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Using Korean abroad |
An oft-neglected aspect of the Korean language is that it can often be used in areas besides Korea. Though not to the extent that Chinese can be found in just about any large city in the world, knowing Korean can prove to be helpful in a number of large cities throughout the world, as well as many smaller cities in China and other parts of Asia. Koreans abroad generally consist of students, short-term immigrants, long-term immigrants and second/third generation children, and in China also live Koreans who live in areas historically a part of Koryeo, now the People's Republic of China.
[edit] Australia
- Strathfield - middle class suburb in the inner west suburbs of Sydney is the centre of Korean expat activity in NSW, Australia. Large concentration of Korean businesses centred around the railway station.
- Campsie - working class suburb in Sydney's south west, south of Strathfield and to the east of Bankstown has a significant and long-established Korean presence with numerous Korean businesses located there.
- Eastwood - suburb in the north west of Sydney has a strong Korean presence, particularly in terms of restaurants. Quite probably the best place to eat Korean food in Sydney, or even Australia. Multiple grocery stores, video stores and aforementioned restaurants, focused to the east (city) side of the railway station.
- Sydney City - several blocks around the south of the Sydney CBD, bordered by George St, Elizabeth St, Market St and Liverpool St. Another cluster of Korean shops further to the south, close to Central station, towards Surry Hills across several blocks bordered by Foveax St, Chalmers St and Holt St.
- Brisbane - there are several Korean businesses in the Chinatown area of Fortitude Valley, and also in the city centre. Residentially however Korean people seem to have spread out in Brisbane and do not predominate in any particular suburb. There are many young Korean people in the suburbs around the University of Queensland. Excellent Korean grocery shop near Indooroopilly Station.
[edit] Canada
- Calgary - Many Korean businesses are located just south of the train tracks downtown around 10th Ave.
- Toronto
- Korea town (Bloor and Christie)
- Toronto reference library (Young and Bloor)
- Mini Korea town (Young and Finch)
- Any Starbucks, any library
- Vancouver - the area around Kingsway close to the border of Vancouver and Burnaby has a large number of Korean shops, and the downtown area especially around Robson Street has a large number of Korean students who study English.
Koreans in China
- Beijing Wangjing (Beijing's Koreatown) and Wudaokuo.
- Dandong (丹东) - Dandong is right across the river from Shinuiju in North Korea. It has a population of about one million, and inside live a large number of Chinese Koreans as well as North Koreans, especially women from Pyeongyang who work on short-term contracts in restaurants run by both countries.
- Hong Kong (香港) Kimberley Street in Tsim Sha Tsui, and Lei King Wan are two Korean areas.
- Qingdao (青岛) - The city of Qingdao is a one-hour flight from Seoul, and in its population of 7 million live approximately 60,000 - 100,000 Koreans. Korean banks include Hana Bank and Shinhan Bank, and at Starbucks and Korean businesses one can obtain a Korean-language guidebook to life in Qingdao including almost 20 pages of phone number listings for businesses in Korean.
- Shanghai - in Minhang, there is Longbai.
- Shenyang (沈阳) - Manrong is a Korean district here.
- Tumen (图们) - this city is located just across the river from North Korea and is even closer than the city of Dandong. One can cross the bridge halfway and take pictures of the opposing shore. All the cities in this area have a large Korean-speaking population and nearly all signs are bilingual. Government website
[edit] Germany
A lot of nurses and later students from ROK went to Germany. Thus, a number of cities have Korean populations.
- Goettingen - ATW student housing has a concentrtion of Korean student families. There is a Korean grocery store on Kurze Geismarstrasse. The university library has a massive collection of Korean literature (mostly recent).
- Fukuoka - Fukuoka is just across the bay from Busan, and has a relatively large number of Koreans compared to the population. AM radio from Busan can often be heard, especially in the countryside. There is a "Korean town" close to Tenjin, located underground where a large number of Koreans work and where kimchi and various Korean goods can be bought. Korean friends can also be made at Rainbow Plaza in Tenjin, an international centre where people can look for friends, language exchanges or part-time work.
- Osaka - Tsuruhashi area, also known as Korea Town. Going there one can eat Korean food at half the portion and double the price. Has a large number of second-generation Koreans that may or may not speak the language. There are several blocks and alleys of Korean food vendors and barbecue restaurants.
[edit] Malaysia
[edit] Mauritania
- Korean fishing boats work along this coast and several Korean restaurants have sprung up along the western fringe of the Sahara Desert in this country to serve this clientele.
[edit] United Kingdom
- London - New Malden, a leafy suburb of South West London is the UK's Koreatown. Apparently up to 20,000 Korean expats.
