When I visted Korea this past summer for the first time in 2 years it seemed less foreign because of how easy it was to follow along with Korean pop-culture on blogs on the internet and watching Korean news on cable tv.

its just the 1700 dollar plane ticket thats the bitch.

I think air travel has gotten a lot cheaper internationally, especially since the early days of airline de-regulation in the late 70s and early 80s. Also, there is just more business trade and cultural trade. The world *is* more global now than when I was growing up.

I have a Caucasian high school friend who has lived most of his adult life overseas, primarily in Asia (Hong Kong, Australia) and is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese to name a few languages. I have two other friends, one Caucasian who speaks no Chinese, and a Taiwanese American friend who speaks Mandarin, who have their startups based in Beijing.

I say, if you can afford it, definitely let your kids travel overseas to Asia!

I think something the article probably doesn’t talk about is how also military plays a role. There are more and more bi-racial/multi-ethnic people of Asian descent because there are military stationed in those countries. Countries like the Philippines or South Korea are a good example.

Also, depending on who they grow up around…not everyone accepts the view of “Asian” nor do they want to even socialize with other Asian ethnic groups. Also do their parents also understand that the child may struggle identifying with others moving back and forth?

So on one side, a person can grow up very multi-cultural and benefit from both sides. However, there are ones who may not and grow up with an identity crisis and looked down upon by others.

The celebrities are a different manner because they are trained when they are very young. They don’t necessarily have to live the average everyday life as someone who is just living there. An example would be Jessica and Tiffany from the Korean pop group, Girls Generation. They were picked by SMTOWN to train under, so it’s not like they live and visit there and worry about attending the top Koreans school.

The one thing that is still talked about is how the traditional old-fashioned parents more or less order their kids around, vs actually creating a positive and beneficial relationship for them.

I’ve already visited several Asian countries and have family over there, which includes both China, Philippines, and Vietnam. If anything, going as a tourist is different because your going for vacation so of course you would try to visit the nice places. There’s still many families who live in poverty and struggle just to make a living, that is the parts of Asia I’m not sure everyone can deal with.