know, sponsor them or everything. You must prepare your trip. Like, if you wanna come, you know, first, if you have the budget to do it, learn the language. Maybe do scholarship. You know, you can do everything, but don't be afraid because Korea, it's a country, but there is other country as well. Like, I came to Korea because I like Korea, but there is so many countries and so many opportunities around. So if you wanna do it, you know, just say Bismillah. Get, you know, first, like write a project. Okay, what do I need to do? Do I need to save money? Do I have any contacts? Because, of course, you must have some friends that know friends that are cousins or anything that lives in Korea. And so many people, they are reachable on internet, on Facebook, on Instagram. You can ask many questions on LinkedIn too, like, you know, the job platform. So get as much as information and if you feel you're ready, then just go. If not, you know, it's not so bad too in your own country. France is not a bad country, but I just prefer to try another adventure, another journey in Korea. Alhamdulillah, here I am. Alhamdulillah. Okay, thank you for saying your message. It was really touched. Okay, thank you so much. You're welcome. Bye-bye. Bye-bye, guys. Thank you. Bye. Bye, thank you. Bye-bye.