A Korean-American physician says he was greeted mockingly with “Konnichiwa” after a flight by someone he initially assumed was a United employee, then watched as the awkward exchange turned into something more insulting. While this may not be a David Dao incident, it seems like a serious unforced error if this was an employee or contractor and downright bizarre if it was just a random person greeting disembarking passenger.
Doctor Says United Failed To Step In After “Konnichiwa” Incident
Dr. Michael Park says he was left “truly appalled” after an incident involving a racially awkward exchange following a United Airlines flight.
On Instagram, Park explains that he was deplaning when a man greeting passengers allegedly addressed him with “Konnichiwa,” the Japanese greeting. Park is a Korean-American, and the exchange only became more uncomfortable from there, with the man apparently conflating Korean and Japanese language and culture while a United employee allegedly watched it happen.
Watch the video:
Park explained he used a “mocking like tacky fake accent tone” and added:
“United, do better. I’m truly appalled. What happened to me yesterday was unacceptable, and your employee watched it happen.”
Who was this guy? When confronted by Park, he denied being a United employee and yet was standing there greeting the flight as if he was one. Park doesn’t mention where his flight landed at, but adds that he confronted the man, calling him a racist.
I am going to be careful here because this is one side of the story, and I do not know exactly who the man was, what role he had, or what United employee allegedly observed the interaction. But the gist of the complaint is easy enough to understand.
This was the familiar experience of being reduced to “Asian,” then having the mistake doubled down on as if Korea and Japan are interchangeable.
In a follow-up video, he blames systemic racism, saying his medical degree meant nothing to this person:
This Is A Serious Charge
Some people will roll their eyes at this. They will say it was only a greeting, no harm was intended, and people like Park are too sensitive. And maybe the person who said it did not intend to insult Park. Unlike Park, I don’t see proof of racism (which I define as the belief that one racial group is superior or inferior to another) here.
But intent is not the whole story.
If you greet a passenger with a random East Asian-language greeting based only on appearance, you are not being clever, you are making an assumption. When that assumption is wrong, the best response is to own up and ask for forgiveness.
Airlines move people across cultures every day. United, in particular, loves to talk about connecting the world. That message rings a bit hollow if employees or representatives at the airport stand by while a passenger is made to feel like a caricature…or even if it was just some random goober that a gate agent tried to ignore.
The correct response from United should be simple: look into it, identify who was involved, and remind employees and contractors that passengers should be treated as individuals, not stereotypes…that’s always a helpful reminder even if the guy here was not affiliated in any way with United. If a United employee watched this unfold and did nothing, that is worth addressing too.
I do not think every awkward comment should destroy someone’s career. People make mistakes. But all of us should know better than to greet passengers with language based on what you think their ethnicity might be. It’s just silly, even if he was a Japanese-American.
And if you do make that mistake, humility goes a long way.
CONCLUSION
Dr. Michael Park says he was subjected to an uncomfortable “Konnichiwa” exchange after a United flight while a United employee watched.
On one level, this is a small incident. On another level, it is precisely the kind of everyday indignity that will resonate with many Asian-Americans. United already carefully trains its people, and anyone representing it, to avoid lazy racial assumptions and to step in when a passenger is being made uncomfortable. A simple rule would suffice: greet people with English in the United States, not as whatever ethnicity you guess they might be. And maybe a new rule as well: don’t allow any volunteer gate agents?
videos + image: @dr.michaelpark / Instagram
Just another foreign “Doctor” with a superiority complex like the Dao clown. They should be happy they have the opportunity to make insane amounts of money in America. If fhey were decent people they would go back to their own country and save their people from inferior healthcare with their skills. But no, they are greedy and selfish, not that there is anything wrong with that.
No one was hurt here and this is a non story about an entitled assclown looking for attention. Hopefully United doesn’t give in to his Yakuza or Triad level extortion claims.
He’s an American…not a South Korean. Certainly he can handle himself well and I don’t think he deserves compensation, but I do think he was right to call out the agent for acting like an idiot.
