Who are Asian Americans? “Cultural Competency” and Relevance for Teaching Asian Languages Eliza Noh, Ph.D. & Tu-Uyen Nguyen, Ph.D. NRCAL PD Session Feb. 3, 2015

Japanese American Statistical Portrait Population: 1.3 million in US, 7.5% of the AA population, 6 th largest AA ethnic group Nativity: 32% of adults are foreign-born (compared to 74% of all AAs), 27% in CA are foreign-born Income: $65,390 median household (compared to $66,000 all AAs), $35,846 per capita and 17% low income in CA

Japanese American Statistical Portrait Education: 31% bachelor’s and 16% advanced degrees (compared to 29% and 20% all AAs) Language: 49% adult immigrants speak English “very well” (compared to 53% all AAs), 19% of 5 years+ in OC have LEP, 1:1,312 ratio of bilingual teachers to students in CA

Japanese American Immigration 1880s: recruited agricultural laborers to Hawaii and US West Coast 1907: ended immigration, except for “picture brides,” businessmen, and students 1924: barred virtually all immigration 1965: opened immigration; no longer based on national quotas, but employment and family categories

The Lesson of JA Internment “Perpetual foreigners”: “Fifth column” subversives, spies, and saboteurs EO 9066, : evacuation and incarceration of 120,000 due to “military necessity” Impact on family structure: parental authority, communal living, financial loss Intergenerational fissures: divide-and-conquer camp policies Post-camp legacies: dispersal, assimilation, social/economic insecurity, transgenerational trauma

Reframing JA Culture Silence, reserve Achievement orientation, career choice Ethnic identity crisis, assimilation issues, generational clash, parental emotional distance

Korean American Statistical Portrait Population: 1.7 million in US, 10% of the AA population, 5 th largest AA ethnic group Nativity: 78% of adults are foreign-born (compared to 74% of all AAs), 68% in CA are foreign-born Income: $50,000 median household (compared to $66,000 all AAs), $29,267 per capita and 28% low income in CA

Korean American Statistical Portrait Education: 35% bachelor’s and 18% advanced degrees (compared to 29% and 20% all AAs) Language: 43% adult immigrants speak English “very well” (compared to 53% all AAs), 50% of 5 years+ in OC have LEP, 1:310 ratio of bilingual teachers to students in CA

Korean American Immigration 1876 Treaty of Kanghwa: opened Korea to West 1880s: sent US missions to Korea : recruited Korean Christians for plantation work 1905: ended Korean emigration from Japan’s “protectorate” : Japanese annexation/colonization Korean War: opened door for war brides and orphans 1965: opened family and employment immigration

Bimodal Nature of KA Employment Professional labor: underemployment and misemployment Cheap labor: manufacturing, service industries, immigrant entrepreneurship

How Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Exploited Subcontracting: piece-work, low pay, long hours, unsafe work conditions, ditched wages Small businesses: unpaid family labor Middle-man minority: 1992 LA uprising and impact on Koreatown community

What is Cultural Competency? Culturalism or cultural determinism: “traditional values,” cultural essentialism Functionalism or historical functionalism: Social structures become functional over time. Culture is situational and adaptive. Structuralism: Social behaviors are strategies used to deal with a set of circumstances. Emphasizes the role of personal choice or agency.

Problems with Culturalism Culture as artifact, objectifiable and unchanging vs. culture as text Homogeneous, timeless “Orient” vs. heterogeneous, progressive West Cultural borderlands are exceptions rather than the norm.

Cultural Competency Is… …more than just cultural understanding. Understanding of histories and social contexts Understanding how groups exercise their own agency Understanding diversity and interlocking influences of culture, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, class, generation, and ability