Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean
From: jnlee@uucp (John Lee)
Subject: Re: Korea
Organization: Oracle Corporation
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 22:45:16 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
              at Oracle Corporation.  The opinions expressed are those
              of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.

In article <1992Sep24.151448.8914@news.acns.nwu.edu> andrew@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Andrew Sung Hyun Kim) writes:
>In article <1992Sep24.020017.28657@news.acns.nwu.edu> phantom@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (James Choi) writes:
>>
>>I think I will start pretending unable speak Korean to see what kind of
>>reaction people display.
>>
>>James Choi
>

[deleted]

>
>First of all, it is to me a sad testimony to Korean-American society that
>many 1.5 and 2nd generation 'kids' are not able to converse in Korean.
>Especially these who knew how to speak Korean once, and forgot the usage,
>I feel very sad for them.  I am not here trying to chide these people
>I am sure they have 'reasons'.  I actually feel sorry for them, although
>they look like Korean, but cannot really be involved in Korean activities.
>Although, many of them have became more of American than Korean, they
>face limitation of this society.  I suppose, they truly are aliens
>in some ways.  
>
>I lay much of this problem on the shoulders of parents who do not have
>time to 'teach' them.  I actually knew parents who intentionally did
>not use Korean in presense of their kids because, they felt that
>being able to speak English was paramount importance in surviving
>in US.  Unfortunately and consequently, their kids never really got 
>involved within the 'group' of Koreans.
>
 
[deleted] 
 

I am gald you've brought up the subject of Korean language proficiency of
people who came to US when they were fairly young, or of the subsquent
generation. I am a 0th generation Korean who came over to US at 14.  
As I was growing up my parents always instucted us to speak Korean among
my siblings.  At the time we (my sisters and brother) did not like this
arrangement of having to swich our mind sets to English our side and
Korean in house.  But as I grew up I've retained enough of Korean where 
I could communicate with Korean natives.  

The real importance of Korean language skills emerged as Korea is 
becomming a high tech oriented country, and many joint venture development
work is going on between US and Korea.  In a previous company I've worked
in, I was only one who could read write and speak Korean, and when Korean
high tech market started to boom, I was given an opportunities to travel
to Korea for the company. As I was presenting talks in seminars  or
holding classes for small groups of Korean high tech people, I was kicking 
myself for not having listened to my parents and learned more Korean.     
It was just fortunate that most Koreans there went to school in US and
did not mine me spotly using English.

As a owner of perfect hind sight, I want my two children to be able to
speak Korean - if not for any illusive idealogy, then to enhence 
opportunities in life.  


John R. Lee (Jong-Rim Lee)

.. I speak for myself and not <...> ... 


having improved on my Korean language skills,   
 


  
 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean