This study aims to understand adaptation process of second generation Korean Americans by searching for why they came back to Korea and how they could adapt to the Korean society. There are 2,246,000 Korean Americans as of 2014, but why the second and...
This study aims to understand adaptation process of second generation Korean Americans by searching for why they came back to Korea and how they could adapt to the Korean society. There are 2,246,000 Korean Americans as of 2014, but why the second and third generation Korean Americans come back to Korea has not been discussed. I tried to research how learning experience affected their lives in Korea by analyzing their experience.
The research questions for analyzing second generation Korean Americans’ Korean cultural experience in the United States and in Korea and clarifying what learning experience led them to adapt to the Korean society follow below. First, how was second generation Korean Americans’ life history related to Korea? Second, what did the second generation Korean Americans experience during the adaptation process in Korea? Third, what is the educational significance that second generation Korean Americans’ learning experience has? I conducted a narrative research with four Korean Americans working in Korea in order to clarify these questions.
All research participants’ both parents are Koreans, and they learned about Korea through similar ways when they were young. It features that they share commonality that adaptation in Korea was not too hard. All research participants have been using Korean language at home and learned Korean culture from parents both directly and indirectly. Therefore, Korea was not a strange setting for them compared to other foreigners, and what made them come to Korea was completely different from other foreigners.
Through the reflective narratives of the research participants’ lives and important events, I could discover learning experience in the United States and in Korea, adaptation process in Korea, and dual identities of second generation Korean Americans. I reconstructed their lifetime events according to past and present, and inside and outside based on their narratives. Then I studied what thoughts they had when they encountered new selves at current work and other organization culture outside their workspace, what changes they had to go through, and how they have become to adapt to current lives. The result follows below.
First, the reasons research participants came to Korea were related to personal experience. They vary by independence from parents, making a choice in a life, start of an independent business, and longing for Korea. Although their reasons vary, what assisted their adaptation to Korea was experience in the United States that was related to Korea.
Second, research participants have been adapting to their lives in Korea based on personal experience. The common feature at work in Korea was development through experience by starting from a small community speaking English and expanding to the broader one by using personal capability.
Third, research participants showed learning experience based on dual identities. Even though all four participants received almost same school education in the United States, the way they adapted to the Korean society differed. The way of adaptation at work in Korea was deeply related to the ‘learning experience’ about Korea they had during childhood and adolescence. Also, the dual cultural identities that were embedded in them greatly helped themselves adapt to the Korean organization culture. All four research participants have already lived dual cultural lives by experiencing multiple communities in the United States in their youth. Accepting new identity as a Korean and adapting to a new setting after they became adults were the results of their flexible identities.
Recently, as the number of Koreans going abroad grows, the number of foreigners coming to Korea is also increasing. Seeing people of foreign nationality coming to Korea to work and study is not a strange scene any more. A lot of foreign students are attending Korean universities, and number of them stay in Korea to work and continue interacting with Korean culture and its people. People did not pay much attention to why they come to Korea, how they adapt to the Korean society, and what perspectives they have on Korea. They only had superficial understanding of foreigners such as wondering how much Korean they speak, yet not particularly curious about their genuine inner-selves and unique experience. There should be careful consideration of Korean Americans’ dual identities that were formed during the process their growth rather than enforcement of unconditional homogeneity.
참고문헌 (Reference)
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