The Future: My Parents vs. Me

 Asian make up a significant portion of the population of the United States, accounting for around 6.5% of citizens. Asian students also make up around 5% of all student populations. In some of my previous posts, I mentioned how Asian cultures differs from American culture, especially in the education hemisphere. To reiterate, Asian American students tend to respect their elders and lean on them heavily for support and will try to avoid conflict, even if it means they are uncomfortable. Now, while these cultural differences are well-known amongst Asian American students, teachers are not as well equipped to handle these students.  Name Mispronunciation One of my earliest memories from elementary school was not a very pleasant one. I remember in the second grade, my teacher was calling roll and wanted to familiarize herself with all the students by calling their first and last name. When it came to my turn, instead of pronouncing my last name like hee-yun, she pronounced i...

 Amidst all the Asian hate crimes that we have seen, the country has been divided more than that it has ever been. Many people have taken to social media to talk about various incidents of subtle Asian micro-racism that Asians have come to take in as normal.  Even for me, growing up, I wanted to fit in with my peers so badly despite the difference in our appearances. There were many jokes made at the expense of Asian culture, including name-calling and jokes about the naturally slanted eyes that most Eastern Asians have. Many of my peers would often ask me if my other Asian peers were my brothers and sisters. I thought that if I had made my peers laugh, they would like me more. I was mistaken if I thought that I could I have bunched all of these diverse Asian cultures with one another.  Statistics 38% of the entire Asian population is made up by Eastern Asians and 22% of the world population. China, one of the largest populations in Eastern Asia, has around 51 ethnic grou...

tldr; As humans, we tend to spend large portions of our lives looking for our purpose on this Earth. Some turn to religion while others may look to their hobbies. What if you cannot find a blend between your passions and your purpose? What is purpose? The dictionary describes purpose as " the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists ." For us as humans, it is essentially discovering the reason why we live on this planet and we find our purpose as we go on about our lives. However,  many people don't really know what their purpose on this Earth is. Some wander aimlessly without a solid direction to move in while others keep looking to fill gaps and holes in their life with temporary fixes and measures. Some find religion and find purposes through that. Some volunteer in their communities and help out those in need. Some will fixate and focus on earning money so that they could live comfortably for the rest of their lives. In what category...

What is the " Model Minority"? The "Model Minority", according to an article from the Harvard Law School, is " a minority group perceived as particularly successful, especially in a manner that contrasts with other minority groups ". This term could elude to many different things: socioeconomic status, academic success, etc. More recently, however, the model minority is a term typically used to describe Asians.  There is an ongoing stereotype of Asians in academic settings where there is a high bar and expectation for Asian students to perform well. If they do not perform well, they are typically met with some form of ridicule or teasing from their peers. Comments like "you're not a true Asian", or "if you're Asian, why are you so bad at (subject)". What many people do not know, however, is that students typically receive a similar comments at home. Growing up and surrounded by friends who were raised in Korean households, not s...

 Like I mentioned in a previous post, my freshman year in college was filled with bad decisions on my end. I barely studied and performed very poorly in all my classes and my priorities were all over the place. On top of all that, I began to feel like I didn't have my life together which led to feelings of not belonging among my peers. All my friends seemed to have their life plans figured out while I was still struggling to understand what I was doing at Pacific. As a junior in college and about to graduate, here's my advice for upcoming freshman or current freshman in college.  Don't be afraid to change your goals/aspirations Similar to high school, most individuals are still trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives. According to the Department of Education , about 1 in 10 students change their major. To put it into perspective, the student body at Pacific is around 3,665 students. According to this ratio, around 367 students will change their major at ...

 Now, one may ask: What was the point of all the previous posts? Who cares about the life of the author?  I wrote those things because I know that I am not the only one who has gone through that experience. While those experiences are my own, I'm sure there are many other students who have gone through a similar journey of uncertainty and finding their identity in high school. For high school students, here's my advice: Find a compromise between you and your parents Many times, arguments and disagreements happen between parents and children because one party is unable to meet the other at a midpoint. In South Korean households, many children have reported as having not-so great relationships with their fathers. In this academic article , Korean parents tend to follow a pattern where fathers are the "unemotional educator and disciplinarian" while mothers take on the role of the "nurturers". Fathers tend to take a backseat when it comes to education, and act s...