No, he called out because he has the typical doctor mentality even outside the medical office / hospital, that they should be looked up and be respected and be called “doctor” at all times, if not why would he bring up his “medical degree” ???
I think there’s truth to that – a typical doctor indeed. But he’s still right to not let that stupid comment pass.
What, exactly, constitutes a “typical doctor?”
I’d expect a little more grace and tolerance from someone who has been educated in another field that is often misunderstood, Matthew.
Typical ones my wife works with? 😉
Don’t worry, I love doctors and have great respect for them, including young Dr. Park, who seems to have accomplished a great deal in his young life.
If you think doctors are bad, try managing investment bankers.
I am a Trauma Surgeon and I thought that Dr. Park was a pompus, many Derms are and he is not even an attending physician yet, wait till he becomes an attending, he will be insufferable.
Being a physician does not define many of us, in fact I go out of my way not to be known as a physician outside of the hosptial.
Good for you. Dr Park is young hopefully he will outgrow his childish God complex
Since south Korea has a much higher life expectancy than the US. He’s probably here to help save us from inferior healthcare
Agree. And healthcare is quite good in South Korea. As for the “Yakuza” comment, that’s a Japanese term also. And for history buffs or totally ignorant of Asia types, I recommend you look at the history of Japan and Korea and you’ll understand why no Korean wants to be identified as a Japanese person…..
Hey Kyle, you and your forefathers are also “foreigners” in America. Its only the Native Americans who could lay claim to that.
If you were a decent person, you would leave the USA already. Do share your departure date
You need to go back to your country, as I’m sure your ancestors came from somewhere else. You are disgusting.
While I think this Doctor is a moron and had he asked for a Manager when it happened this wouldn’t even be a blip, but, your post is what is wrong with this country and you need to STFU you racist ass wipe
Are you labeling him as just another ‘foreign” doctor based on his name or appearance? If you are, you are making the same mistake as the greeter = labeling someone based on physical appearance. For all we know, he could be a US citizen, born and bred in US, right? You have no way of knowing that.
This is the basic civic lesson from elementary school or any company- do not label people based on their sex, appearance, name, religion, age, etc., etc.
You need to apologize.
I call BS. Looks like Park is just trying to be Jussie Smollet 2.0.
Gotta get punched first if you want that Dr. Dao pay out!
Dr. Dao didn’t get punched – you’re totally misinformed.
One would hope if a stranger addresses an individual in a language not familiar to the listener, answering using the primary language of the listening party would be sufficient to convey the message of inability to speak a particular language used by the stranger. Doctor heal thyself.
SOLVED
https://m.youtube.com/@Dr.MichaelPark
He’s a grifting vlogger looking for more clicks and subscribers. Calling him a “Doctor” is technically correct but he’s a step above the nice lady at Macy’s cosmetic counter.
100% fake outrage for publicity.
And yet, you don’t own up to assuming he’s South Korean, eh? I think I can assume which political party you belong to.
Actually I used Chinese and Japanese Mafia terms because they all look the same to me.
As for the political parties, like the good “Doctor” here and the “Nurse” in Minneapolis, they are all grifters. The only difference is one party is filling up with Commies and the other is making people richer (including themselves) by the day. It’s all about if you want to play the victim or see opportunities.
But that has nothing to do with this assclown cosmetic pitchman.
He’s training to be a dermatologist, whereas you, Kyle, seem to be in training to replace Dave Edwards as this board’s resident racist boor. Please, quit now while you still have a few remaining tatters of dignity left.
What a piece of work. The over-therapization of people and therapy’s ‘frameworks’ create unproductive vitriol. Will not use his practice if he becomes part of one.
Could have just said, I’m Korean, not Japanese FYI and left it there. Or nothing at all.
Or, indeed, “I’m American, not Japanese.”
Just replying back in your own language usually makes them look like the fool for assuming who you are.
