āI canāt believe iām half americanā eh, not to nitpick but you arenāt, bb boy. friendly reminder that american isnāt an ethnicity, itās only an nationality. iām guessing the author is a little confused but there is a difference between ethnicity and nationality. nationality is legal status of belonging to a particular nation (some ppl can have dual nationality esp when theyāve moved somewhere). mr kwon isnāt american bc he has never had status of living there. ethnicity is belonging to a population made up of people who share a common descent or cultural background (korean, puerto rican, nigerian). sometimes the words for ethnicity and nationality can be the same (like korean) but in an americanās case, itās usually two different things unless you are native american. since america is a melting pot, there are many ppl with different ethnicities. Iām guessing the author is trying to suggest his father is white and in that case, his half ethnicity could fall under many things like italian, german, irish, or english (uk) etc. that being said. the only true ethnicity that is āamericanā is ānative americanā and Iām gonna take a blunt guess that his father is not that. itās possible mr kwon could have some french or german in him.
this is such a minor thing I know and not a big deal to the story so I hope my comment doesnāt bother anyone but sometimes itās moments like this where you can tell the cultural education of america sometimes gets lost or confused in eastern countries. kinda like how some japanese mangakas depict āamericans kiss as a greetingā in their stories and itās like⦠no we donāt lol.
I'd say neither
Cause most east asians don't bother with ethnicity and race that much (since most of them are homogenous population )
Yes I'd could be a "this might be an issue of korean to english translation"
But by half-american they ment half-foreigner and then they discovered the "half" is actually someone from American land and thus it came to be half-american (that is the conclusion I came at lol come come at me that how my brain worked)
Anyways I am not against anyone in here just sharing my first thought ya ll
I read all the above comments and still I stand by my opinions ...it's idk... interesting(?) to read people's first thoughts that end up being the talk of the town LOL
Haha, and the dad didn't specifically say the country, but America in general. So we can assume it might be in the north or the south. He just said america so our ml just said so I'm half-american, generally. (So it could be half-canadian, half-brazil or anywhere in America) But atleast we know he his half westerner and it's it america
well thatās the thing ā even if he had an americanās blood in him, heād still have to actually say what (which his father never specified) the ethnicity is. so if his father said german, not saying he is german lol, then heād be half german and half korean. but since he doesnāt know the proper answe if heās ever asked would be āiām mixed, i know iām half korean but i donāt know exactly what else iām mixed withā.
I feel as though you are upset with me and idk why. maybe iām reading your tone wrong but Iām not trying to start any fights here. while yes it is obvious the author was insinuating white, white is race which is not the same as ethnicity ā which is what mr kwon was actually truly meaning when he asked his father. race is the color of your skin, ethnicity is the culture/dna you have, and nationality is where you legally have status in. either way, the writing is incorrect and based on the conversation flow, I just wanted to explain how itās incorrect to ppl who may not know the difference and why it may sound odd to me. it could very well be a mistranslation, youāre right in that it is another avenue I didnāt consider, however I trust the translation to be pretty accurate which is why I assume the one mistaken would be the author. as Iāve said before, some authors have gotten things wrong about americans before so in my mind, it felt like the most probably cause. but youāre right in that it could be a mistranslation so thank u for bringing that other consideration. either way, the essence of my point still stands.
my point is the natural way of conversation probably could be corrected one of two ways:
mr kwon: what is your nationality?
leonās dad: american
mr kwon: and what about your ethnicity?
keonās dad: [specify]
or
mr kwon: what is your ethnicity?
keonās dad: [names an actual ethnicity like italian for example (idk iām throwing one out there for an example only)]
mr kwon: oh so iām half italian!
in the second scenario he could actually claim it bc thatās whatās in his blood. in the first, when mr kwon only asked about nationality, he in that scenario understands the difference and further asks to know his own ancestry so to speak.
for background and maybe to also help explain the differences between race/ethnicity/nationality ā Iām american myself. for instance my race is brown, my ethnicity is latina (subgroup: mexican/puerto rican), and my nationality is american.
just to help further clarify: I think ppl often forget (even tho it is common knowledge) that america was colonized. and I mean people everywhere including americans bc lbr our education system isnāt the best in some states ā¦. I mean ppl know but their behavior exhibits that the history of it means nothing to them. the land was stolen from native americans who are brown. this is also why when discussing immigration in the united states, colored ppl will laugh when racist white ppl call themselves the ātrue americansā bc ALL white ppl have ancestors who essentially immigrated here. they want to act like only colored ppl are immigrants but thatās literally not factual at all. itās also why sometimes when having a conversation with a white person, sometimes they ask āwhere are you fromā and a colored person will go āoh hereā or they will say the specific state they grew up in and then we just give them THE āstareā when they go ābut where are you REALLY from?ā ā¦.. bc essentially u can be a 4th generation born and raised in the USA person and youāre still treated like youāre not an american⦠but ironically when you present the question back to them, they get confused like it should be obvious theyāre american simply bc they are white⦠no self awareness at all to the fact that itās racist to assume the look of an american is āwhiteā only when there is no look in this melting pot of a country. unfortunately bc of this attitude tho, I think it also confuses ppl overseas bc they see how white americans donāt often talk about or identify with their actual ethnicity sometimes, so they confuse āamericanā into an ethnicity.
thereās surprisingly a lot of thumbs downs to my comment which I am quite confused about bc nothing Iāve said is false. itās all information you can google, āwhat is the difference between race/ethnicity/nationalityā⦠so I am a bit lost as to why it seems to have upset some people. I expected 3 or maybe 4 thumbs down bc I do realize it is a bit picky thing, of which I did admit to myself to pay attention to. itās certainly nothing that detracts from the story but I wanted to help inform readers who may not understand why it was āincorrectā.
I can only assume the other reason some felt upset may be bc they feel I am bashing the author, I am not. I only said that I believed the author (or translator, as someone also brought up to be as another plausible explanation) may be a bit confused as to why mr kwonās response doesnāt make much sense. it is not an insult to her intellect as one being confused on the topic is not a claim of a person being ādumbā and only a claim of one being uninformed. I love this author so much and respect her work and I also appreciate the work of the translator. I think it doesnāt hurt to be corrected in a friendly way (not that the author reads our comments on here anyways but i thought the correction would be informative to other readers). it doesnāt hurt to be more knowledgeable of a topic. that is all i sought to do with my comment.
the uke shouldnāt have lied.. like yes he wouldāve been upset if u mentioned meeting up with that friend but now heās gonna know u met up with him AND lied to him and the anger is gonna be 100x times worst and now heās gonna have trust issues and ughhh ⦠like lying was not going to make the situation better.









the sweetness is giving me cavities.