Profile of a language group present in the Los Angeles area Research Paper

Profile of a language group present in the Los Angeles area - Research Paper Example They were sourced to meet the growing demand for labor on the Hawaiian plantations following the enactment of a series of laws that barred Chinese labor immigration. Students and political exiles comprised some of the ancient Korean immigrants, providing considerable leadership in the pre-World War II Korean American community. The intervention of America in the Korean War (1950-53) prompted another wave of Korean immigration. US soldiers posted in Korea brought home Korean brides, planned adoption of Korean War orphans to American homes and sponsored students to study in America. The population of Koreans who have immigrated to America as adopted children or brides exceeds 100000 for each group. The students who were now professionals were able to apply for permanent residence visas in the US in 1965.close relatives of permanent residents and citizens greatly increased the number of Korean immigrants LA .Over a quarter million Korean Americans live in the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County-San Bernardino-Ventura metro area. According to the U.S. Korean Embassy, there are about 260 Korean community language schools in the Los Angeles area. The Korean language is taught as a subject mainly in colleges and universities in LA .University of California-Los Angeles (405 los Angeles, CA 90095 Hilgard Avenue) is one such college .The institution has a Korean language department and a center for Korean studies offering Korean at degree level. Korean language is taught in many other institutions of higher learning as a foreign language. Korean American children have inadequate prospects of developing bilingualism in today’s US educational system. Heritage language education is available in the form of weekend schools; these are community-based programs offering language/culture instruction for a couple of hours per week. Most Korean community schools are run by Korean Christian churches, with the staff mainly comprising volunteers from the community. These