The process of globalization

Wing Man Lam

Section 1

Week 7 

Jung-Sun Park states that Korean American youths tend to struggle on identity in his article “Korean American Youth and Transnational Flows of Popular Culture across the Pacific.”  Although Korean American youths live in the United States, they practice their languages at home, listen to k-pop music, and pay attention to what is going on in Korea. However, in Koreans who live in their homeland’s eye, Korean American youths are foreigners. In native American’s eye, Korean American youths are not part of the America either. Therefore, they feel hard to fit in to either one.  

Being an immigrant from China, I totally understand how many Korean American youths feel. In my perspective, I am never an American because I do not do what many Americans usually do. I speak Chinese most of the time and hang out with Chinese friends. However, my old friends said that I have been Americanized and criticized my Chinese pronunciation last time I visited my homeland.  

Globalization has gradually taken place, and an increasing amount of people experience how many Korean American youths and I feel. Personally, I think globalization is a good idea since under globalization people will not be isolated. People will appreciate other ethnicity groups and accept cultural difference. In order to reach the state of Globalizing, people may feel lost just like what I do feel because it is a progress. If we stopped practicing our hometown’s identities, culture value would not be spread rapidly, which might take longer time for people to understand others who share different ethnic backgrounds.

Question: People describe the United State as a melting pot, which means that this place contains multiple ethnic groups. I wonder how many people would actually classify themselves as “Americans.” What is the standard of being an “American?”