domestic turbulence like a civil war. While their predecessors regarded their stay in

America as a merely temporary state, these newcomers have chosen to move to America

with an intention to settle permanently in search of economic prosperity and better

educational opportunities for their children. America or mikuk in Korean literally means a

beautiful country. After the division of the country into North and South Korea after

thirty-six years of colonization by Japan, Cold War ideology dominated South Korean

politics. During the Cold War era, the U. S. A. played a significant role in promoting

South Korea as a stronghold of democracy against a communist regime in the North.

Thus, for these Korean immigrants who were educated under a Westernized, renovated

school system that eulogized America as an economic and political savior-benefactor in a

war-tom, poverty-stricken country,282 the discrepancy between their expectation about a

new life in their imagined beautiful country and the not-so-beautiful reality they faced

after their arrival was quite obvious and difficult to adjust to.

 Although a majority of these newcomers were college-educated and well-trained

professionals, racism and the language barrier limited Koreans' employment prospects,

and they often moved downward in occupation. Such is the case of Henry's father in

Native Speaker, who was an engineer with a master's degree from a top Korean

university. But Henry's father starts his life in America by making a meager living doing

menial work as a greengrocer. Many new Korean immigrants started small-business

enterprises for which they were rarely prepared. Actually, these shopkeepers, according

to Ronald Takaki, have been driven to self-employment in the retail industry due to

racism and a changing demographic pattern in urban population within America. Urban

areas have become densely populated by African-Americans and Latinos after the white