NEW YORK — When the young male clerk spoke Korean to an elderly customer at the dollar shop in Queens, New York, she couldn’t understand him.
“What?” the Korean customer asked in heavily accented English. “Did you say $1.99?”
Yong Kwon, 20, the cashier, was born in Seoul and immigrated to the United States as an infant. “I understand some Korean, but I speak very little,” he said. Kwon’s Korean also has an American twang that some Koreans, like the elderly customer, fail to understand.
Kwon is like many of the 1.5-generation and later Korean Americans across the United States who have no fluency in Korean. Flushing, like many Korean enclaves in the United States, has many small businesses that cater to the community. Immigrants can get by swimmingly without a good command of English. But when their children grow up speaking limited Korean, miscommunication — or sometimes no communication at all — between generations becomes a salient concern and creates a cultural gap between young and old.
“I wouldn’t deny that it’s one of the most serious problems within the Korean community,” said Kyeyoung Park, an anthropology professor at UCLA.
“It’s hard to express your feelings when you don’t speak the language fluently,” said Kwon the cashier. “I’ve never really had a long conversation with my parents about my feelings.”
Kwon speaks mostly English to his parents, but because they understand little English, Kwon is often reduced to using simple words.
At Flushing’s Korean Youth Center, there are counseling and after-school classes for troubled youth as well as translation services for parents who cannot communicate with their English-speaking children.
“One mother brought her son in because she couldn’t communicate with him,” said program director Young Na. “Her son was doing bad in school, so I translated for them.”
Seventy percent of New York’s Korean population lives in Queens, with the largest concentration in Flushing. In the neighborhood known as “Mini-Seoul,” small, independent businesses (such as green grocers, nail salons and dry cleaners) dominate, the result of the large wave of Koreans who arrived after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 relaxed the quota on Asian immigrants.
“You can survive just knowing the words ‘thank you’ in English,” said Kwang Kim, president of Korean Community Services in Flushing.
“The Korean immigrants live in an isolated community that’s cut off from mainstream society,” Park added. “There aren’t many opportunities to learn polished English.”
While first-generation Korean Americans find comfort in their enclaves, their offspring thrives in the English-speaking world outside. Park pointed out that for the younger generations, the demand for Korean-language skills outside their own communities is very low.
“When young people apply for jobs, there’s a demand for Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish,” she said. “The Korean youth don’t see much emphasis on the Korean language.”
These language barriers may be temporary. Park believes that as the community ages, future generations will have the English skills to communicate with successive generations. English courses are also spreading in South Korea, and new immigrants are arriving with some language skills. But for now it’s up to Koreans of all generations to make a concerted effort to communicate better.
“Communication is power that binds us to each other,” Na said.
Generations by Numbers
The First Generation — Those who immigrate as adults to the United States are known as first-generation immigrants. English-proficiency level among this generation is often minimal.
The 1.5 Generation — Children who immigrate with their parents are often referred to as belonging to the 1.5 generation. There is great diversity among this generation. Some consider themselves bilingual while others may use only English.
The Second Generation — Those born in the United States with immigrant parents are second-generation immigrants. Successive generations are termed third-generation, fourth-generation, etc.