Motivation
She would always be laughing at some silly prank she just played on one of the interns, workers, or another client. She would try to tickle you to make you laugh. If you pretended to be angry, she would whine and be apologetic, but still know it was a joke. She was shy at first, but opened up to someone friendly to her. She was always enthusiastic about art or learning from the computer. She would hold on to you as she walked from place to place. Lisa was a client with multiple severe mental and physical illnesses, but somehow she always managed to smile.
A Korean American in Psychology
Even though I came to the United States of America at the age of 2, I have been raised in an environment that strictly followed Korean culture. My parents, who barely spoke English, worked hard to be involved in my brother’s and my education. In fact, the first language I was taught was Korean rather than English. My parents strongly believed that learning one’s native language was not only important to remain connected with the heritage, but also to have that ability to be bilingual. Since I would be attending American public schools, there would be plenty of resources for me to master the English language. However, since I would be bombarded with the English language, it would be very easy for me to forget what little Korean I knew as a five year old. Therefore, English was not allowed to be spoken in the house.
When I was younger, the language barrier was frustrating at times both at school and at home. There were words I knew in English, but did not know in Korean, and vice versa. There were times when I accidently slipped Korean words as I was talking to one of my teachers or friends and they would not understand. Other times, I would be talking with my parents, but could not explain something because I did not know enough Korean. This frustration led me to wish I only had to deal with one language. However, looking back now, I can understand what my parents saw in knowing multiple languages. The United States is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. There are thousands of immigrants that come into the U.S. without knowing any English. Knowing another language besides English allows one to be available to a wider audience in whatever field one works. Employers now favor bilingual, trilingual, any polylingual candidate over candidates who only speak English. Just knowing one’s native language can give one the upper hand in employment. Even at my summer job at a camp for people with disabilities, my knowledge of Korean allowed Korean campers to voice their needs and wants and allowed them more freedom. These campers who already have difficulty expressing their thoughts had even more difficulty with their counselors who did not speak their native language. Knowing even the simplest phrases helped close that gap between the campers and counselors. Even the Spanish I learned from high school was useful to the Hispanic campers. Of course my broken Spanish, mixed with English, was not the best means of communication, it was still something extra I could offer to the campers to communicate through me.
The language barrier was not the only obstacle I had to overcome as I grew up in various locations. From kindergarten to sixth grade, I have attended six different schools that were in two different states and four different towns. My experiences from moving school to school, from town to town, introduced me to a variety of people. Each school I went to had a different culture to which I had to acclimate. I learned that people had to change to “fit in” with the crowd. However, there were times when people were reluctant to accept this different me. During my middle school years, I attended a school that had a 90% Caucasian population and a 2% Asian population. In that setting, I experienced racial slurs and bias. It was then that I realized society still discriminated against race. It was then that I learned that certain occupations are composed more of a certain race than another. According to the American Psychology Association, as of 2013, 83.6% of active psychologists are made up of Caucasians, while only 4.3% are made up of Asians. The reasons for this difference may be due to ethnic backgrounds, incomes, or other personal reasons. Although I cannot speak for all Asian races, Koreans, at least, do not regard a any psychologist or even psychiatrists as a highly esteemed profession, thus shy away from that field. In addition, mental disabilities had negative connotations, even stigmas, in the Korean population. Therefore, Koreans do not tend to pursue a career in a field deemed unnecessary and unprofitable.
As I entered college, becoming a psychology major was an issue I had to solve with my parents, who wanted me to go into a more highly-esteem profession, such as becoming a doctor. To appease my parents, I entered college with a psychology major on the pre-medicine track and completed the necessary courses for pre-medicine. As a senior in my final year of undergraduate college, I have fought countless battles with my parents to continue on the psychology tack. I experienced numerous arguments to even intern or work in the field as a means of gathering experience. After all these arguments and fight, my parents have finally realized that this is the field I am pursuing and will continue to pursue. Even though I still do not have their complete approval, I have convinced them that I make as much of a difference as doctors or lawyers or other “highly esteemed” professions may make. Although they still worry about the racial discrimination I may face in this field populated mainly by Caucasians and the stability of the jobs, the experiences I have had in the field have only strengthened my resolve in pursue this field.
One of the best experiences I had as a psychology major was at an internship with an organization named AHRC. It was the beginning point of my interests in developmental disorders. Previously, I had only known that I would want to work with children and adolescents, but as to what specifically, I did not know. However, as I interned at the Adult Day Rehabilitation Center, I found myself thinking of the why’s and the how’s. Here, I experienced a whole new means of communication. The clients here had varying degrees of mental illnesses that required different types of attention and different amount of attention.
Even though I have worked with children before through tutoring, there were some individuals, adults in fact, who needed to be communicated in simple phrases or even through only one or two words. There were some who would not speak at all unless they felt like it. There were some who would not even look at me or come near me. There were others who spoke only their native languages. Then there were some who were always the first ones to approach others. I had to adapt to each situation. I had to learn the ways each individual communicated since most differed on their interests and abilities. Finding out how each individual communicated with me became to be something like a small research project for the duration of my internship. Even though I initially hoped to work with younger individuals, I am grateful that I still had the opportunity to work with a population of people who need as much attention as possible, which got me interested into the field of clinical psychology to study developmental disorders.
Works Cited
Lin, L., Nigrinis, A., Christidis, P., & Stamm, K. (2015).Demographics of the U.S. Psychology Workforce: Findings from the American Community Survey. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association.