Comments by "HKim0072" (@HKim0072) on "I Was Adopted From Korea — Here’s What It Was Like | Op-Docs" video.

I was the same. Although adopted at 2 3/4, I have zero recollections of Korea. I had more issues of being an Asian in a white / black society than being adopted. Well, the universe works weird since my birth family searched out for me. I have 2 full Korean younger siblings and 3 aunts and uncles that live in the states.
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@lizdestefano4905 IMO, it's a cool experience just to be surrounded by Koreans. I've always enjoyed walking around Seoul alone with no destination. (Summers are brutally humid. Winters can be bitterly cold. Spring and Summer are ideal.)
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@PS-gw8sm Yeah, but they don't remember it. I traveled alone at 2 from Korea to the US. Zero recollection.
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I met my birth family. My birth parents are married and had 2 kids. It’s very easy for me to do that comparison. And, there would have been challenges living in Korea that were much different that growing up adopted.
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@Lisa-zz5si Yeah, my life is pretty weird. I left out 1 small detail. That's my cousin's baby in the picture. Her daughter and I have the same birthday. And, I have an American cousin with the same birthday as well. (My younger sister is the girl on the right with the big face, haha) I've got 2 siblings in American and Korea. 1 brother and 1 sister each. My American siblings are separated by 2 years and so are my Korean siblings. Both brothers are older than the sister. (I'm a bit older than my Korean siblings though, closer to my American siblings age.) I've got this weird symmetry split into 2 different worlds.
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Yeah, MN is very popular. The land of 10,000 Korean adoptees.
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umm, more Koreans abroad should step up and adopt then. I saw an Korean couple living in the states that adopted. Was the ideal scenario. Don’t have to be stigmatized in Korea and feel culturally comfortable in a different country.
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@Idotheh The doc was named "Given away". I think the director went into the direction of some of the emotional pain that adoptees go through. The 2nd person (the dude with short hair) gave a pretty plain spoken recounting of his experience. His comments at the end were pretty positive.
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lol, my parents call it arrival day. They would celebrate it every year with a different plane on a cake.
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@XOut4This It's not all the time, but my adoption papers were false. They said I was abandoned with just my name and birthday aka paper slip baby. When it actuality, it was my grandma (Dad's mother) that took me to the orphanage. It's been a little murky why my mother's side of the family didn't take me in. Or no one took me back from the orphanage when they found out that I was taken there. I've never really pressed my Korean relatives for the full story. Haha, the kids have it easy these days. They threw me on the plane by myself and my parents went to JFK and picked me up. I'm am not a happy camper. https://imgur.com/a/Exo1MVx
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@Lisa-zz5si Mostly positive. Had just graduated college, moved to a different state, had been working at my first job out of college for less than 6 months, was having issues with my Korean girlfriend in a long distance relationship and then they contacted me. It added a bit more chaos in a somewhat chaotic time for me, haha. Life would have it that I had just moved to the city where my one of my Korean uncles lived. Me in Korea for the 1st time: no translators and translate apps weren't available yet. It was a somewhat awkward experience. https://imgur.com/a/6jXicYq
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@XOut4This Well, that's not that bad. I knew another Korean adoptee at work. And her name was Kimberly. She married a Korean and her name became "Kim Kim". I used to make fun of her because of it.
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@jgallub Ugh, I wish my adoptive parents would have learned Korean and taught me. I've been in a lot of uncomfortable situations since my Korean language skills sucked.
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@jgallub Yeah, that would be a bit strange having your adoptive mom translate Korean, haha. Actually, I took Korean in college and had private tutors 2 different times. I just failed miserably. Korean and my brain don't mix well. Trying to take a taxi when I lived in Korea was really really hard.
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Since Korean adoptions started early and the numbers are relatively high, many first person stories have come out in the past 10+ years. There are a lot of Korean adoptees that have created organizations and been trailblazers on these issues.
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I think they have FB groups for Korean adoptees.. lol, I was in a yahoo group a long time ago for Korean adoptees.
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Your information is plain wrong. International adoptions are still legal in Korea, but have much lower numbers. And the Korean government is very very strict on who adopts. There are income, age, age spousal differences, weight (and more) thresholds before you can qualify for adoption. Sometimes, using words in Korea vs the West don't translate fully either. Korea doesn't have a foster care system. These institutions in Korea act as a foster care system and are government funded per child. Some of the kids are permanently abandoned, but many others live at the orphanage and still visit with their parents occasionally.
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@jalacyholiday3689 lol, it's not 20 somethings. I don't agree with their opinions 100%, but they are adult adoptees in their 30s / 40s who are the advocates.
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@badegg2914 Totally understand. I was already drifting in that path. When I was 18, I started to hang out with fobby Korean people and even worked in a Korean restaurant during college part-time (Japanese tourists). lol, I was born a generation or so too late. Korean stuff is so trendy right now.
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Props to our adoptee sunbaes that have paved the way for stories of adoptees to be heard and pushing the Korean government to recognize us. Adoptees can obtain dual citizenship via these efforts.
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I think 80% of us fall into that category. 10% of us fall to the extreme, "I'm perfectly happy" and 10% of us fall to the, "It's really impacted my life negatively".
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