u/Thepecid_Choice3948

So I notice that in many Asian subreddits, there seems to be some animosity between mostly English teachers and financebros (and also techbros). I'm not in finance, but I work in consulting and I deal with lots of finance teams. I don't know if it's some sort of socio-economical thing, but I often see English teachers on reddit call out financebros. I can't imagine this are referring to like an accountant or AP clerk, or even managers, controllers, etc. Also, these days, in my experience, finance teams are pretty much 50/50 in terms of men and women, and I've definitely seen more women making up the finance team as well.

What is this term referring to exactly? Is it just that people have an outdated view on what people in finance work in? I just can't imagine the people I work with being the target of criticism, they're just another type of people who work in an office.

I'm a westerner myself, and I just moved to East Asia, specifically Taiwan. I was surprised to see how much criticism there was online about how Taiwan is racist because they don't allow people to get citizenship even though they pay taxes and all. Mind you, these were mostly English-speaking forums so they were mostly English teachers. Lots of debate online and it ends up being about how the country is so racist because unlike Canada or the US, it's nearly impossible to get citizenship. I see the same sentiment for countries like South Korea. I never really thought about it, because I guess the westerners that I know who all move to Asia are their because they are leveraging their western identity for some sort of benefit, like cost of living, teaching jobs, or even dating, but I didn't realize many really feel unfairly treated for not being able to become citizens.

I'm from Canada and I just moved to South Korea earlier this year. Aside from my friend that I already knew from home who's an engineer, every westerner (from like UK/US/CAN) seems to be English teachers if they are working. I'm in my late 20s and I've seen some expats but they're like in their 40/50s all with families so also not really my crowd. Nothing wrong with English teachers,, I often party with them but there's this kind of disconnect deep down.

I've lived in a few Asian countries (mainly Korea, but also Japan and Taiwan) and I was very curious about how local Singaporeans view foreigners. The reason I'm asking is because in countries like South Korea, I feel like there's only a subset of people looking to socialize with foreigners. By the way, I specifically mean westerners in this context. First, they need to want to speak English, but I've also noticed that socio-economic status matters a lot. In Korea, there's lots of English Teachers and some people simply just either look down on them or find them uninteresting, so Koreans looking to meet westerners generally aren't the type to care about social status.

In Singapore, it's a very different dynamic. In corporate offices, sometimes it's like a 70/30 split so it's not like anyone needs to go out of their way to meet foreigners. And then the language. I guess that's why there's no English teachers here so language is not a barrier, but conversely, foreigners here tend to be more successful in their careers as well so there's not that socio-economic judgment that you see or you know the "loser back home" stereotype to put it harshly.

That's just my perspective after living in Korea and now Singapore, but curious to see the local point of view?