Irene and Jihong Kim

Irene and Jihong Kim is a married couple from South Korea who both attended and met each other at Iowa State University. Irene is from Daegu who majored in Landscape Architecture, and Jihong was a Computer Science major from Seoul.

Jihong went to a British school in Seoul and even lived in London for a while when he was young so he was fairly prepared to study in the U.S., where as Irene knew none and she only prepared enough to pass her TOEFEL again. “I just knew hi or how are you,” Irene said. She took language courses for a year, which prepared her enough for taking her courses. Irene says she still struggles with speaking English, and she often relies on her husband to translate. Jihong on the other hand mainly struggled with expressing abstract ideas and American slang, but he began to learn more as he made more American friends.

Irene had difficulties making American friends. “I only made American friends after meet him (Jihong),” she said. Irene would casually interact with American students in her studio art classes, but she said she never became close friends with any of them. She said she stayed close with her Korean friends on campus, and viewed them as family. “I needed to know people that could help me,” Irene said. This has lead her to get help more from her friends on campus rather than offices on campuses. Jihong says that the offices were had to get help from and could not relate to the international students enough.

Irene and Jihong were both unsure on what American culture would be like. They said that they pictured American’s to be like in the movies but then they come to the United States and American’s are very different, Irene said. “People are usually ready to except whatever comes to them but they are not prepared what to expect American culture to be like so it comes as a shock,” Jihong said.

Overall, Irene said that American students were overall very welcoming and nice. “American students help me a lot and if I didn’t understand they would explain,’ Irene said about group work. She also said that going to her professor’s office hours every week helped her improve in her class work and her English comprehension.

Daegu and Seoul, South Korea

Irene and Jihong Kim

South Korea

Some discrimination occurred though. “Sometimes people just don’t stay close to you or look like they are going to throw something at you,” Irene said. Jihong said that the worst discrimination occurred in 2007 after the Virginia Tech Massacre occurred. He said Koreans were singled out because the shooter at that school was Korean. Students asked them if they would “shoot up the school,” Jihong said. “I understood but I was upset,” Irene said.

Irene’s advice to other Korean students starting school in the United States is, “don’t make friends with Koreans and go to the bar every week and except American culture.” Jihong said, “Just except American culture and stay away from your own.”

“I love the fact you don’t care what other people think,” Jihong said. Irene and Jihong both love Ames, Iowa and plan to stay there. They both love to travel across the United States and have visited places like Chicago and Las Vegas. Jihong currently works for a web development company where as Irene is a homemaker and hopes to have a baby soon. Both have enjoyed their experiences in the United States and they hope it continues.