J____ is a third generation Japanese Korean. His grandparents left Seoul at some unspecified point in the past – perhaps during the time of colonial rule – and he, like his siblings and parents, was born in Tokyo.
He speaks no Korean. He has both Japanese, Korean and English names, the latter of which he is thinking to change when he applies for US citizenship next year. Is J___ a name on its own, or a shortening he asks.
J____ carries a Korean passport. Until recently it was almost impossible to apply for Japanese citizenship. In any case he has now been away too long for this to happen. 10 years in fact.
He studied in Portland, Oregon. A place picked because it was somewhere he knew almost nothing about and certainly knew no one from. College, undergraduate studies, work in the finance sector in Boston. Now New York. This is home, he says. Could not think of living anyplace else.
Through some irony the company he works for is Japanese. Insurance products for Japanese firms. Multinationals. Not that he is expected to speak the language or translate for others into his mildly accented English. But there it is, a fragment of the past carried into his life in the new world.
Last year he visited Australia. Sydney and Melbourne. Chasing a long distance relationship that foundered almost as soon as he arrived. J____ reports that Sydney was nice but that Melbourne made him feel lonely. What time of year I ask. The winter months can be bleak.
I can't remember the response. J____ talks some more about how he needed help to fill in a passport application at the local Korean consulate. It being presumed that a citizen of that country would have no need for forms in English or any other language.
He speaks no Korean. He has both Japanese, Korean and English names, the latter of which he is thinking to change when he applies for US citizenship next year. Is J___ a name on its own, or a shortening he asks.
J____ carries a Korean passport. Until recently it was almost impossible to apply for Japanese citizenship. In any case he has now been away too long for this to happen. 10 years in fact.
He studied in Portland, Oregon. A place picked because it was somewhere he knew almost nothing about and certainly knew no one from. College, undergraduate studies, work in the finance sector in Boston. Now New York. This is home, he says. Could not think of living anyplace else.
Through some irony the company he works for is Japanese. Insurance products for Japanese firms. Multinationals. Not that he is expected to speak the language or translate for others into his mildly accented English. But there it is, a fragment of the past carried into his life in the new world.
Last year he visited Australia. Sydney and Melbourne. Chasing a long distance relationship that foundered almost as soon as he arrived. J____ reports that Sydney was nice but that Melbourne made him feel lonely. What time of year I ask. The winter months can be bleak.
I can't remember the response. J____ talks some more about how he needed help to fill in a passport application at the local Korean consulate. It being presumed that a citizen of that country would have no need for forms in English or any other language.
