Annapolis (Map, News) - Korean-American leaders and scholars tend to talk about three generations: first, second and the one in between — 1.5.

“Especially for the first generation, life revolves around their business and their church,” said David Lee, executive director of the Governor’s Commission on Asian Pacific Affairs.

The first generation grew up in Korea, went to school there. Their English is often not polished, and they tend to run small businesses.

The 1.5 generation was “born overseas but really raised and educated in the U.S. They are very Korean in some ways and very American in other ways,” said Larry Shinagawa, director of Asian American Studies Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Their English is good, but they may have a bit of an accent and they can still speak some Korean.
Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech gunman, was 1.5 generation, experiencing some of the same pressures. “He was caught between those cultures,” Shinagawa said.

The 1.5 and second generations are “graduating from top high schools and top colleges,” said Dae Yung Kim, a College Park sociologist who has studied the generational differences.

“They’re all moving into professional occupations,” such as law, medicine, engineering and business management. “That’s the prime reason [their parents] came to the U.S.”

“They’re not taking over their parents’ small business,” and their parents don’t expect it, Kim added. Of the 1.5 and second generation, only 11 percent are in small business. “They know it’s low status, they know it’s labor intensive.”

Politically, the first generation is more Republican, and the second more Democratic and more concerned about national politics, although that may simply reflect their age.

“We’re kind of in a transformation period,” said Sue Song, former president of the Korean American Community Association of Howard County. “Full acculturation will take abut three generations.”

Some of the first-generation immigrants are getting old and they worry that “my kids are not going to take care of me,” Song said, producing feelings of rejection, shame and guilt from Koreans expecting the care of an extended family. “We gave everything to the kids. We sacrificed our life to them,” and now in their old age, they have limited financial resources to care for themselves.

There are few new members of the first generation, as emigration to America from Korea appears to be slowing. In Korea, “they have stable, decent income now,” businessman Kap Yung Park said. “They don’t want to come here [because] living conditions overall are better” in the homeland.

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com