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The popularity of the Korean oegugin (foreign) influencer is on the rise. But there is a dark side to this pop-nationalism

Research Fellow, Curtin University

Associate Professor & ARC DECRA Fellow, Internet Studies, Curtin University

Disclosure statement

Jin Lee receives funding from MCASI and the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University.

Crystal Abidin receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DE190100789). She has previously consulted for Influencer agencies and incubators as an independent researcher on best practices regarding the wellbeing and sustainability of influencers, but is not otherwise affiliated with the companies.

Curtin University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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If you’ve been scrolling through YouTube, TikTok or Instagram it would be no surprise to chance upon calming minimalist aesthetics of Korean cafe decor; pilgrimages to the locations of popular K-dramas; and even the polite decorum of Korean public transport commuters.

In South Korea, oegugin (foreign-national) influencers often produce social media content focused on the global interest in K-pop, K-drama and K-film for audiences inside and out of Korea.

These influencers are most prominent on YouTube , where the most popular trends include binge-eating mukbang , lifestyle vlogging of fancy cafe cultures and K-pop fandom homages like visits to pop-up stores by idol groups.

On platforms like TikTok and Instagram, content is shared with hashtags like #외국인 (# oegugin ) and #외국인반응 ( #oegugin-baneung , or foreigner reaction).

Many oegugin influencers have risen to stardom. The duo Korean Englishman have over five million subscribers, and now regularly appear on Korean television talk shows and variety shows.

In our new research , we found oegugin influencers are predominantly white-presenting non-Koreans who often adopt nationalist tones to endorse the “excellence” of Korean culture.

The discourse is often celebratory, leverages on exoticism and promotes “pop nationalism”: a new form of soft power marketed in the form of pop culture.

Read more: BTS take a break: world’s biggest K-pop group is caught between Korea’s soft power ambitions and national security

Government incubation

The oegugin influencer ecology is on the rise. As K-cultures have become globally popular, Korea is an attractive destination for aspiring influencers.

Our study found most of these expats and migrants were English teachers, students or gig economy workers who work multiple day jobs to sustain their influencer aspirations.

Many South Korean government bodies have launched projects to incubate and groom aspiring oegugin influencers, specifically to promote tourism and enhance cultural knowledge about the country.

A prime example is the K-influencer Academy , sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Designed to cultivate “K-influencers” from all around the world, the academy is a YouTube training program for “Korea lovers”, offering free lectures on content creation and mentorship opportunities with established YouTubers.

Once these influencers have been developed, the Korean government can also outsource its nation branding campaign. Capitalising upon the free labour of K-influencers, the government reposts and shares their content on official YouTube channels .

A certain type of ambassador

South Korea is branded as a “new cool” by the international media, as seen in the global popularity of K-pop.

Oegugin influencers take this digital Korean cool and reproduce it on YouTube.

These influencers are important conduits of inter-cultural knowledge. They act as both “nodes” where interested audiences cluster, and “mediators” of the values and norms propagated through digital Korean content.

Projects like the K-influencer Academy can enhance intercultural knowledge between different cultures and countries, emphasising racial and cultural diversity.

However, many campaigns and projects led by small government bodies are also heavily reliant on racial norms and stereotypes.

In our research, we found the videos shared on these platforms are frequently only of white-passing oegugin .

In fact, there is even a subgenre of oegugin reaction videos catering to domestic audiences’ preferences for white beauty.

Read more: Tall, pale and handsome: why more Asian men are using skin-whitening products

The dark underbelly

It is not all K-pop and cafe culture. Public interest in oegugin influencers can place them in the vulnerable position of receiving hateful commentary.

People we spoke to reported a strong tendency to self-censor and self-regulate.

Influencers who are overtly celebratory about Korea saw growth in viewership and positive audience feedback, leading to further paid opportunities with government bodies.

However, when oegugin influencers share criticism about Korea they are perceived to be “threatening” the pop nationalist brand of the country. These influencers quickly receive online hate and trolling for sharing their thoughts.

