My Class

I’m really happy with my class here, fourteen of us in all. They are almost all very young students in or fresh out of college but they are fun group. We have one Indonesian, married to a Dutchman and studying art, French and Korean at various universities to avoid the “boring” women’s expat organizations. There is a Korean-American who actually just entered my department at Harvard for the coming fall as an Americanist historian. We have three young Chinese students: one from Hebei (from the Hui minority), one from the northeast (she is proud of her father’s Manchurian ethnicity), and one from Nanjing. We have three very fun Mongolians whose Korean is difficult for me to understand but who provide some 70% of the energy and enthusiasm for our class. There are also five Japanese students, two from Yokohama (which is, of course, the most awesome city in Japan), two from Kyûshû, and one from Gunma.

These include one Korean-Japanese student who was born and raised in Japan but has Korean citizenship. Unlike many zainichi I know, I was surprised to hear from her that she didn’t learn that she was Korean-Japanese until she was in high school! She had always wondered why the dolls on display in her house were different from others in the neighborhood but otherwise always thought she was just a perfectly normal Japanese. Her last name is a give away Korean name (but her mother’s sounds very Japanese, despite both parents being 2nd generation zainichi). Her parents spoke only Japanese, cooked and ate only Japanese food, and abandoned certain Korean holidays and other customs. Then in high school she first learned about her Korean citizenship when she went to get her fingerprints taken and heard more soon after as her grandmother got very old and suddenly told her stories about coming to Japan when she was young. After graduating from college, she suddenly discovered what consequences her zainichi status had as she experienced various difficulties in looking for a job and at her company. Interestingly though, this student has no interest in her Korean past, in the Korean language, in Korean culture, or in ever living or having anything to do with Korea. I asked, “Why did you come then?” She explained that she wanted to go abroad after quitting her job, and having Korean citizenship meant that coming to Korea was the easiest option for her. Like many zainichi though, she is very reluctant to go through the process that will get her Japanese citizenship.

What I especially like about this class though is the particularly warm friendships there are between some of the Chinese and Japanese students, something which I really love to see. With the exception of me (who has the triple distinction of being our resident white boy, the older student/아저시, and undoubtedly the worst Korean speaker) everyone has strong enough Korean to be able to have a wide variety of fast and fun conversations with all their classmates. I think this really helps overcome some of the cliquish splits that might develop.