...Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits Patria J Holloway Dr. Gordon Theisen Eng. 115 October 20, 2013 I feel that Suki Kim was a spoiled child. She had a governess, maid, and a chauffeur when she lived in Korea. She didn’t need anything as she was growing up there. Her father was a millionaire from having a shipping company, a mining business and hotels. Then one day they lost all of their money and had to flee to America. Bankruptcy in Korea had jail time behind it, something that her father didn’t want to go through or put his family through. So they left Korea in the ‘80’s and moved to Woodside, Queens in New York. To what Suki says was an “ugly house” that a Korean family owned that ran a dry cleaners. Their sons, Billy and Andy became her playmates. Suki was picked on from the other Korean children both at home and in school. She felt out of place. Therefore the other students didn’t want anything to do with her kind. They were Koreans, but not Korean American. They would call her FOB, “fresh out the boat,” or “yellow.” Funny because they didn’t arrive in a boat, they flew here in an airplane. Even the rich Koreans that left there and came here moved to Manhattan or Westchester...
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...Assignment 1.2: Summary and Personal Response The essay written by Kim called “Facing poverty with a rich girl’s habits” was a very sad but everyday living style. Kim came from a rich family that had everything and in a flash everything had changed. They moved to East Village in New York City and Kim struggled with the new language barrier. She was called names like fresh of the boat and she never understood why she was called that and why those of her nationality looked down upon her has if she bought shame to them. Kim had to watch Reruns of Three’s Company just to learn the English language. Kim was facing something more then just fitting in and learning the English language she was facing poverty and never knew how to. She had a rich girls soul and can’t handle being poor. In my opinion Kim wrote this essay wanting to explain her struggle and how she faced poverty when coming from so much. She wanted those who are going through what she went through feel better about change. She showed it is light at the end of the tunnel and that what those people are going through she went through it so they aren’t alone. To change people ways showing them those who aren’t familiar with different countries and are new to certain things help them instead of giving them their back. Kim explained her story with a settled tone but used pain to help make her essay loud. She was hurt by the way things changed and how to tried to fit in but her soul was somewhere else. She couldn’t...
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...Facing poverty with a rich girl’s habit Adele Strader Professor Chryst English Composition October 22, 2012 Facing poverty with a rich girl’s habit was written by Suki Kim and published in the New York Times on November 21, 2004. The most important point that Suki want to make was that (1) what we have in life can be taken away in an instant (2) do not go bankrupt in South Korea (3) that a person must adapt and endure through the trials and tribulations in their life and (4) that no matter what you have or don’t’ have in life you must always be true to yourself. Some of the other main points in this story are that Suki’s father owned shipping, mining and hotel companies in South Korea and that the Kim family was millionaires who lived in a mansion on top of a hill surrounded by ponds, peacocks and orchards with chauffeurs and maids. They had lived in a society were money, education and family history dictated who you were and how you lived. “Gone in an instant was my small world, made possible by my father’s shipping company, mining business and hotels. In queens, most of my E.S.L. classmates came from our families who had escaped Korea’s ridge class hierarchy, one dictated by education level, family background and financial status”, (2004, pgs. 62-63). Suki’s family has to flee South Korea because her father went bankrupt and in South Korea bankruptcy is a crime punishable by jail time so the family immigrated to New York. Arriving in Queens...
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...Facing Poverty With A Rich Girl’s Habits By: Kim Darrell Carter Lindsay Ludvigsen English Composition 115 April 20, 2014 The essay tells about a family that was once rich and they went bankrupt overnight. Her father lost everything he had and everything that they owned. The author Kim is the voice throughout the story. She was mainly talking about herself so it is told as an autobiography. One of the most important points in the girls life is when she was in middle her father lost everything that mattered to them. She then moved to Queens, New York where she had difficulty adapting to the American culture since she was from Korea. She didn’t even know how to speak English. She watched “Three’s Company” in attempt to learn English. She also stated that attempting to learn English was more brutal than facing poverty with a rich girl’s habits and memories. At the age of 13 she had to take public transportation instead of being driven so that was something that she was not used to. She had to learn how to do her own laundry and also needed a tutor throughout school. I’ve learned that she is now learning to be independent and experiencing being a middle class teenager since she is no longer rich. The story’s genre and purpose is to show readers of this story the difference between the Korean culture and our American culture. The author also shows how hard it is for someone to adapt to such modest living conditions after living such a wealthy lifestyle...
