minor correction

MORE IMPORTANTLY, I LOVE HOW THEIR BABY GIRL HAS ACCEPTED MR KWON AS HER SECOND DAD SO QUICKLY

I think he means more in the sense of having American blood running through his veins?

i'm sure different native american traditions have an specific way to call themselves instead of "american", this name and concept was invented by western people

I think it's just reading between the line, it's more like he's saying he has an American blood so he's half in blood. He just not saying it in detail. But if you have a name to call someone who has an American blood but not full, and never really live there, what would that be?

And I think they just broaded the extent of country, or generalized.

it's very obvious what he means by 'half-american' is that he's half white. idk why you'd jump to "this author must not know this information" rather than "this might be an issue of korean to english translation" first lmfao

I'd say neither
Cause most east asians don't bother with ethnicity and race that much (since most of them are homogenous population )
Yes I'd could be a "this might be an issue of korean to english translation"
But by half-american they ment half-foreigner and then they discovered the "half" is actually someone from American land and thus it came to be half-american (that is the conclusion I came at lol come come at me that how my brain worked)
Anyways I am not against anyone in here just sharing my first thought ya ll

I read all the above comments and still I stand by my opinions ...it's idk... interesting(?) to read people's first thoughts that end up being the talk of the town LOL

Haha, and the dad didn't specifically say the country, but America in general. So we can assume it might be in the north or the south. He just said america so our ml just said so I'm half-american, generally. (So it could be half-canadian, half-brazil or anywhere in America) But atleast we know he his half westerner and it's it america

I can see what you mean by that, I think if that’s the case, either the author or translator made it a bit confusing though by having his character claim he was half american.

well that’s the thing — even if he had an american’s blood in him, he’d still have to actually say what (which his father never specified) the ethnicity is. so if his father said german, not saying he is german lol, then he’d be half german and half korean. but since he doesn’t know the proper answe if he’s ever asked would be ‘i’m mixed, i know i’m half korean but i don’t know exactly what else i’m mixed with’.

I feel as though you are upset with me and idk why. maybe i’m reading your tone wrong but I’m not trying to start any fights here. while yes it is obvious the author was insinuating white, white is race which is not the same as ethnicity — which is what mr kwon was actually truly meaning when he asked his father. race is the color of your skin, ethnicity is the culture/dna you have, and nationality is where you legally have status in. either way, the writing is incorrect and based on the conversation flow, I just wanted to explain how it’s incorrect to ppl who may not know the difference and why it may sound odd to me. it could very well be a mistranslation, you’re right in that it is another avenue I didn’t consider, however I trust the translation to be pretty accurate which is why I assume the one mistaken would be the author. as I’ve said before, some authors have gotten things wrong about americans before so in my mind, it felt like the most probably cause. but you’re right in that it could be a mistranslation so thank u for bringing that other consideration. either way, the essence of my point still stands.

my point is the natural way of conversation probably could be corrected one of two ways:

mr kwon: what is your nationality?
leon’s dad: american
mr kwon: and what about your ethnicity?
keon’s dad: [specify]

or
mr kwon: what is your ethnicity?
keon’s dad: [names an actual ethnicity like italian for example (idk i’m throwing one out there for an example only)]
mr kwon: oh so i’m half italian!

in the second scenario he could actually claim it bc that’s what’s in his blood. in the first, when mr kwon only asked about nationality, he in that scenario understands the difference and further asks to know his own ancestry so to speak.

for background and maybe to also help explain the differences between race/ethnicity/nationality — I’m american myself. for instance my race is brown, my ethnicity is latina (subgroup: mexican/puerto rican), and my nationality is american.

just to help further clarify: I think ppl often forget (even tho it is common knowledge) that america was colonized. and I mean people everywhere including americans bc lbr our education system isn’t the best in some states …. I mean ppl know but their behavior exhibits that the history of it means nothing to them. the land was stolen from native americans who are brown. this is also why when discussing immigration in the united states, colored ppl will laugh when racist white ppl call themselves the ‘true americans’ bc ALL white ppl have ancestors who essentially immigrated here. they want to act like only colored ppl are immigrants but that’s literally not factual at all. it’s also why sometimes when having a conversation with a white person, sometimes they ask ‘where are you from’ and a colored person will go ‘oh here’ or they will say the specific state they grew up in and then we just give them THE ‘stare’ when they go ‘but where are you REALLY from?’ ….. bc essentially u can be a 4th generation born and raised in the USA person and you’re still treated like you’re not an american… but ironically when you present the question back to them, they get confused like it should be obvious they’re american simply bc they are white… no self awareness at all to the fact that it’s racist to assume the look of an american is ‘white’ only when there is no look in this melting pot of a country. unfortunately bc of this attitude tho, I think it also confuses ppl overseas bc they see how white americans don’t often talk about or identify with their actual ethnicity sometimes, so they confuse ‘american’ into an ethnicity.

there’s surprisingly a lot of thumbs downs to my comment which I am quite confused about bc nothing I’ve said is false. it’s all information you can google, ‘what is the difference between race/ethnicity/nationality’… so I am a bit lost as to why it seems to have upset some people. I expected 3 or maybe 4 thumbs down bc I do realize it is a bit picky thing, of which I did admit to myself to pay attention to. it’s certainly nothing that detracts from the story but I wanted to help inform readers who may not understand why it was ‘incorrect’.

I can only assume the other reason some felt upset may be bc they feel I am bashing the author, I am not. I only said that I believed the author (or translator, as someone also brought up to be as another plausible explanation) may be a bit confused as to why mr kwon’s response doesn’t make much sense. it is not an insult to her intellect as one being confused on the topic is not a claim of a person being ‘dumb’ and only a claim of one being uninformed. I love this author so much and respect her work and I also appreciate the work of the translator. I think it doesn’t hurt to be corrected in a friendly way (not that the author reads our comments on here anyways but i thought the correction would be informative to other readers). it doesn’t hurt to be more knowledgeable of a topic. that is all i sought to do with my comment.

I apologize for any typos, my phone keeps autocorrecting me anytime i try to write ‘kwon’s dad’ … it kept changing to keon or leon wtf