Role of family relationships in growing up

How do cultures differ in their family relationships, especially those that surrounding the teenager graduating from school?

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HLK University	Nolfolk State University	Penn State University	Woosong University
Jenni S. & Carina A.			Sesub

Discussion

Heading: searching for identity Date: 2002-04-09 10:39 From: Carina Arding I'm interested in her search to know more about her father. She feels that something is missing in her life. A part of her identity is lost.

Heading: RE: searching for identity Date: 2002-04-09 15:13 From: Kyeongouk Jeong > I'm interested in her search to know more about her father. She feels that something is missing in her life. A part of her identity is lost. -Yes, she clings to the past so desperately because she becomes to find her identity through the process of knowing more about her father.

Heading: RE: searching for identity Date: 2002-04-10 19:29 From: Jeongok Sul It is strange for me, because if it happened in Korea, family members always might say about the dead. In this story, other family members didn't say a lot about her father even her grand parents. For Sam, it is absolutly needed to find her father's trace. It is very meaningful for her I think. > I'm interested in her search to know more about her father. She feels that something is missing in her life. A part of her identity is lost.

Heading: RE: searching for identity Date: 2002-04-19 10:34 From: Sunyoung Park In Korea, there is something like proverb. Before you marry your spouse, you should meet your spouse's parents and feel their family tradition. Some young generation ignores this words but I think this is identity issue. People are constructed in strong influence of their parents. It will consist of their thought, values, life aim and so on for their lives. Based on this kind of idea, I can understand Sam's struggling. But struggling is good for her because it is to disprove she becomes a man of mature personality.

Heading: The importance of parents when growing up Date: 2002-04-09 10:46 From: JENNI SILVA-GONCALVES Good relations with parents is a crucial thing for any child. Sam has a need to get to know her father, to find out who she is.

Heading: RE: The importance of parents when growing up Date: 2002-04-10 20:44 From: Katie Maher I agree. Getting to know your family and understanding your roots is a very important part of growing up. In searching for details about her father and his life, Sam is also trying to learn more about herself and her history as his daughter. It seems she isn't given much information until she searches for it on her own and I feel that others don't take her actions seriously at times because they feel that she is too young to understand something as complex as war.

Heading: RE: The importance of parents when growing up Date: 2002-04-12 14:24 From: Biz Englebert I agree to this too. The need to know our parents is huge in our lives. I think this is why so many adopted kids try to find their birth families, and why kids from single-parent families almost always find a role model father or mother figure to substitute the one they are missing. Sam is doing the same thing. I think that we have this need because this is where we find a huge art of our own identities. We need to know our parents so that we can know ourselves.

Heading: How often do you meet your grand parents? Date: 2002-04-10 19:37 From: Jeongok Sul I know a little bit about the family relationship in the USA. How about in Sweden? How close do you get along with your relatives?

Heading: RE: How often do you meet your grand parents? Date: 2002-04-10 23:47 From: Alicia Brown My family is close...actually both sets of my grandparents live in the same vicinity as myself. My family is a lucky one though. We haven't had to deal with any kind of happenings that may break up our close ties. The situation in the US differs for each family. There are families broken up by divorce, death, or other tragic situations. I hope this helps. How do relatives interact in your culture?

Heading: RE: How often do you meet your grand parents? Date: 2002-04-13 15:59 From: Jeongok Sul Here in Korea, traditionaly family is very important.We have lived with parents and grand parents. Sometimes, we've lived with 4 or 5 generations. Thesedays, it's changing.It's almost like your country. Family ties becomes week. But,my family is so close. We are lucky, too. We live in the same city, also. My husband and I visit in law's house with my children almost every Saturday. On Sundays, after the church, we also visit my mother. Some families do like us. But some don't or can't. Like Christmas or Thanksgiving in your country, Lunar New Year and Full Moon in August by lunar almost all Korean family get together. It's a huge move like Exodus.

Heading: RE: How often do you meet your grand parents? Date: 2002-04-11 21:04 From: JENNI SILVA-GONCALVES I feel a little ashamed to admit that we don't see our grandparents very often. Swedish people are heading towards individualism, we want to move out to own apartments as soon as possible which leads to that we don't see our families that often. We put our elderly in special homes instead of taking care of them ourselves. Because of this we don't get to know them the way we would like.

Heading: Nuclear Family? Date: 2002-04-11 15:23 From: Denny Suh How important is the Family? I am always asked myself that question. I grew up in a nuclear family where my parents sacrificed themselves for whole family. I couldn't understand the reason. Why do western parents promote "individuality" where eastern culture promotes "collective good". For a long time I had no sense of identity. As a Korean born Canadian - I was stuck in the middle of these two bipolar cultures. Only recently living in Korea have I come to understand more of who my parents are. However, I'm not sure if I will ever fully comprehend the complicated attributes of both cultures.

Heading: RE: Nuclear Family? Date: 2002-04-12 16:06 From: Kyeongouk Jeong Korean parents are willing to sacrifice themselves for thier children. As a Korean mother I am the same. I don't know why. .^_^. From western point of view,it may be difficult to understand their uncontional love. In korea, the concept of family precedes the individual. Family is the last shelter you can rely on whenever you are in trouble. Call your parents today!

Heading: RE: Nuclear Family? Date: 2002-04-12 17:50 From: Younghae Kim I'd like to share my husband's obssesive and insistent question he used to ask me after my first son was born. " if Jun (my son's name) and I were drown almost to death in the river, who do you want to save first? suppose you are only one around at that moment..." I thought he asked the question to prove my love for him and denied answer and said " don't worry about it. that will never happen in your life". after suffering of few months' long, he told me to save Jun first. because he already had lived long enough to forsake his life for Jun. To him Jun was his life itself. I agreed with him and accepted his decision. I understand his decision wasn't come out of his uncertainty of my love for him but of his certainty about self-realization that he and Jun are one.