So I'll just start out by quoting out some of the substack article from K-Culture with Jae-Ha Kim:
In another edition of You’re Not Korean Enough, we have a contingent of cruel and clueless people on the internet who are taking a Korean adoptee to task for not being a real Korean. Why? Because she initially mispronounced the name of a Korean folk song, “Arirang” (아리랑).
Are you done rolling your eyes yet? Because I’m not.
A few days ago, Kat Turner made an informative video explaining the significance of the Korean folk song “Arirang” as it applies to her. Thanks to BTS annoucing that Arirang is the title of the group’s highly-awaited comeback album, “Arirang” has become a buzzword that is being dissected on social media. What could the significance of Arirang possibly mean? [...]
All of this brings me back to Turner’s video on Instagram. While the post went viral — drawing praise from BTS fans, adoptees, and the general public — there was a contingent of loud and entitled naysayers (most of whom appear to be westerners and/or Korean Americans) who criticized her at every turn for being a clout chaser, an imposter, and — most egregiously — a Korean wannabe.
Why? Because she mispronounced the word “Arirang.”
Here is Kat Turner's response via IG as well.
I think what I like most about this, is how she told all the naysayers where to go, in a nice way, and that after journalist Jae-Ha Kim wrote the piece in substack, Min Jin Lee, the bestselling author of Pachinko, shared it and the same day, invited Kat to a speaking engagement, even when it was sold out.
How cool is that?
Adoptees all over the world have to deal with stuff like this and I'm glad to see other Koreans standing up for their people (because Adoptees are part of the diaspora too). Things like this can take an Adoptee from wanting to learn about the culture they were taken out of, to not wanting anything to do with it at all, and that's a sad state.
So make a note of that if you know some Adoptees trying to make their way, love their motherland and culture and language--remember that they had it pretty hard in that way, and to make those jumps, to do the work--it takes a lot of courage and heart.
Don't dismantle them.
Help build them up to be the best version of who they can be, and who they want to be.
And just for the record--I know a lot of Adoptees, who didn't group up familialy with their culture and knowledge and language, who now know it better than some of those that did here in America.
We all learn. We all grow.
