Cultural Identity and Differences Description

The writer (Mijin Lee), shares her experience of staying in the different American society. She depicts the Asian community, as she describes the impressions they get in this new society, different sounds, tastes, skin texture and eyes. These are all the five senses of the human body i.e touch, sight, sound smell and taste. The differences and impressions are hence reflected in all life`s perspective.

The Korean community tries to assimilate the American culture but in the end it all ends up in appreciating their authentic selves. This may be depicted by the situation when the writer learns how to speak English and her parents notice her language is loosing the Korean accent. They introduce her to a Korean school, but it turned out later in life that they loved that previous accent and in some way the writer had lost herself (Lee, 34). The culture that is dorminant i.e. the American culture, influences differently to this set of people, hence shaping the identification of the culture. The people they relate to i.e. schoolmates, bully and discriminate them according to their race. This is shown by the bully at school i.e. Joey, who calls her "ching chang chong ".

The themes that show in this particular story that identify with the Korean community are expressed in different ways. The first and extremely dominant is difference. The thin line between the two communities is quite significant and plays a major part in influencing their ways of living. The physical differences that can’t go unnoticed, the skin, the eyes and many more (Jung, 34). They play an important role on how people fit in the community.

There also exsists the difference in cuicines. They eat Korean food only in hanshik restaurants and at church. There is also a difference in language as they had to speak English rather then Korean they were used to at home.

In the process of assimilation the Koreans tend to be aware that they sound out of place when they speak in public or tell their place of origin and how they conduct their lives, for example, that they eat gimbab. There appeared also a great sence of home sickness as every smell, sound that she heard made her thinking about her home.

Issues presented in this Asian community are as common as those not from the dominant American community, the Asian community is affected by stereotypes, low self-esteem due to different body structure and the "want" to belong. All these issues cause each individual of the affected community to react in a different way, some may want to mimic the ways of the American community’s behavior, this is however barred by significant differences. Others may want to keep their ways but this makes them susceptible to stigma.

There are also victories experienced by this Asian community as they learn to fit in and to appreciate their cultures, this is seen when the writer mixes spaghetti and and kimchee ,as the combination of the American food (spaghetti) and the Asian food (kimchee). She also learns a lot from her experiences. As she had lost her accent, she learnt to sing and to speak by listening, this is a great discovery on her part as she was able to learn from the changes she experienced.