This online hate is exacerbated if the influencers are people of colour, as the vitriol expands to racist and xenophobic trolling.

While government partnerships are prestigious and sought-after, the reality of the working conditions leave oegugin influencers with little agency and creative control. Their work is under-compensated by government bodies, or may be used by government-related parties without permission.

A careful balance

Within this ecology, only a select few oegugin influencers successfully navigate away from the pop nationalist script to showcase their own interests.

The most savvy might go on to cultivate their own storytelling niche.

The YouTube duo Dan and Joel are originally from the UK and known for their documentary style mukbang . While they mostly feature other oegugins in their collaborative videos, their popular videos shed light on social minorities in Korea.

Viral videos from the pair have seen the influencers showcasing a feminist tattooist and older homeless people, stimulating conversations on feminism or shedding light on poverty.

In this, they give viewers a glimpse into the less polished aspects of “real” Korea .

In the predominantly white ecology, such a distinctive strategy is not a privilege accorded to all influencers. To maintain viewer traffic (which they aspire to translate into revenue) we found many influencers still abide by the convenient racial stereotypes which play up white exotica and privilege.

Although more oegugins are entering the industry and contributing to its diverse ecology, in reality, the oegugin influencer economy is still dominated by only a select crop who adhere to Korea’s normative racial hierarchy.

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Have you met Korean Englishman?

Ollie Kendal and Josh Carrott eat spicy Korean noodles in a video featuring Londoners’ reactions to the food. (YouTube screen capture)

Josh Carrott, one of the creators of Korean Englishman. (Courtesy of Korean Englishman Facebook)

By Tae Hong

When a couple of white guys go around the streets of London introducing Korean culture to puzzled/delighted/clueless locals, people are bound to notice.

That’s exactly what Josh Carrott, 25, and Ollie Kendal, 26 — better known as Korean Englishman on YouTube — have been doing for a year.

“I’m Korean Englishman,” Carrott explains in Korean, sitting inside his London apartment in the channel’s introduction video. “I love Korea, but I love England too. I had a lot of good experiences in Korea, and I want to show my friends there the England that I love.”

What’s surprising about Korean Englishman isn’t so much that they’ve amassed more than 455,000 subscribers and over 17 million views — hefty numbers by any means — as much as the fact that all the videos are wholly filmed or subtitled in Korean.

It’s hard to deny it: Global interest in Korea has spiked over the last few years (it would be impossible to bypass the now-obligatory mention of Psy’s explosive “Gangnam Style”), and along with it not just attention on K-pop and Korean dramas, but also the country itself.

It’s Korea — not just the pop, but its quirks and oddities and traditions — the Korean Englishman duo looks to teach their home country and, as they continue, the rest of the world.

For Carrott, the term “home country” may raise a bit of an identity crisis, the sort that drove him to create the channel in an effort to link what are, to him, two equally important cultures.

“Culturally, I’m kind of messed up,” he said. “I have no idea where I’m from.”

He was 12 when his parents’ jobs took the Carrott family from England to the seaside city of Qingdao, China, which boasts the largest Korean population in China after Beijing. Soon, he was enrolled in an international school; he wouldn’t go back to London until college.

“I was uprooted,” he recalled. “[Qingdao] was a mini-sub-culture of Korea within China. My entire exposure, really, was all Korean culture.”

Everyone there spoke Korean amongst themselves; everyone there was Korean. They went to Korean restaurants and played video games at PC rooms. Carrott, an outsider who was in the process of adjusting to it all, remembers his first experience at a Korean karaoke.

“As an English 13-year-old, you’re like, ‘Why the heck are they singing love ballads to themselves? There’s no girls here, just a bunch of guys singing love ballads in a tiny little dark room in China. What is going on? I’m confused,’” he laughed. “I’ve just learned to love it. By the time I graduated, I felt like I couldn’t imagine my life without interactions with Koreans and without Korean friends for the rest of my life. … I felt like I was culturally as Korean as I was English.”

