- You know The Foot, that roll, it's call Foot.
You never had one?
- No, no, no. - It's a green package right?
^- I know what you're talking about.
^(speaking foreign language)
- Favorite snack, I was like, whoa!
- I never ate it like that.
Just rip everything off and like punch it up into this like,
I don't have time for this shit.
(light music)
- Today I'm here with a couple of
my Korean American friends,
and we're gonna be talking about how we grew up in America
^as Korean immigrants, or international students.
^- I was born in Korea, Seoul.
^I moved to Diamond Bar, D.B.
^Went to college in Boston,
^and then moved back to Diamond Bar.
^- I was born in Korea,
^so I moved out to America in 2002,
^and then I came to California.
^Ever since then, I just, I just stayed here.
^- I came here in 2002 with my family.
^My first place in the United States was Waikiki.
^After Hawaii, I got L.A., O.C., the Fullerton.
^Now I'm living right next to the La Christina,
^- [Evan] Basically California (mumbles).
^but, yeah, yeah, yeah, right.
^- I was born in Korea, 2002,
^our family work decided to move to New Zealand first.
^2006, I moved to the sin city, Las Vegas.
^And then I moved to Idaho for Boise City University.
^- And then you've been living here.
^- For almost a year.
(plucky string music)
^- I don't think I've ever talked about this.
^(speaking foreign language)
^(laughs)
^(speaking foreign language)
^(laughs)
^(speaking foreign language)
^- Thanks to social media,
^(speaking foreign language)
^- I'm an only child, right.
^(speaking foreign language)
^like a brother and a sister.
^(speaking foreign language)
^(all exclaim)
^- That was a thing.
^(speaking foreign language)
^(laughs)
^(speaking foreign language)
(light drum music)
- My close group of friends, we do speak English,
but, it's like back and forth, Korean and English.
- Yeah, just like half, half, right?
We would say one sentence in English,
and we would say the next sentence in Korean.
Most of my guy friends are English-speaking friends,
but almost all female friends are Korean speakers.
Which is interesting.
- My friends, like, more than 70%, they use Korean.
Some of them, they mix use, like one sentence Korean,
one sentence in English.
- The majority of my friends are English-only.
But, I think ever since I moved into California,
it's more both cultures of Korean and America.
^- You guys all do speak Korean in your households, right?
^(speaking foreign language)
^- Hi, Mrs. Lim!
(laughs)
(groovy music)
- I listened to a lot of music.
- Hip-hop.
^- [Evan] I like 50 Cent and The Game.
- I think I was more like an R&B.
^- Oh, Omarion. - Whoo!
^- [Danny] Omarion, Chris Brown.
^(speaking foreign language)
- B2K.
- Bom, bom, bom, that song, right?
- So I picked up a lot of slang,
so a lot of kids make fun of me.
You have to learn English first, and then learn slang.
- So you just dropped like F-bombs?
- No, I didn't curse.
'Cause a lot of rap songs,
grammatically it doesn't make sense,
you know what I mean, right?
TV shows, Friends, Prince of Bel-Air.
- I don't watch any of that shit.
- Pokemon.
- [All] Pokemon!
- My age was 18 right,
so I had to make some cash at that moment,
so like, I got a job.
Coffee place, like a Starbucks in the mall.
I need to get orders from customers, right.
But my English was really, really short.
So this one lady came up, and they're like,
"No, Asian boy, listen up," you know,
and like she keep (mumbles) again and again,
and I'm like, I need to write it down.
- Bring that lady right here.
(laughs)
- I remember your face, still.
- Yeah, that must have helped you a lot,
I mean, especially working.
- It was really hard.
Many nights I cried.
Sorry (laughs).
- In elementary school when I first moved,
I wanted to get a Gatorade,
but I couldn't pronounce it, like how I just said it.
I was like, Getorade.
Hi, can I get a Geterade?
(laughs)
The lady who was working at the cafeteria,
she wasn't really fluent in English either.
She was like, what?
She couldn't get it, so I couldn't buy it.
I remember just going to drink like, fountain water.
Sadness.
(upbeat xylophone music)
- I think in both languages, actually.
- I kind of understand,
but I don't think a lot of viewers who understand...
- [Evan] Wait, what, there's no way!
Korean or--
- I don't think I think that much,
I can't say this, I don't know.
- [Evan] Here's a good one,
do you count in English or in Korean?
- One, no in English.
- English, english?
I count in Korean. - [Danny] Oh, really?
- Yeah, it's a lot faster.
(speaking foreign language)
instead of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
- Oh, really, you do it in Korean?
- Whenever I jot down numbers, I always think in Korean.
- [Danny] Oh, really?
No, I process it in English.
- As you speak, I can understand both languages in my mind.
- Right now, I'm thinking in English.
- Okay.
(laughs)
(light music)
- Where I grew up, people used to say
that Asians are minorities here,
but I've never really felt that way,
from middle school to high school
'cause about 80% were Asians.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah, I was never really picked on,
up until I went to Boston.
Yeah, and then I was like the only Asian out of 400 kids,
and I was like, okay, this is a little weird.
- For me, in middle school, in New Jersey,
a lot of kids called me F.O.B., of course.
F.O.B. stands for fresh off the boat.
It's a daily name that I just had to go through.
Every time I go to school, it's like an insult,
you know, nobody wants to be called F.O.Bs, you know.
But right now it's okay, like I'm all grown up,
we can take it as a joke.
But when you're like 12 or 13, it's traumatic.
What I clearly remember is,
there was this Korean guy in middle school.
He spoke zero Korean,
but he made an effort to speak Korean
so that he could help throughout my school days.
He saw other kids making fun of me.
You know, you're supposed to protect me,
but he like, started making fun of me with them.
And he's like joining them to make fun of me.
^So like that--
^(speaking foreign language)
^(laughs)
I hope this doesn't happen anymore.
- I think when I was in high school,
people called me like High Definition.
- Why is it high def?
- 'Cause the widescreen, 'cause of the eyes.
- No way. - Dude, that is so messed up.
- High definition... - So messed up.
- Something like, I just hope that watching this,
like they will learn not to say in those kind of manner.
(light music)
- Wearing shoes inside.
- Oh, yeah.
- Do you guys realize how dirty your shoes are?
- You go everywhere wearing shoes,
so you have all that germ, and especially like carpets.
- Yeah.
It collects more dust, so it's even worse.
- Carpet flooring is actually my other culture shock.
I've never seen carpet flooring in Korea.
Korean school, your class stays as it is,
and then your teacher.
- You have to move, yeah.
- But in America, the students move, in America.
So in the American school you have to make more friends.
In Korea, you're stuck with them you're entire year.
It was a good culture shock.
I was like, oh, this is cool.
- For me, it's to pay tips after you eat something.
- [All] Yes.
- In Korea, there's no tip culture.
- Hot Cheetos.
Oh, my God, Cheetos, when I first had Hot Cheetos,
it was like party in mouth, I was like, whoa!
What is this?
(relaxing music)
^(speaking foreign language)
- Of course you have a language barrier,
you know, English isn't your first language.
I'm a very outgoing person as you can all see,
but like, when I first moved here,
I got more introverted because I didn't know the language.
I didn't know the culture,
so I was just scared to talk to people.
You just have to break out of that
and if you can't speak English,
it's not stress for you,
it's stress for the person you're talking to. (laughs)
If he doesn't understand, he's gonna get stressed,
^but like, you just have to speak your mind.
^(speaking foreign language)
^(laughs)
^(speaking foreign language)
(bluesy music)
(whooshing and squeaking)