Koreans, Hispanics Work for Harmony

Yoon also got help from mediators such as Carlos Yoon (no relation), a Korean immigrant fluent in Spanish and at the time, a human resources manager at headquarters. Carlos Yoon translated the grievances of the Fairfax store's Hispanic workers. Among other things, they disliked the way their Korean managers spoke to them, barking orders and rarely showing appreciation. The practice, though not uncommon in Korean workplaces, offended many Hispanic workers.

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Some of the employees were surprised to hear their co-workers' complaints.

"Sometimes a dispute can be solved by one employee just saying 'please,' '' said Thomas Yoon, who recently moved to an H Mart store in Wheaton. "There is so much misunderstanding because you have two groups that have no way of communicating beyond very basic words."

Thomas Yoon said even a few basic words, like "gracias" (thank you) and "como esta, hoy?" (how are you today?) can help. Lorena Portillo, who is a bagger at H Mart, agrees and has been trying to immerse herself in Korean, learning the names of Korean rice and dried noodle brands. She knows the differences among long grain, short grain, sticky and sushi rice. She knows the Korean words for cabbage (baechu) and frozen dumplings (mandu). After four years at the store, she's able to greet customers and follow simple instructions in Korean.

"Gamsa habnida" (thank you), she says, loading plastic bags into a grocery cart one busy weekday afternoon.

"It's easier to learn Korean here and I need it more," Portillo said in Spanish.

Korean Corner grocery in Silver Spring holds Spanish lessons each Tuesday night for its Korean staff. The store's owner hopes the lessons will help Korean employees work more efficiently with their Spanish co-workers.

In order to communicate with his staff, James "Jaime" Han, whose cleaning business employs 62 Hispanic workers at $7 an hour, took two years of Spanish lessons from Young Kil Cho, a pastor and member of the Good Spoon. It is a religious group based in Northern Virginia whose mission has become to bridge the cultural divide between Korean employers and their Hispanic workers.

On a recent scorching Tuesday afternoon, day laborers gathered at an industrial intersection of south Arlington in paint-splattered jeans and work boots, listening to Cho teach expressions the laborers could use to get a job.

"Yo cualquier trabajo!" (I do anything!)" the men, immigrants from Central and South America, repeat after their teacher.

They repeat the phrase again, this time in Korean.

"Muo-dun-ji he-yo!" they say slowly in a chorus with near-perfect pronunciation.

Gerardo Avila, a native of Mexico, says learning a few phrases in Korean could give him a leg up among the day laborer crowd that gathers on the Shirlington corner each day. Numerous Korean subcontractors come to hire workers to put up drywall, lay down wood floors and fit roof shingles, Avila said.

"I need to do anything to get their attention," said 35-year-old Avila, grasping a handout of Korean and English phrases such as "I want $12 an hour" and "I have experience."

Korean businesses, which tend to be labor intensive and have low margins, will continue to need Hispanic immigrants to grow, said Dae Young Kim, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland at College Park. He added that Korean business owners often feel that Hispanics "also have a sort of immigrant drive that would make them hard workers."

Thomas Yoon said that H Mart came to similar realizations. "We woke up and realized we couldn't run our stores without them. We had to start treating them for what they were -- important employees," Yoon said.