The Diverse Classroom and Korean Immigrants

Korean Americans in American Society

Korean society is an extremely polite society that emphasizes respect and privacy. For example, it is proper for a young person to give a seat to an elderly person, but on a crowded bus, the elderly person will sometimes take the burden that the young person is holding and carry it in their lap (Kim, 2000). Another example is that it is not proper to pour one's own drink (Kim, 2000) and one should always hold things (whether giving or receiving, pouring or holding the glass) with both hands (Kim, 2000; Interview). One does not necessarily look people in the eye when spoken to, especially when being reprimanded (Interview). These and other customs point to a society that is characterized by its politeness, privacy and respect.

There have been three waves of Korean immigration to the United States beginning with the wave of immigrant laborers that arrived in Hawaii to work on sugar plantations at the turn of the 19th Century ("Who are the Korean Americans?" 2000). These immigrants eventually made their way to the mainland until 1907 when President Theodore Roosevelt prohibited the migration of anymore Korean or Japanese laborers from Hawaii to the mainland. This was followed by the Oriental Exclusion Law in 1924 that prevented the entry of Korean laborers and picture brides from entering the

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etimes assimilation for Korean Americans can be difficult because the characteristics of the two cultures are very different from one another. The basic American cultural idea, that all people are created equal, is different from the ideal of the Korean American culture which teaches that people are not equal: men are superior to women, young must respect the old and education, pedigree, age, social and professional positions and titles all divide people into different ranks (Kang, 1994). A Korean proverb illustrates this difference, "If one looks through the eyes of a pig, everything looks like a pig, but if one looks through the eyes of Buddha everything looks like Buddha," (quoted in Hitchcock, 2000). Contributions of Korean Americans to American Society The Korean American Community has contributed to the American society both in business and artistic endeavors as well as in many others. In 1998 Los Angeles' Koreatown alone, over 500 Korean businesses worth about $2 billion dominated the economic scene (Fears, 1998). In the area of the arts, although Korean Americans do not have a long history in the United States, it is strong. In the 1980's a handful of 1.5 and second generation Korean American artists came onto the

Category: Psychology - T