Freelance English teacher and journalist Clara Kim is upset at Koreans asking her stupid questions, and she’s not taking it anymore:
Since coming to South Korea in August of 2005 to work as an English teacher through the English Program in Korea (EPIK) in North Jeolla Province, I often had to deal with the following questions from teachers and students: Can you eat spicy food? Can you speak Korean? Have you tried this food and that food and so on.
Such endless and redundant questions have made me think how unknowledgeable people are about Korean-Americans, overseas Koreans (gyopo) and the Korean diaspora as a whole and how much of a long way we have to go to bridge this gap of understanding.
Therefore, with the intention to bridge the gap, I would like to respond through this writing to the questions I often encounter, reflecting on my personal experiences as a 1.7 generation Korean-American. (I was born in the U.S. to Korean parents but moved to Korea at the age of five and spent the next five years in Seoul before returning to the U.S. at age 10)
Through my responses, I hope to help bring about such redundant, naive and perhaps, inappropriate questions to those that are more reasonable, sensible and respectful.
Good on you, Clara, because God knows, Koreans really need to learn to be more sensitive to 1.7 generation Korean-Americans. As opposed to 1.6 and 1.8ers, of course.
The language issue seems to peeve her the most:
So when “Do you speak Korean?” was asked, I answered “Yes” and if further questions were asked, which is always the case, I gladly answered even if it required a lengthy explanation.
Since my main concern was to help them to dispel their stereotypes about Korean-Americans, I didn’t hesitate to fire back with a vengeance in Korean when assumptions were made.
At last, after two years of struggling with this beast, I have gained the confidence and courage to stand up, speak the truth and not be pigeonholed into this box that has no place for people like me. Therefore, I have taken many people by surprise.
The fact of the matter is, most Korean-Americans who belong in the 1.5 category such as myself, do speak Korean and many of them, for the most part, grew up speaking Korean with their parents.
I grew up in an all-Korean speaking home so I’m no exception. So why is this so surprising to people? Isn’t this common knowledge?
What’s even worse is that I’ve encountered some Koreans who thought that I learned to speak Korean while in Korea, not before coming to Korea. Of course, I find this completely absurd.
Yes, how completely absurd — although admittedly, it took you two years to “struggle with the beast” before you gained the confidence to tell them that, in fact, you did speak Korean, and you learned it at home in Migukland. Still, it’s truly a disgrace to this fine nation that there’s such gross ignorance on the part of the population at large (including, apparently, that multicultural mecca otherwise known as Jeollabuk-do) concerning the special linguist circumstances of 1.7 generation Korean-Americans. I get this all the time — as a white American expat, Koreans simply assume that I can’t speak Swahili, although even a cursory glance at my academic transcript would reveal a sterling mark on a 1996 Swahili proficiency exam given by Howard University. Ignorant and presumptuous sods, they are.
PS: I was under the impression that the major “beef” of the Korean-American community was that many Koreans assumed y’all DID speak Korean, and got pissed off when you didn’t, or did so poorly. Hey, maybe I did learn something from this rant after all.
Not only are they discrediting the efforts of many first-generation Korean immigrants in America, who have spread the Korean language and culture in America, they are also disrespecting my parents, both college graduates from top universities in Seoul as well as my ancestors all of whom have their roots here in South Korea.
Speak the truth, sister! I mean, if some ignorant Kraut walked up to me in a Bavarian beer hall and asked me if I spoke German (or, Heaven forbid, whether I liked liverwurst), not only would it discredit the efforts of generations of German-Americans who have spread the joys of sauerkraut and decent sausages to millions of Americans, but it would be a direct affront to my father, who played football at Merchant Marine Academy, as well as my father’s ancestors, half of whom have their roots in Alsace, which has sometimes been part of Germany. Of course, I’d have to vent my ethnic rage in English, as I don’t speak a word of German.
One of my co-teachers even went on to tell me how lucky I am to have the opportunity to immerse myself in Korean culture and language because the majority of Korean students don’t have the opportunity to immerse themselves in English culture and language. Therefore, I should be more understanding of Korean students as a teacher.
