Meat and Vegetarian options will be provided for grilling. Please bring a dish to pass and/or drinks to share. Please RSVP and let us know what you plan on bringing, as well. We need to know this so we know how much food to provide. You can send us an email or reply on our Facebook event page. If you change or cancel your plans, please also let us know!

We will also be starting KAtCH annual membership and will have more information on membership fees and benefits at the dinner

Finally, we will be selling our KAtCH t-shirts at a discounted price!

This event is for Adult Korean Adoptees, but we do allow attendees to bring a supportive friend or significant other if they are not comfortable coming alone. Please note that the focus of this dinner is to create community between Adult Korean Adoptees, and to create a space where Adoptees can talk freely about adoption and their lives without intrusive questions or criticism from non-adoptees.

The picnic is Saturday, June 12., from 11am-5pm (rain or shine!), at the Blue Star Memorial Woods in Glenview, IL.

Please download the 2010 Lions Club Picnic Registration (PDF file) and mail in the registration by June 5 if you would like to attend.

On the front of the white 100% cotton t-shirt is the KAtCH logo with the Chicago skyline, so you can show your pride for being part of the KAtCH community.

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The back has the columnar rendering at left of the trigram symbols from the flag of Korea, the Taegeukgi / 태극기 (tay-gug-kee). Each trigram symbol represents both one of the four seasons and one of the elements in the universe – earth, moon, sun, and heaven...

. We are asking a suggested gift of $20 for a T-shirt, which is available in unisex S, M, L, and women’s S. We will have some at our KAtCH Monthly Dinner, and we can also arrange shipping to your home.

Your purchase will assist KAtCH in continuing many of its programs including creating a community for Korean Adoptees in Chicago, our monthly dinner event, cultural events, the KAtCH website, and our outreach to and volunteerism with the Korean, Korean American, and Adoptee communities in Chicago and beyond. Funds are also supporting our efforts to become an official 501(c)3 organization, and will help us with the filing fees. We thank you for your support!

Hosted by the KACS Young Leaders, this event at the Gene Siskel Film Center will screen the Korean fim, Aeja (Goodbye Mom) a humorous and moving examination of the intergenerational conflict between a Korean Mother and her rebellious, aspiring-poet daughter.  There will be a catered reception before the screening, allowing you to catch up with old friends and meet new ones! Additional sponsors include the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media and the University of Illinois Asian American Alumni Network

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Info:

Sunday, May 30, 3:45 pm.Screening at 5:15 pm.

The Gene Siskel Film Center is located at 164 N State St., Chicago.

Tickets – $20 online/$25 at the door. Purchase online at Eventbrite.

For Further Info More about KACS here. Questions about the event – contact Hume An at hume_an[at]yahoo.com or 312-286-8218, or check out the Facebook page. You can watch the movie trailer on YouTube.

The picnic will be held on Sunday, July 25th, 2010, at Lake Minear, in Libertyville, IL from 12:00pm-4:30pm. Please register with FCC if you would like to attend. There is a small fee to enter the park.

More information on the FCC website here.

Join us for our Monthly Dinner at Barberry Thai Restaurant on Saturday, May 29, at 7pm. Our monthly dinners are a place for Adult Korean Adoptees to meet, socialize, network, and have fun! We appreciate your RSVP so that we can ensure there is enough room for everyone! Email us at koreanadopteeschicago@gmail.com or reply on our Facebook page.

7pm, Saturday May 29
Barberry Restaurant
2819 N Southport
(Diversey and Southport)
Chicago IL 60657

BYOB!!!!!!!!!!!!
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AS ALWAYS, we would appreciate if you would:
- RSVP
- arrive on-time
- bring cash for dinner
- contact us even if it’s at the last minute if you’d like to attend or if you can’t make it.

http://barberrythai.com/

From the DePaul Website about the Conference: The CMRS conference brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines nationwide. Recognizing that the diverse disciplines that have nurtured Mixed Race Studies have reached a watershed moment, the 2010 CMRS conference is devoted to the general theme “Emerging Paradigms in Critical Mixed Race Studies.”

Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) is the transracial, transdisciplinary, and transnational critical analysis of the institutionalization of social, cultural, and political orders based on dominant conceptions of race. CMRS emphasizes the mutability of race and the porosity of racial boundaries in order to critique processes of racialization and social stratification based on race. CMRS addresses local and global systemic injustices rooted in systems of racialization.

This is the third session that KRCC has held, and some KAtCH members have attended the class before. In just a short 7 week spring session, KAtCH members were able to read and write the Korean alphabet, read a short children’s book, count in both Korean number systems, form sentences, and even order Korean food in restaurant. They all got to practice their skills at a delicious outing to a Korean restaurant, too. In addition to the language skills, the classes also give insight into Korean culture and the Korean American community in Chicago, through games, videos, presentations, and conversation.

