Anna Suh ’22
Spring 2021
In 1975, Ui Suh immigrated from Seoul, Korea to New York City, USA. An engineer, a husband, and a father, Ui lived a comfortable life in Korea, but America stood as an aspirational, prosperous figure in the distant West— a place where he and his wife, Yung, could explore, continue their work as engineers and nurses, and secure a valuable education for their son. Obtaining permanent residency in the US, Ui, Yung, and their son Don courageously uprooted their lives and re-established themselves as newcomers in a country where they could not fluently communicate with the native-speakers.
Thirty-three years old, at the time, and an alumnus of Seoul National University, one of Korea’s top institutions of higher education, he worked as an engineer for a technological corporation, expecting to move to America and pursue the same career— “I thought in the United States, it would be very easy for me to get a job.” However, when he moved to America, his lack of an American educational background barred him from the engineering industry. While his wife was immediately hired as a nurse, Ui spent the first year and a half in America peddling t-shirts and cheap goods on the streets of New York. Due to the untenability of supporting a family with his income, he decided to attend the City College of New York to pursue another engineering degree, peddling during the day and attending class in the evening.
I thought in the United States, it would be very easy for me to get a job
After a year and a half of this grueling regimen, he obtained another engineering degree and interviewed for a job at General Electric Company (GE). When he went to GE’s office in upstate New York, he could hardly understand the interview questions, as he was not fluent in English yet: “I don’t know what they asked me, actually. Because I couldn’t hear what they said, the people talked so fast, I couldn’t hear them. I just guessed and answered, but my English was really poor I guess.” However, GE offered Ui the job. During his time at GE, two coworkers took him to lunch everyday, teaching him English during their lunch hour. Throughout his time at GE, Ui cultivated many collaborative relationships and friendships across lines of age, race, and ethnicity. These relationships of respect and kindness stood in the face of the discrimination he faced from other coworkers and those outside of his workplace.
Ui is now seventy-eight years old and retired with two sons and four grandchildren. He lives with his wife in Wilmington, DE. Though he has lived in the US for forty-six years, he does not feel “truly” American: “Sure, we lived in America, we are US citizens, we have US citizenship, so we are American. But somehow—could be language or culture, maybe your generation might not be that way, but our generation based on language or culture— we cannot get into American culture.” However, he also feels partially disconnected from Korea, which has changed dramatically since he left. He maintains communication with friends and family in both the US and Korea, valuing his relationships, especially those he cultivated at GE, deeply.