Being born and raised in the US, English is my first language, but not the first language of my parents. They tried hard to teach me their language (Korean), but it is not reinforced in the environment in the US. It seems that even if I meet other "Korean" people (especially second or third generations), they tend to want to speak in English, too. As a result, I realize that I've lost a lot of the culture, because a lot of the culture is contained in the language. I'm what my parents call "Americanized," and I don't understand or relate to the Korean culture much at all because I don't understand the language. I watched a tv show recently about some hearing implants. Deaf people don't view themselves as disabled, and they tend to favor against getting their children these implants to hear because they say that the children won't understand "deaf culture." It was really an eye opener... because then I realized more about how my parents feel when I don't communicate with them or other relatives in their own language.
I do notice, however, that as English is taught more and more in Korea, that the American popular culture (clothes, music, movies, etc.) tends to infiltrate their society. When I visited the big cities there, it reminded me a lot of New York City.
Also as a side note, the mixture of Korean and English words when spoken is called, "Konglish." My mom speaks it really well.