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...“Facing poverty with a rich girl’s habits” by Suki Kim, this essay was about a young lady who moved from South Korea to the United States. She is trying to transition her life from being wealthy to poor, being raised on a “hilltop mansion with an orchard and a pond and peacocks” to a “two-family brownstone in Woodside” which was owned by family friends. Her world came crashing down when her father went bankrupt, in their country that is punishable by jail time, so Kim and her family fled to America penniless. Unfortunately, this move was very hard due to the fact that her and her family were used to living a catered life with chauffeurs and butlers. After arriving they ended up with a Korean family in Harlem NY. Life of poverty was not so easy being classified as “f.o.b, (fresh off the boat)” knowing little English was hard to communicate and make friends. When it came to school it was strange having to take public transportation and doing homework without governess. In America Kim says the students were very ‘disrespectful in the eyes of Korean schools “were they were taught to bow to a teacher.” In America students did not really pay the teachers any mind and in the “ghetto” were they did search and police guarded doors. In her ESL (English as second language) class there was more peace were she could actually be with others like herself speaking and acting in their culture. But easily found out that they “had nothing in common” due to the “hierarchy of Korea’s class that...
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...The essay I chose to summarize is Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits by Suki Kim. Suki Kim describes how life was different when she moved from Korea to America. She also pointed out how the differently American culture was from her own. Such as when she was in school in Korea they bowed at the teacher every chance they got, but not in America. Based on her Korean culture she felt that it was disrespectful the way America ran their schools with no respect for the teacher. Suki describes how when she was in ESOL, and sadly none of the fellow Korean students had anything in common with her. It did not take long for Suki to discover that most of the Koreans that lived in New York with a decent amount of wealth lived in West Chester or Manhattan. Obviously she didn’t get along with the lower class Koreans because that was not how she grew up in her country. I believe the purpose of this paper was to make other cultures aware of how things are different in every country. Also I believe this was healing and closure for the pain she felt from being rich, then unexpectedly poor and moving to a new country. The audience behind this story was the general public I felt because she wanted to make others aware of how quick life can change. We live in a country where we are used to things being a certain way, but this story can teach so many life lessons. Businesses can be successful and producing great revenue, but tomorrow can go bankrupt we have seen this in with our economy...
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...According to Suki Kim, the author of “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s habits, learning how to survive physically, emotionally, and educationally in a world that was far removed from the style of life she was accustomed to was one of the biggest challenges of her life. Kim went from having a father who was considered a millionaire, living in a mansion complete with a governess to living in a small apartment in another person’s home within a short period of time. While reeling from the shock and devastation of losing all that was familiar to her, she also had to learn English, how to do everything for herself that was originally done for her, and get used to a new school and way of life. In her essay, she discusses the various challenges that rose up to face her almost daily. As a young adolescent, Kim was ostracized due to her being from Korea, being made fun of and called names. Even while she was in her E.S.L. classes and having the ability to communicate with those who spoke Korean, she was an outsider. At one point in her essay, she describes the first English word she had learned as being “fresh off the boat” (Roen, Glau & Maid, 2011). Kim, not understanding English, didn’t realize that the joke was on her until much later when she had a better grasp of the language. Kim was also amazed at the differences in Korean schools and those in America. In Korea, she describes school as being quiet and respectful, using examples of bowing to teachers and wearing slippers...
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...SUMMARY OF FACING POVERTY WITH A RICH GIRL’S HABITS TIA JACKSON ENGLISH COMPOSTION 115 January 19, 2016 After decamping a luxurious North Korean lifestyle, Suki Kim and her family were forced to quickly adapt the American culture after fleeing their home country. In the biographical essay, Kim explained various inequalities of her new American lifestyle and the difficulties immigrants face when adapting the American culture. Kim specified that were once affluent Korean lifestyle drastically changed. Not only because her family moved to America, but also because her family’s social status changed. Korean Immigrants considered to be “well-off” in Korea were identified and held to a different standard than those in Kim’s new social prominence. Although Kim’s essay is very informal, the information included is extremely informational thought provoking. Overall, Kim’s essay on her transition to America gives a detailed description on how troublesome, yet rewarding an abrupt innovation of American can be. American culture is known for its disparities to other known and unknown cultures around the world. Not only is the American culture divergent, it can also be abrasive to those unknown to its cultural beliefs. For example, Suki Kim and her family were forced to grasp the harsh languages of American society at an early age. In the American culture there is a popular phrase, “Kids can be cruel!” In the essay, Kim described an incident of name calling; in which a peer...