How dare she compare my situation to the Korean students! Did these students have to speak English to communicate with their parents like I had to speak Korean to communicate with my parents growing up? I remember being utterly offended by her statement.
Preaching to the converted. You were completely right to feel “utterly offended” by your co-teacher’s statement, regardless of how inoffensive and, frankly, perfectly reasonable said statement would seem. Sometimes, when I go out with Korean friends, they have the gall to ask if I can drink well, since many Americans apparently can’t hold their booze. How dare they compare me with them! Don’t they know my mom’s side of the family is Irish? Now their dissing her people, too? Jesus, Mary and Joseph, have these Koreans no shame!
What I don’t get is, if she does speak Korean, and she wants to get Koreans to stop asking apparently stupid questions about 1.7 generation Korean-Americans, why the hell is she ranting in the Korea Times, of all places?
82 Comments
Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.
Nice commentary. And great use of “sods” and “wankers” too.
Korea Times is basically THE gyopo newspaper in Los Angeles area.
anything and everything concerning 1st to 3rd gen Koreans in the area is covered there. Even though they hardly speak or write Korean, they’ll use it to voice themselves there.
Joong Ang and others are a distant #2 to 3, and I think Sae Gyae il bo plays both to Chinese and Koreans for some reason.
I once fancied working for K-times, until my father set me straight.
yeah, what he said!
Maybe because the other Korean dailies didn’t accept her editorial?
As a Korean who spent 12 years in the Middle East, I’m with Clara Kim on this. The “stupid questions” that she had received from Koreans are the same as the ones that I have also received from Koreans. Which I admit does get very irritating.
But I don’t think Clara should have posted this rant in a local daily. It doesn’t help matters and makes Clara look like a whiner. Although I can understand her frustration that might have led her to this editorial.
Robert: Don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel!
Seriously, does the KT really have to keep printing these tiring self-absorbed gyopo whingefests?
That Clara Kim, I like! She speaks her mind, notwithstanding the channel she used to vent it. She could have just posted it in her blog or something.
…..then again, how could we ever find such gem in this growing sea of backlinks, RSS feeds and the First Amendment?
So, let me get this straight…She’s saying that when people ask me if I have ever had soju or if can speak Korea, they aren’t trying to make small talk…they are being culturally insensitive? How could I have been so wrong for so many years?
I gotta admit, the girl’s got moxie. Were it not for the utter lack of judgment displayed in writing the column, her proclivity to overreact to trivial things and the fact that she lives a helluva long way from Seoul, I’d e-mail her and ask her out.
KTimes is an outlet for gyopos who can’t write in hangul, but can write better in English about Korean issues. Like Clara. Like the Alex dude you all hate.
wjk is full of wisdom.
jeez, everyone’s got their dicks out all of a sudden.
#11: Not me. This chica’s got high maintenance written all over her.
Clara is swimming in her American privilege and arrogance. And she’s a grand example of what attitude NOT to have when etnering a foreign land.
When I was a Fulbright ETA back in 1994, teaching in a middle school on Cheju Island, people asked me questions just like those, including did I own a gun, why can’t I play basketball well like all other black people, and even was asked by my middle school boys to dance, because I LOOKED LIKE MC Hammer. That’s right - LOOKED LIKE. Obviously, they had not seen many people of African descent.
Korea was a far less cosmopolitan country back then, and I was in the COUNTRYSIDE. I expected questions such as those, and they in fact defined the experience of going to another country and playing cultural ambassador – your JOB is to do the educating and being those kids’ first experience with another country.
And now, living in Seoul in a far, far more developed and cosmopolitan Korea, I have certain expectations, such as not being verbally or physically assaulted, or painted as a monster in the news and popular media. Those expectations come partially from Korea representing ITSELF as an international “hub” of many types, as wanting to be seen as a cosmopolitan and sophisticated place, and have officially stated its commitment to a democratic and egalitarian culture. Well, we know that’s the ideal, anyway. And that’s another story.