Basic rule of thumb I follow on a flight.. speak the origin country’s language, speak the destination country’s language, or default to English.
The experience I had recently regarding language that came off on a good note… arrived in Switzerland, I was greeted in both Swiss German and English when deplaning. I greeted the border agent in Swiss, the agent looked at my Japanese passport and greeted me back in Japanese, we then both spoke in English to take care of the entry procedure.
Ask yourself, if you walked on a plane and the crew was as saying “bonjour” or “bienvenidos” would you be equally offended? It’s an international airline for goodness sake. This guy is playing the race card…
But as he points out, there’s a certain historical animosity between the Koreans and Japanese…and it seems like he was singled out for the “Asian” greeting because he looked “Asian.”
Huh.
I was lead to believe that “racism” was uniquely American.
Next thing you’re going to tell me is that the Pakistanis and Indians don’t get along.
Wouldn’t that be a hoot!
WW2 ended 81 years ago. It’s time to move on. Constant rehashing of stale nationalist animosities is childish and pointless.
He is american, hence, very very sensitive. He is an oriental Looking American.
The irony is that it’s distinctly American (as it, very much not Korean) to say something about it. My husband is Korean — like, born in Korea Korean. The number of times people assume he is Chinese is unreal. In public, he ignores it, and then will privately complain later about the stupidity of people who can’t tell Asians apart and decide to make a guess.
Bottom line is that I get it’s annoying, but I’d honestly have been more insulted that this person (united employee?) assumed he wasn’t American.
My husband is Chinese from Malaysia. *In Asia* people have thought he was Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Filipino. With all due respect to your husband, I think he should lighten up.
I have zero clue if the guy is telling the truth or not, people do all sorts of dumb things, is it racisms or just someone being dumb (I realize the outcome is the same to offensed person), unless any of us were there, they was and is no way to know.
I realize it has nothing to do with the alleged incident, but according to Google, he is not an attending physician, he is a resident, so his monogramed scrubs in the first video are 100% inapprorpiate, in my day and even today, putting your name on your scrubs is reserved for attending physicians, not residents.
In his second video he goes into what it takes to become a physician, lots of education, residency and potentially a fellowship (as a Derm he would be an idiot not to complete a fellowship as an FYI), in that sense he is correct, but that applies to every physician, including myself.
With that said, what it takes to become a physician does not make the incident any worse than if it occured to a businessperson or a janitor, if there was a racial incident, that is bad, the fact that guy busted his ass to become a Derm (a incredibly difficult field now a days because it is very remunerative) is irrelevant.
people call me norwegian all the time bec of my appearance,
is that racist?
When I trained to become a flight attendant, yes years ago but still relevant, you NEVER assumed a persons ethnicity unless you where willing to stake your job on it. You never addressed a passenger in a language other than English unless that person indicated to you that they were more comfortable in an other language that YOU as the crew member spoke well. I flew mostly Miami to deep South America on flights that operated Sao Paulo, Rio, Buenos Aires into Miami. You had Portugese, Spanish, Italian and German speaking people who appeared very similar in manner, looks and dress.
What happened to Dr. Park is not only sad but needs to be seriously addressed.
No, it doesn’t. Dr Park is a precious, insufferable little dewdrop who needs to get over himself. There are some people who are so desperate to be offended that they almost make a career out of it, and social media amplifies them. He could simply have said, “I’m not Japanese” and walked away, but no… At the end of the day, any publicity is good publicity.
well once disembarking lufthansa flight in LA the crew said goodbye to whoever looked american and avidersein to who looked german, interesting how much that might have costed LH in lawsuits
Park is one of the most common Korean last names so that should have been a hint.
This pompous doctor needs to get over himself. I have personally had my ethnicity and nationality mistaken many times (I have been mistaken as German, Swiss, Italian, Native American, Malaysian, and even Chinese). When it happens I have a good laugh and inform the person of my true ethnicity and nationality. I don’t scream “racism” on social media to try to get the person investigated and/or fired. That is horrible snowflake behavior that produces a “boy who cried wolf” effect, leading to the discounting of genuine prejudice and racism.
