In The Korean American Dream author Kyeyoung Park states that, "Two-thirds of New York City Koreans live in Queens [and their] most meaningful interactions with other ethnic groups occur in the context of operating small businesses" (1). This example describes the social life of one immigrant group, but begs the question, "Where do people from different ethnic groups interact in New York City?" For Koreans, according to Park, it is mostly in the small businesses they own and operate but what then about other ethnic groups in the "Big Apple?" This essay investigates an American cultural center in Manhattan to answer the question: How do the urban social lives of members of the International Center in New York City define their identity in American culture?

The International Center in New York City is a place where immigrants meet and interact with each other, as well as Americans. On its website the center is described as "a privately-funded, unique language learning center for immigrants and foreign-born newcomers to New York City." Visiting E.S.O.L. (English Speakers of Other Languages) students come together with other New Yorkers through its "Conversation Partners" program, where members and volunteers meet for unstructured hour-long chat sessions that stress conversational English in an informal and comfortable way. The program allows immigrants from many different sending countries to interact with native New Yorkers without the stress one may encounter on mean metropolitan streets. Although the goal of the Center’s programs is to educate foreign guests about American culture, many of the members and volunteers maintain friendships.

Sociologist Alejandro Portes makes a point in his book, Immigrant America, that "In 1993, less than five percent of legal immigrants went to live in non-urban areas and more than half settled in just 10 metropolitan locations" (43), leading one to wonder why are immigrants choosing urban centers? Also, will they stay in cities or will they, or their children, move to the suburbs and rural areas of the U.S., as did previous generations of city dwellers? An answer to these questions comes from the work of sociologist Nancy Foner:

My ethnographic research regarding E.S.O.L. members of the International Center in New York focuses on interactions between different ethnicities of non-immigrant foreign persons living in New York to gain insight into how urban American culture blends into immigrants’ culture, with the premise that conversation promotes language fluency and proficiency. I hope to answer the question of why immigrants choose to come to New York, while exploring what determines where they may go next.

The International Center is located on 23^rd Street between 5^th and 6^th Avenues in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. I visit the Center once weekly as a part of the Conversation Partners program.

I chose this topic because I am an International Studies major at The City College of New York, CUNY with a concentration in Culture and Communication. I live near my university’s campus in Harlem. Initially, I became involved with the Center to fulfill a required internship for my major and am familiar with its mission. I felt that my familiarity with the organization, its members and staff, afforded me the opportunity to comprehensively conduct the research necessary to answer my question.

As a volunteer in the program my member partners are Subin and Suranya. I interviewed them hoping that our relationship as conversation partners would help them to be relaxed and speak freely with me. During much of the ethnographic research involved in this study there was a language barrier. Interviewing people who are in the process of learning English can be challenging and, despite a high level of proficiency, surprisingly difficult. My biggest fears were that my questions might offend my conversation partners or that I would influence their answers. At times questions would have to be re-phrased requiring immense amounts of self-control to just listen to their responses, rather than help them through the interview by giving them words when they had none. During the interviews, I asked Subin and Suranya questions on their reasons for being in New York and their experiences while here, demographic questions on their ethnic identity and their neighborhood’s ethnic composition and dynamic, their feelings on English usage in and outside of school, and finally questions on their thoughts and feelings concerning Americans and immigration.

The main area for socializing at the Center is the conversation partners’ room. Conversation Partners is the center’s most popular program, with many members waiting up to six months to be matched with a volunteer. In the room there are six rows of small tables separated by two dividers, making the room resemble a corporate office. This room is reserved solely for the purpose of having a member meet with a volunteer one-on-one for an hour-long conversation so each table has only two chairs. On the walls and room dividers there are computer printed photos of members with their name, country of origin and a short statement on why they value their conversation partner and how the program has helped them with their study of English and enriched their experience living in New York. The pictures are mounted on pieces of colored construction paper and give the room an elementary school flavor. The room is located on the south side of 23rd Street and fills with warm sunshine in the afternoons year round.

