Myong

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Podcast
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BIOGRAPHICAL/GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Myong came from South Korea and moved to America. Korea is in Asia. Myong lived in South Korea for most of her life and lost her father before she moved. She met her mother and sister in America after she moved. She married her husband which she met in South Korea.


 * Creative Writing **

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
This is an interview with Myong Brown. The interview was conducted on December 23, 2010. The interviewer is Amanda Gray representing the Dayton Regional STEM School.

Amanda: What is your first and last maiden name? Myong: My first name is Myong and my last name is that is my maiden name. Amanda: What country were you born in? Myong: South Korea Amanda: What was your home country like when you lived there? Myong: It was very different from what you are living in America. At the time we had cars, buses but not like every household owns a car or two cars. We didn’t own a car we walked to school so it was different. Amanda: Did you walk to school every day? Myong: Yes! Elementary school it probably took us a good twenty minutes to get to school but we walked I walked to middle school, High school Amanda: Have you lived in any other countries other than Korea and America? Myong: No. Amanda: Why did you come to America? Myong: I thought America was a land of opportunities for women in South Korea the opportunities for women were very limited either you go to college or you were a nurse or school teachers pretty much very limited. Amanda: So there were certain jobs women do and certain jobs men do correct? Myong: Yes! at the time, but not any more. Amanda: What do you think the toughest part about moving to the U.S. was? Myong: The cultural differences that in Korea we bumped each other we didn’t say excuse me, I’m sorry those things. We just bump and we move on, but yet Koreans are very kind very I guess family oriented that was a big cultural difference. The food we in our diet we didn’t have cheese and we didn’t drink much milk and we didn’t have Coca-Cola ,we didn’t have sodas. Amanda: What do you think your favorite American food is? Myong: I can say any kind of pastas. Amanda: So did you come here by choice or were you forced to move? Myong: I wanted to move to this country so nobody forced me to move. I wanted to move. I met my husband while he was in Korea and after I came to this country I got married in Indiana. Amanda: Did any one move with you? Myong: My sister and my mother came to America a year before I came to this country I came to this country in 1988. My mom and my sister came to this country in1987 and they settled down in Maryland. My mom started working as a cook in a Korean restraint. My sister started going to school in Maryland. Amanda: What school was it? Myong: The University of Maryland. Amanda: Did you have any family back home? Myong: Yes I have one brother all of us came to America except him, he came to America but he couldn’t adjust himself to American culture so he moved back to Korea. Amanda: Did you feel any pressure from your family? Myong: At the time my father passed away so we wanted some change so pretty much everybody wanted to move to America. Amanda: What traditions or customs have you adopted since you’ve been in America? Myong: Christmas, celebrating Christmas we didn’t celebrate Christmas in Korea, we were not Christians. Amanda: Is becoming a Christian something you adopted when you came to America? Myong: Yes after I married my husband in America. Amanda: What drew you to the U.S.? Myong: Like I mentioned I view this country as a land of opportunities for people, any people I mean that is true I have a college degree in Korea I studied for a degree in Science after I came to America, I went back to school I got my undergraduate degree in the county and I have my masters degree in computer systems and I became a CTA (certified public accountant ) and I work for the federal government surly that opportunity the window of opportunity opened up for me. So in America anybody that is willing to work hard go to school and then they can have a pretty decent life in America. Amanda: What was your schooling like? Myong: A lot in many ways ,but also same. In elementary school we have six grades, we go to school for six years. And then we go to middle school, we had an entrance exam so we have different types of schools in terms of the best school the first choice, second, third like that so you haft to put your application in you haft to take the entrance exam and you haft to pas the entrance exam in order for you to go to the best school. So you have three years of middle school once you finish your three years of middle school you go through the same process agin. You haft to take the entrance exam for high school to get to the best school. If you are a student you take the exam you go to a good school. Good middle school good high school and also you haft to take another entrance exam to go to a college. You haft to be a very good student to go to college and to go to a good school. Amanda: Did you get to go to good school? Myong: Yes in my town yes I went to the best middle school best high school I went to a, just like a state university. We have what called a province so we have instead of calling it state we call it a province so I went to the caption of province the and I went to the best school in the province. Amanda: Do you miss anything in Korea, and would you rather go back to Korea? Myong: I don’t think I will ever go back to live in Korea because I already have family, my husband my child my mom my sister my brother and my nephews’ and nieces. So I would not go back to live there good but I miss Korea in terms of cretin cultural things. We had open markets so when after school I lived in a port city and in the afternoon al these big ports came from overseas or from others parts of the country. So Korea is a peninsula so we lived in that down south in the mainland but in the down south so we saw a lot of, I saw a lot of boats coming in so after school we ran to the harbor and the smell of the sea, the fish coming in fresh fish coming in. I miss that the most. Amanda: Would you like to live somewhere where you could see the boats in America? Myong: Absolutely I would love to somewhere you could see boats and smell fish. Amanda: What were open markets like? Myong: Each city that I have been to normally they have two three open markets. Sometimes big cities have different types of markets only they sell fish only they sell fruits and vegetables like that. So in Korea were I grew up I went to high school we had the fish market and then they sell all kinds of stuff all kinds of different types of fish and also you can see to the side you can see fruits and vegetables and grains so that was pretty to me that’s its

**//ANALYSIS//**
In social studies class I learned that immigrants normally were facing hardships when they decided to move to America. I found out this is not always the case. I also learned that most immigrants faced criticism when they came, that was not the case with Myang. She moved because her father had passed and her and her family wanted a new life.