Can anyone proofread my essay? Its a little long sorry

The idea of American dream and success grabbed my parent’s attention in the 80’s. Both of my parents were born in Korea; however they both have a complete different childhood. It was never easy for both my mom and dad to settle in the developing nation of Korea. Both my mother and father were born the 60’s where Korea just suffered from the Korean War against North Korea. Korea being in the stage of rebuilding the nation, most people worked extremely hard in making ends meet. Life in Korea after the war is significantly different to the kind of life people are living in now. Nevertheless my mother and father ended up in the United States giving me many opportunities of life.

First of all, my father was from a fairly wealthy family in Korea. My grandparents had some land properties and known to be pretty high in the social class. It is very interesting that my father never served in the Korean military service as after the war it was mandatory for all men to serve in the army at least once in their life time. Apparently my grandparents paid their way out of making my father in serving in the army. But how did my father end up in the United States? South Korea has been heavily influenced by the United States and in the 60’s and 70’s Koreans believed that the United States is where the opportunities are known to be the best country in the world. This idea is ironic because today Koreans are very anti-America in terms of trade and politics but, in the past it was all different. My aunt moved to New York in the late 70’s and got married. My aunt persuaded my father to move to the US to study. That time my father was a college student in one of the prestige Korean university. He was majoring in economics and considered moving to the US where his sister was. After confirming that he will further his education in the US he took the TOEFL test and applied for the F1 visa. According to my father he lined up at a ridiculously long line in the US embassy in Jongno-gu, Seoul Korea. Many people were seeking for migration to the United States however, not many were similar to my father’s case of to further his education. It didn’t take very long for my father to get his F1 visa as he had relatives living in the United States. After attending college in New York he majored in accountings and got his CPA. He managed to get a job in a small accountant firm in Queens, New York. He then applied for the permanent residency and as he worked in a firm he managed to get his green card by employment-based visa where he got sponsored by an employer.

Due to the fact that my father spent most of his childhood in Korea, he never experienced foreign culture. It was never easy for him to adapt to the American culture. Especially he founded hard to adjust to the food and different lifestyles. My dad told me that he suffered and missed the Korean food and as his college was in a rural area it was difficult to find Asian restaurants. Moreover, it was very difficult for my dad to communicate with people as English being his second language. He once told me about a story that happened in his first year in the US. He was told that in Costco they sell a Korean traditional food called ‘Kimchi’. However, he couldn’t find any, so he asked one of the employer where he can find ‘Kimchi’. Surprisingly the worker understood him and directed him to aisle 3. But my dad didn’t find any ‘Kimchi’ but found cream cheese. He told me this story to tell me how it was hard to communicate with different accent. Apparently it was hard for my father to express his feelings as his English was not that great. Not only this, other people found it difficult to understand him with his Korean accent. There were many interesting stories my father told me about but the message or the moral behind his stories is that I am very lucky to be bilingual and fortunate to be born in America. Among my community I often here how people born in the United States gets head start in life. What they meant is that being born in America you get good education and many opportunities compare to a person born in an Asian country. Frequently my parents tell me that it is an advantage to be born in America but they always said I should work extra hard as an Asian to be recognized and sustain in society. I believe this idea was stuck in my father’s mind. He had work extra hard in college and managed to get a job which later he used his education effectively back in Korea. Like what Tim Fong said some people go back to their home country to apply their skills. I think my father has done this, but he never told me exactly why he left America. However, I can guess on why he left the country and it was because of racial discrimination, competition and perhaps because of his language ability. This can be understood as my father mostly stayed and interacted with Koreans. He stayed and worked near Korean town in Flushing New York. But for most, due to that fact that he went to a Korean Church made him to feel like home.

On the other hand, my mother has a totally different story to my father. My mother’s family was middle class in terms of social class but always willing to climb up the social status. It can be said my mother’s family was more of a risk takers. When my mother was around ten her family migrated to Argentina. The whole South America boom where thousands migrated to have a piece of fortune convinced my grandparents to move to Argentina in the 70’s. The prediction of South Americans countries can be the next United States made my mother’s family to migrate to Argentina. However, after living in Argentina for more than 20 years they started to notice that the economy was shifting down. So they decided to migrate to New York. My mother managed to transfer school with an F1 visa, but my grandparents had to wait for the migrant visa. So my mother settled in New York before my grandparents moved in. Both my grandparents worked in Argentina and my mother and her brother and sister had to help. When they moved to the US my grandparents managed to set up their own dry cleaning business. They did not have any connections but the fact that they know how it is hard start a new life in a foreign country made them easy to adapt. Although they have migrated to a foreign country before it wasn’t easy for them to settle in but, it was somewhat easier than other Korean who came from Korea. My grandparents lived in a Spanish town as they were fluent in Spanish. It is very interesting that they can speak Spanish and not English. It was rather easy to settle and start a business in a Spanish town. However, my grandparents told me that they have experienced discrimination among the Spanish community. Some founded it interesting to see Asians speaking Spanish but some founded intimidated. My grandparents experienced robbery due to their race and the fact that they were Asian in a Spanish town. However, they never gave up and worked in the dry cleaning business for 18 years and managed to earn some profit. I have asked them if they regret in coming to America. They straight away answered ‘No!’ and wished they came to America before Argentina because they feel that America is the land of opportunities.

Although they lived in the Spanish community, the Korean culture and language was still practiced in my mother’s family. They eat rice three times a day, speak Korean everyday and even watch and read Korean newspaper. My grandparents always enforced their children to learn the Korean culture in which my mother said she is very proud that they did this. The idea of respecting elders is crucial in my mother’s family. And the reason why it is important is because my grandparents believe without respect goals cannot be achieved. The goal for my grandparents in moving to Argentina or the United States is to have some share of the American dream as well as to educate their children. My mother and my grandparents always tell me this: that I must be a better person than them (grandparent and mother). I believe this is similar to most parents who decided to migrate to United States. They would like their child to have the best education and be a better person than them.

In conclusion with my father earning his green card when my mother married my father she was able to get her own green card. Then my brother and I were born! However both my parents did not like the United States. They both have worked so hard and suffered just to survive. So they moved out of the United States. They may never tell me exactly why they decided to move out of the States but, I can guess that the competition and the kind of life you need to be adjusting to survive in the United States were really hard for them. I am not saying they were not successful in the US but they experienced new part of life and learnt how some people live like this and some people live like that. Now only my mother’s parents and her sister and brother live in the United States. They all managed to become citizens except my mother and my father. The rest is scattered all over the world and somewhat really benefitted from their stay in the US. Both my parents do not regret the fact that they left the United States but learnt a great lesson of how life is really hard.