During one such afternoon I spoke with center members Subin, from Korea, and Suranya, from Thailand. Subin studies E.S.L. (English as a Second Language) at Hunter College, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, to improve her English language comprehension with the hope of a better score on the T.O.E.F.L. (Test of English as a Foreign Language). The test is crucial for international students acceptance into an American college. She hopes to eventually major in finance and is unsure if she will continue her studies here or transfer away from the city. She has been accepted as an international student to the University of Indiana but is hesitant to leave New York. Her English is good but she spends too much time within her comfort zones, at Korean restaurants and bars in the mostly Korean parts of Manhattan and Queens. My other partner, Suranya, told me early on in our partnership that she prefers being called Nid, a nickname that her mother gave her that means "small" in Thai. She came to New York to study because her older siblings are already here. She is a student at LaGuardia Community College in the Borough of Queens. She has been a member of the Center for only a few months and is active in the conversation partners program. She has not taken any classes that the Center offers its members, but hopes to find the time to fit one or two into her summer schedule. She is contemplating transferring from LaGuardia to Kentucky State in the fall, but fears that she has only been accepted because of the high tuition for international students. She has no major and does not know what her career goals may be.

Neither of my partners was able to compare their lives here to an experience elsewhere, never having lived in an American city other than New York. They did say that they enjoy the public transportation system. Both Subin and Nid are here as international students. The girls feel that having a degree from an American university will be as respected if not more than one from their own home countries. Neither felt that they would attempt to immigrate to the United States but both plan to continue their education outside of New York, both planning to attend universities in the Midwest or South. When asked the hypothetical question of whether they would raise a family in the city, both felt that New York is not a good place for children. Subin enjoys the civic and cultural amenities of the city, such as large museums and parks, but thinks New Jersey would be a better place to live. Nid felt that the high school kids she encounters riding public buses and trains "are too mean" and would not be comfortable letting her children attend American public schools.

When asked, "What is your ethnic identity?" my friends were puzzled. Both Subin and Nid are Asian but through my volunteer work at the center and my research on immigration, I find the term "Asian" too broad a category to adequately describe any person. Americans, when describing the largest continent’s vastly different ethnicities, use it far too loosely. Subin is Korean from Seoul. Her father is a practicing Buddhist but no one else in her family is. She has recently begun attending Sunday services at a large Korean-Christian church in New Jersey. Nid is Thai from Bangkok and her family is Buddhist.

An explanation for their reaction to the question on identity may be because both come from ethnically homogenous societies. Subin recognizes no difference between the people of North and South Korea and fervently expressed her longing for her country (simply Korea rather than South Korea) to reunite. Nid said that all Thaïs are the same. The only area of difference is a religious split with Buddhists living in the north and Muslims in the south.

Both girls confessed to fearing African-Americans before living in New York due to previous exposure to American media (television, music, movies). Both girls were amused when asked if they still feared blacks and emphatically responded in the negative. It seems that their initial fears were unfounded misconceptions and they recognize this now.

Both of my partners live in the Borough of Queens: Subin in Astoria, and Nid in Woodside. Both stated that their ethnicity is not the majority in their neighborhoods. Subin lives in Astoria, a neighborhood that has historically been Greek and remains as such. She thinks that there also are Japanese, Korean, and American or European people amongst the minority. Nid feels that her neighborhood is mostly mixed between Korean and Spanish. Both felt that the interactions between the different ethnic groups occur in shared public spaces such as convenience stores, Laundromats and on the street.

Subin and Nid both felt that use of the English language was important to being an American. Neither of the respondents felt that there were "too many immigrants in New York." Subin said, "This city is so big there is room for more." Nid felt that "Yes [there are] a lot but this city is all mixed, over a hundred different kinds of people." When asked, "Do you interact more with other foreigners or with Americans?" both admitted to spending more time with people of their own ethnicity who are also in New York. Subin has made friends in her E.S.L. classes at Hunter, but mostly from other East Asian nations such as Japan and China, with similar cultures and historical relations to Korea. The only Americans she has met are from the International Center or are friends of friends, she said, "I haven’t met any Americans directly."

