An immigrant learns to drive.

An immigrant learns to drive in LA.

Whenever my siblings gather with their families during our reunion dinners for our parents’ birthdays and anniversaries. We always tell this story of how our Korean mother learnt to drive in America without knowing how to speak much English, needless to say read the language.

The story begins just after the Korean War, my dad Cho Chin-Hwa had befriended a couple of US Marines when he was working as a medic driver in Seoul. They suggested that he would have a better living in the US of A.

In Korean, my Father’s name Chin-Hwa meant the most wealthy one.

“How would I become rich if I continue to drive an ambulance?” lamented Dad. He kept thinking about his American friend’s invitation to go to the US even after they had gone home and the war had finished.

It was in 1961, my mother Hyun Jae finally agreed to follow my father to America. You see, my mother’s name means wise and full of respect. Father and Mother went to pay their respects and farewell to both my paternal grandparents and maternal grand parents.

“It’s not good bye, but we will be back when we have made our fortune.” My father told his elders.

Mother was tearful, she didn’t know when that day would be. She hasn’t met any Korean who had gone to US of A and made his mark and came home with a big fortune. She was also worried how she would adapt in a country where she could speak only Hello.

Father’s marine friend Joe met them at the LA International Airport with his wife Ashley.

Ashley tried her best to make the Chos feel at home, “Annyonghashimnikka.” Intonating each syllable slowly. “ Am I saying hello correctly?”

“Gomapsupnia, thank you for speaking in our language.” Replied Chin-Hwa.

“We live in Anaheim and you can stay with us until you find your own place.” Said Joe.

The Chos found a small corner grocery store with a small apartment at the back of it near to Joe’s apartment.

“This is good to start off with. We don’t need too much capital.” Said Chin-Hwa.

Ashley offered to teach the Chos English lessons. “You will need to speak English and some Spanish in this neighborhood.”

Chin-Hwa took up this offer and two afternoons a week, Chin-Hwa became a student again.

"It was very difficult, not only many words are belly confusing, I have to learn the tenses, present tense, past tense, future tense. I had so much headache."

We, the babies, started coming, almost like clockwork, one ever year. Mother was too busy to go for English lessons. But her smile and cheerful disposition won her customers over. She only had to say hello and the customers became her regular customers.

Dong came the first year. Chin-Hwa and Hyun Jae named him Dong. The name Dong in Korean mean East. They wanted to remind Dong that though he was born an American, he was Korean and came from the East.

Then came Dong-sun. The meaning of Dong-sun is Eastern integrity. Chin-Hwa and Hyun Jae wanted their children to grow up with integrity. “We are immigrants, but we are not crooks.”We Koreans are belly hard working and honest. ”;

My two sisters have names of Eun Mi and Yun Hee. These are feminine names. Eun Mi meaning Grace and beautiful. Yun Hee meaning Lotus flower. The girls hated their names. They were American girls, who are not wall paper and are born with equal rights to men. Though at home, they didn’t feel they had equal rights. They had to do all the house work and help out in the store.

I am the youngest and if my sisters hated their names, I dreaded mine. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know why. My name is Duck-young. Duck-young meanings Integrity lasts. From when I knew it, the neighborhood kids and grown ups were forever teasing me, “Quack! Quack!”, “Donald Duck.” and speaking with a Donald duck voice. The Chinese were worse, they called me “YaYa” which I found out that it meant a male prostitute. So I learnt to protect myself. I was this scrawny Korean boy with bruises, marks and scraps. I was the Karate kid. You see, Karate is a Korean sports of self defense.I also gave myself an American name Jeff much to mother’s chagrin. She couldn’t pronounce the letter F and Jeff became Jet.

The store wasn’t doing very well as it couldn't compete with the big supermarkets. Chin-Hwa decided to get a job as an ambulance driver in the hospital. This means that sometimes Mother would have to drive in case of emergency and we the boys were learning karate in a sports centre too far for us to walk, and out of the way from any bus routes. We were too poor to hail a cab.

The problem was Mother didn’t speak and write English.”"How was she going to pass her driving test?"

Dong was twelve years old then, and he proved his salt. He went to the library and borrowed a book on the road code. He was very creative and used an old card board box and drew out a map copied from the road code. He drew houses, and shops, and hospital, fire station and police station, schools, parks etc. In fact, he was so gifted that if we had kept the board, we could have sold it as a board game. We also cut out little cars, trucks, buses etc.

