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ECUADOR|
Community Internships in Latin America
4
of 5 reflections
My
experience on HECUA changed my life in
so many ways. One profound experience
was when I began to research for my independent
study project. I decided to study the
Korean population in Quito, because I
had been having so many racial experiences
since the beginning of the program. I
was interested in learning how they were
making a living there. A study on the
Asian population had never been done before,
so I had to go out there and find them
on my own. I discovered a Korean-owned
clothing store near my internship site,
so one day I went there to talk to them.
The problem was, I didn’t speak Korean
very well. In fact, I know more Spanish
than Korean. When I entered the store,
a Korean couple immediately welcomed me
and waited to hear my response for why
I was there. I just stood there, overwhelmed
by a million emotions relating to my identity
as a Korean-American, a daughter of two
immigrant parents, my lack of ability
to speak the language of my heritage,
homesickness, for not being with people
that look like me, and so many other complex
and unexplainable feelings that truly
moved me to the point of crying. I felt
joy and warmth from their immediate greeting,
but I was embarrassed and ashamed for
not speaking Korean.
This
experience changed me in so many ways.
I had wanted personal experiences like
this before the program began, because
I wanted to learn more about myself and
my identity, and to have racial experiences
in another country, but I never expected
it to be so profound. In Spanish, they’d
say this experience was “impactante.”
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