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History and current demographics

Toronto Korea Town

Toronto, a city in Ontario, Canada is known widely for it's diversity and multiculturalism. Among the city of 2,790,000  half of the population (1,237,720) are immigrants born outside of Canada. More than 140 different languages and dialects are spoken in Toronto, and more than 30% of the population speak a language other than the official languages, English and French.

The first Korean immigrant to set foot in Canada was Tae-yon Whang. In 1948, the mission-sponsored intern settled in the Metropolitan area of Toronto. The first non-student Korean to immigrate to Canada, Ch'ung-lim Chon, also settled in Toronto with his family of four in 1962. Following  that, 4000 visas were issued by Canadian immigration official to Korean citizens. These 4000 Koreans in turn formed the core beginnings of the Korean community in Ontario. Since then, there has been a steady increase in Korean immigration to Canada.

During the 1970s, there was a noticeable increase in Korean immigration, in which a majority of the immigrants settled in Toronto. In a survey done in 1986, it was determined that 10,380 people in Toronto alone claimed Korean as being their first language.

By the end of 1989, the Korean population in Ontario -as estimated by the Korean Consulate- was approximated to be around 35,000. According to a census done by the Federation of Korean-Canadian Associations, 25,000  of the 35,000 were living in Toronto.

As of the year 1994, there was approximately 50,000 - 60,000 Koreans living in the country of Canada. The majority of this group of Koreans have settled in some of the major cities across Canada, including Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal among others. It is unfortunate, but currently there are no accurate statistics pertaining to the population of Korean immigrants in Toronto. This is due mainly to the fact that the Immigration Department of the Federal Government has not kept any statistics on Korean immigrants. It should also be factored into account that the Immigration Department of the Federal Government incorporated the statistics for Koreans into the larger group of Asians in their record accounts.

Institutional support

There is a wide range of organizations and cultural communities located in Toronto that support the education of Korean language.

Korean-Christian Churches

There area total of 80 Korean-Christian churches, 1 Korean-Catholic church, and 2 Buddhist temples in Toronto that offer bilingual instruction. These churches offer Korean language classes, in which one hour between church activities is devoted to teaching the Korean language and culture.

Korean Y.M.C.A.

As well,  there is the Korean Y.M.C.A., an organization that is aimed to educate Korean youth, adults, and elders through various Korean Heritage Schools located in the major cities of Canada. These schools exist to teach second-generation Koreans the Korean language. The Korean Y.M.C.A. also provides service for elders, and English classes. In 1991, there were 35 Korean Heritage Language schools located in Ontario, offering 85 different classes, and had an enrollment of more than 1,100 students. 16 of the 35 schools are located in Toronto. These Heritage Language Programs consisted of 1-4 classes each with 20-70 students. 2 and a half hours was dedicated each week to this program.

Korean School Association

The Korean School Association is made up of the organization of teachers who teach Korean Heritage Language Schools. Throughout the year, they host various events such as the "Korean Speech Competition" and the "Korean Writing Competition".

Foundation for the Support of Korean Studies

The Foundation for the Support of Korean Studies at the University of Toronto is a Korean department within the university that is dedicated to teaching Korean traditional culture and education. They donated a large quantity of Korean study-related books to the UofT library, and provided various fundraising for the Korean Department. On top of the Korean language and culture classes offered at the University of Toronto, some high schools offer a Korean Heritage Language class that is counted towards a credit.

Korean Community Centre for Multiculturalism

The Korean Community Centre for Multiculturalism (KCCM) is a not-for-profit organization that was made in 1979 to develop education programs for Korean youths. These programs include various courses in the Korean language.

Korean Culture Centre for Education

The Korean Culture Centre for Education (KCCE) is an organization aimed to expose children to both the Korean and Canadian culture. The KCCE allows second-generation Koreans to learn about their own heritage, people, and nation while emphasizing the importance of multiculturalism in Canada. This is done through the teaching of traditional Korean children's games (which is targeted for young children), and ancient and  modern Korean society for older students.

Status and second-generation language maintenance

The dominant language of communication that is spoken throughout Toronto is English. The use of the Korean language is thus restricted to communication between parents and children.

In a study conducted by Young Gon Kim, 35% of Korean immigrants from the sample studied (N=100) were university graduates, and 62% were secondary school graduates from Korea. The majority of Korean immigrants in Canada have a high education level and background. However, due to the lack of conversational English skills, they are unable to re-licence their educational achievements from Korea within Canada. The Canadian licensing do not officially recognize Korean degrees. As such, Korean immigrants must retake those university courses. However, doing this is costly, and puts pressure onto their financial situations. As such, many Koreans are thus employed in cheap labour work (i.e. convenient store owners, fast food places, gas stations, motels, etc.). In the Metro Toronto area 1000 stores are run by Korean immigrants. It is estimated that 85% of grocery and variety stores in Toronto are owned and/or run by Koreans. Korean parents must work long hours doing cheap labour in order to support their children. As such, many second-generation children are left alone at home and have less time conversing with their parents in their heritage language. This in turn lowers the motivation for second-generation children to learn Korean in their home environment. This is reflected in the decline in knowledge of the Korean language, and practice of Korean culture and traditions by second-generation children.

The main language spoken by second generation Koreans is English, and they regard English as their primary language.

Another factor that deters second-generation Koreans to learn Korean is due to the difficulty. The Korean and English language are fundamentally different in grammatical structure. One such difference occurs in sentence structure where one consists of subject-object-verb, while the other comprises, subject-verb-object.  It is understandable that second-generation Koreans would find it difficult to learn Korean if their mother tongue (English) is classified under a whole separate language family.

It is becoming increasingly common for children to respond in English to their parents who use Korean to speak to them. This is reflected in a study by Young Gon Kim in which 45% of parents use Korean to speak to kids, and 20%  of children use Korean to speak to parents.