“Remember, right is the hand you write with, and left is the other hand. Remember, it is very important. You need to know it to turn left or right when the officer is testing you.”

We had as much fun watching Mother “drive” on Dong’s traffic board game. Father would tell her to go slow, pull over, park here.

“Park at the school, school is on your left etc.”

Eun Mi and Yun Hee cut out two eight by ten cardboards and proceeded to make the L sign for Mother to tie to the car when she ventured out the road.

On the day, Mother was confident to have her first practical lesson, Father showed her where the brake, the clutch, and the accelerator were. It was in the days when most people drove a manual car. Fathers started the car, turned it off and told Mother to start the car.

Mother turned the key, she turned again. Nothing was happening, she felt hot and her hands were clammy.

“Come on, start the engine like I told you,” said Father.

“I am, but nothing is happening.”

“You can do it, Mum.” Echoed all of us.

“I don’t know, the engine isn’t starting.”

“It just did, didn’t it when I started it,” said Father getting a bit impatient.

Father took over the wheel, he too, couldn't start the engine. Then he looked down to his feet. There was I, the five year old me, was helping Mother learn to driving. I was stepping on the accelerator and flood the engine. Father and Mother laughed, they couldn’t get angry with me.

“Well, we will just have to wait another day after the engine has dried up before Mother can try again.

Mother and Father woke up very early in the mornings to learn to drive the car. They wanted to beat the traffic. Initially, Mother was horrified with the on coming traffic. After coaxing that she could do it, Mother became less petrified. Mother took three times as long as other learner drivers. She said she wanted to be sure she could drive properly before she went to the test.

Her English improved, Dong made sure she had two hours of English lessons every evening with him. On Friday mornings, Mother also went to Ashley to polish up her accent.

"School." said Dong.

"Skool" parroted Mother in her heavy Korean accent.

"Church."

"Churchee"

"Stop!:

"Sitop!"

We all burst out laughing.

“Don’t worry about your accent, everybody speaks in his own way.”

The customers were commending how well Mother was speaking in English. She was budding in every way.

Mother was also happier and when the store was less busy, she was gossiping with her regular customers.

On the day of Mother’s driving test, it was during our summer break, so we didn’t go to school. We all got up and had our breakfast. We hugged Mother and wished her all the best and promised her we would look after the store and not to worry.

“You can do it, just remember you write with your right hand,” reminded Dong.

Off they went, Father driving Mother to her very important test.

We kids, stayed in the shop, absentmindedly and not serving our customers. Alice, a regular retiree asked us, “Are you kids serving me or not?”

“Sorry, Alice, we were just thinking how Mother is doing at her driving test.”

“She will pass, don’t worry.” Said Alice.

It was two pm when Father and Mother finally came into the store. Both of them were looking very grumpy and crestfallen.

“Did she pass? Did she pass?”I asked anxiously, tugging at Father's sleeve.

“Psssst! Can’t you look at their faces? Don’t be a pest?” Dong tried hushing me up.

“Mother failed her theory test because of her English and she didn’t even have a practical test.”

“It can’t be, Mother’s English was getting very good.” said a shocked Dong.

“I think it is racial discrimination, someone should complain, they failed Mother because she is Korean.” said Dong-Sun.

Mother decided they had grilled us enough. From her hand bag, Mother took out her license and waved it in front of us. They were having us on to see our reaction.

“I knew you would get your license, Mother, you were so good and your practical joke was very good too. For a while, I thought you really didn’t pass your test.”Said Dong.

“It was Father’s idea to pull your legs. We all had a bit of fun. Ice cream anyone.”

“Yes, please.” Though we sold ice cream in the store, we were not allowed to help ourselves to any.

‘Cheers and congratulations to Mother.”

Eun Mi and Yun Hee brought a pair of scissor, and I took the two L signs. Mother cut up the cardboard cards into pieces and we all threw the pieces over our heads. Then we all packed like sardine into the car and Mother drove us past the road to Disney land. Though we were born in Anaheim, we had never been to Disney land.

“Mother, now that you can drive, you will drive us to Disney land?” I asked hopefully.

“We’ll have to think about it, it costs too much money for a family of seven.” Explained Father.

“May be you will get to go on a school trip.”