Ollie Kendal, left, and Josh Carrott in an episode filmed in Korea. (YouTube screen capture)

In college, Carrott studied the Korean language for the first time and studied abroad in Seoul during his second year. He’s now a near-fluent speaker, a skill displayed in the videos.

Kendal, a buddy from college and who was introduced to Korean culture through what he calls “forced exposure” from Carrott, has a background in video-making, photography and graphic design.

A year ago, Kendal was busy pursuing a master’s degree in biblical studies at King’s College; Carrott had a full-time job in sales at a language school. Still, the friends decided they wanted to produce 10 initial episodes using a free summer.

Korean Englishman is, in a way, what Carrott uses to show everyone, including those close to him, who he is as a person.

“The whole idea behind this channel was, we love English culture, we love Korean culture. We loved doing something linking the two,” Carrott said. “We loved introducing English culture to Koreans, Korean culture to English people.”

The platform? YouTube, the omnipresent video site they had spent hours and hours browsing during their college years. If the response was good, if they could gain 30,000 subscribers over the course of a year, the project would keep going, they decided.

The videos, of course, took off. In less than five days, the first video had reached 100,000 views. Carrott and Kendal were shocked.

“When it happened it was like, ‘Holy moly. What are we going to do now?’” Carrott said.

“Korea has so much to offer the world,” Kendal, who is now working part-time at a homelessness charity and his master’s thesis while filming Korean Englishman, said. “I think we’re simply one of many people who are Westerners who are interested in Korean culture. If we can be a part of the process of normalizing that, I think that would be a good thing.”

Josh Carrott, right, teaches London slang to Koreans with his close friend Joel. (YouTube screen capture)

Tours of London, interviews with locals trying Korean snacks and showing children K-pop idol acts like EXO and 2NE1 litter the channel’s content. It’s now time for the team to explore new territory, especially as they arrived in Los Angeles to attend KCON 2014 as a part of CJ E&M’s Creator Group and also for a two-week road trip to New York, during which three episodes will be filmed.

They’re all ready to go — Joel, a close friend who’s a regular face on the channel, will drive; they’ve got two boxes of notoriously mouth-burning noodles, booldak bokeum myun , to be introduced to Americans on their path; the car will be decked out with Korean flags.

“We’re going to stop at places and talk to people about Korea,” Kendal said. “It’s going to be a diplomatic mission.”

“We just want to break down some boundaries,” Carrott said. “There’s been a great leap in the last couple of years of K-pop culture becoming ‘the thing.’ It’s totally normal now. When you talk about K-pop, everyone knows what you’re saying [about K-pop and K-dramas]. So we’re going to leave that to the rest of the Internet. What we love about Korea goes a little deeper, I think, or at least not so bound up on online culture.”

Kendal agreed.

“Sure, K-pop and K-dramas is a part of that, but there’s so much more than that. Part of what we do is go around London talking about places that we think Koreans and our Korean friends would like,” he said. “I think what’s important to us is that what we represent is sincerely Korean. We don’t want to represent a Western idea of what Korea should be, or a Westernized, sanitized Korea. We want to represent a Korea that Koreans are proud of.”

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10 comments.

August 16, 2014 at 7:33 PM

Interesting article. As a Korean (American), I find it ia huge compliment when non-Koreans are interested in learning our language and our culture. When I first saw their video, I was completely blown away by how well he spoke the language and then learning that he’s only lived in Seoul for about a year.

It looks like these Englishmen are on the rise of huge success and I wish them luck in their endeavors. I look forward to seeing more of their work.

August 19, 2014 at 7:58 AM

I really wish Koreans would be less patronizing about foreigners speaking Korean. It’s not an impossible language to learn. Non-Koreans speaking Korean is no different to Koreans born and raised abroad learning the language. I’m sure many Koreans would find it patronizing to be told how amazing it is that they can speak English. You don’t have to be in the country to study the language or even to learn to speak it well although it obviously provides more opportunities to use the language daily.

