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. 63) Suki says that, “more brutal than learning English was facing poverty with a rich girl’s habits and memory.” (para. 11, pg. 63)

Summary of Facing Poverty with a Rich Girls Habits
Assignment 1.1 Summary and Personal Response – Draft Version

October 25, 2013

Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits by Suki Kim
The author of “Facing Poverty with a Rich Girl’s Habits” is Suki