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...A Summary of “Facing poverty with a rich girl’s habits” by Kim Strayer University English Composition April 17, 2016 A Summary of “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits” by Kim This is a brief summary of Suki Kim’s essay, “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits” in which she reveals how she came from riches to rags. Beginning with how she grew up in an ugly house in Queens, New York in the 80’s, which was clearly a downgrade from the mansion in which she stayed in up until the seventh grade. This was quite a shock to her considering her father was millionaire and lost his fortune literally overnight. Her father’s business had gone bankrupt and since this was an offense punishable by jail, she and her father packed up and fled to America. They came to America nearly penniless and while doing so still managed to secure a residence from another Korean family at the aforementioned ugly house in Queens. Even this posed quite the challenge since this was far from the chauffeured life that she was accustomed. From taking public transportation for the first time, to attending class in America for the first time she was in for quite the shock. She did not know any English and as a matter of fact her first word was F.O.B which was an acronym for “fresh off the boat”. She also had to come to grips with the fact that she was now being called Asian. This was not a term that she was used to being called. The fact that she was considered...
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...Strayer University ENG 115 Professor: January 15, 2016 “Facing Poverty with a rich girl’s habits” Identify the source (writer and title of essay) and state his or her most important point in your own words. The title of the essay was, “Facing Poverty with a rich girl’s habits” written by Suki Kim. Suki main point of the essay was to explain to her readers that she had experienced some challenges adapting to the beliefs and cultures living in America, versus living in Korea. Summarize the other main points and their supporting details in separate paragraphs. “I thought because in South Korea I had been raised in a hilltop mansion with an orchard and a pond and peacocks until I entered the seventh grade, when my millionaire father lost everything overnight (Suki Kim).” Another main point that Suki was trying to make was challenging accepting a new way of living compared to how she was raised to living in Korea. Also Suki, felt it was important for the audience to know that the way she looked at life had changed since she moved from Korea. Finally, a point of the essay was that she was still the same person and that her culture and beliefs did have to change because she lived in a different part of the world. Discuss the (1) writer’s purpose, (2) genre, (3) audience, and (4) tone (attitude), The writer’s purpose would to tell her audience how she adjusted to life as a rich girl to living in poverty barely making ends meet. Suki’s genre could be classified...
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...“Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits” KHADIJAT NAFIU Strayer University “Facing poverty with a rich girl’s habits” Suki Kim appeared in the New York Times on November 21,2004 where she wrote an article on “Facing Poverty with a rich girl’s habits”. Kim was raised by wealthy parents in South Korea who lost everything overnight and became bankrupt. In South Korea bankruptcy is punishable by jail time so they fled to America. Kim and her parents moved in an meteocre house where the people who owned the house had two sons who became her friends. She wondered why she was called F.O.B. (fresh of the boat) when she flew from Korea to the U.S.. Kim never did anything for herself or on her own such as homework, dishes, cleaning, washing clothes etc... All these things were new to her so she didn’t like doing any them. Kim realized that do to the color of her yellow skin tone she was now labeled Asian. Kim noticed that in Korea Schools were different from American Schools. She asserted that slippers were worn in Korea to keep the floors clean why graffiti were on the walls of American Schools. In Kim ESL (English as second language) class, she hoped to find others like her but the rest of her race had nothing in common because they were poor when they came to the states. Kim learned that her and her fellow F.O.B.’s were separated by generations. According to Kim, coming to America as a teen she felt she was in the middle of the two generations...