Yes, these videos are good, but is it really necessary to comment – and so early in the article, too! – that it’s surprising the videos are in Korean? Why is it surprising that many English speakers study and speak other languages? You wouldn’t pat a foreign-born Korean person on the head and compliment them on speaking Korean, so please don’t do it to non-Korean people either. We’re all just people.

August 24, 2014 at 7:56 AM

I think it’s interesting to Koreans in this particular instance because he’s lived in Korea for such a short amount of time and the resulting fairly advanced level of the Korean that he possesses is quite impressive. Korea is such a small country and Korean is in no way nearly as used as English is worldwide so any foreigner taking interest to learn our language (especially while not living in the country) is nice to see in our eyes.

So if you think that’s patronising (meaning showing interest in a condescending or insincere manner) then that’s really reflected back on you. Majority of the Koreans (note I said “majority) don’t mean it in that way. We are seeing more and more interest in our country/culture from foreigners than there used to be than say, a decade ago so this is all somewhat new and exciting for some of us, that’s all.

September 18, 2014 at 10:03 AM

Carrott’s videos are very interesting and helful. He has introduced both Korean and British cultures. To two countries’s people, it’s an great opportunity to understand each other. In addition, he sometimes teach English for Korean people who want to learn English conversation.

I’ve never been to London, but I really hope to visit there. After I saw his videos, my mind was filled with England.

January 25, 2015 at 9:43 PM

Sarah, I’m going to assume that you’re a white westerner because of your comments, if I’m wrong I’m sorry but your comments scream American white girl. You have to realize that the Korean persons amazment of foreigners learning the language and culture isn’t patronizing it comes from endearment. When you’re a white person on this earth the whole world is open to you and your view of how things are and how they should be differ greatly from every other person from a, I’m going to say “colored” heritage. As a Korean who grew up in America from the age of 2 during the 80′s and 90′s, pretty much anything you know or have seen of Korean culture today would be unheard of during that time. While living in apartments we would be afraid and embarrassed to cook the stews and cook the stinky oily fish we love to eat with our stinky kimchi because we thought our neighbors would be cursing us. I know people who still cook their food in their garage to this day because they’re afraid the smell of korean food will ruin the resale value of their home because they think white people don’t understand. Top chef’s weren’t making their own kimchi and incorporating it into dishes. Kimchi and Korean food was made in small restaurants by Korean people for only the korean people who went to eat there. Now you see a quarter of a Korean restaurant is non Korean. We and other people from cultures outside of America were made to feel ashamed. Judging by your comments you have no idea where we’re coming from. I’m not even going to get into the racism I’ve experienced. But through all of those things seeing people becoming more and more interested in Korea and it’s culture is very endearing because honestly, we love our culture but we’ve gone through life thinking nobody else really gives a shit. The fact that people would tell me kimchi smells like shit when I was a kid and now it’s in a lot of mainstream American restaurants is weird in a good way. So before you tell people how they should feel based on your upbringing and experiences, try finding out why other people feel the way they do first, try to understand where other people are coming from.

October 22, 2015 at 8:49 AM

Amazing, absolutely amazing! I started watching Korean Englishman’s videos a while ago and I found myself enjoying watching non-Koreans experience Korean culture (especially the food). It was hilarious when comparisons became very descriptive. I was soon curious about the you-tuber behind it all (or rather in the middle of it all), Josh Carrott. So I googled him and now I am here. I usually keep simple opinions like these to myself, but what really made me comment was how rather alike Carrott and I were- *background wise*. I consider myself a Korean American. However, it’s not as simple as that. I was born in Tianjin, China; my family had moved because of my dad’s job. I attended an international school which was infested with Koreans- a whole community of them, much like what Carrott experienced. I was never a part of this community nor the Chinese community. In fact I have and have had very few Korean friends. After I graduating elementary school we moved again to the U.S. One major difference is that while Carrott lived his earlier childhood in England and then moved to China. My life story began as a “foreigner” in China and I was already culturally Korean.

