Below I wrote about a video clips of north korean children performing, which were just simply amazing. Anyhow, the more amazing thing that I learned from the blog where I saw the video was that the owner of the blog is a third generation Korean-Japanese. That means, his grandparents came to Japan and gave birth to his parents, who than gave birth to him in Japan. So what is so surprising about that? Well, his blog was a korean blog, and he wrote in Korean. Yup, the entire thing in Korean, with no Japanes words (except where he has to explain some Japanese culture, place, or names...). I mean he's a
third generation person. Not just a second generation, but a third. That meant that his granparents were able to teach his parent enough Korean to teach
him when he came, fluently. If he didn't introduce himself as a third generation Korean living in Japan, no one would have guessed he was born and raised in Japan. It seems like he did travel to Korea a few times, but still. And he has strong sense of being a Korean, like he would like to be married to a Korean person rather than a Japanese person. I guess the strong "Koreaness" that he feels himself to be entitled to might be from the sufferings that Koreans had to take during Japanese occupation, and thus he feels that he shouldn't forget that he is Korean after what they've been through.
The reason I'm bringing this up is that this is a strong contrast with what I'm seeing in US. I've met a lot of 2nd generation Koreans who are born in US, and it's hard to find people who are really fluent in Korean. I've seen two people who can be considered 2nd generation koreans who are fluent in Korean; one was minister's daughter and thus had a lot of experience with Korean speaking adults and kids, and the other... I think she said that her mother doesn't speak english so she speaks Korean at home. But the usual thing that goes around in most Korean people's home is the son/daughter speaking english to their siblings and parent, and the parents talking to them in Korean or sometimes english. So the main problem(?) that I've seen in with kids who aren't fluent in Korean is that they can understand korean fairly well, growing up listening to their parents talk, but they have difficulty speaking, yet alone writing. Writing is a bit more complex, like knowing how to spell and space words correctly, so I understand that they might not be able to write in Korean. (Even I get confused sometimes and I've been here for only 7 years. It really is difficult when all you write is pretty much in english...) Anyways, so it's really really really rare to see somebody who can actually write Korean like they can in English. If those kids grow up and become mommys and daddys, chances are that their kids, the 3rd generations, will pick up even less Korean. So that's the reason why I was so surprised to find that the blogger was a 3rd generation Korean. I mean, Japanese language is similar to Korean so it would be slightly easier to learn it, but still.
Another is the ability to call oneself "Korean". What makes a person Korean or American or Mexican or Russian? I consider myself Korean because I was born in that country, was raised to pledge allegiance to Korea, and spent most of my life in Korea. But what about the kids who were born and raised in other countries? Should people consider them Korean too? I witnessed my friend arguing with her mother few years ago, her saying that she's American because she was born here and lives here, and her mother reacting as if she's shocked to hear her say such a thing: "What do you mean you are an American??! You are Korean!". Korean people get unusually sore when they here Korean people calling themselves anything other than Korean. It's almost as if no matter how many generations you are, you are a Korean if you have ancestor coming from Korea. And they'll be especially kind to those who they think is Korean, and Koreans have this special ability to stick to one another wherever they are. I don't think it as a bad thing at all, but they do also have tendency to attack somebody viciously if they deny being a Korean so it has both sides I guess. (Oh and they really swoon over foreigners who claim to love Korea for whatever reason, and change their citizenship to Korea... It's pretty much like "I don't care who you are or what you do, you must be a good person if you like Korea. You have to be. If you don't like my country, then you are the worst jerk that can be imagined. What the hell is your problem??" It's very interesting to say the least.) So anyways, I think I know where my friend's coming from though. She was born in US, went to US schools, studied US history, learned US songs, and the time she spent in Korea would be less than a few month if summed up. It's understandable that Korea would be more of a foreign place to her than home country. And most kids who start to attend preschool/kindergarten forgets Korean as soon as they soak up English. My cousin's five year old daughter refuse to speak Korean with her fellow Korean friends ever since she started school. My cousin pretends like she can't understand anything in english and thus forces her daughter to speak Korean at home. She says her daughter complains "why can't you understand what I'm talking about, mom?" though... ;) Here's another example: My family was watching a soccer match between Korean and US one time and Sakana asked "Who do we cheer for, Korea or America?" I couldn't belive how dumb the question was. And then she says "We support America, right? We live in America now". I yelled back "what are you, an American or Korean??". My sister was in 2nd grade and she was even dumber back then (if that's even possible), but it brings up a question of how a person identifies his/her nationality. Are we Korean because our ancestor's Korean? Or are we Korean when we live in Korea, American when living in America, and Japanese when living in Japan?
The blogger said he would marry a Korean because he thinks that Koreans should only marry a Korean, a very traditional thinking, and one that many Koreans think to be true. It surprises me because in America it seems little bit more liberal. I wonder how many 2nd and 3rd generation living here would say that they'll marry with Korean because they are Korean. My sister's going out with an American guy, I don't think even a 1st generation is thinking that she should be married to only a Korean guy. This issue is really really complex.... and I'm really really tired now.... I wonder if Americans would get angry if I tell them I consider myself Korean, not American?
Oh and another funny thing... Few asian guys asked "what are you?" to me, and it threw me out every time. What am I??? And then they say "What nationality are you?" and I go ooooh. But seriously, what
am I? ;)
