The Penguin Group (USA) writes that the book, Native Speaker (1995), has won the Hemingway/Pen award, QPB's New Voices Award, the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and the Oregon Book Award. The book’s author, Korean-American Chang-rae Lee, has also won the Granta's Best American Novelists under 40 Award.


The book, Native Speaker, introduces readers to Henry Park. Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American?a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away.


Park's harsh Korean upbringing has taught him to hide his emotions, to remember everything he learns, and most of all to feel an overwhelming sense of alienation. In other words, it has shaped him as a natural spy.


But the very attributes that help him to excel in his profession put a strain on his marriage to his American wife and stand in the way of his coming to terms with his young son's death. When he is assigned to spy on a rising Korean-American politician, his very identity is tested, and he must figure out whom he is amid not only the conflicts within himself but also within the ethnic and political tensions of the New York City streets.


Native Speaker is a story of cultural alienation. It is about fathers and sons, about the desire to connect with the world rather than stand apart from it, about loyalty and betrayal, about the alien in all of us and who we finally are.


These days many nations and people are blending together and the world is globalizing, so that old ethnic boundaries have blurred. Nevertheless, many developed countries are intensifying efforts to preventing wall or removing walls between cultures. Examples are America, France and Germany.


Neocapitalism is removing the boundary of service, capital and cargo, though there is beginning to show weak points about people’s social and cultural abilities to adapt. Repeatedly, countries, governments have had problems with immigration, because the world is growing globally and there is discontent among new citizens. For example,  in Germany, some cities aim to keep Middle East and North Africa immigration low in their areas, so Islam groups prepare lawsuits. 


EU Countries Each Have Different Restrictions About Immigrant Law


 In France- Economic immigrants are prefered splendor, but immigrants with family are limited and has abolish the law which allows immigrants denizen ship for those who have lived 10 years in Paris though they are illegal aliens.


 In England- The technical immigrant is preferred, so the laws favor this demographic. 


 In Denmark- every foreigner has an immigration benefit for 7 years. Immigrants are given test for language and basic life skills.


 In Italy- every year the laws limit the number of foreign employees.

 

In the case of Korea, many immigrants are coming and the immigrant population is growing. There are now over 26,000 naturalized citizens, so the Ministry of Justice wants to consider a counter plan. Many Koreans have pride in that Korea is a single race nation. 

So, Korea is the same as other countries, in that naturalizations have a social barrier, ‘Hybrid’ has become an important keyword that is not only for electronic goods, sports, culture and normal life, but also for those of racial and/or married integration, so Korea needs understanding and tolerance to our new denizen.

The general denizen lives in Korea for 5 years, has an ability for economical stability and have a knowledge of Korean, history equal to an elementary grade student. The Ministry of Justice said there is an 80~70% success rate for the immigrant examination, however, the number of immigrants taking the test are limited in applying for the examination, so do not believe the test estimates should be used as a ratio of a demographic group..

We are thinking and participating in a Global World. A philosopher once said, “Admit differences”. Admitting differences is the first step in facing change and becoming more tolerant and open to experiences. It also means that there are barriers that must be overcome, both internally as Henry Park shares with us in Native Speaker, and as a nation when denizen and immigration problems develop.

 

 


 

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