An Interview With a Korean-American on Cultural Differences
In this interview Ben Bagley asks Theresa Han about the difference between Korean and American culture. Theresa is a teenager who recently moved to the United States so she has an excellent perspective for understanding the differences and similarities between these countries.
[BAGLEY] This is Ben Bagley, and I'm going to interview Theresa Han about Korea. Could you introduce yourself?
[HAN] My name is Theresa Han, I'm from South Korea, I'm 18 years old, and I'm a freshman in College.
[BAGLEY] How long have you lived in America?
[HAN] I think a little bit less than 3 years.
[BAGLEY] Where did you live in Korea?
[HAN] I lived in Pyoung Tek, It's
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[BAGLEY] What are the popular music stars like?
[HAN] Usually groups. Like ?N-Sync?Eor ?Back Street Boys?Eyou know, like boys groups or girls groups, those kind of idols. Like young, teen stars I think. Yeah, they are popular.
[BAGLEY] So a lot of big singing groups?
[HAN] Yeah, the problem, like, difference, is American groups can really sing?EThe Korean groups, I think they select members by their face or appearance because some of them can?t sing at all.
[BAGLEY] Is American music available in Korean?
[HAN] Yeah, like they have cable, unfortunately I didn?t have it, but on cable they show American music, you know, music videos, So people know like what ?N-sync?Eis and ?Back Street Boys?Eso, yeah a lot of people like pop music.
[BAGLEY] Are video games popular in Korea?
[HAN] I think more likely internet games or computer games. Because they don?t have all of those video game machines, you know like Sony Playstation or other stuff.
[BAGLEY] So it?s mostly on the computer?
[HAN] Yeah.
[BAGLEY] Do you think computer games are more popular in Korea?
[HAN] Yeah, there are places called like ?PC Room?Elike a PC place, and there are computers. You pay like a dollar per hour and use a computer. When I went there I saw all a whole bunch if people just playing games, like mostly ?Starcraft.?E
[BAGLEY] Are they connected to
Gamers are gamers regardless of where they live. There are many gamers around the world, and one of the largest gaming populations is located in Japan. (Niizumi) Japan has been, and continues to be one of the largest developers and creators of both of video gaming consoles and video games around the world. (Niizumi) Japanese video games are beneficial to society and are an excellent source of employment to many in Japan.
“I am Korean. South Korean to be exact.” These were the words I would always use to describe myself during new encounters. My race seemed to be what people noticed about me first. Whether I was at a leadership conference, church, or cross country event, there was always someone asking where I was from. For this reason, being an immigrant from Korea has been a big part of my identity as an individual and student.
Any additional?:Hi! I'm Joshua. You can call me Josh, JJ,J, whatever floats your boat. I live in Texas, and no I'm not a cowboy. I enjoy playing basketball with my spare time. I'm currently in 8th grade, and I'm very excited to be making this application. I would love to become a new edition to the Sarefine staff
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Pop culture is always a fundamental part of society. It is shown through movies, books, and even music. People listen to different genres of music, such alternative, rock, country, rap, pop, reggae, jazz, folk, R&B and. The band Twenty-One Pilots positively change people's views on alternative music by using other elements from different genres and having meaningful lyrics to bring in different listeners.
In the year 1990, this world was given a very impeccable and interesting person. Her name is Xue Wu, but she is also well known by the name Elaine. She was born and raised in Shenyang, which is a booming city that boarders the Yellow Sea and North Korea in the northeast of China. To understand how big of a city Shenyang is, understand that its population is approximately the same as Wisconsin but in one-thirteenth of the squared mileage. Elaine is an only child and grew up living with her parents and grandparents. After graduating high school, Elaine studied Japanese at a college in China. A bad relationship in college left her wanting a change and feeling like she “needed space to breath.” This lead her to the decision to travel the United States of America with the hope and intention to further her education. She now resides in Racine, Wisconsin with her host family. She is also learning more about the American culture by studying human services at Gateway Technical College. Elaine’s history and background have proven to allow her to develop and extremely valuable and unique prospective on this world and the many different ways of life.
