Opinion: Is South Korea destined to be a bilingual and a nation of immigrants?

Ever since Christopher Columbus has discovered America, immigrants started moving into the continent. Now America is one of the most diverse nations on the planet, which is the reason why we call America a nation of immigrants built by the immigrants. With immigrants coming into America and getting naturalized fully into American citizens, some do not fully lose their original heritage identity. They try to sustain their culture and heritage as much as possible by speaking the language. This is the reason why America is known as the melting pot. Diversity in America has contributed to immigrants to be successful, which is the reason why the government promotes the American dream.

I believe that diversity is a very crucial element to be regarded as a successful nation for South Korea; however, I am not really keen on a mass migration of immigrants flowing into South Korea. On the other hand, the reason why I consider immigration very crucial is because it will help South Koreans understand other cultures, become more open-minded, and thus become more creative allowing them to think out of the box while being more flexible. Creativity is as important as knowledge, but creativity is a key element for the success of an individual or as a nation.

With the acceleration of globalization, does South Korea need to become a bilingual country in order to be more competitive in the ever-increasing competition with other countries? One major question I would like to ask is should South Korean brands be unique and maintain the Korean name or should we accept globalization and start branding with the global language, in this case, English?

For example,
Could KAI (Korea Aerospace Industries) can be rebranded as “McGregor Lloyd”? Or could we rebrand Hyundai Motors luxury automobile brand “Donovan Martin” from “Genesis”? Would this rebrand be more ideal in the globalized world and be seen as an attractive brand to the global audience and customers?

Although it is rather tempting to become a bilingual country, I believe that South Korea should accept immigrants willing to move into South Korea while upholding the values of the Korean culture. Because there is not much diversity in Korean names, unlike America or Japan, the most famous and reputable law firm is called “Kim & Chang”. Although it is a household name in Korean, South Korea needs to look beyond its borders and start aiming for the global audience. With less diversity and very homogenous society, I do hope that one day, immigration will become a huge topic in South Korea and that South Koreans need to take their time to give it a thought very carefully about accepting immigrants into our society.