I don’t think this is discrimination because foreigners can attend the museum’s special programs if someone is willing to translate without interfering with the class. It seems like this is much to do about nothing:
A tea museum operated by South Korean cosmetics giant Amorepacific is found to have a rather controversial policy: It says no foreigners are allowed in its guided tours or tea classes because no interpretation services are provided.
Even if the foreigner is OK with not having an interpreter or has a native Korean speaker to help, the museum is apparently reluctant to accept the guest, warning, “The translation (by another guest) may be restricted if it disturbs other participants of the program.”
The museum in question – Osulloc Tea Museum – is one of Jeju Island’s most popular tourist spots.
Opened in September 2001 and located near the scenic Seokwang tea fields in Seogwipo, it is the first tea museum in Korea designed to introduce and promote the nation’s traditional tea culture. As of 2020, more than 15 million people have visited the venue, it says, with some 20-30 percent of those being foreign visitors.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
This photo released on Nov. 17, 2015, shows the exterior of what will be South Korea’s first museum that chronicles Japan’s mobilization of forced labor. Built in the southeastern port city of Busan, the six-storied museum, set to open on World Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, exhibits documents and other material related to Koreans who were coerced to work for Japan who colonized Korea from 1910-45. Busan was where most of these Koreans were gathered before being shipped abroad. (Yonhap)
A boy wearing a taekwondo uniform poses for a photo in front of a 13-meter figure of “Robot Taekwon V,” a robot from a popular animation of the same title, during a ceremony in Seoul on Oct. 14, 2015, for the opening of the robot animation-themed museum. “Robot Taekwon V,” the nation’s first science fiction-themed animation released in 1976, was very popular among teens and children. (Yonhap)