But people still ask me those very same questions, and even yesterday, when I told the taxi driver in fluent Korean to take the back route via Edae and Shinchon train station to get to Shinchon, instead of going through the rotary and catching traffic, he marveled when I told him to stop in front of some sign that I read, and said in very condescending and babyish Korean, “You can READ Hangul?” When I replied that the great King Sejong said that even a fool could learn it, and reminded him that Koreans always brag about it being the world’s most scientific alphabet (세종대왕이 ‘바보라도 한글 배울 수 있다’고 하신 거잖아요. 그리고 세계에세 과학적이고 가장 배우기 쉬운 글씨이라면서요…), he smiled and got my point.
And I’ve been asked that questions 10,000 fucking times, or gotten that treatment.
Which is what makes Clara’s type of American, of Korean descent or not, such a condescending bitch.
I’ve worked hard not to reply to questions such as these with, “I’m not an idiot. So why don’t you…” (바보아니거든요? 멍청이인 줄 아세요? 난…) or something like that.
And now, when people find out my mom’s Korean, I don’t even get credit for having LEARNED the language anymore, which I did from scratch. So I get the upside of having the foreign face, but the downside of having any effort I made to learn the language and culture taken away from you because they found out my mom’s Korean. So I also understand how that works as a Korean American.
But WHATEVER. Everybody’s got their list of everyday annoyances with living with Korea. And my rule of thumb is, if you’re complaining about the fact that kids in the countryside are “ignorant” in not knowing all about your special life not only as an American, but as a “1.7 generation Korean American” – you’ve got a fucking attitude problem.
And to think, people get on my case about being pissed about being called “nigger” or being verbally and sometimes physically assaulted (albeit the latter not seriously). And I still haven’t hit anyone yet. If I was all Mr. Dick about life here like she’s being, I’d be picking a fight a day.
So this bitch is pissed about people asking her about why she doesn’t speak KOREAN? Or that she can eat kimchi?
SOOOOO whatevs.
Not only Korean countrysiders are ignorant and ask stupid questions. One of my Korean friends was shocked (and pissed) when she was in America for a scientific workshop last summer and one of the American grad students asked her, “so, do you guys have a McDonald’s in Korea?”
And then there was my mother’s question before I came.. “what kind of clothes do they wear over there?” She was genuinely curious if they wore kimonos or something similar. God bless Indiana?
“wjk is full of wisdom.”
Nah, too easy.
Errrr… I find myself apologizing again for another stupid editorial from a gyopo who doesn’t appear to have much understanding of the world and writes in a style that assumes someone actually cares what he/she thinks.
wjk wrote an editorial?
#17.
I believe WangKon is refering to Clara Kim.
“One of my Korean friends was shocked (and pissed) when she was in America for a scientific workshop last summer and one of the American grad students asked her, “so, do you guys have a McDonald’s in Korea?””
What’s so offensive about that?
Having been exposed to American culinary colonialism isn’t necessarily something to be proud of.
@#19
One of the running gags my friends tell me:
“They have TREES in Korea?”
“Whoa, are you telling me they have RIVERS? And ELECTRICITY?!”
And of course they are making fun of themselves for not knowing much about other countries. (Just as clarification)
@19 agreed, it wasn’t my reaction. She saw it as a symbol of modernization though, a case which one could make an argument. Basically, she thought that if he wondered if Korea was so primitive that it doesn’t have a McD’s, probably he thought they didn’t have cars, and that everyone farmed rice and wore kimonos, etc.
@18 I know, but the “a gyopo who doesn’t appear to have much understanding of the world and writes…” reminded me of a Mets fan.
Honestly, I don’t have a problem with what she said. It is irritating to be needled with the same sorts of questions over and over. However, after awhile you learn to adjust to it. Most important, it got me interested in WHY these questions are asked, what the assumptions are behind them and, frankly, I was faced with figuring out the best way to handle getting the same series of questions over and over. Also, it’s an issue of location. Before I moved to Seoul, it was an everyday thing to have some “culture shock” moment where I wasn’t the one shocked at all, but it was the Korean(s) who’d never seen me before trying to figure out what to do or what to say.
