Korean Americans

Who are they? Korean Americans are a subculture whose ancestors came from mostly South Korea with a few coming from North Korea. A subculture is a cultural pattern that set apart some segment of a society’s population. The word Korean American is a very simple term, meaning an American with some sort of Korean decent.

In general, Korean Americans tend to be well educated. Research shows that 35% of this group hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, with many occupying jobs in the medial science field. In fact, 32% of Korean American has a white-collar profession. Others own small businesses like dry-cleaners, liquor stores, small groceries stores and one-hour photo shops. Most prefer living in metropolitan areas and they are known to be extremely brand-conscious consumers.

In their early years Korean American tended to have arranged marriages and while this is still the case in some families many are breaking this tradition. The traditional husband would work outside the home, while the wife would take full responsibility of the children and the household. Many of these wives couldn’t get jobs because of their sex. Koreans Americans are also very family oriented. They love children and it is a joy for them to see their children being happy. They also stress higher education to their children.

Korean cooking is similar to other Asian cuisines. They eat food such as rice, a wide variety of vegetables, tofu, and staples of Eastern cuisines. Red meat is scarce in both North and South Korea, and is typically only used on special occasions. Koreans do not distinguish dishes such as breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Why did you choose them? I chose Korean Americans for a few different reasons. For one I knew very little about them. Americans typically know what a Korean American looks like but we don’t know or understand their history or culture. When this project came up in class I wanted to do a group that I was fairly unfamiliar with. At first I thought of doing the Boston Red Sox and their hideous beards but after seeing how they beat the Tigers and realizing how hard of a subject that would have been to even get 7 pages for a paper I thought against that topic. Another reason I chose Korean Americans was with the packet that was available on Korean American I knew I would not have to do much research. I’m all for doing less work. But after reading about Korean Americans I found them to be quite interesting and I am learning a lot about their culture.

Before writing this project I did know some information about Korean Americans like that they tend to be more educated and have higher ranking jobs than some other Americans. But as a society I don’t think we really consider Korean Americans as a subculture. Yet they are truly one of the largest subculture that we have present in American. Our ignorance is really because we can learn so much from studying another culture, yet often fail to do so.