From Korea to Queens: Min Jin Lee on the American Dream

So when she came home from work, so I'm sorry, in America, she worked at the store with Daddy.

So my father and my mother had a little tiny store in Manhattan.

Initially, it was a newspaper stand for one year.

And then afterwards, they had a wholesale jewelry business the size of this table.

So...

And they worked there six days a week.

So when they came home, the rice was washed.

Okay.

The vegetables were prepped.

My older sister, who was only 9 or 10, had to do all this.

Wow.

With instructions or just she watched and

learned? My older sister is really smart.

She has a really super high IQ.

I'm the dumb one in the family.

Well, then y'all must be

hyper-intellectual.

She's not normal.

She's not normal smart.

She can catch on so fast.

So she was doing a lot of work as an immigrant kid.

So she helped my mom a lot.

And then my mother would come home and do the third shift or the fourth shift and do all the cooking.

So when we were growing up and she was working all the time, she had a kind of.

And we also had to make do because we didn't have money.

So when she came home from work, so I'm sorry, in America, she worked at the store with Daddy.

So my father and my mother had a little tiny store in Manhattan.

Initially, it was a newspaper stand for one year.

And then afterwards, they had a wholesale jewelry business the size of this table.

So...

And they worked there six days a week.

So when they came home, the rice was washed.

Okay.

The vegetables were prepped.

My older sister, who was only 9 or 10, had to do all this.

Wow.

With instructions or just she watched and

learned? My older sister is really smart.

She has a really super high IQ.

I'm the dumb one in the family.

Well, then y'all must be

hyper-intellectual.

She's not normal.

She's not normal smart.

She can catch on so fast.

So she was doing a lot of work as an immigrant kid.

So she helped my mom a lot.

And then my mother would come home and do the third shift or the fourth shift and do all the cooking.

So when we were growing up and she was working all the time, she had a kind of.

And we also had to make do because we didn't have money.