Most Americans don’t understand that there is a difference between North and South Korea. We are South Korean, and we don’t necessarily know what’s happening in the North. On the other hand, they don’t understand that to the majority of Koreans, the Korean War has never really ended. Extended families remain divided more than half a century after the ceasefire. Probably the most common misperception is that people assume that we’re Chinese. You have no idea how annoying this is to us! Koreans and Chinese are totally different. They don’t realize that there are many countries in Asia, each with its own language and culture.
Before we came to America, we thought that at least 50% of the American population was overweight. We also believed that America would be a lot more modern than Korea. We were surprised to see that in many areas Korea is actually ahead of the U.S. We also were fearful of the crime level. We expected that there would be lots of police in the U.S. because there is more gun violence, drug use, and drunk driving.
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Number of Korean immigrants receiving permanent resident status:
2006: 24,386