The truth is that flight attendants and desk staff “stereotype” all the time and it is mostly a GOOD THING! When I travel to Asia I am greeted as an American because I look and sound stereotypically American. A flight attendant or employee doesn’t have 10 minutes to ask for your life story. They see you in the line, make their best guess of your cultural background, and greet you. Simple as that. It isn’t unreasonable to mistake an ethnic Korean for Japanese because the ethnicities look genuinely similar at first glance. This is because of ethnic intermarriage during the 35 years (1910-1945) when Korea was a Japanese colony. The person at the desk was likely trying to be culturally accomodative and kind and just got the ethnicity wrong. The doctor should kindly correct them and move on with his day. Trying to get them investigated and shamed is absolutely despicable behavior.
wow… as a professional doctor, making such a huge deal out of this? I’d be afraid of making an appt at his office and saying the wrong thing.. guess someone in that stature still wants his 15-min of fame.
idiot.
Sometimes you look at popped and wonder.. “why hasn”t anyone hit you with a shovel”.
As a professional doctor, and being a woman, these things happen from time to time. It’s inevitable and you must learn to not take it personally and move beyond it. This young man is extremely immature and how he is carrying himself is entirely inappropriate for being a resident (and worse had he been an attending). With his formal education, he should know better and move beyond it. There will always be people out there that put you down, but he is click baiting for personal attention and to gain subscriptions.
I want to be famous for a day
Not sure what the airline is supposed to do if the person giving the greeting was not an employee?
In a new video, he says that United told him that it was a passenger who was flagged by the gate agent before the interaction and was later escorted out(?).
While he didn’t give flight details, there are some airlines who have a person in the jet bridge/arrival flow greeting passengers. For one airline, that was just a niceness thing, but for another, it was a security procedure to flag incoming passengers and find potential unruly/irate/anxious people. There could also be police/authorities, PRM people (often outsourced outside the US), VIP/GOV greeters, transit agents etc. Because he said that it was at the boarding gate, I assume that it’s a domestic/pre-cleared flight inside the US or an international flight from the US to an airport where US Arrivals are cleared into the departure zone (for example most European airports).
It’s weird that a “passenger” is this close to the arrival flow and is allowed to talk to the arriving passengers. Might be a drunk, an excited person, a person with a mental issue or maybe a “nice guy” who happens to be either racist or ignorant. We weren’t there, we don’t know how it was said. Still, not great and I would not like to hear “Privyet” or whatever. However, I didn’t understand his “doctors are superior” analogy in the second and new video.
However, sometimes it happens that with the best intentions, you mislabel somebody. A few days ago, I started talking to a Greek woman in Spanish, because her English accent sounded to me like Spanish. I had no racist/xenophobic intentions, just wanted to help.
Simply… Amazing… What a luxury that something as benevolent as a greeting, an effort to make human-to-human contact and acknowledgement can receive this level of attention if not perfectly executed. It almost as if we’ve already cured cancer, resolved global warming.
That said, I always try to take my cues on social missteps from “theangryblackwoman.com” and Amptoons “https://web.archive.org/web/20090122114211/http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/12/02/how-not-to-be-insane-when-accused-of-racism/” who advised on the sensitive matter of being called racist … the advice: whether you agree with the claim or not, simply apologize, take note, and move on. Consider it like someone telling you that you have a booger hanging from your nose. Don’t debate whether it matters that the booger is there, or that it is wrong or right to have boogers, simply excuse yourself, wipe it, and move on. I always try to remember there’s little point in arguing when the basis is entirely subjective rather than objective.
I watched an interaction onboard a Tokyo to NRT express bus between a Korean tourist and the Japanese bus operator. Neither spoke the other’s language and they communicated in English. That being said – the Koreans rate the Japanese favorable at only 22%. Whereas the Japanese historical treatment of the Koreans has been well documented. Koreans do not like it when they are ID’d as Japanese. The FA struck an Achilles’ heal.