[edit] United States
- Alaska
- Barrow The northernmost US city has more than one percent people of Korean ancestry, for a total of 58, in ten families. Korean-owned restaurants include Sam and Lee's and the Osaka Restaurant. [1]
- California
- Bakersfield - not a huge Korean population but there's a restaurant and a grocery store on White Lane in Southwestern Bakersfield, also a Korean church on another street in that area.
- Barstow - at a freeway exit to this desert town a sign reads "식당" The actual establishment is in the Food4Less shopping center. Its front also bears the same hangeul sign. Are there enough Koreans, or other Korean-reading people, in this town, or passing by en route to Las Vegas, to keep this incognito (to most) restaurant in business?[2]
- Los Angeles - Nearly half of all Korean-Americans live within 15 miles of Koreatown. JP hopes to marry a resident of PV
- Murrieta Temecula Calvary Korean Presbyterian, [3]
- Norco St. Andrew Korean Community - Norco 4140 Corona Ave. [4]
- Oakland - Korea Town is a relatively recent formation - but it's growing rapidly along Telegraph Avenue. Koreana Plaza (formerly Pusan Plaza) is the big supermarket here, about 23rd or 24th and Telegraph. There's a small Korean shopping center, Koryo Village, farther up Telegraph. The Korean Community Center is located here.
- Orange County
- Sacramento
- Riverside: Korean students study at University of California, Riverside. There is a Korean church near the UCR campus. Korean BBQ House is located at 9844 Magnolia Ave. Outside the restaurant is a newsstand for the Hanguk Ilbo. Riverside's Korean sister city is Gangnam-gu
- San Carlos - A buffet restaurant with Korean food upstairs, Chinese and Japanese downstairs, is along El Camino Real. Some other Korean shops are in the area.
- San Diego - There's an area in the north part of town along Convoy Street with a number of Korean businesses.
- San Francisco - Korean businesses are focused in the eastern part of the Richmond district.
- Sunnyvale and Santa Clara - Two large supermarkets are Han Kook Supermarket and Kyopo Supermarket. There are a number of restaurants also along El Camino Real and lots of other Korean businesses. And there's a manufacturer of ricecake that retails to local stores - they provide a wide variety of types.
- Colorado - over 16,000 Korean-Americans living in this state.
- Aurora - the largest concentration of Koreans in the Denver area.
- Boulder - at least one Korean restaurant.
- Colorado Springs - a substantial Korean-American population here. A number of Korean-owned businesses are located along Academy Blvd.
- Denver - several Korean restaurants. See Aurora above.
- Washington, DC-MD-VA area
- Idaho
- Boise - On Fairview Avenue one can find an assortment of Asian restaurants and other businesses - Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, and, of course, Korean. Kim's Restaurant, at 8601 Fairview, is located near the corner of Milwaukee St. in the Shopko Plaza and features Chinese-Korean as well as Korean dishes. Tel: 321-7800. Farther west, at 10387 Fairview, is the Korean-owned Diana Oriental Market. The Korea House restaurant downtown closed in 2005 or early 2006; another, Koreana Grill, on Overland, was open briefly in the 2006-2007 period before its owners went back to Korea. Boise has around 700 Koreans, two Korean groceries, and a Korean Presbyterian Church, and there are another 300 Koreans in adjacent towns between Mountain Home and Caldwell.
- Lava Hot Springs - This huge oncheon southeast of Pocatello attracts many Korean tourists - sometimes several busloads in an afternoon. You can hear the Korean-language announcements on the P.A. system.
- Illinois
- Chicago - "A commercial thoroughfare on Lawrence Avenue traversing Albany Park and other neighborhoods, Chicago's Koreatown spans several miles, from Cicero Ave. to California Ave., and is densest around Lawrence and Pulaski. Unlike the ethnic merchants in Greek Town, or the Pilsen, in Korea Town the Korean shops are everywhere interspersed with American, Hispanic, and other kinds of merchants. Despite diminished density of the Korean population (only 3% Korean-speakers), the Korean presence is nonetheless strong here and spills over into communities for many miles in every direction." source
- Michigan
- Ann Arbor - Many restaurants (some 15 places to find bibimbap), two groceries, and several churches. Korean Studies program at the University of Michigan.
- Minnesota
- Minneapolis - Restaurants and noraebang on Oak Street between Beacon Street and Essex Street, in Stadium Village near the University of Minnesota.
- St. Paul - Restaurants on Snelling Avenue between Minnehaha Avenue and Englewood Avenue, in Midway near Hamline University.
