hey yes it's a it's been a while since
we did this kind of sit down and talk
video together we've been asked by many
people if we have been facing any kind
of difficulties as a Korean German
couple before we've been dating for
almost five years now and as many of you
probably don't know we have been
struggling in the past due to the fact
that I am German and twin is of Korean
ethnicity it was born in Germany but I
was raised grew up in a Korean household
with Korean culture Korean food and so
on so I see myself as more Korean than I
am German since I was born and raised in
Germany there hasn't been much of a
cultural gap between us from my side but
there are problems where mainly how
society sees us as an interracial couple
and we did use the term international
couple in our videos before in the
titles but we thought interracial which
is the more correct term sounds a bit
harsh and also because people who are
interested in the specific niche of
content they're looking more for
International couple and for interracial
and we have been criticised by some who
said it was misleading to put it in the
titles but really I just thought it's a
good keyword for the algorithm as I do
most of the titles and stuff based on
research what kind of keywords are the
best right now and if some of you are
asking yourself why do they even have to
specify this in the title watch the full
video we'll go into it later on I should
get some structure in this video we will
talk about our struggles and experiences
in chronological order I think of first
experience girls back to before we even
started dating here in Germany it's
still quite a bit unusual to see an
Asian man bathing and non-asian women we
won't even go into why that's the case
both of my parents are Korean
and fariñas german i grew up and lived
in germany my whole life so I obviously
never had to deal with any kind of
racism before and since my family is
very open-minded I have never thought
that aiding twin ways of Korean heritage
would be a problem to anyone and
interracial dating
here in Germany isn't really rare either
the kind of constellation that we have
mm-hmm actually yeah it's kinda rare
nowadays it's not I see a lot more
mm-hmm
no maybe I just know this more yeah so I
had my worries because I grew up in
Germany I know how some people think and
I had my worries from the beginning and
I have to add here the Germany is
overall very multicultural place as we
said before intercultural dating is
actually quite common but since I have
personally dealt with racism and
ignorance my whole life growing up here
I was a bit worried about how society
would respond to us no I think our first
real encounter with racism was during
the time I participated in the Miss
Germany contest I wouldn't call that
racism actually I would say it was like
the mixture of ignorance and jealousy
you know and toxic male behavior yeah I
think it was around six months after we
met mm-hmm
you know I basically tried to keep it
low as your boyfriend at that time
because I was actually afraid that
having a Korean boyfriend would actually
negatively affect your boats in the
contest so during the time I had the
first bit of media exposure in Germany
and most of my fans back then were
actually German man and there were quite
a few that were pretty offended not by
the fact that I have a boyfriend but by
his ethnicity and they was really
shocking for me to see and it really
broke my heart that to him had these
thoughts and
of course I would never put contest or
whatever over my relationship so I never
made a secret out of us
in front of anyone still believe that
you could have won the contest yes since
it was the first time that I had my face
made public after trying to not stand
out as much as possible my whole life it
was a bit hard on me but seeing Farina
not giving a shot and being proud of me
in public
gave me the strength to just ignore
about that stuff so you and I and I
started my youtube channel since you
always have to choose a specific niche
or niche niche or Nev whatever on
YouTube we decided to go for Korea based
content because my interest for the
country and the culture developed when
we first started dating and also while
living together with his family so it
just felt natural and doing helped me a
lot with ideas for the videos and for
the whole channel yeah right manager
Kiki
pd-nim I thought it might be interesting
to share this process of you exploring
Korean culture and at that time you are
focusing more on a Korean audience if
you look at our first videos you can
actually see quite a bit of similarities
to youngnam's a Korean Englishman where
we had friends and family try Korean
food at some point I introduced domine
on the channel as my boyfriend and the
video got quite a bit of attention we
had around 20k subscribers at the time I
think and somehow our video attracted
many racists and so-called white
supremacists we usually try our best
ignore the trolls and the stupid
comments we get from time to time and a
lot of it gets filtered nowadays anyway
but this whole thing back then was kind
of scary
admit you got like daily message
calling farina race trader racial slurs
and just telling us how they want to
kill us some ways yeah so I decided to
make a video calling out the racists and
the effect that it had was a bit
overwhelming for us there are a few news
articles published about it and we
received a lot of support yeah but kind
of the negative effects it has like all
the exposure kind of outweigh the
positive the support we got we kicked
the hornet's nest
yeah video and the articles apparently
got shared on many old right and racist
sides we're not happy
they basically called us liars yeah yes
they said we're lying about getting
racist comments and death threats and in
the same comments they will write us
death threats and say racial slurs and
study it doesn't make any sense and we
had to deal with this kind of racist
harassment for months on multiple social
media platforms and even via mail at
some point I just turned off the whole
comment section of this video because
everything just got way too disturbing
but if you still want a small glimpse of
what it looked like
