Story 18: Immigrant Story

I started to cry when I started to say goodbye to my family and friends. The tears would not stop and they kept dripping from my eyes.  It has been about four years since I have left Korea.  When I landed in America, it felt fresh and confusing.  When I lived in Korea my life was fantastic!  I was able to hang out with my friends every day and eat the foods that I liked.  My favorite foods were chicken marinated with soy sauce, pizza that was made with sweet potatoes topping, rice cake with spicy sauce, and my last favorite food was the spicy ramen noodles.  I would eat these foods often with my friends.  These are one of my favorite part of my memories.  Also, I had a lot to do, but I loved doing all of it that I was able to work hard without much effort.  One of my favorite things was to go to many places with my friends that represented Korea.  First I went to old houses that were built in the 1900’s called Jeonju Hanok Village ( 전주한옥마을 ).  Jeonju was the city where I lived.  Jeonju is not the capital of Korea, but there are a lot of interesting facts about it to make it so special.  For example we have a type of paper that is called Hanji.  This paper is really hard to rip and is very strong.  Also, the Hanok Village is located in Jeonju. This village is very famous to the foreigners that one must visit this area when they visit Korea.  Now they changed lots of things and also they have many different kinds of menus and interesting places to take picture so that the visitors can have fun and have a good time.


There are many differences between America and Korea.  The foods, culture, and the education system are the biggest differences.  In Korea, they like spicy foods and they make sure that the taste is strong so the spiciness is stimulating.  Also, Korea has pizza or chickens just like American fast food, but they taste different.  Meaning that they different flavors compared to American chicken, pizza, other foods, etc.  Korea has more flavors to their food.  Example, they have potato and sweet potato pizza.  They have chicken flavors with spicy chicken with sesame seeds and also soy sauce.  Even McDonalds, Burger King, and Popeyes have different menus compared to the ones here in the US. The taste can also be different since Koreans like to use a lot of garlic.  These are only a portion of how they are different from each other.  Another difference would be the delivery system.  Most of the restaurants or fast food restaurants deliver 24 hours.  Even McDonalds deliver in Korea.  This is one of the most comfortable things in Korea.  The most popular food is the Kimchi. Korean people eat Kimchi every day with rice.  It took some time to get used to not having rice or Kimchi in the lunch lines at school.   

When I went to school here for the first time, I was really surprised because of the education system. In Korea, high school students are supposed to go school at 7 am and they stay at school until 10 pm.  There would be students who would have tutoring after school, then they would stay up studying until 12 or 1am.  America on the other hand, they go to school at about 8am and school ends at 3pm which made me really confused and surprised.  Here in America, we choose the classes that we want to take, but in Korea the schedules are already set for the students so they have no choice.  The school I went to in Korea was really fun because we are all crowded in the classroom and we would wait for break time.  I loved that all classrooms are together and were shared.  Korea is a small country, but there are many buildings and they are all higher than America’s buildings. In the capital of Korea, which is called Seoul, we have the highest building in Korea that is called 63 building, meaning there were 63 floors in total.  I was really confused when I first got here, but I had to adapt to my new home in America.  I really miss my family, friends, and everything in Korea.  I think my life is changing slowly so that I am happy here even though my loved ones are all not here.  I want to keep studying here in America and live a successful life.

Story 12: Korea

I am Korean. My mom and my dad are both what you would call “purebreds”. I guess 

I could call myself a purebred, as well as my brother. I can proudly say that I am Korean 

thanks to my parents who take pride in their heritage. This story however isn’t about me, but 

my parents. My mother once said to me, “We [All of my family members who have moved to 

America] moved to live a better life, a new opportunity that is only available in America.”

The story of my parents begin. My mom never got to finish high school before 

moving to America, and stated that it was too difficult to start school again after moving. My 

mother worked jobs that took no very little to no need of the use of the English language. 

Although my mother has lived in America for over 26 years, the english language has 

always been a struggle for her, and the language barrier is still one of her greatest struggles 

today. My father moved to America 30 years ago and is still, like my mother, strongly rooted 

in Korean culture. My dad attended college in America for about two years, but never got to 

graduate because the language was too difficult to keep up with. In later years my dad 

created a system for trading and selling video games. He later opened a store called 

Starland with one of his best friends. He spent three years creating this system and ended 

up opening a total of ten of these stores! A company known as GameStop, wanted to buy 

this idea from my father many years ago, but the company ended up stealing it instead. My 

father did not know how to legally take back what he has once started and had to close 

many of the chain stores. One store still remains today, owned by his bud. Both of my 

parents had great struggles starting a new life in America but they pulled through! My 

parents had an arranged marriage and got married before moving to America. Both my 

moms side and my dads side of the family all moved to America. I grew up in a house with 

ten people in it, all heavily rooted. My parents worked very hard to keep the family 

financially stable and to keep both me and my brother aware of where we came from.

This new life living in America wasn’t a walk in the park for them, but you could say 

that they achieved the American Dream. No, you don’t have to be an American to reach the 

American Dream, the idea of living in a happy household can be achieved by any ethnic 

group. I can proudly say that I am of Korean descendent thanks to my great hard working 

parents, who have made it possible for me to live in America today. Thank you for reading. 

:)

Story 4: My Ancestry Story