Chris and Ryan Go To South Coast Plaza

There's a debate about the Korean American identity. I the issue is that there really isn't one. There's a Korean identity and there's an American identity and then there's a bunch of people who argue about what is the right balance of the two. I've consistently been the target of "not being Korean" enough by these people, and that's a huge part of why I'm a self-deprecating Korean. (Good job guys!) I'm not ashamed of being Korean and I cheer for Korea during the World Cup and the Olympics (for most events). I just don't really keep up with Korean pop culture and I usually don't try speaking the language, because honestly I'm really terrible at it.

During my freshmen year of college, I met Chris Kim (legal name: Christopher) in the dorms and we found out we had a lot in common: a love of Ash, The Get Up Kids, Coen Brothers films, and Clerks. We also had a similar trajectory when it came to growing up. I grew up in Minnesota until I was 11, Chris grew up in a town outside Pittsburgh until he was 10. I moved to San Diego and Chris moved to Fullerton. I don't know if this is why we're so similar, but it kind of makes sense to me. We're both not "very Korean", but Chris tends to hide it a lot better since he went to Sunny Hills High School, so he can at least claim to have a lot of Korean friends.

He's definitely a fraud though. I've heard him have a conversation in Korean over the phone once. It even made me cringe. In his defense, he was talking to "his mommy". I, on the otherhand, have given up speaking to my parents in Korean, it's easier for the both of us if I speak in English opposed to botching up phrases and saying things unintentionally. Of course, every time I call and try to speak Korean to my Dad, he doesn't realize that it's me, which is pretty golden in itself.

Chris claims the whitest thing he's ever done is getting drunk in a parking lot before going to watch a movie. Unsurprisingly, this was my idea, and in an ironic twist, we were doing this "white" thing before going to watch Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, starring John Cho, the most famous Korean American actor of our generation (don't even think it's Sandra oh, She's Korean-Canadian). Besides, we were drinking Fat Tire, not Bud Light, because we're classy like that.

I believe drinking before a movie you're not sure is going to be good is a great idea, regardless of the fact that you might be setting this Korean-American identity debate back ten years. If anything, this event in our lives is a metaphor of the Korean-American identity. Part of us wants to embrace the culture we live in, while paying respect to the culture of our forefathers. Now if only we could all get drunk before Harold and Kumar, maybe we'd have this identity crisis figured out.