This morning, one of my fellow Wellesley-in-Aixers sent me a link to an article in the Washington Post and told me that she thought I might find it interesting.
It was written by an American woman of Korean descent who studied abroad in Scotland in 1992-1993. She recounted an experience she had pertaining to her cultural/national identity. She was asked by her host family to come into her son's class at school and do a presentation about her home country. She naturally prepared a presentation about the United States, its history, its traditions, its government...and was then asked by the family if she could talk about something Korean as a treat for the children. However, the woman, born and raised in the United States, knew barely anything about Korean culture, history, government and had to do background research to create this presentation. Throughout her time abroad, she continued to have experiences such as this one, in which people would ask her "no, where are you really from" and ask her about Korean food, the Korean language...things of which she had no knowledge. She closes the article with a statement about the fact that being Korean and being Korean-American are two very different things.
I guess that hit home for me. I guess? No, I know that it really hit home for me. Before my time in France, I had only been asked about my ethnicity a couple times. But in the past 2.5 months (!! already !!) I have been asked where I'm really from, about Korean food, about Korean culture, about how to say this and how to say that in Korean so many times that I doubt that I could count the number of times on two hands. I started out thinking it was strange, then I began to think it was obnoxious, and then it began to infuriate me. The topic of conversation with anyone from France eventually will always come around to my ethnicity, my nationality, while with my friends (some of whom are not Asian), the conversation moves onto more interesting topics. Now, I guess, it still bothers me, but as for a reaction, for that initial hot rush of blood to the cheeks when I get offended...I can't be bothered.
It is just interesting that for a country that has made extensive research about race illegal because it is considered discriminatory, its people certainly talk about race a whole damn lot.
Here's the link to the article, tell me what you think!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103003476.html
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4 comments:
Sounds like you are out of Unites States of America, MIN : )
Our nation may be the only country of which people are taught and can see above and beyond. You can see how small or big a lake is only when you are looking down from the mountain top. May be you can teach them how to see above and beyond.....Love, MOM
props to you buddy
hi min this is jitters stalking your blog...
i read the article a few days ago... but i think it is interesting because the same thing is happening to me here, in turkey. usually i get "oh you're american! you speak english? can we speak english? where are you from? no i mean where are you really from? no i mean where does your family come from? no no no, what other country."
which really really really threw me the first few times, because i don't at all consider myself "german-american," but as soon as i answer that my family has german roots i get all the same sort of questions... "oh you look german! you speak german? you make us german food? tell us germany! do you like it better or in states?" (i tried to capture authentic grammar structures...)
almost every turkish person i've met here has asked me those questions... from the highly educated to the people i talk to on the bus... maybe they consider it polite conversation? anyway, i find it strange because turkey has an incredible amount of ethnic diversity in its history.
anyway, i hope life is otherwise well... eat some yummy pastry for me!
Hey Min,
Pnuttynut here. Very interesting. I think in the States people like to believe that they are color blind, that we do not see each other for our ethnicities, but I think that for many people who grow up as hyphenated Americans as you so put do identify and want to learn more about that other part of their identities.
Yes, it is limiting to be merely categorized by the way you may look, but a lot of the time, I think that is what people see first, especially abroad.
At least, for me in China, it's been a little different since I look Chinese - though sometimes people guess that I'm mixed or Korean or Thai or something - but "where you are from" is a very important identifier. Things are very outside vs inside, and if people find out you are not Chinese, you get taken advantage of sometimes (financially) but there are also its benefits. Sometimes I really want to shout in the crowd, I'm an American, but I get treated like crap because I look like everyone else, trapped in a rat race to survive.
Anyway, that probably wasn't relevant at all.
Love you!
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