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...Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits Patria J Holloway Dr. Gordon Theisen Eng. 115 October 20, 2013 I feel that Suki Kim was a spoiled child. She had a governess, maid, and a chauffeur when she lived in Korea. She didn’t need anything as she was growing up there. Her father was a millionaire from having a shipping company, a mining business and hotels. Then one day they lost all of their money and had to flee to America. Bankruptcy in Korea had jail time behind it, something that her father didn’t want to go through or put his family through. So they left Korea in the ‘80’s and moved to Woodside, Queens in New York. To what Suki says was an “ugly house” that a Korean family owned that ran a dry cleaners. Their sons, Billy and Andy became her playmates. Suki was picked on from the other Korean children both at home and in school. She felt out of place. Therefore the other students didn’t want anything to do with her kind. They were Koreans, but not Korean American. They would call her FOB, “fresh out the boat,” or “yellow.” Funny because they didn’t arrive in a boat, they flew here in an airplane. Even the rich Koreans that left there and came here moved to Manhattan or Westchester. The children were ashamed of her and her kind. In order for her to learn English, she would watch reruns of “Three’s Company.” “Immigration is meant to be the great equalizer, yet it is not easy to eradicate the class divisions of the old country.” (para. 7 pg...
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...Assignment 1.2, “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits” by Kim: Revised Brionica Leary ENG 115 Professor Rachel Hays November 18, 2012 Suki Kim is the author of “Facing Poverty with a rich girl’s habits”, by Kim. In the essay she talks about how she learned to adapt to a new way of living after losing everything that her family once owned. She explains how she began to accept who she had become, and how her outlook on life changed after this transition had taken place. Kim realized that no matter where she was geographically in this world, that she was still the same person within her soul. Not only was she still the same person from within, but that her cultures and beliefs did not have to change because of where she resided in this world. Kim also came to peace with knowing that there were more people of her culture, who shared the same beliefs living in America as well. Kim’s main purpose in her writing was to explain to her audience that she had experienced a great deal of challenges adapting to different beliefs and cultures living in America, versus living in Korea. She stressed to her audience that it was challenging accepting a new way of living compared to what she had been taught, and was already accustomed to believing. Kim’s genre in this writing could be classified several ways. Overall, her genre was narrative. It was very explanatory. I would also consider it to be a memo. Her audience consisted of people of her race (Koreans), who had...
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...“Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits” By Suki Kim The essay “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits”, by Suki Kim, is about a woman born in South Korea in the 1970’s who arrived in the United States after her millionaire father lost everything they had overnight. In the passage she engages the audience into her story explaining to us that the reason her family came to the United States. In Korea, bankruptcy was punishable by jail time; therefore her family fled to America. Kim spoke about how her lifestyle in Korea differentiated from her lifestyle in New York, and how she was worried about how her language would affect the way she would “fit in” in America. Kim realizes no matter where she is located, nothing can change who she is inside as a person. Realizing that to “fit in”, changing her beliefs is not necessary. She becomes comfortable with knowledge that others just like her also reside in America. Suki Kim had a very difficult time adjusting to the English language and American culture. In her essay she wrote about how her first words she learned were “F.O.B”, meaning “fresh off the boat”, which was very hard for her to understand since her family flew into the Kennedy airport. She described how at the age of thirteen she experienced her first ride on public transportation. Experiencing this was different for her because she had always been driven by a chauffeur. Suki Kim was expressed in her essay how she was embarrassed by having to go into a laundry mat to...
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...“Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits” Suki Kim Nov 2004 a Rich Girl’s Habits” In this essay I will be discussing “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habit” by Suki Kim (2004) In the essay Kim talks about how her childhood went from having everything to barely surviving. During the essay Kim will compare the battles of herself and family when forced to move from Korea to America. Kim was born in South Korea in 1970. She was from a wealthy family where she lived in a mansion on a hilltop that had ponds and peacocks. Kim’s dad was a millionaire. Kim’s world came crashing down as her millionaire father lost everything in a blink of an eye. Kim’s dad shipping company, mining business and hotels all tanked which caused the family to go bankruptcy. In Korea bankruptcy is punishable by a jail term. The family fled to America penniless. Once in America Kim’s family called Queens their home. They lived in a two story brownstone that was owned by a Korean family that ran a local dry cleaner in Harlem. She was forced to be friends with the Korean family sons due to Kim’s language barrier. Kim didn’t understand how the kids called her F.O.B “fresh off the boat” when she actually flown on Korean Air to Kennedy airport. {Kim, 2004} At the age 13 Kim was taking public transportation instead of being driven to school by a driver. Kim now had to do homework alone and noticed the house would get messy without any maids around to clean up. Kim felt humiliated by carting the family...
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