Dokyun Lee Stuyvesant High School
Everyday when, Ms. Jung goes out to take care of her business, she takes her dictionary (that translates English into Korean or vice versa) in her pocket.
These experiences are just minute parts of what immigrants actually go through everyday. Everyday, many Korean American immigrants have to suffer because of their inability to speak English. I have seen in many cases where immigrants didn’t know what was going on with particular problems that eventually turned out to be very disadvantageous for them. Either it is a faked bill from companies, jury duty letters which they didn’t know what it was, and etc. When I first came to USA in 6th grade, my parents also were driven into despair by the insuperable obstacles of English (which is the case for many adult immigrants) but for me, it only took about 7∼9 months to master necessary skills to help them by being their ears and mouth. The point I am making here is that there are many Korean American immigrants who needs translating services and also there are many students who immigrated here almost at the same point in their life as me who can actually speak both languages fluently.
From these experiences I came up with a community project in which bilingual Korean students like me offer their translating skills to whomever is in need of the service. Although there are people whose job is to provide translating service for money, when my mother tried to contact them when we first came to US, we couldn뭪 even reach them. And second of all, for many immigrants, money doesn’t just get produced in fountain; there are so many things that they need help with and if they were to get service from these business people, the amount of money that they have to pay a month will at least hold them back from achieving economic contentment assuming that most hospital, school, governmental offices, phone, electric, etc companies businesses cannot be taken care of by someone, like relatives, whom immigrants know.
The people who will be benefited from this project will be all the recent immigrants, many Korean seniors living alone, and in fact, any Korean Americans in need of translating services. There are many matters that they would require translating services but the matter with the highest priority should be the matters regarding their visa status, children’s education, and health plan which is the most basic and necessary amenities of any human beings. Of course any translating services regarding their businesses (such as going somewhere to get permit for their business) should be the least important case.
Now comes the questions of are there enough students to help the whole community effectively One of many things that I learned while I was volunteering at many places was that there are many Korean American bilingual students just waiting for a chance to help people. I actually have about 8 friends who can translate as good as adult translators. I also saw countless number of 2.0 generation Koreans able to communicate in Korean very effectively. There is actually a logical explanation regarding the abundance of perfect bilingual Korean American students. About 4~5 years ago, Korea was in The Great Depression of IMF (as Koreans call it) in which many people became unemployed. At the time, the condition of unemployment was so high and terrible that the number of Korean American immigrating to USA increased abruptly and greatly.
I actually work at this particular Korean senior center located in corona as ESL teacher/Translator. I go there 4 times a week for 3 hours everyday, which is not that much of a time in summer. On Mondays and Wednesdays, the day I don’t teach, I help seniors with their letters, mostly concerning their health insurance and medical bills. For each letter, in average, it takes me about 5 minutes to read and explain it to them. Although occasionally, about 1 in 10, it is impossible to help them because the letter requires professional knowledge in fields such as laws and insurance policies, the other 9 times the seniors who asked for help goes home satisfied to their fullest. It is amazing how they come and tell me that they suffered days (sometimes even weeks) because of those letters and now that they know what the letters say, they feel like dancing. I first wondered so much about this because I thought they had someone to help them with the letters like their children. It turned out that most them were living alone or their children were either living in a different state or in Korea. There actually is a joke in this senior center that people use phrase like losing a couple of English written letters than like losing a tooth that’s been aching
Why do communities such as Korean communities compared to communities of Spanish, and Chinese have less power Because the number of our people is smaller than theirs and we have less inputs politically. And the fact that less number of Korean people means less representatives who can speak our language in any places. And because it is harder for immigrants to gain right to vote if they don’t have enough helps to get them started, by providing them the power of communication, we can help immigrants adjust better, thus strengthening our community. Many other possible boons and beneficial effects on Korean community as a whole in this project are many. By doing this, not only the Korean immigrants in need of translation get satisfied but the volunteers themselves can practice their art of translating. There are many groups devoted to preserving Korean culture in 1.5, and 2.0 generations and through this project that I am proposing now, students will solidify their identities and learn more about their communities. For me, it was a chance to re-experience what it was like to be in Korea. Also it was very satisfying to find out that I can help so much and at the same time learn so much. This project can make Korean community where immigrants can live more freely, if not entirely, of language obstacles and quandaries that has been the epitome of immigrants’ reason for failure.
Short term goal: Short term goal is to help Immigrants communicate and understand by providing them translating services which will prevent them from situated in a bad situation or being exploited.
Long term goals: (1) The long term goal of this project will be to help Korean immigrants, thus Korean communities, take its place in America stronger and firmer by helping them adjust to America. Starting from families, in time, most of immigrants will be better rooted in America. (2) Many Korean American students will get better or not forget Korean, and will get more exposure to Korean cultures by meeting many other Koreans which will help them solidify their identities.
Purpose: We must remember that once we were all immigrants. Even those who were born here, their parents or grandparents were immigrants. By helping them we are helping us, and also we can strengthen our community.
Steps: First make a pole or survey in Main Street somewhere to see in what cases Korean Americans need the translating service the most and what the magnitude of the service program should be. By getting this information we can better prepare the volunteers. Then we post messages or send advertisement through many media telling Korean community that we are recruiting volunteers. The volunteers don’t have to come regularly. What they do is just give their contact information, their personal information, and most importantly, available time for volunteering. Students learning about law should be the first choice for social security office visit, and anything t· hat relates to law. Students learning about medical practices should be the first choice for hospital visit and anything that relates to medical practices.
When enough volunteers are recruited according to whatever the study and survey says, we make another advertisement through media that we are giving those services. The best place to advertise should be Korean TV stations such as YTN, TKC, and KTV. We can also advertise through Korean · newspapers.
Brief example of the translating service: After many immigrants learn of our service they will call us at 718-555-5555. In this particular case the caller needed 2 hours of services for visiting his doctor at Schneider뭩 hospital where there are no Korean doctors. We then look for our data base of volunteers who is available in that time that is currently majoring in medical practices or anything relating to it. If no medical majoring personal is available, then we pick the oldest of the available volunteers. If there are no available volunteers at that time the caller has to make a new appointment. But most of the time, this won’t be necessary since there are many matters that you take care of at anytime.
My name is Dokyun Lee and currently I am attending Stuyvesant high school. I will be a junior on September of 2003. I volunteered at many centers for people with disabilities, especially the ones that provide service to mentally ills, senior center, and in this organization called Korean American Family Service Center as the co- captain of a youth community team project. I am very interested in math and science and also good at it. To be specific I hope to become an astrophysicist/physicist working in NASA one day. Besides from a point of academic view, I like to play guitar, although I started very recently, and listen to classical music.