“Culturally, I’m kind of messed up, I have no idea where I’m from.” -Josh Carrott

This quote so accurately applies to myself that I am blown away, it follows me everywhere I go.

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January 14, 2016 at 12:49 AM

Sarah and Patrick, I understand where both of you are coming from. I think Patrick laid out eloquently where he’s coming from. I get it. I also see where Sarah s coming from. How would you feel if your parents keep telling you “good boy!” for every little things and treat you like a two year old when you are 30. I think you both made good points, and by now, I think by now, Korea could get more used to seeing nonKoreans becoming more familiar with Korean culture and language.

Jude Rowlands

January 14, 2018 at 8:33 PM

I usually keep simple opinions like these to myself, but what really made me comment was how rather alike Carrott and I were- *background wise*. I consider myself a Korean American. However, it’s not as simple as that. I was born in Tianjin, China; my family had moved because of my dad’s job.

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‘Korean Englishman’ builds bridges with videos: Creators have found success by sharing

YouTubers Josh Carrott. left, and Ollie Kendal who run the channels “Korean Englishman” and “Jolly” attend the press conference on Thursday held at Coex, southern Seoul, ahead of the Korea Image Awards. [CICI]

YouTuber Josh Carrott, who runs the channel “Korean Englishman” introduces samgyeopsal (Korean pork belly) to his friends. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

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Josh & Ollie

Based in the uk and south korea.

Hello! This is Josh and Ollie, and we make content across our two channels "Korean Englishman" and "Jolly". Please find some more info on each channel below:

Over the last two years our growing audience of 2m have shown their love for Josh and Ollie’s nuanced friendship and the hilarity that ensues. Whether it’s simply trying weird and wonderful food (cue dried tarantula) or watching Ollie’s brother-in-law (a priest) react to Ariana Grande, Josh and Ollie leave audiences laughing and feeling uplifted. 

British and Korean culture meet as Josh (a british guy who grew up with Koreans) joins with his best friend and hilarious film maker, Ollie, to introduce their friends and other celebrities to the cultures they love.

Content typically revolves around a series of Josh and Ollie taking their friends/family to experience Korea, but also includes celebrity interviews over food. Previous guests include Lucky Blue Smith, Mark Strong, Taron Egerton, Dexter Fletcher, Pom Klementieff, Tom Holland, David Beckham, Jacob Batalon, Ryan Reynolds, Chris Hemsworth, Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Will Smith, Rosa Salazar, Robert Roderigez, Lewis Hamilton, Ki Hong Lee, Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brody Sangster and Colin Firth.  

For all business related inquiries please email us at:

[email protected]

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The Korean Englishman's Korean Toast pop-up is back in King's Cross

Updated 10/3/22 with residency closing date:

If you missed it late last year (as we did), then you'll definitely want to catch one of the hottest pop-ups in town right now. 

Korean Toast comes from the hugely popular Korean Englishman  YouTube channel, a channel created by Josh Carrot and Ollie Kendal which is devoted to getting people to try Korean food for the first time. In addition to introducing friends and family to the delights of fire noodles and Korean BBQ they've roped in various celebrity participants in their videos from David Beckham to Will Smith and Arnold Schwarzenegger. They even managed to line up the Avengers cast to try a line up of Korean dishes. 

Their pop-up food truck first launched in the run up to Christmas in King's Cross. That has a more limited approach focusing specifically, as you might have guessed from the name, Korean toasted sandwiches (on bread that's been imported from Korea). So there's classic Street Toast (ham, egg, cheese, pickle), "Jang" Spicy toast and a kimchi cheese toastie. Alongside that, you'll find Korean drinks. 

It's definitely one worth hunting out on a spare lunchtime, we'd say. Just be prepared for the queues!