In regards to Clara’s polemic, if anything it’s a problem with where she said it. However, whose fault is that really? It’s the fault of the editor who chose to publish it.
I have a blog. I bitch there when the mood strikes. Maybe Clara thinks because she is 1.7 Korean-American that she’s exempt from these inquires that vex her so. I’m a black American female and I most definitely get them. I also answer back in Korean. Well, the best Korean I can muster. So that’s what I’m not getting. If she grew up in a household that used Korean then she can express these thoughts in Korean to these ignorant Koreans that are pestering her. I know I manage to with my pidgin Korean
#21,
Or maybe the guy was just asking if they have McDonald’s. You know, the fact that she thinks he was ignorant, not curious, reveals a few things about her own prejudices.
#22,
Assumptions behind it? Nah, it’s small talk. Besides, the more they repeat the same questions over and over again, the better I get at answering them.
#13 Metro, after blueballs, you’re totally my favorite poster here at the hole. Never change. lol.
Metro’s language is not appropriate.
And if I had cheon won for every time he mentioned his Fulbright or capitalized a word to add emphasis to one of his self-righteous rants, I’d be treating groups of 20 to dinner and living large in room salons nightly.
I like the article. Like someone said, at least she has some balls. I’m sure she speaks for a lot of people like her. These questions do get on a person’s nerves after a bit and she is ethnically Korean. Koreans consider themselves to be the same no matter where they live in the world, so I don’t understand why she is asked these questions.
What balls? Balls are exactly what she needs to grow (in the figurative sense, anyway) and stop whinging about Koreans hurting her pride as a 1.7 generation Korean-American with harmless attempts to make small talk. Yeah, the questions can be annoying. But an insult to her parents and Korean-Americans? Jesus H. Christ. And you know how she can stop Koreans from stereotyping her as unable to speak Korean? By speaking Korean.
Her plane has landed and is at the gate. The passengers have deboarded, but the whining hasn’t stopped.
Hmm, WTF is 1.7 generation?
She complains that everyone condescends towards her. Well, acting like a baby probably won’t make that stop.
I spent a lot of time in ChollaBuk Do about ten years ago. Great food, beautiful scenery and cultural treasures every place you look. Yeah, the people are a little rustic. I personally liked that. Much more so than in other parts of Korea, I felt connected to Korea’s history and legacy there. She’s broadcasting about how Korean she is, maybe she should STFU and look where she is. She might just be in the “realest” part of Korea.
Well, I’ll admit to having my moments of being fed up with the same questions day after day or the random “hello!!! giggle giggle”s on the street, but for the most part I was ok with it unless I was asked the same question every day by the same person.
At my last job I had four Korean co-workers, two who had lived abroad and two who hadn’t. The two who hadn’t would talk about things, including other co-workers and myself in Korean while I was sitting next to them, and EVERY TIME I asked them something about it, they would gasp, and ask if I knew Korean in a surprised manner. At least once a week at dinner, these same two women would ask me how I could eat kimchi because it was spicy, as if they hadn’t seen me eat kimchi almost every day for past seven months.
Clara Kim could start by investigating what phatic communication is, and how that is a more common communication strategy here than it might be back in the States. Not everyone in the world communicates in the same exact way as do Americans.
I rarely get these kinds of “Do you like kimchi?” questions myself. If you’ve got localized nunchi, I believe Koreans will quickly pick up on that and drop the cliches more quickly. Maybe Koreans are just trying to wind dear Clara up a bit, since it’s apparently so easy to do?
Mike I go through the same thing with “nigger” all the time. Wurd, bro.
I was wondering the exact same thing.
#31,
As I was saying, it’s small talk.
Right or wrong, she has balls because she wrote about what she thinks in a newspaper. According to what she said, she has been speaking Korean and eating Korean food all her life. Maybe, just maybe she’s pissed because she feels that Korean nationals don’t really consider her to be a “real” Korean. Does anyone think the questions she is asked may cause her to feel this way? I mean come on, the whole “your lucky because you are immersed in Korean culture” thing is silly. She experienced Korean culture everyday through her parents in her own home! I wish I had been so lucky.
