Summer 2024
From Koreatown, L.A. to Seoul
by Kimberly Espinosa
Below are some reflections from this unforgettable summer, featuring photos from home in K-Town as I look back on my time in Korea!
Yonsei Sinchon Campus
But once the possibility of studying abroad started to simmer just a bit more, I was sure I wanted to go to Korea. I had grown up in Koreatown, Los Angeles all my life and had previously taken Korean-language classes while in high school too. My appreciation for Korean culture had grown through these years, and I wanted to learn more about the place that home was often a reflection of for many friends and community members I had grown close with.
한국어 Signage
Ever since coming to college, to a new city, signage has been prominent in how I distinguish my physical departure from home. Even when I would temporarily leave L.A. City to go to neighboring cities while growing up, I could not help but notice the changes in the design of street signs as a marker of the new place I was in. In Koreatown, I had grown up with multilingual signage and street signs were sometimes bilingual (English and Korean) across a blue background sign. These signs were part of my experience growing up as a resident in L.A.’s K-Town. Signage for these reasons, particularly in places I consider home, such as Koreatown and when I go back to my family’s hometown in Mexico, are especially significant to me.
Contrary to what I had anticipated before traveling abroad, I felt more at home than not. The Korean signage around me was not unfamiliar; in fact, it reminded me of home. This seemingly minor yet significant aspect of my experience growing up in K-Town played a key role in making me feel more at home in Korea than on my college campus.
Certain words became familiar over time, some I often observed at home in L.A. and others that which I encountered more frequently in Korea: 약 (pharmacy), 카페 (cafe), 도서관 (library), and many others.
Contrary to what I had anticipated before traveling abroad, I felt more at home than not. The Korean signage around me was not unfamiliar; in fact, it reminded me of home. This seemingly minor yet significant aspect of my experience growing up in K-Town played a key role in making me feel more at home in Korea than on my college campus.
Certain words became familiar over time, some I often observed at home in L.A. and others that which I encountered more frequently in Korea: 약 (pharmacy), 카페 (cafe), 도서관 (library), and many others.
Time to be a teenager
Being away from home, while not for the first time, was still a very new experience—an experience I did not know I yearned for until I was in Korea. Of course, there were still challenges I had to navigate, such as navigating newer conservation topics in Korean like asking to exchange bills for coins to do my laundry or purchasing the specific two-liter trash bags required for my neighborhood.
My study abroad experience was of course a milestone in my academic journey but perhaps even more so, in my personal growth. One of the most enriching aspects of my summer was realizing the importance of simply being a teenager—embracing life in the moment. While being a teenager in the United States has often felt restricting in that there are not many opportunities to engage in accessible recreational activities, being a teenager in Korea felt like experiencing a new sense of what it might mean to be a teenager. For example, returning to Lotte World, a theme park in Seoul is something I could probably not afford in the United States given how financially and time burdensome it can be to go to theme parks. However, I recognize that my experience is not isolated in terms of the access that being a student abroad from a private institution affords. Additionally, my experience abroad was still characterized by some expectations that my time abroad, while being focused on academics, should also be balanced by these other recreational activities. I deeply appreciate every opportunity I had to enjoy and make the most of my time abroad.
My study abroad experience was of course a milestone in my academic journey but perhaps even more so, in my personal growth. One of the most enriching aspects of my summer was realizing the importance of simply being a teenager—embracing life in the moment. While being a teenager in the United States has often felt restricting in that there are not many opportunities to engage in accessible recreational activities, being a teenager in Korea felt like experiencing a new sense of what it might mean to be a teenager. For example, returning to Lotte World, a theme park in Seoul is something I could probably not afford in the United States given how financially and time burdensome it can be to go to theme parks. However, I recognize that my experience is not isolated in terms of the access that being a student abroad from a private institution affords. Additionally, my experience abroad was still characterized by some expectations that my time abroad, while being focused on academics, should also be balanced by these other recreational activities. I deeply appreciate every opportunity I had to enjoy and make the most of my time abroad.
A Reflection of Home
In a sense, I have been to different parts of the world thanks to the individuals who have cultivated a sense of their own home through the neighborhood. For instance, I grew up with access to cultural foods from my family’s hometown thanks to the community networks that facilitated the process of bringing these foods to the City. Even upon my return to L.A. after living in Seoul, I was able to still have access to some of the foods I had been eating throughout the summer, while back at home.
At the same time, many individuals have created a sense of home by communicating in their mother tongue. On the bus in L.A., I hear everything from English to Spanish, Korean, and Zapotec. In contrast, my bus experience in Korea was different, as there were few instances where I overheard long conversations in Korean. However, my time in K-Town continues to be shaped by the voices from all over the world, including Korea, Mexico, El Salvador, and many other places.
I thought about all the Korean elders I had met over my time living in Koreatown and considered their migration stories and longing for home. Similar to my previous documentation of my returns to our homeland in Mexico, I hoped that my visual documentation of my time in Korea would be another future point of connection in my interactions with community members.
I thought about the physical resemblances too and the power of signage to convey a sense of home. The sense of home that Korean signage provided me while I was in Korea, could perhaps be the very same intention why they were placed in the neighborhood in the first place.
This summer was a reminder that home does not just exist physically, although it heavily influences ways people experience home, but that it is also embodied in ways people bring different parts of culture alive such as even through the use of language.