For Korean-Americans, learning the Korean language is not a choice, but an absolute necessity. It all comes down to the huge language barrier that exists between Korean-Americans and their Korean-speaking parents.After first-generation Korean parents immigrate to the United States, they work really hard to make a living – averaging around 10 hours a day. And most Korean parents only choose to work with other Koreans, who speak the same language and share the same culture. Even after coming home from work, Korean parents spend the rest of their night watching Korean television shows and dramas; they rarely watch any English programming. This is why Korean parents, no matter how long they have been living in America, struggle to learn English. Also, because Korean parents hate asking for any kind of help or favor (due to pride issues), they shy away from asking their children to teach them English. So in the end, it just has to be the other way around – with second-generation Korean-Americans learning Korean to communicate with their parents, even though they live in America.
Does this sound unfair? Fortunately, second-generation Korean-Americans hold no grudge against this matter. Korean culture teaches children to respect and obey their parents. And in this case, Korean-Americans are willing to accommodate to their parents' ways by learning an extra language other than English. For Korean-Americans, it is a natural way of showing love to their parents.