C. Kim is seriously one odious little “1.7″er…she’s served up a veritable bounty of things to laugh, groan, or scream “aargh!” at, but what really, reaalllly burns my butt is the bit about the ignominy such ah, “offensive” remarks have visited upon the heads of her parents (graduates of top universities!) and several centuries’ worth of ancestors.
Would the sting of such disrespect have been slighter if Mom and Dad weren’t alumni of prestigious universities? And what if–gasp–they hadn’t gone to university at all? Of all the silly little idiosnycrasies that koreans/gyopos/1.7ers harbour, this hangup in particular makes me want to just reach out for a ballpoint pen and stab myself in the chest.
She’s a prize all right. She’s basically offended by Koreans taking her for an American. I’m sure she’s equally offended when Americans take her for a Korean.
The girl’s a whinger. Getting hit with odd questions is par for course in living in any foreign country.
As an Australian in the U.S I was on the recieving end of some whoppers. But I just took them in good grace or played it up. I had a whole family convinced I rode kangaroos to school when I was a kid.
This one stuck with me:
“Where are you from, man?”
“Australia.”
“Wow! My cousin’s Scottish. Small world huh?”
Or when I was in Brazil I got lectured once at length by my girlfriend’s father that Australia was a state of England, beholden economically, socialy and politically. When I told him that it was tough for the english to get visas in OZ he laughed like I was a gagman.
And so it goes on…I can’t even imagine what some of my fellow countrymen have asked in quaint ignorance over the years.
At the end of the day I bet this girl’s poor co-workers have a hell of a lot more to complain about than she does.
Brits need visas to go to OZ?
Wow, I think I totally disagree with Marmot here. As an utter foreigner, I get fairly irritated with the banal questions koreans seem to open every first contact with–it’s not that they’re banal, it’s that they’re the same. Always the f’ing same.
Now, that’s coming from me, a complete and utter waygook. I can’t imagine how tiring and patronizingly offensive that same treatment would be if my friggin’ parents were from here, and I was *fairly* immersed in the culture all my life.
I think what Clara is illustrating is the slight and subtle “pat on the head” treatment. “What’s that? You speak Korean? Jinja? Oh, how adorable”.
I don’t think it’s “arrogant” to get annoyed at shit like that, as Metropolitician theorizes…I think it’s simple human irritation.
Careful, Robert.
Clara Kim’s questions can get irritating. You know what’s more irritating though? Questions like:
1)Do you eat dogs? We don’t eat dogs (no kidding).
2)What’s the difference between Chinese, Koreans - they all have slant eyes, I can’t tell the difference.
3)Poor thing, Korea has starving kids, you must feel you’re lucky to be here.
4)You Orientals have small dicks. My come back - “you should see the picture where Brad Pitt gets naked. His dick, it’s wee tiny”.
on and on….
I’ll take Clara Kim’s irritations any day of the week.
I stopped reading at “reflecting on my personal experiences as a 1.7 generation Korean-American.”
She accuses Koreans of making assumptions about her but yet Clara Kim seems to be working under an assumption also in her article. That all Korean-Americans come from the same exact mold that she does. That Koreans should know what that is and stop asking stupid questions.
Problem is, there is no single type of KA. That’s why we have this ridiculous 1.X gradient scale of measuring fobbiness/americanization in the first place.
Some KA’s know Korean. Some don’t. Some know some but are not fluent. Some eat spicy foods. Some cannot tolerate spicy food. There’s all kinds.
So unless Clara Kim is willing to have “1.7 gen, speaks Korean, likes spicy foods, etc” tattoo’ed on her forehead, she should stop expecting people to be mind-readers.
I’ve gone through similiar things as Ms Kim. Just because I didn’t grow up on a reservation and am a mongrel (as Baduk would say) many “Indians” thought I was ignorant of “their” culture. Some were just being plain rude, other weren’t. The fact of the matter is, it gets f’ing tiring after a time, even if the questions are innocent questions. So yeah, I can sympathize with Ms Kim to a degree because you can feel belittled in some ways. The degree in which one feels this is based on the person, but still. Just curious, is a Korean from say Korea Town in LA totally ignorant of Korean culture?
