DEPARTED FROM
Seoul, South Korea
ARRIVED IN
Honolulu, Hawaii
YEAR
1976
AGE
18
NOW LIVES IN
Woodinville, Washington
TRANSCRIPT
Back then we came to the city of Honolulu, and then we went through a lot of the common Korean family come to this United States, a lot of people got into the small business like groceries or laundromat or gas station. But we ended up choosing, buying a small grocery store with the help of our father's friend, and then they were already in the business, you know, operating grocery businesses, so. The business supported our family for the first few years, for me to go to school, for my brothers to go to school, for my sister to go through the school. It was family oriented. Myself and my brother and sister we all helped my parents running the store together. It's the matter of the survival. The first month was the most difficult because the product itself is, everything is in English, and you're not aware of it. So I came to this country, only a few things I'm familiar with, you know, Hershey bar or M&M, you know, candy bar. Those few things are the only thing I'm familiar. And sometimes people would come in and go, "Where's the dog food? Where the beer?" When they are asking — asking, you know, common questions like that. I just — my database was just empty. There was no way I can, you know, tell them. And then, even the first day or two, it was hard for me to understand what they were talking about, the way the pronunciation is totally different than how I learned, how I talk. So it was very difficult. But then, you know, any, any hard situation you go through, once you get a hang of it, and you stay there long enough, you just get better and better.