We are alike, as popular minority sentiment went, because our parents came from the same place. That is why our hair is the same, why our eyes are the same. "See," as their attitude would tell me, "we have the same differences." Along with this, however, came questions asking why I did not speak Korean, read Korean, or write Korean. I was supposed to date only Korean boys, and basically, just act more Korean. Peer pressure allowed us to be American but only in terms of being Korean-American. We could listen to American pop music and appreciate western fashion, but we must never, ever forget that our parents came from another country, and we are Korean. This pressure to conform had me gagging more than the smell of putrid kimchee (the national Korean dish of pickled spicy cabbage). These things were hardly ever spoken out loud, however; they were only strongly suggested by silent approval or disapproval of our choices.
To continue, Music is not that much of an influence but it still has a pretty big fan base in America. Most of it is bands that people discover from Most of the anime openings/ intros. There is also a Very famous program where buyers have the option create their own “band” with 3D figures and make their own animations. There is also a program for music that is makes the songs faster and higher pitched. Most listen to bands that they hear on the radio, but then there are people in the otaku community who enjoy listening to Japanese bands.
Although, both are popular and wide-spread in their own areas, America continues to not be a strong hold for these two cultures. As Bollywood’s films are quite popular in the regions in Asia, but, lack the hold in Americans. It may be possible that they lack a hold on Americans because of their musicals that are part of the films or even the themes. It may not relate to Americans. In addition, K-pop continues to be quite popular in Asia and people are slowly getting to experience it.
While watching the film it was troubling to identify specific characteristics of cultural expression that specifically identify with the regions of Korea. The only characteristic I discovered was the use of the Korean language. Throughout the film, I specifically remember thinking how the filmmakers used cultural traits and social behaviors of America. This means acculturation was occurring possibly to appeal to a broader. The intended audience of this film was geared toward young adults with Korean relations. This was supported by the audience makeup up because three-quarters of the audience were around the age of 20. Also, one-quarter of the
The popular culture of music has changed dramatically over the course of sixty five years. Since this time, new genres of music have been introduced, existing genres have changed, and fixed stereotypes have been associated with certain genres of music. Music has become a major part of popular culture, and is portrayed almost everywhere in first world societies, including on television, radio, at shopping centers, sporting events and in every area of popular culture. Music has become a major part of popular culture, and continues to strive and develop into more and diverse areas of culture.
Since the 1990s there has been a growing interest in South Korean culture in other parts of the world. The phenomenon is commonly referred to as the “Korean Wave” (Jin “Hallyu 2.0: The New Korean Wave in the Creative Industry”) and with online platforms such as YouTube and Twitter, the popularity has only grown with people all around the globe. The most current example of the popularity of Korean pop culture into mainstream Western culture music is shown through the song Gangnam Style by artist PSY who went viral and currently has an astounding 2,690,497,276 views on YouTube. For those already fans of Korean culture, the song was nothing new however it introduced Korean music to a larger amount of Western listeners due to the fact it played on Western radio shows along with PSY appearing on popular television talk shows like The Ellen DeGeneres Show television. An even bigger instance of South Korean pop culture being thrusted into mainstream Western conversation is evident through current U.S President Barack Obama’s mention of the Korean Wave at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in 2012. However the transferring of culture through popular media has brought to light historical discourses surrounding certain racialized sexualities. The two music videos being used to analyze the depiction of these discourses are Mommae by Jay Park, a Korean-American Korean hip hop artist and Ah Yeah by EXID, a girl group under Banana Culture Entertainment Company. This paper will
Pop music in Korea, as known as K-pop, is in vogue. It is not only popular in Korea, but countries all over Asia and even in Europe. Every teenage has heard one or two K-pop songs. In fact, similar tread occurred before. Canto-pop (Hong Kong pop music) and J-pop (Japanese pop music) also become popular in the world since 1980s and 1970s. In this essay, backgrounds of the pop music will be discussed. The differences in pop music among these three places and the impacts made will be included.
Furthermore, “Gangnam Style” impacted the position of being Asian in America specifically. While PSY did make the music video, the music video ultimately made him famous in the states. Many people recognized him and even Justin Bieber’s manager had expressed thoughts of possibly signing a contract (Jung and Li). There is more interest in Korean pop music and desire to learn more about Korea. With the interest in Kpop, Asians feel more comfortable and confident in their background. With more people wanting to understand what it is like to be Asian, there forms a link between Asians and the rest of the world (Ng). The shift really begins to roll with “Gangnam Style”. In the past, trends, idea and
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