Korean Couple Faces Racism from Local Students During Italy Trip

A Korean couple in their 50s experienced racial discrimination while traveling in Italy, as reported by the husband, Mr. A, who shared a video of the incident on YouTube on April 1. The couple visited Lake Como in Lombardy on March 27, where they encountered a group of local students who suddenly began mocking them by shouting '칭챙총' (ching-chang-chong), a derogatory term used in the West to caricature East Asian languages.

In response, Mr. A started recording the situation and confronted the students in English, asking, 'Did someone just call us '칭챙총'?' When the students admitted to it, he explained that the term is offensive and that using it makes one a racist. The students appeared to acknowledge his point, and the situation seemed to calm down.

However, the couple later encountered the same group at a train station, where the students again shouted '칭챙총' at them. Mr. A captured this on video, which showed the students jeering at him while a supervising teacher attempted to stop the recording. Mr. A noted, 'The students were quiet when they were using the term, but as soon as I started filming, the teacher only told me to stop recording.' The students even pulled out their phones to film the couple from behind the teacher.

The situation escalated when one student threw a water bottle at the couple as they were leaving. Mr. A stated, 'Although it wasn't caught on video, one student threw a bottle at us as we turned to leave. It was very disappointing to see students express such blatant racism without any awareness, and the teacher did nothing to intervene.'

In a subsequent interview with KBS, Mr. A recounted, 'At the train station, they all shouted '칭챙총' together, and my wife was extremely frightened. One of the kids threw a water bottle, and they continued to jeer. I felt it was too dangerous to respond, so we decided to leave.'

Mr. A's video quickly went viral online, drawing criticism from netizens who expressed concern over the lack of discipline from the supervising teacher. Comments included, 'While I can understand the students to some extent, the bigger issue is the teacher's failure to take action,' and 'Is this really the level of Italian citizens?' Some users shared similar experiences of witnessing racial slurs in other countries, highlighting a broader issue of racism in travel experiences.