Oh and as far as the whole spicy food and chopsticks thing goes, I know quite a few Korean nationals who don’t like spicy food and can’t use chopsticks in the tradional, correct way, so give me a break.
You’re not denying that Korea has starving kids, I hope. Much as South Koreans would like to ignore that fact.
“Which is what makes Clara’s type of American, of Korean descent or not, such a condescending bitch.”
“So this bitch is pissed about people asking her about why she doesn’t speak KOREAN? Or that she can eat kimchi?”
For someone who doesn’t like the ㄲ-word, you seem very liberal with the b-word.
So you guys really think that the questions related to “kimchi” and “korean food” are due to the spicy factor? Come on, locals know how smelly most of the food is and how tasteless it can be without the pepper (somebody said in other blog that, unfortunately, basil, olive oil, simple salt, oreganum and other stuff that makes the difference in food never arrived here…so true…).
So, when the question comes as “Can you eat kimchi/korean food?”, you have to listen as “Do you like this bizarre taste and appearance?”
Holy Mediterranean and European seasonings, save us!
Hope her family aren’t advanced meteoroligist and travel to england, or her ancestors will be mortally offended by the “fine weather we’re having” rain or shine way of greeting strangers…
Anyhow, it may be annoying but hardly ballbreaking, I find that most such nequiries dry up when the korean is questioned on how long they learn’t to knot a tie around their necks or where did they learn to use a knife and fork…the nature of their questions then dawns upoin them…
#24 (I gotta say I do like this way of cross-commenting, therefore, I’m stealing it
It makes it easy to know who you’re talking to.)
“#22,
Assumptions behind it? Nah, it’s small talk. Besides, the more they repeat the same questions over and over again, the better I get at answering them.”
Even if it’s small talk, there is an assumption behind it. For the sake of discussion, I’ll try to interpret what I think that assumption is: questions like that are appropriate small talk subjects with foreigners. Granted, they’re not inappropriate by any stretch.
However, what they’re not recognizing if they’re going to parrot the same tired questions to every foreigner they meet then there is at least one thing that you can conclude from that: foreigners will get the same tired questions almost all the time (and since no one here is disagreeing that we get them, that’s true).
I know this is part of the drill in Korea. However, I’ve also met plenty of Koreans who think before they speak and ask you some intelligent and interesting questions too. I’d much rather spend my time talking to them to be honest. I’m not going to stick around the “you can use chopsticks very well” or “you speak Korean very well” conversation long. I’ve used chopsticks since I was a teenager - I grew up in multicultural (and prone to race riots) L.A. I actually don’t speak Korean that well, so I say my obligatory “감사합니다” then make my way across the room to someone a bit more skillful in conversing. (Now don’t take that as me saying that this not thinking before you speak is only Korean problem. That would be stupid, wouldn’t it? I’ve got the same impatience with foreigners and will exit a dull conversation with waeguks with the same speed that I ditch the boring Korean.)
I’m quite good at answering those questions now too. However, that conversation isn’t going to last longer than 5 minutes before I move on to someone with more original things to ask and say.
As Arghaeri points out in comment 51, different cultures have their different versions of small talk. It’s just that I agree with Clara that the Korean version of small talk with foreigners is dreadfully boring. I just don’t agree or have the interest to take offense to it…it’s due more to not thinking about what they’re asking than the questions being truly genuine.
Those questions are often a conversation killers because if that’s all you can come at me with, I’m not holding out much hope that the quality of the conversation in going to improve.
What does the “H” stand for in Jesus H. Christ?
The suspense is killing me. Can she eat Korean food or not?!
I’m still amazed gyopos know how to use a fork.
That Jesus H. Christ is rather uncommon.
We pretty much use Jesus Wall of Jews Christ much more frequently. Use that one instead.
On the “you use chopsticks very well” comment, I once had a golden opportunity at a hof, once the tater tot plate had arrived, to say, “Mr. Lee, you use a fork really well, too.” Anyway, to me, the best way to handle it is to use a bit of humor to make them see it from your angle.
