thread starter paralysispig Jul 09 2009
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| Hello, my name is James. My mother is vietnamese and my father is korean. I'm here to tell you what my life is like being a part of two asian races. Actually, I'm going to tell you three races in my life. I am proud of both of my cultural heritages. I am glad that I was born the way I was, with the traits of both ethnicities. However, sometimes I favor one race over the other. In my school, I am one of few asians in the school, heck, the whole town. I am usually discriminated against, but people accept me for who I am, which is Asian. I'm not korean, I'm not vietnamese, I am just asian. I am grouped together with every other kid with black hair and small eyes (except my eyes are unusually larger than most asians. When I'm in school, I am one of those Asian kids. My culture is chopsticks, rice, chinese food, and kung fu. I am in no way chinese. I have never partaken in any form of martial arts. But that's who I am, and that's what my peers at school turn me into. I'm obviously good at math, I always do the right thing, and no one wants to get in a fight with me because they're afraid of getting karate chopped in the face. At school, my individual races has been taken away from me and I have been grouped into one general category. Here's where my life becomes divided. Sometimes, I feel myself becoming more proud of being one ethnicity over the other. When I am around vietnamese people, I'm usually repulsed by it. I don't know why, I'm not too fond of the language. Also, the food that they cook isn't my favorite, (even though I love pho). Pho is a mainstream vietnamese dish. That's the one everyone knows about. Other dishes, ones less popular by mainstream, smell (at least to me) REALLY BAD. I can't stand being at a vietnamese dinner party because everyone is talking vietnamese and are eating smelly food. This is when I tend to lean towards my korean side. I'm always telling myself that I am not part of this culture, because I am korean. I appreciate the sound of the korean language and how it doesn't hurt my ears. I appreciate the delicious smell of Korean food. I miss my korean friends, because they're down to earth and cool. Most vietnamese people I meet (at least at my school) try to be hardcore gangstas and the girls are, uh,......but my korean friends are wicked cool and just fun to be around. When I'm surrounded by Koreans, I tend to appreciate my vietnamese side a little bit. Being full korean would be cool, but I have a small sense of pride in being different than everyone else. Korean people know there's something different about me, something that makes me not one of them. Distinct features that only one of one race could make out. Being vietnamese helps me feel like I'm more than what everyone else is. Whenever I'm ignorant about a Korean custom or Korean anything, I'm just like "hey, I'm part vietnamese. Don't blame me." However, since I grew up mostly around koreans, my mannerisms and such are more korean than vietnamese. That's probab |
