ABSTRACT
My parents immigrated to the United States in 1977 during the third wave of Korean migration to the US that began in 1965. 1 I was born the year after in 1978 in New York as the only child to my parents. When I was six, my half-siblings, who were ten, six and four years older than me (born to a different mother), arrived from Korea to our home in New York. Before then the use of Korean, which I learned at home by speaking to my parents, was, according to my mother, predominantly for requesting things I wanted—food, toys, attention and so on, which my mother would give me unhesitatingly to prevent me from having tantrums. With the arrival of my half-siblings and to sustain a family of six, my parents both worked throughout the day and I was looked after by my half-siblings. I quickly learned that my tantrums didn't have the same effect on them as they did on my parents. Getting what I wanted or, more importantly, being provided with things that I needed, such as meals, would require me to ask them nicely in Korean. I was anything but nice to them, however, because I resented having to ask in the first place when it was “my” house.