More about Korean Toast

Where is it?  Granary Square, Kings Cross London N1C 4AA

When does it open?  Wed-Sat 12-3pm. Ends Saturday 12 March 2022.

Find out more : Find them on Youtube or follow them on Instagram  @koreantoastlondon .

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Until recently, I’ve always felt confident identifying as Korean. But this past winter, I visited Korea for the first time in years. In planning the trip, I realized my relationship to the country had always been mediated by my parents. As the date approached, I began to feel a lot of self-doubt creep in. If I stepped outside the bubble of my family, could I still hold my own?

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North Korea sends a delegation to Iran in a growing effort to break its diplomatic isolation

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A high-level North Korean economic delegation was on its way to Iran, the North's state media said Wednesday, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Embracing the idea of a “new Cold War,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pushing to build up cooperation with countries confronting the United States, as his intensified weapons tests prompted the U.S. and South Korea to expand their military drills.

Pyongyang's delegation led by Yun Jung Ho, North Korea’s minster of external economic relations, flew out Tuesday for the trip to Iran, official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. State media did not immediately provide further details.

Pyongyang and Tehran are among the few governments in the world that support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and both have been accused of providing Russia with military equipment .

The last known time North Korea sent senior officials to Iran was in August 2019, when a group led by Pak Chol Min, vice chair of Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament, made a weeklong visit. The two countries had active diplomatic exchanges until North Korea sealed its borders in an effort to stave off the pandemic, before a cautious reopening in 2023.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with the North, did not immediately comment Yun’s visit to Iran.

North Korea has made efforts for months to boost the visibility of its ties with Russia and China as Kim attempts to break out of diplomatic isolation and join a united front against the U.S.

In 2023, Kim visited Russia’s Far East for a rare summit with Putin , which highlighted the countries’ expanding military cooperation, including the North’s alleged transfers of artillery shells, missiles, and other munitions to Russia.

Earlier this month, Kim hosted top Chinese official Zhao Leji , who heads the ceremonial parliament and ranks third in the ruling Communist Party hierarchy. It was the highest-level meeting between the countries in years.

On Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong , the North Korean leader’s powerful sister, slammed the latest rounds of U.S.-South Korean joint military drills and insisted that the allies will never break the North’s determination to build up “our overwhelming and most powerful military muscle.”

The statement comes a week after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield called for the international community to be alert to the possibility of military cooperation between North Korea, Iran and Russia. Iran has been accused of providing drones to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine.

“We are concerned about … the Iranians providing weapons to the Russians and the Russians also supporting efforts to help (North Korea) expand their own research into developing weapons. And certainly, that would be the case with Iran as well,” she said.

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North Korea officials visit Iran in a rare public trip

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North Korea delegation visits Iran in rare public trip

A North Korean Cabinet minister who led a delegation visit to Moscow earlier this month is in Iran, according to Pyongyang state media.

North Korean state news agency KCNA reported on Wednesday that a high-level economic delegation was visiting Iran .

The rare public visit signals increased cooperation between two states that are believed to have secret military ties.

The visiting officials are led by External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho. He has been active in the country's increasing exchanges with Russia, leading a delegation to visit Moscow earlier this month, according to KCNA.

In a one-sentence dispatch, which did not provide more details, KCNA said the delegation had left for Iran on Monday.

Closer ties with Russia

The visit comes as Pyongyang bolsters its military ties with Moscow.

South Korea claims that the North has sent some 7,000 containers to Russia for its war in Ukraine . This is allegedly in exchange for Moscow's technical assistance for North Korea's budding spy satellite.

Both North Korea and Russia have denied the allegations.

Russia recently also used its United Nations Security Council veto power to disrupt UN sanctions monitoring on North Korea amid a probe into the alleged arms transfers. Kim Jong Un 's regime expressed its thanks after the vote.

Iran and Russia have close military ties and are political allies. Russia has been known to use Iranian-made drones in its war in Ukraine. 

mk/sms (AFP, Reuters) 

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