Sunday, July 11, 2004

 

post#2 from Seon Cheol

In Korea, most of Korean family prefer boy to girl. This is very deep-rooted Korean tradition. My father has 5 sisters since my grandparents wanted a boy. My father is the last one after 5 consecutive sisters. Now you can understand why Young Ju’s parents like Joon Ho. Many Korean families still like a boy since they believe that only their boy will perform a religious service after they are dead. In Korea, women are considered a married daughter is no better than a stranger. So men are only person who can perform a religious service for their parents.
Young Ju’s parents want Joon Ho to be a doctor or lawyer. This is also very deep-rooted Korean tradition. In Korean society, many Korean values the traditional four classes for society, which are scholars, farmers, artisans and tradesmen. So scholars are the high class, and are consisted of a doctor, professor, or lawyer. Nowadays, Korean society is changed, but these traditions are still rooted in Korean’s mind. A social phenomenon that Korean young people do not want to study the science and engineering is prevalent, and it causes a social problem in Korean society.
While I read this novel, it made me think about the question “Immigrants can not be American”. There is so huge gap between Korean immigrant and American. Korean immigrant cannot share their values with American’s value. The frame of reference of Korean cannot fit to American’s. In the U.S. diversity coexists with a personal value. But Korean have very fixed, stereotyped thinking that cannot be changed easily for the diversity of human being. That is why I say that immigrants cannot be American.

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