Handjob.
Little known fact about the son of God: He gave the best tugs in all of Bethlehem. Apparently his experimental teen years were spent sucking and pulling two or three at a time back behind the barn.
Chlamydius 3:16 says that his skills dramatically improved after the Romans put cock-sized holes in the middle of his palms. Crucifixion wasn’t all bad.
Amen.
By Clara writing,
Not only are they discrediting the efforts of many first-generation Korean immigrants in America, who have spread the Korean language and culture in America, they are also disrespecting my parents, both college graduates from top universities in Seoul as well as my ancestors all of whom have their roots here in South Korea.
she is showing how unassimilated 1st generation Koreans are and basically letting the readers know that Koreans stick to their ways even after leaving Korea.
Yet another obsequious piece in Granny Times. Surprise surprise.
Re: #37
“She’s a prize all right. She’s basically offended by Koreans taking her for an American. I’m sure she’s equally offended when Americans take her for a Korean.”
..and be offended if Koreans took her for Korean (how dare they ignore my American citizenship !) or Americans took her for American (how dare they ignore my parents and our centuries of ancestors !)…or if other KAs took her to be =1.8 KA.
Also, as others have said, there is no such thing a typical “Korean-American” or in general, “X-Y” person. Heck, I like to think there is no such thing as a “typical X” person and we’re *gasp* able to be individuals ! The horror !
Yet, I’d like to give Ms. Clara Kim the benefit of the doubt that she has some other (but similar) issues to vent about and is venting about the wrong issues to the wrong people in the wrong way (for her case).
For instance, she may indeed feel like she’s tried extremely hard to “fit in” as a Korean, make Korean friends, etc.,., and constantly be sidelined simply because she’s not “100%”. Some social circles - Korean and in general - can be painfully exclusive to those who feel excluded for superficial reasons.
Ms. Clara Kims’ ranting seems to eerily follow a pattern where male gyopos genernally have a positive experience in Korea but female gyopos do not.
#52,
As far as I know, I invented it (copyright 2005-ish, SomeguyinKorea). But you’re cool, so I happy to wave the royalties for you.
FYI, “1.7 generation” (and not some other number like 1.6 or 1.8) is a fairly common description used by Korean-Americans (especially younger) to further distinguish themselves from 1.5 or 2nd generation Korean-Americans.
In my estimation… I’d say that 1.7 generation is basically a gyopo who:
1. Can’t speak Korean very well or does so with a thick accent where taxi drivers think you may be Chinese or Japanese trying to speak Korean.
2. More of an American mindset where personal space and privacy standards find Korea rather uncomfortable.
3. Americanized enough, but not Koreaized enough to avoid the Korean fax pases.
4. Americanized enough (or misinterprets his or her Americanization) where they think that the freak’in world revolves around them 24/7.
FYI, “1.7 generation” (and not some other number like 1.6 or 1.8) is a fairly common description used by Korean-Americans (especially younger) to further distinguish themselves from 1.5 or 2nd generation Korean-Americans.
Must be a West Coast thing.
I like better the way the Jews describe how “Jewish” they are, they actually use WORDS instead of numbers. From Orthodox to Liberal Reform.
Or as someone once said to me, “I’m Jewish in the same way that Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant”.
I totally GET what that means. And it’s funny too. You tell me you’re 1.7 Gen? I have scratch my head about that one.
We should develop our own descriptions like Orthodox Fob or Reformed Twinkies or Hopelessly Banana.
I would say that most gyopos that come to the ‘hole are Reformed Twinkies…
I’d also say that Clara is a Hopelessly Banana who’s currently in denial.
Clara writes,
“I was born in the U.S. to Korean parents but moved to Korea at the age of five and spent the next five years in Seoul before returning to the U.S. at age 10″
If she returned to the U.S. at age 10, that means that she had to start learning English at age 10. That means that she got her mother tongue in Korean language fully established because by 10, most people are fully established in their mother tongue. Most 1.5 Korean-Americans started learning English as a foreign language after they have first established a mother tongue. Just look at a 10 year old Korean kid, I bet she was just like any other 10 year old Korean girl before she left Korea.
