What is your hometown? 

My hometown is Masan, South Korea. Masan is a small, coastal city near Busan and Jinju. Because this city is near the ocean, you get to eat many kinds of fresh seafood. It’s a great place to live in and I think it’s beautiful. 

I lived in Masan for 18 years and then moved to Seoul, South Korea. I moved to Seoul because I had to transfer to another high school. I also attended college there. I majored in theology at a small college and continued my life from there.

I was born in 1949, which is one year before the Korean War started. My parents’ hometown was Seoul, South Korea, but they had to seek refuge and evacuate to the South. During the evacuation, I was only 7 months old, and my mother told me that I cried a lot. I don’t know why I cried so much, but I think I was really sick. Because of me, it was hard for my parents to hide. I can’t remember in detail what we went through because I was so young. But what I recall the most is how gruesome it was for my parents.

My parents believed in shamanism when I was young. However, before we evacuated to Masan, my mother met an older Christian woman. She would always pray for our family and share God’s words with her. When we went to Masan, my mother started to pray and study the Bible. Because of the older woman, our family was able to create a new and strong relationship with God and become Christians.

Do you live or work in Koreatown? 

I decided to come to America because my husband and I got a pastoral invitation. We moved to Bakersfield at first and lived there until 2005. Then, we moved to Koreatown. One of the main reasons for moving to Koreatown was that our church is here. It took way too long to get to our church from Bakersfield, so we decided to move somewhere closer. 

The most difficult part of coming to America was the language barrier. I didn’t have the chance to learn English because I came to America way too late. One time in Bakersfield, I went to an American market — a place where white people went — and noticed that the cashier was putting all the groceries into the bags for them but not us. We had to do it on our own. At that time, since I wasn’t very good at English, I couldn’t even complain about it. 

Another hardship I went through was the difference in culture. Korea is based on Confucianism, which is basically a system that explains the “way of life.” Also, Koreans tend to get easily attached to people and have passive personalities, while Americans tend to be blunter and have more dynamic personalities.

I live in the Menlo Family Apartments for low-income families located north of Koreatown near Hannam Chain Supermarket. The reason why I came to Menlo was pure luck. There was a person already living at Menlo, and she told me that if I submitted an application for the apartment, I would be able to live there. The neighborhood was really nice, close to a police station and a Korean market. I thought it would be very convenient. One day — I think they chose people by raffle — I got chosen. I was one of the first people to live here. It’s been almost seven years now. When I first started living at Menlo, there weren’t many Koreans. Most of the residents were African American or Mexican.