Crescentia Kim
Crescentia Kim: My Meaning of Being a Korean-Canadian
My Meaning of Being a Korean-Canadian
Crescentia Kim (김소연)
native [ney-tiv] (adj.)
1. being the place or environment in which a person was born or a thing came into being
2. belonging to a person by birth or to a thing by nature; inherent
3. belonging by birth to a people regarded as indigenous to a certain place, especially a preliterate people
Even now, I still remember the day when my parents told me I was Korean. Back then, I was in Gr.3, and up until that point I had always thought that I was Chinese or even Japanese. So, you could say that I was overjoyed upon hearing about my true ethnicity for the very first time. I was more than happy to actually be “labelled”. I loved being labelled, actually. As a result, I would go around proclaiming my great Korean heritage to everyone I knew – in my class, my skating lesson, my basketball lesson, etc., etc.
The problem is, it isn’t fun to brag to people about something they don’t even know, albeit never even heard of. This did not please me at all, and I would grow even more mad whenever someone I met for the first time asked me, “Just to be polite, but are you Chinese or Japanese?”. I would always reply, “Neither; I’m from Korea”, to which they would always, always say, “What’s that?”. And then I would explain that it was a small country between China and Japan, and then said person who I was talking to would simply reply that they had never heard of said country, and you know what happens next. My parents had it worse, though. For example, when they moved into their first neighbourhood in Toronto after immigrating to Canada before I was born, some nice old neighbour dropped by to introduce himself. This was the following conversation that transpired between them at first sight:
Neighbour: Hi there! It’s so nice to meet you! You guys are immigrants, right? Where are you from? China? Japan?
My parents: Oh, we’re from Korea!
Neighbour: *is very bewildered/puzzled* Huh?? Korea?? What country is that? Is that a small province in China??
Basically, it was rough. In fact, back when I was Gr.3 (this was back in 2008 by the way, if you didn’t know), the only mention of Korea I ever saw in my school was on Remembrance Day. On November 11th every school year, we would always have an assembly in the gym in order to commemorate it, and so there would always be these banners hanging in front of the stage with the names of the different wars Canadian soldiers had sacrificed their lives for. In that year, the Korean War was on one of those banners. I was hopping with excitement with just seeing the name of my native country in my own school.
Wait.
Did I just say native country?
Sure, my DNA is from Korea. My parents are from Korea. So technically, Korea is the native country of my parents, and my ancestry is Korean. Regardless of these seemingly obvious facts, I had considered myself as a full-fledged, native Korean. Which is not true, but I did not realize that until much later.
To continue, as I grew older, I grew more and more infatuated with my parents’ home country. And then I eventually grew to question myself what being a Canadian exactly meant to me. For so many years, I had ignored the Canadian part of my identity. For a very long time, I only concentrated on my ethnicity, rather than my nationality.
I think I didn’t start to realize that until I came into high school. It was when I was in the car one day with my mom, who told me that I should also embrace my Canadian side as well. After hearing that, I was surprised to find that I didn’t really want to. I guess I didn’t really consider Canada as great of a country as Korea was. I was never ashamed of being Korean, but I was embarrassed for living in Canada. To me, it was a boring country, where there was nothing to explore, nothing to enjoy, nothing to do. But over the past year, I had to recollect a lot of memories from my past that reminded me of all the good things about Canada.
There are a lot of things to be proud about Canada. Not only is it one of the friendliest countries in the world, it also has a lot to offer in terms of culture. Although I’ve never been a huge fan of hockey (I actually hate it, and much prefer the Korean favourite soccer and baseball), I’ve grown to somewhat appreciate it. At least I’m aware of the existence of several famous teams such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Ottawa Senators. Wait, was that only two? What about the Pittsburgh Pengui — Oh wait, they’re from Pennsylvania. Never mind.
Anyway, let’s move on to the food. Don’t forget the food when describing the best things about any country. Certain products that are renowned throughout planet Earth, such as maple syrup, and poutine, all originate from Canada. There’s also the beavertail, which is a great treat coupled with a cup of hot chocolate after a few hours skating on the Rideau Canal.
Oh, I almost forgot about the Rideau Canal. Speaking of skating (and hockey), Canadian winters are literally the best thing ever. In fact, winter was always my most favourite season. Sure, summer has recently risen to spot #2 on my list of seasons ranked from most preferred to least (probably due to the knowledge that it’s almost the end of the school year), but winter still remains at the top. Why so? The winters here may be much harsher than those in Korea, there are simply so many opportunities to spend the occasion during such a cold time of the year. While in many other countries, there aren’t a particular lot of stuff to do, in Canada, there are loads of activities available for people of all ages to participate in, from the well-known Winterlude hosted in Québec, and skating in the Rideau Canal situated in Ottawa, which is also known as the longest skating rink in the world. How cool is that? And to imagine that I’ve actually went there with my friends more than once. Not only in winter, but there’s also a bunch of celebrations taking place during the rest of the year as well! There’s the Tulip Festival in May, the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and the festivities of Canada Day in July.
I’ve always wanted to travel, and while I’m still dreaming to travel the world one day (ONE DAY), I’m also planning to take a little trip around Canada as well. There are a lot of places to visit/sightsee here. Not only are there the countless tourist attractions around big cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Montréal, etc. (of course, let’s not forget Niagara Falls as well), Canada also has a lot of beautiful sites of nature and history to explore. Take Elk Island National Park in Alberta, for instance. And the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax. And the village of Avonlea in Prince Edward Island.
If there’s one thing that I won’t ever forget about Canada, it would probably be that fateful summer vacation, when my family visited the Bay of Fundy, situated between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Having lost our way, we were lucky enough to stumble upon a beach facing the Atlantic Ocean. Although we weren’t exactly pleased to have lost our way in the first place, it turned out pretty well on our side. I ended up walking in the sands with my dad, and we talked about a lot of fun things. We talked about the past, and the future that awaits us.
In the end, this is what I consider how life is like as a Korean-Canadian. Even if before I had thought of Canada as a boring country, it is thanks to these memories that I am able to appreciate my true identity. These unexpected sentiments resulting from such incidents will probably remain with me for a long time.