- Nevada
- Las Vegas A substantial Korean presence, along with many other Asian groups. The Commercial Center in the 900 block of East Sahara has several Korean restaurants, a grocery store and other Korean-owned businesses. Several restaurants and a Korean-run bakery are located on Spring Mountain Road, west of the Strip. This is in an area where Chinese businesses dominate, but is quite culturally diverse, with Latino, Filipino, Malaysians, Vietnamese, etc all getting their slice of the pie.
- Reno The restaurant Sushi Boat on Virginia just south of Plumb Lane has a Korean menu as well as Sushi and other Japanese items. If you get the sushi buffet ($11.95 for lunch, M-Th) you can ask for banchan (about five plates - kimchi and the other usual items) for no extra charge. In general Koreans seem sparse in this fairly large urban area.
- New York City and New Jersey
- around 5th/6th Ave's and around the area of 30-36 St is Manhattan's Koreatown. A good deal of Korean businesses around, and always some of the largest groups of Koreans in one place in NY.
- Flushing in Queens has the largest groups of Koreans one will see in NYC. It's like stepping back into Korea. Apparently very different from the "lame" two-block scene in Manhattan. Flushing also functions as a Chinatown, however.
- Palisades Park, NJ is the Korean place. Palisades Park is exclusively Korean, all the businesses and the vast majority of residents are Korean. The suburbs ajoining Palisades Park are Leonia, Englewood, Teaneck, Cliffside Park, and Riverside Park, which also have many Korean residents, but the Korean business center is in Palisades Park.
- Edison, NJ has a large Korean population, and in 2006 elected the first Korean mayor in the United States. Rutgers University has a significant Korean population and a Korean studies department chaired by one of the authors of the Active Korean series.
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma City - There is a small Korean community in Midwest City near Tinker Air Force Base. To approach from the city, take I-40 east from the junction with I-35. Exit on S. Sunnylane Rd. and head south until you reach SE 45th St. In this area of several blocks you will find several restaurants, a grocery store, a barber, a video store, and other establishments that serve the local Korean-American population. The restaurants are also popular with the locals in general, in particular the servicemen.
- Oregon
- Eugene - there are six or seven Korean restaurants scattered around town. All of them are closed on Sundays. All but one (Korea House, 1306 Hillyard, open 11-9 M-F and 5-9 Sat) are closed on Saturday too. It's not only Korean restaurants here - what is it about Eugene that makes it so hard to get a meal on weekends?
- The Korean-run Sunrise Market on 29th Street sells a variety of Asian foods, including kimchi by the gallon. They have a little deli where you can buy a few pre-cooked items, so if you like chap chae at least you won't starve on a weekend in Eugene. They are open seven days a week.
- A new publication in Eugene is Korean Ducks: A Multicultural Magazine, a free English-language magazine whose staff is largely Korean, but with some whites and other Asians. It is associated with the University of Oregon (whose mascot is the duck).
- Portland - Quite a few Korean-run businesses, enough so that they once (and perhaps still do) had a Korean Grocers Association. There's a number of Korean restaurants scattered about. Perhaps the biggest concentrations of Koreans are in the 82nd Street area and in the West Slope - Beaverton area. (this latter neighborhood is shared with about 20,000 Japanese.) On S.E 82nd Street is the Korean grocery Boo Han Market. Between Canyon Road and Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy is Gobugi, a Korean market that's small but makes its own ddeok and other Korean goodies. The nearby Japanese supermarket Uwajimaya has some Korean merchandise.
- Medford. Less than 100 Koreans live in Jackson County, most in this small city. Nonetheless there has been a Korean-American on the Medford Planning Commission, another on the City Council and a third on the Parks Commission in nearby Talent. There's a Korean church (Presbyterian) on Crater Lake Avenue in Medford. Korean-run shops are Farm-fresh Produce at 100 East Jackson Street, and Asia Market in the WinCo Plaza. For several years Korea's Dankook University maintained a branch in nearby Ashland, but that has shut down.
- Texas - 45,571 Koreans, in the 2000 census.
- Dallas
- Houston - A Korean-language newspaper is published here; there are Korean businesses including a ddeok-manufacturer. The primary Korean focal point is around the intersection of Long Point and Gessner.
- San Antonio
- Washington
- Seattle - most of the Korean businesses are found on the northern end of I-5, in the neighborhoods of Lynwood, Edmonds, Shoreline, and North Seattle, and especially along Aurora Avenue. Seattle has a downtown "International District" which historically was a Chinatown, but now has a mixture of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other ethnically specific businesses.
- Tacoma - The principal Korean business district is in the southern suburb of Lakewood and in adjacent parts of the south end of Tacoma. Boo Han Market in Lakewood is the largest purveyor of Korean food items in the area. There's also a couple manufacturers of ddeok in Lakewood.
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