KAAFL Promotes Diversity and Community, Not 'New Seoul'

Towns undergo a metamorphosis like an evolving organism. Whether this process involves housing, new businesses opening up or community events, towns change.

Organizations like the Korean American Association of Fort Lee (KAAFL) act as one of the community catalysts for a better transition. 

According to the vice president of the KAAFL, Kathy Lee, the organization stresses more than just fulfilling Korean and Korean American interests, but promotes cultural diversity and community. 

“We’re not trying to help Koreans who immigrated here or Korean Americans create their own community,” Lee said. “America is a melting pot, so we’re trying to help them assimilate to other ethnicities and be culturally open.”

And although KAAFL is also involved with promoting newly opened Korean businesses, their main objective aims for integration, not self-isolation. Recently opened stores like H Mart Fresh on 16th St. and Sneak Times on Main St. are both owned by Korean Americans, but Lee expects those business owners to embrace serving non-Korean residents as much as they do their Korean and Korean American customers.

“In stores like these, we don’t want them writing only in Korean like a grocery aisle sign, but also in English so that we could create a friendly and diverse environment for all Korean and non-Korean customers,” she said. “Some stores that write only in Korean are sure to appeal little.”

Lee also described how restaurants like Pizza Nova on Palisade Ave. made a menu in Korean, adding the restaurant’s emphasis for community and cultural relativism.

In terms of blending the Korean culture with other cultures and American traditions in Fort Lee, KAAFL President Ji Sun Yoon said the organization is involved in civic engagement seminars and events like registering eligible residents to vote. She said that with progress, these types of things can unite multiple ethnicities into a single, stronger community.

“We hold charitable events like the Annual KAAFL golf outing and grant scholarships to Fort Lee High School students,” she said. “This year, we also introduced Korean traditional music like Poongmul during the Fort Lee Arts and Music Festival.”

Another one of KAAFL’s goals is to emphasize education on civics and community, not just for Korean Americans and Non-Korean residents, but for their second generation as well. 

Yoon said an upcoming seminar called “More Than Myself” teaches students and children how to embrace a community spirit in America while still upholding a Korean heritage. She added that part of the core of that idea includes parents echoing community responsibilities to their children.

“It is important that the second generation of Korean Americans know about volunteerism and community because they are more immersed in an American environment than their parents,” she said. “But it is also important that while they go to a diverse school, playing with other non-Koreans, that they don’t forget where they and their parents originated from.”

As an example, Yoon said that if her neighbor's lawn is neatly cut and trimmed, hers should be too. Whatever personal values an individual resident possesses stay within their house, but outward appearances should reflect on values to the community and other civic responsibilities, both Lee and Yoon said.

Since its establisment in 1991, KAAFL membership and contributions have swelled, and they are planning future events and promotions by the day. As tentative as some of their plans may seem, the KAAFL wants nothing less than to improve the community.

“Every day, we are thinking of improving relations between Koreans and non-Koreans,” Mi Hye Cha, the director of the association said. “Right now, we’re trying to hold a seminar just for Korean business owners, so that they can open themselves to other non-Koreans. “

The KAAFL also publishes weekly newsletters and an annual journal on upcoming community events soon to be published in both English and Korean. Kathy Lee said that with young and new officers contributing to KAAFL, the association is experiencing a fresh start. 

“This year, we hired new officers who can give us a fresh insight on the second generation but also keep our original goals alive,” she said. “Right now we have 300 subscribers to our weekly newsletter, and we hope to increase readership and volunteers this year.”