yeah you should put up a trigger warning
yeah
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so this went on for quite a while and it
had its effect on our mental health we
had each other and we managed to survive
we did and we're even stronger now yeah
so now the channel is mainly cleansed of
all the racists and we were able to
build such an awesome and positive
community and share our adventures with
you guys nowadays we deal with another
kind of accusations online I've seen
this kind of stuff before and just last
week we were kicked and a-three that
went really well viral retweeted a lot
and people in the comments they were
actually calling for in a Korea boo and
accusing her of using me as for my race
as a clickbait and and fetishizing me
and of course it's just a small amount
of people what it still grinds my gears
I think that people who call me or any
other youtuber who does Korea themed
content a Korea booth is because they
don't like seeing foreigners doing Korea
content at all I've also seen a few
people telling me that I'm exploiting
Korean culture for views and I just want
to add here that I have worked with
Korean Tourism Organization and the
Korean embassy in Berlin for many of my
projects to actively promote Korean
culture on my channel
that's governmental organizations and I
don't think it would work with you or us
over the channel if they thought that
there was some kind of exploitation
going on but what still triggers them
the most is of course the videos with
Korean boyfriends in the title um yeah
I'm sorry III do the tiles it's just as
I said before it's based on algorithm
that's just kind of keywords and I think
what triggers the people like the the
fetishizing part that you're being
accused of so what they're assuming is
that you're exploiting me being a Korean
which is just ridiculous because they do
not realize how much I'm involved in
making the videos and the tiles and then
it's actually our channel to begin with
I do not think that like personally
calling myself Korean is is a bad thing
you know even though I grew up in
Germany still Korean at heart and right
now the past
ever since the YouTube channel star is
like the first time I can like openly
call myself marine and stand for my
Korean heritage and they proud of it
yeah
so as a Korea themed channel it's kind
of a necessary tag to put in the title
of people interested in our kind of
content can actually find it also for me
personally when we first started dating
and we faced those difficulties that we
had experienced I like to watch other
couples know other Asian non Asian
Caucasian couples or that kind of stuff
like for example my Korean husband yeah
yeah that's this one I watched just
because I wanted to see and I like to
see other couples who are just like us
and normal you know and it's not a bad
thing and just like to see that they may
face similar struggles but they're still
going on and they they still deal with
it it's some kind of way so yeah
obviously it's not about me bragging
about having a Korean boyfriend but just
to make it easier for others like us to
find content and show them that it's
fine to date whoever you love despite
some people saying that it's not and
we've talked about this before I do
definitely not support people being
reduced to their race and that's what
fetishizing
I don't understand why I always assume
it's just like the Koreans or Asians
being fetishized because I've seen it go
the other way many times and for those
people that criticize us that doesn't
seem to be a problem I think it goes
along with the kind of stand culture and
like we have to protect our idols of
babies and stuff I see some people
making it seem like Korean men
especially a see them as some kind of
endangered species that need protection
and you know being fetishized sure can
be annoying you know it's not not like
it's not a good thing but I think
grown-ass men can protect themselves
from birthing career boots I guess I
feel like really making a much bigger
deal out of it than it is also calling
every person that shows the slightest
interest in Korea a Korea boot does not
help anyone I personally don't care
about these comments at all but I get a
lot of messages from people being too
afraid to openly like Korean culture or
kpop because they're being direct by
others even within the kpop community
where I think that like-minded people
should be able to feel safe and that
makes me really sad to see yes I said
before some people are making a way
bigger deal out of the whole Korea
birthing and it actually is being overly
obsessed or fetishizing stuff that that
can be annoying but I think people
especially Korean men or Asian men they
can protect themselves and I especially
don't need to be protected from any
strangers online from being fetishized
by my own girlfriend right now in this
pandemic people are facing much bigger
problems and for me personally as an
Asian living abroad
I'm personally affected by the
increasing hate and racism that
people living abroad a facing right now
because ignorant people are linking them
to the virus and for the first time in
my life I'm witnessing this kind of
widespread hate and violence against
agents and so of course I worry about my
friends and family safety and also the
difficulties that we may face as an
interracial couple here in Europe so if
you actually interested in helping
Korean people agent people you could
maybe focus on some more important
things in calling out Korea boos yeah
that's true and to finish this video we
hope that our channel can continue to
reach those that are interested in Korea
travel culture kpop and papal content
and will continue to spread positivity
and make people laugh and build a
wholesome and warm-hearted community I
hope this video cleared up some stuff
and encouraged you guys to go your own
way no matter what anyone says you're
the only one who knows the truth about
yourself or your relationship and no one
else can define who you are so yeah I
hope you guys like this video anything
left to say ah
be kind don't be toxic online don't be
racist do not fetishize and yeah and
Stan eg hmm
with you in the next one bye
you
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