This is a recording when walking on the street in Koreatown. For Bridge Project 3, our group had has chosen Koreatown and did some street research. We went to Koreatown’s main street: W 32nd St between 5th and 6th Avenue and commonly known as Korea Way.
This is the map of Koreatown from Google Maps.
According to Wikipedia, Koreatown used to be a part of the Garment District, which is a neighborhood that sells and produces fashion designs. Later on in the 1980s, Koreans who immigrated to the United States and tourists have established bookstores and restaurants in the area. As the business grows, Korean in New York have pulled many other Korean business people to develop their business here. Ever since then, the Korean population has grown and is now well-known for having the most authentic Korean restaurants outside of Korea. Koreatown consists of mostly Korean restaurants but also bookstores, salon, nightclubs, bars, karaoke clubs, electronics, cosmetic shops, banks, office buildings, and supermarkets. Because most restaurants are opened for almost 24 hours, the area has become a tourist attraction.
While walking on the streets I have noticed there are many people from around the world like Chinese and Japanese people.
The first recording is when we entered a shop consists of many fast food restaurants and dessert cafe. Most shops in Koreatown have Korean music playing in the background.
The second recording is when we were walking in the street. You can hear people speaking in different languages.
While walking around Koreatown, I took some street pictures and restaurants. Most shops and restaurants have big Korean signs that are also lit up at night.
These are shops in Koreatown.
This is the street that we went to and selected.
There are many cars parked on both sides of the main road, allowing only one lane for cars to pass and causing a lot of traffic. In the background is a hotel that we went in and interviewed a lady who works at the concierge.
This is another street view. The street gets busier as people get off work.
We had lunch at BCD Tofu House at 5 W 32nd St. I ordered Kimchi Soon Tofu.
This is a sketch of a small food court in Koreatown.
We interviewed a total of 4 people. The first person we interviewed works at a Hotel Stanford and she happily cooperates in the interview. She is Korean but comes from Afghanistan. Unfortunately, that day when we interviewed her, was her first day at work so we could not get that many information. However, she mentioned that Koreatown is very busy and she likes it here. The second person we interviewed was a man who works at a bookstore. He also happily helped us even though he was working. He is Korean and came here 2 years ago. When asked how Koreatown has changed over the past few years, he said he believes that it has not changed much but there is definitely more people and tourists from around the world. The third person we tried to interview was a chef taking a break outside a restaurant. However, when we approached him he abruptly acts uninterested. After that, we decided to go to a supermarket called H Mart. The supermarket sells everything but mostly imported Korean goods. While walking around we met an old man working at the desk and interviewed him. He gave us the most information out of all the people. Mainly, because he is old and he has been here for about 20 years. Although he cannot speak English that well and could not understand some of our questions, he told us that Koreatown has gotten busier and more new restaurants. He also mentioned that there are a lot more people from other countries like China, Hong Kong, Japan, etc.
Here are the links to my group members:
https://portfolio.newschool.edu/weichen/
