Reddit reviews The Accidental Citizen-Soldier: The Story of an American in the Korean Army

>Like above in Korea, it is generally socially wrong to be that cruel to a person new to Korean trying to learn, but it still happens.

I'll hold my opinion on this because I'm not actually sure if it's considered inappropriate here or not. I do know that Young Chun was not simply relentlessly bullied by his peers and superiors in the army for his poor Korean, he was actively placed in roles where he would be forced to use Korean higher than his level and cause inconvenience for other people in the service. That kind of behavior would land a huge discrimination charge in most militaries in the developed world, even in the early 00s when he served. It's possible that South Korea is working towards multicultural tolerance, but it is still having trouble coming to terms with the kinds of exclusionary behavior faced by a minority of the population.

I will say that for sure linguistic discrimination is a real thing in South Korea. Public figures and celebrities from the south side of the country have to "get rid" of their accent and speak Seoul Korean in public unless they're doing some kind of comedic entertainment performance.

https://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Citizen-Soldier-Story-American-Korean-ebook/dp/B00U3BFF1A

This book has a decent run down of what it’s like to be in the ROK army. It’s a decade or so out of date but has the major points covered.

Buy this guy's book:


https://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Citizen-Soldier-Story-American-Korean-ebook/dp/B00U3BFF1A



Essentially he's a Gyopo who works as an English teacher, gets snagged by the MMA, attempts to get out by enlisting in the US Army and, right as he's getting shipped out via Osan, he hits the Korean immigration exit controls at Osan and gets caught and serves the full two years.