Kimchi Mamas

Open Thread Thursday

What's on your mind today?

--The Kimchi Mamas

Nomadic Boat-Hopping Kimchi Mama

In the spirit of re-introducing myself and adding my two cents to Twizzle's recent post, I thought I would do a three-part quasi-intro post.  Hi, I am Mama Nabi and I guess I am the resident FOB Kimchi Mama.

PART 1.
I am lying when I say FOB.  There is neither Fresh nor Boat.

BIO FACTS:

• Born in 1970 in Jinhae, SOUTH Korea.
• Moved to Chittagong, Bangladesh, in 1979.
• Shipped off (again, I lie - there was NO SHIP) to an American International Christian Boarding School in the mountains of the Himalayas in India in 1982.
• Came to the States to attend college in 1989.  NO ONE had the decency to tell me that Minnesota is... well... fucking cold so here I am. 
• Got a job in the dry cleaning industry as a Korean writer/translator in 1994.  Discovered that many Korean immigrants elsewhere in the States were in the business.  I didn't know since all my drycleaners were white, mostly Scandinavian.
• Found out that the company was underpaying their foreign employee - instead of suing them for backpay of $50,000, I opted to go to graduate school in 1998.  NOTE:  Apparently I was too dense to take this opportunity to migrate to a warmer climate; I applied to a program in a local university.  Yes, even birds know better. 
• Graduated and found current job in 2002.
• Got married in 2003.
• Gave birth to Little Nabi in 2005.

And because you are patiently reading this long rambling post, I will give you FRESH.  I am freshly divorced, as of two days ago.  I think.

Korean Recipe(?)

I woke up several days ago and this is the sandwich I had for breakfast:

toast, a fried egg (in sesame oil, of course), a slice of ham (deli cut), and all of it topped with a layer of kimchi.

It was one of the best breakfast sandwiches I’ve ever had! McDonalds® egg mcmuffin?  Eat your heart out!

=)

Korean-American Mommy Blogging and the Culture of Shame (and BlogHer '08)

I attended BlogHer '08 in San Francisco last week and had the pleasure of running into three other Kimchi Mamas: Stefania, Glennia, and Nina. I also came across Motherhood Uncensored – whom I’d never met before but recognized from her picture and pregnant belly – next to the breakfast pastries. (Y’all looked gorgeous, by the way!) 

One thing I couldn’t help but notice at the conference was the preponderance of Caucasian women among the attendees. Sure, I spotted a smattering of African American women and a sprinkling of Latinas; however, I found very, very few Asian American women there. I wondered why this was, and then realized it probably had something to do with the culture of shame that many Asian Americans (Koreans?) are brought up in. Instead of generalizing that all Asian Americans share this mind-set, let me share my own personal, Korean-American perspective on this idea:

Where the Koreans Are

I live in Southern California, so you might think I would be surrounded by Koreans, but most of the Asians in Long Beach are from Cambodia and Vietnam. We have neither a decent Korean market nor a Korean restaurant of any kind. When we're craving kalbi we usually drive to Garden Grove, about twenty minutes away, or K-Town in L.A., which takes about forty minutes. Sometimes I think it would be nice to live a little closer to a Korean enclave.

I recently learned about this list of the U.S. communities with the highest percentage of Koreans. Although my city doesn't make the list, two nearby communities, Cerritos and La Palma, are number 2 and 3.

What's funny is that despite the scarcity of Koreans in Long Beach, our local Borders has a whole section devoted to K-dramas.

Did your community make the list?

--Weigook Saram

Korean Parents - a New Song by Randy Newman

Just learned about this new song by Randy Newman, "Korean Parents," that comes out next month. Some of the lyrics go like this:

Some Jewish kids still trying
Some white kids trying too
But millions of real American kids don’t have a clue
Right here on the lot
We got the answer
A product guaranteed to satisfy …

Korean parents for sale
You say you need a little discipline
Someone to whip you into shape
They’ll be strict but they’ll be fair

Look at the numbers
That’s all I ask
Who’s at the head of every class?
You really think they’re smarter than you are
They just work their asses off
Their parents make them do it …

Apparently, Newman is bracing himself for an onslaught of vitriol from pissed-off Koreans ... because, as a Jewish guy, what right does he have to talk shit about the way Koreans raise their kids? Especially vis-a-vis rigid discipline and high standards of achievement.

Personally, I am not offended by this song; in fact, I am highly fond of Randy Newman's work -- his 1974 album, Good Old Boys, in particular -- which provides sharp commentary on black/white race relations in the South. I also remember Newman's hit, Short People, from the mid-seventies (am I dating myself?!), which raised the hackles of many an altitudinally challenged person back then.  Funny, because the song was meant to be tongue-in-cheek and was really about accepting all people as they are.

What do you think? Will this song piss you off when it comes out? Are you already pissed off?

What's a Little Hard Work?

As immigrants with no formal education and a lack of language ability, my parents worked hard most of their lives.  Even in Korea, their lives were hard.   Different, but hard, nonetheless. 

But they’re Korean, “so what’s a little hard work”?

Open Thread Thursday

What's on your mind today?

--Kimchi Mamas

Pickles with Pizza

10 was a big year for me.  I learned that I was not "white" when I was 10.  huh?  Well, in Hawaii I'm part of the Asian majority, so even if I knew I wasn't white, we certainly weren't considered black, so therefore, I thought we belonged to the "white" category.

My family was riding along in our car one day and my dad asked us what we were studying in school.  I said that in social studies we were reading about slavery.  Then I casually said "I can't believe WE did that to those people."  My dad laughed.  loudly.  He then enlightened me on the fact that if schools were still segregated, that I'd be attending the colored school.  It left me speechless.  My view of myself and my place in this world was never the same.

Old School Discipline

Recently someone (you know who you are) brought up the issue of discipline and it got me to thinking.  I don’t know which topic is more controversial in the parenting blog-o-sphere: the breast is best/hit the bottle or the “to spank or not to spank” debate. 

If you’re a blogger and you have kids, you too may have come across some other blogs, or even written a post yourself, about spanking.  Just from my own experience from reading other blogs that have discussed this particular topic, there are some true die-hard fans of BOTH schools of thought.  So if you’re having a slow traffic day on your blog, or want a lot of comments, post something about spanking . . . Trust me.