The ignorance of not knowing the difference between Japanese & Koreans is a refresher course this FA needs to take. However… let’s call out the doctor’s arrogant behavior as well. Typical for those who have worked in the medical field, a lot of doctors have horrible bedside manner and an heir of superiority. I think the Doctor would have been equally non-plused if the FA failed to address him by his title, Doctor.
Dr Park is an American millennial. He has no skin in the Japan-vs-Korea game. The best advice I can give him is to grow TF up.
Hmmm…methinks there is a lot of fake outrage here for nothing more than attention and ‘clicks.” I am a Captain for a legacy US airline and I am fairly fluent in Chinese, conversational in Japanese, and know enough Korean to get myself into trouble. I have often greeted and helped my passengers whose native tongue was one of the aforementioned languages. Sometimes, I have gotten it wrong and initially used the wrong language, but never, not even once, in 30 years has anyone ever taken offense. Quite the contrary, they have all appreciated the effort and even gave me pointers on how to improve my tones, etc.
Even if he were Japanese, “konnichiwa” makes no sense as a greeting for a stranger getting off a plane.
Well, Mr. Park, get off your high horse. I will call you Dr. Park, not because an MD is a real doctorate (its a professional degree like a DBA, JD, etc.), but because MDs are taught from day one the must have that honorific, and I don’t want a hissy fit. I have a PhD, a real doctorate, not a professional degree. I spent more time as a student than you have/will. But, have I ever insisted I should be called Dr., I should be GIVEN your respect without EARNING it, or otherwise think the letters after my name automatically places me in a higher caste? Nope. The “greeter” was out of line, no question. You can make a big deal or not if you want, but your academic degrees are irrelevant, Mr. Park.
This is honestly a storm in a teacup. Do people actually go around looking for offence?
I am from South Africa. I dont speak any of the indigenous languages fluently, but as a matter of courtesy if I see a black person I will try to greet them in their own language – but there are many tribes and nine offiical languages in SA – sometimes I might say sawubona instead of dumelang. People do not get offended – generally they laugh ina good humoured way and correct me and then we move on. If this kind of thing is not regarded as offensive or inflammatory in SA< which has more cause than most to have extreme sensitivity around racial issues, then surely a Korean American doctor living in privilege and luxury can have a laugh and move on – even if he labels the other person as a dick in their own minds.
Where was his flight coming from?
I would guess there is nothing but an attempt from someone to try and show some respect, but Michael Parks (and I won’t use Dr. since who cares how much you studied, everyone is a person) decided this was a moment he was going to make be super important in his life. Sounds like he may need some therapy for anger issues.
Not exactly a moment I would want on the internet, since it sounds like there was nothing meant.
We don’t know the whole story since we only have his side, which is obviously very one sided, but I am surprised a supposed Dr. would be posting these type of things.
For anyone wondering what ‘typical doctor mentality is’, read on, McDuff… When I worked at University of Washington Medical Centre I scheduled medical procedures. The forms were almost always filled out by interns and signed off by the Attending Physician i.e. God.
I rec’d a requisition for a procedure signed by the attending physician. I had trouble reading his penmanship. I always called the intern if the writing was illegible in order to clarify. This time I called His Holiness the Attending. He was on a bus on his way into work.
He replied in what can best be described as an obstreperous manner when I asked him to clarify some of the phrases. When he finished I told him clearly, “This form is a legal document. Until I’m satisfied that it’s legible I cannot process it, doctor.” He was a pussycat after that. However, because Corporate America brought out my worst qualities, I couldn’t resist being a right tosser. “Doctor, it says here patient has a history of SNORKELING.” The doctor told me it was history of smoking. Everything was tickety boo after that…
Drama queen.
For heavens sake, you are a medical professional.
Your god like complex won’t take you places.
Just grin like a man and not whining like a loser.