Bo-won Kim/ ch5. final draft/ Tuesday 1pm

Recently, I've read an article while doing some research about foreigners in USA. This article, titled "Foreigners share what they find most surprising about America" was posted on Business Insider, a news website issuing about American business, celebrity and technology. In the article, there were some interviews from foreigners from different backgrounds. However different their experiences were, they all shared one common experience, hardship. Lots of them faced hard times while they were adjusting to new lives and new lifestyles in USA. At first, I felt pity for them but seeing their interviews I could not hide my fascination. For I've always dreamed of living in New York since I was young. I wanted to have an indirect experience for just a moment so I've decided to focus my interview topic on this. And for that moment, one person popped up in my mind, Jieun Kim. She is one of my friends from the college and we've been friend since we were freshmen. She is a very diligent, hard-working student and is very fluent in English. Back in the days, I asked her how she could speak such perfect English and she told me with her face blushing, that she used to live in US when she was a kid. Now I remember that so I scheduled to have an interview with her right away.    The first question I asked was how she got to live in USA since very young. I was curious how she had the opportunity. She blinked her eyes for some time as if she was bringing back her old memories that were put aside in her brain. She told me that she went to the United States when she was 3years old which was the year, 1997 and went to back to Korea at 2001. The reason for her staying in USA was that her father was transferred to Oregon. "Oh, so it was a transfer within his job, you mean?" I asked, out of curiosity. To that sudden question, she told me that it was just a transfer of location. "Even his position remained the same" she added.   "I remember you saying something about camp that you went to when you were young. Can you tell me what it was?" She looked surprised and said, "Oh, you remember it. It's the fort Jackson youth center in South Carolina." After 2001, even when her family was staying in Korea, she went to United States every summer vacation to her aunt and uncle's house. "Because they live there" she said, "I got a chance to enroll to the camp with local kids." I asked her some more details of the camp, what it was for and what she did in the camp. The camp she went every summer vacation was located within the army base and was mostly for kids whose parents are soldiers. "I hung out with kids there a lot and we had lots of fun programs such as role playing games." She seemed excited to bring back her memories of fun experiences. She told me that the camp also had a pool and kids just went for a swim whenever they felt like.    I wanted to ask her the most important question for my interview, the one I want to focus on most. I asked her if she could tell me her hard times back in the US. She replied instantly, "Sure, why not? What's your question?" "I cannot leave out the word, racial discrimination when talking about foreigners living in other countries. So do you have any experiences of discrimination?" I asked carefully since it is somehow a sensitive issue. I expected a story similar to what I've seen in the article. However her answer was totally different from those. She told me that she can't think any particular experience of being discriminated. She said in the interview, "Maybe it's because I was too young to remember… but I think the other kids were also too young to have a stereotype or prejudice towards Asians." "Then how about some difficulties or hardships you faced in the USA? It must have been quite tough to adjust in foreign country." I asked her. She thought for a moment and nodded a few times and said "I think this question would be more relevant with my parents than me." She told me that her mom had somewhat challenges adjusting to the new life because of the language barrier. "We know that kids don't really know what they're confronting. But my mom had some difficulty learning English" she said. I asked her whether the frustrating situations she faced were related to racial discrimination. "Actually, no. I don't think so." Surprised I asked if that was possible in 90s. She believes that the reason for not confronting such discrimination was because the region she was living in. "There were lots of black people, I think that was why.." After a few seconds, she had a deep breath and said, "I can't imagine how hard it had been for my mom but it's a relief my parents didn't face nasty discrimination."   Time passed rapidly and it was already time for us to go to the next class. "Thanks for your time and thanks to you, I now see that living in USA isn't that horrible as I thought." "Yes, of course" she said looking at me, "I think it just depends on the people you meet. The people I met back in the days were all so nice. I'm still in touch with some of them." I wanted to end the interview with some meaningful question. "Can you think of one word that can describe your life in USA?" I asked her for the last time. She thought for a long time with a serious look on her face. "Wow, it's really hard to describe it in just a word." She thought for more and finally came up with her answer. "Let me describe it in two words. It was a life-changing opportunity for me." The experience of living in States has helped her a lot in Korea where English fluency is very important. With a faint smile on her face she said, "And I still thank my parents for that."