When asked, "Where do you feel more comfortable speaking English, in a classroom or your everyday life?" each gave differing answers. Subin feels comfortable in the classroom because her English "is too bad" and fears being misunderstood on the street or around town. Conversely, Nid feels more comfortable outside of a classroom because she is afraid to make a mistake in front of her teacher. Both admitted that they speak their native tongue daily but may only use English at school, the center or at work. Nid works in a Thai restaurant near Times Square and must use English when serving native New Yorkers and tourists. Subin said, "I speak very little English in my life, mostly Korean everyday and English when I must." English use seems to be based on necessity. Neither of the girls has taken a class at the Center, which may help them to gain confidence using English daily.

I met Barbara and Mishiko, members studying an American novel together, in the lounge, a gathering place for members to congregate and talk with each other before meeting with their conversation partner or going to a class. It is a multi-purpose, cafeteria-style room with a snack bar (romantically referred to as "The café") at one end and a small stage/performance area at the other. The café serves drip coffee or tea and usually has an assortment of cookies and pastries, and some sandwiches. Between the stage and the café there are about 15 large, round, nondescript tables with metal chairs. For special functions, member appreciation dinners or cultural fairs, the staff dresses up the lounge with white linen tablecloths and floral arrangements and members are encouraged to donate ethnic dishes for traditional American "potluck" dinners.

Barbara and Mishiko are reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, with the help of an instructor. Barbara is a chemist from Poland and is looking for work. She believes that she needs to improve her English to secure a job. The main reasons she is a member at the Center are to practice English and for social interaction. Mishiko is a Japanese housewife living in Fort Lee, New Jersey. To come to the center she drives to a Korean supermarket in Fort Lee, takes a bus to 42nd Street Port Authority in Manhattan, and then the downtown subway to Chelsea. She has lived all over the world with her husband, a businessman with a Japanese company. Mishiko visits the Center to occupy her time and socialize without having to worry about her limited language ability.

Barbara and Mishiko enjoy coming to the Center because it has enabled them to do the impossible: read a classic American novel in the words of its author. They both agreed that without their instructor’s guidance the Pulitzer Prize winning novel would have been an impossible read. At the classes inception Barbara felt the reading would be tedious work. Students in the class were dismayed by words and phrases used by Harper Lee’s characters because many of their speech events have gone out of style and simply do not exist in the American lexicon. The entire class struggled with the dialects used, Southern African-American vernacular and the rhetoric of children’s slang and speech, because they cannot be found in common phrasebooks and dictionaries. Now they force themselves to stop with the assigned readings so as not to get ahead of their classmates.

After talking with these members I gained much insight into how the Center affects the social lives of its members. Since the research began, Subin has left the Center and become more involved with her church. This may be attributed to the sense of community she feels amongst other Koreans when worshipping together. Despite not having observed a class at the Center I would recommend that members attend the classes. When conversing with Barbara and Mishiko they seemed to have a sense of camaraderie about them, possibly due to studying To Kill A Mockingbird together; a feeling not sensed when interviewing Subin or Nid.

To answer the initial research question, the International Center in New York connects its members with people who are interested in learning more about the many world cultures represented in their surroundings. With a little patience, foreign members and native volunteers soon discover how much they have in common. Through my research I have seen that New Yorkers interact only on a surface level in most of their day-to-day encounters. We may grocery shop in the same stores, eat at the same restaurants, and wash and dry our clothes at the same Laundromats, but that does not mean we engage each other in conversation. The International Center provides a space where native English-speaking New Yorkers as well as foreign-born guests to the city can interact and get to know one another as individuals with a story and identity all their own and not just as animals in the same concrete jungle.