What makes an immigrant from South Korea work so hard when immigrating to the United States?
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| Portland Head Light, Maine |
John F. Kennedy: “Every American who ever lived, with the exception of one group, was either an immigrant himself or a descendant of immigrants.”
As an immigrant from South Korea, I was born into a culture of never ending competition. When I was still living in South Korea and attending grade school, my teachers demanded hard work, and excellence from all the students.
Teachers expected students to constantly study and get good grades. Students were expected to do after-school tutoring, private or otherwise. Even when I was only 8-9 years old, my classmates, whose parents were well off, were all doing private tutoring.
After immigrating to the United States in 1981, I noticed private tutoring and/or after-school academies were still in place for recently immigrated South Koreans. Many of my friends who immigrated to the United States at about the same time I did, were also not immune to this trend, of taking private tutoring or going to after-school academies.
The competition for good grades in grade school, then junior high school, was a given for South Koreans living in America. As son of immigrants and immigrants ourselves, we were expected to get good grades so we can get into one of three high schools for high achievers in New York City. These are Bronx Science, Stuyvesant, and Brooklyn Tech.
For those of us lucky enough to get into one of these schools, the next step is obviously a good college/university. For most Koreans, the definition of a good college is only one thing, that is the “Ivy League” schools, like Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Brown, etc.
Anything less than that is considered a failure…
The competition never ends even after going to college. After college, you’re expected to get good jobs. Among Koreans, a good job is usually one of two things: a lawyer or a doctor.
Anything less than that is again considered less than ideal…
Competition and hard work are something all Koreans know something about. It is ingrained in our psyche at an early age, then never lets go. Among my friends who immigrated at around the same time that I did, there is an unwritten rule, or a code, that tells us that competition and hard work are the only way to survive and thrive in this newly adopted country.
I had mentioned while back that for most of us Korean-Americans, education is really the only way to live the American Dream. That, plus our fierce will to succeed through competition and through hard work.
Most of us aren’t born with great physical attributes to make a living as a professional athlete in the United States, and not many of us have parents who would support their kids to become athletes. Playing it safe has meant most Koreans would prefer kids to study, and study hard, to become doctors or lawyers.
So within this pressure cooker of an environment to succeed, to live the American Dream, most of us, the immigrants, have really no other option but to work hard and compete in getting a good education.
Good education, in my opinion, is still the one equalizer that everyone has to live the American Dream. The wealth difference between someone with a college degree and someone without one, is just unbelievable. Of course, a good major that leads to a good job is just as important as getting a college education, but if someone does go that route, then it makes a huge difference in attaining that American Dream of owning a home, taking vacations, and providing a better life for their kids.
No matter the endeavor, most Korean-Americans I knew and know, are all trying to live the American Dream. Most of my friends have had similar experiences in that most of us worked under our parents’ stores (or got jobs) as a cashier, a deli counter person, a shoe salesperson, a laundromat clerk, or a retail worker, when we were growing up in the United States.
It wasn’t like our parents told us to get jobs in many cases. It was just something we all thought we had to do to help out our parents. We didn’t want to burden them by asking for allowances or money from our parents, knowing they didn’t have money to spare.
It just seemed like the right thing to do. The will to work hard and to make money was mostly just an internal directive coming within us, a gut feeling, a stomach-churning desire buried deep within the pit of our stomachs, and not from anywhere else. We just knew in our hearts, that this is the right way to live, to survive, and to thrive…
That will to compete and work hard was helped by our ambition to succeed. We didn’t want to be satisfied until we reached an internal goal that each of us set for ourselves.
For myself and my wife, that internal goal was reached when we achieved FIRE (financial independence retire early). We had ‘enough’ for us, and it was then that we took our foot off of the accelerator, to finally exhale, and to start enjoying our own version of the American Dream.
For others, like one of our best friends, who is still working incredibly hard even after achieving, in the eyes of most, the American Dream. That friend owns three homes, has 3 awesome kids, takes nice vacations, and has saved up plenty for her retirement.
Even so, that drive, that ambition, is still willing our friend forward to achieve even more. We keep telling her to slow down for her health (mental and physical), now that she’s doing great by any and all measuring stick of success in the United States, but she confides that she still feels the need to keep going.
I can totally understand that sentiment, growing up as I did within this culture…
Thinking about our friend in particular, got me thinking real hard about what makes us, the immigrants from South Korea tick, and what makes us work so darn hard. These are the reasons below, just to sum it up:
- Competition ingrained in us from early childhood to succeed
- Hard work, a byproduct of being in a competitive environment, is expected
- After moving to America, the same values and norms simply carry over
- Once these Korean American kids get jobs, the same cycle repeats…
Adapting to a new country wasn’t easy for me, or for my wife, thanks to the language barrier. We are glad we stuck with it though, as we are now reaping the fruits of our hard labor, so to speak.
The opportunities America has given to us immigrants, will always be remembered. Yes, our Korean culture did give us that work ethic, and the belief in education to achieve that American Dream, but the newly adopted country allowed that to happen, which we are ever grateful for…
I still believe America is a land of opportunity where anyone can achieve that American Dream if he is to work hard, learn a skill, and follow the principles of investing the right way.
As an immigrant, I am glad my parents chose to immigrate to the United States and no where else. We wouldn’t be retired early, and traveling the country, were it not for the opportunities afforded to us. This is one of the reasons why we’re choosing to live in this great country. We’d like to pay back by living here, helping out the local economy wherever we travel to, and also enjoy each and every one of these places in America!
Thank you America! Thank you everyone for reading!
Jake
Wandering Money Pig