If you are a beginner Korean speaker, or even at an intermediate stage, join KRCC and your fellow Adult Korean Adoptees for this wonderful opportunity to increase your Korean language knowledge, learn new words and grammar, and practice your speaking and listening skills.

The class is $145 for 12 weeks/24 hours of instruction. Classes will start May 11, on Tuesdays from 7pm-9pm and are held at KRCC’s office at 6146 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL 60659. Email Youngsun [at] chicagokrcc [dot] org if you have questions, or if you need the registration form. KAtCH can also e-mail you a registration form if needed.

The Nationality Law Revision was passed on 2010/04/21 by the Korean
National Assembly. It will give Korean adoptees the right to re-gain
their Korean nationality in addition to the adoptive nationality. The
revised law will go into effect as per 1st January 2011.

More info at the GOA’L website

What does this mean for a Korean Adoptee?

Since 2007, GOA’L has been working with the  Korean Government and their bill to provide dual citizenship for certain populations of overseas Koreans. Effectively, the passage of this revision to the Nationality Law will allow Korean Adoptees the right and ability to reclaim citizenship in Korea, while being able to retain their citizenship of their country of adoption. Previously, Korea did not recognize dual citizenship. When one was adopted and then naturalized (at least in the US), they effectively gave up their right to Korean citizenship. When adopted, all Korean Adoptees were under the age of majority (age 18 in the US), and had no legal say in the dissolution of their Korean citizenship. This revision allows Korean Adoptees a chance at deciding their citizenship in regards to Korea.

Their still remains some issues to negotiate, particularly regarding mandatory military service for all Korean citizen males who are age 18 or older. A small number of Korean Adoptees were never naturalized and so retain their Korean citizenship. If they were to return to Korea, they would be immediately conscripted into military service. If they were to return to Korea as citizens of another country but start the process of obtaining Korean citizenship, upon completion of the process, they would still have to perform their military service duties. GOA’L is still working to figure out how military service would be handled for male Korean Adoptees who would like to obtain Korean citizenship under this new revision.

I would love to be able to have Korean Citizenship – How do I do this?

The process has not yet been defined, but the law does go into effect  January 1, 2011. Please refer to the GOA’L website for updates, and KAtCH will provide updates when possible. Until then, their are some options for people who are planning to spend an extended amount of time in Korea. The F-4 visa is currently the the most popular option at the moment. GOA’L does have information regarding the F-4 visa and how it pertains to Korean Adoptees.

Why is Dual Citizenship important for Korean Adoptees?

As stated before, Korean Adoptees were not legally able to decide their citizenship when they were adopted to the adoptive country. This revision would allow Korean Adoptees the option to decide their citizenship. While any person could enter the process to become a Korean citizen, Korean Adoptees also have ties to their adoptive country which includes their families and their personal history as they grew up in that country. By disallowing dual citizenship, any Korean Adoptee would have to be stripped of their citizenship of their country of adoption. Through this revision, Korean Adoptees will be able to reclaim their citizenship in Korea, while allowing them to retain their ties to their country of adoption. As Korean Adoptees have gotten older, many have returned to live, work, and study in Korea, and some have found their birth relatives in Korea as well. This law will recognize the duality of many Korean Adoptees lives, as they may have family, friends, and meaningful lives in both countries, neither of which may have more importance over the other. Dual citizenship would allow Korean Adoptees to fully engage in their lives in both countries, and open up many possibilities that may not have been available if they had to choose one country over the other. They would be able to return to Korea as citizens which would ease their participation in activities such as living, working, studying Korean language and culture, birth and family seraches, and most importantly, participating in the lives of their known birth families or relatives without some restrictions that were associated with being only a visa holder.

I would like more information and updates!

To learn more about the campaign and for the most recent updates, you can contact GOA’L, which also has a Facebook page. KAtCH will try to update this blog as soon as we hear more as well. You can also sign up for our mailing list for notification of any pertinent updates.

We will be meeting at the Korean grocery store, Super H-Mart at 6pm. If you’ve never shopped at a Korean food store before, KAtCH will provide a tour of the store to help you identify and shop for Korean foods! Do you need an idea for a Korean Recipe? Check out our post for Korean Kimchi Pancake here

At 7:30 we will meet at Arirang restaurant, located just behind Super H-Mart to enjoy a great Korean meal!

Please RSVP so we may ensure there is enough room for everyone at the restaurant. Please let us know if you need to cancel your RSVP as well. Also, please post on the wall if you need or can offer transporation. Thanks!

As always, the dinner part of this event is specifically for Adult Korean Adoptees, but contact KAtCH at koreanadopteeschicago@gmail.com if you feel the need to bring a supportive friend or significant other