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The Public Library Introduced Me to America  Joanne Chun Hughes As an immigrant, you can sometimes feel isolated--until you walk into the Chicago Public Library... Joanne Chun Hughes is the Executive Director of Business Tax Advisory for Ernst & Young LLP. She is a member of the Chicago Public Library Foundation Board of Directors and a strong advocate for public access to knowledge and discovery. I came to the United States in 1971 as an infant with my family from Korea. My father was part of a wave of Korean doctors coming to the U.S. to complete their medical residencies. When we arrived in Chicago, we briefly lived in Humboldt Park and Cicero before settling into the southwest suburb of Orland Park, where my siblings and I were raised. The oldest of three children, I was introspective, shy, quiet and a physically small child. I vividly remember needing help from a fellow student to hang up my coat because I couldn't reach the coat hooks! It was as if my small stature defined my shy personality. My curiosity on the other hand, far exceeded my height. As part of an immigrant family, our immediate world was Korean -- my parents spoke Korean at home, ate Korean food, practiced Korean customs and socialized within the Korean-American community. It was no surprise that by the age of 6, I had yet to speak fluent English. But I was able to read in English as we were regular visitors to our public library where I would happily lose myself among the bookshelves and their contents. The public library soon became my connection to a society and culture from which I felt disconnected. American kids seemed boisterous and outgoing while their social interactions such as "swapping lunches" and "sleepovers" were unfamiliar. Fourth of July events were frightening before I understood that they represented celebrations. There were few Asians in my community, where I sometimes felt like a novelty for some of my peers. The public library was a place where I felt accepted. My library card provided a sense of identity, of "membership" into American society. It was a place where I could safely find answers to situations I often times felt silly to ask and for not knowing or understanding. "Traditional" fairy tales like Cinderella and Snow White were discovered at the library as opposed to naturally growing up hearing them. Fiction books like those by Judy Blume, the Sweet Valley High series, Nancy Drew series, and A Wrinkle in Time offered a comfortable passenger's seat through the terrain of American culture, society and traditions not offered anywhere else. It was while sharing in the adventures of characters like Peter Hatcher (Fudge), the Wakefield twins (Sweet Valley High) and Meg Murry (A Wrinkle in Time) that I understood American kids, culture, food and slang. The more I read, the more my English improved and so did an appreciation for the world around me. Soon I was not only speaking fluent English, I was incorporating what it was to be American into my life. My imagination would soar as I would take on the identity of characters from books--often times asking my parents and teachers to call me by the name of a new character every few weeks! This was amusing to everyone around me because I was such a shy child, yet they indulged me in my creative exploration. Slowly the walls of isolation were knocked down through the understanding and acceptance of American culture. I have to credit access to the vast world of knowledge offered by the free books, magazines, videos and programs available at my public library for helping me to discover the English language and through that, my identity as a Korean-American. I wonder how many more immigrant children--and adults--have also discovered and will continue to discover the english language and understand America because of access to the Chicago Public Library? |
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