WangKon936,
You are a 2nd generation Korean-American who envies 1.5 Korean-Americans for their bilingual skills. You wish you were bilingual.
Like that’s a bad thing…
#70,
Yeah. Exactly.
hannahlan,
I am bilingual. I mean, I’m not natively fluent and my reading comprehension sucks, but I’m pretty good overall.
# 68,
Thats just bad reasoning. I know lots of Koreans who came to the states at age 8 to 12 whose Korean sucks. It depends on how much you use it on a day to day basis. Then you have the one who came in their mid to later teens and ended up not being very good in either language.
So what are you? Which category are you?
1) Who’s ask’in?
2) Who wants to know?
3) Who cares?
5. Hopelessly self-absorbed.
Dogbertt,
#4 is my diplomatic way of saying your #5.
“I’m pretty good overall.”
That’s debatable.
Wikipedia Definition of a 1.5 Generation Korean-American
The term 1.5 generation or 1.5G refers to people who immigrate to a new country before or during their early teens. They earn the label the “1.5 generation” because they bring with them characteristics from their home country but continue their assimilation and socialization in the new country. Their identity is thus a combination of new and old culture and tradition.
Depending on the age of immigration, the community into which they settle, extent of education in their native country, and other factors, 1.5 generation individuals will identify with their countries of origin to varying degrees. However, their identification will be affected by their experiences growing up in the new country. 1.5G individuals are often bilingual and find it easier to be assimilated into the local culture and society than people who immigrated as adults.
Many 1.5 generation individuals are bi-cultural, combining both cultures - culture from the country of origin with the culture of the new country.
It seems like the only thing that makes 1.7 different from a 1.5 is their country of birth. 1.7 being born in the U.S. as opposed to a 1.5 being born in Korea.
wow. how embarrassing.
it seems miss clara kim’s korean is really much poorer than she believes it to be. that plus her naive arrogance would transcend her language inabilities to invite antagonizing.
as a 2nd gen student who grew up in the midwest (and whose family hails from poor baekjae lands) i find this rant annoying, not least from the 1.7 moniker. yes, i agree it must be a west coast thing b/c no one in Chicago refers to themselves this way.
perhaps clara expected to be lauded for her english skills and be made much of in korea. maybe 14 years ago (possibly around the time she’d left?) that’d been the case. as it is, she must have been in for a rude awakening when confronted with koreans’ general understanding of 동포’s to be rather poor and uneducated.
the fact that she’s unaware of these stereotypes and is quickly regarded as a ‘foreigner’ speaks volumes about her (lack of) exposure to korean society and culture. it astounds me that she would then claim her “1.7″ heritage after this.
her total lack of hesitation reminds me of a lot of twinkies who think they’re fully korean just because they ate “korean” food growing up and had to ‘deal’ with speaking to parents in english. please. some of us learned korean by ourselves because our (1st generation) parents only spoke english at home, for their kids’ sakes. how many gyopo’s have you seen reading over their parent’s disserations written in english?
i’ve often noted that korean-americans who had the most disturbing identity issues have parents who can’t speak english while their kids can’t speak korean. thus begins the agony…
lilily2:
A 2nd generation Korean-American assessing a 1.5 Korean-American. Wow, I’m surprised at the amount of ignorance and double standard shown by 2nd generation Korean-Americans such as lilily2 who are quick to use the label ‘twinkie’ when in fact they are the real ‘twinkies’. I’m glad I’m white and wasn’t born a Korean. All the posts made by 2nd-gen twinkies here make me glad I’m not of an asian descent. This is why America shouldn’t accept immigants from the ‘Baejae lands’.
A word of advice to Korean-Americans,
America expects all immigrants to assimilate to a certain degree. In order to succeed in America, you must be willing to assimilate. Since that’s what’s expected of asians, you shouldn’t dismiss each other as ‘twinkies’ just because you’ve assimilated according to American standards. As for the article, it seems like Clara is just trying to bridge the gap as she said in her article. And she’s accused as a ‘twinkie’? I don’t understand you people.