> He is not a real friendly guy, but I don't think his not wanting to >accept checks is proof enough that he is a racist. I deal with 2 dry >cleaning establishments, both owned by Korean families. Both don't like >to accept checks. It is not posted in either store, and you have to >argue a little, but eventually, they will take the check. There may be >a trend here, but I don't think it is enough to label an immigrant >Korean merchant as a racist. I thought the default was NOT to accept checks if they did not say they would. I've been in Pittsburgh for 9 of the past 11 years and don't recall accepting checks to be that common. I hardly ever take my checkbook to the Giant Eagle even though I now have their check accepting card, due to old habits. I also remember when I first came to Pitt, the Korean grocers would not take my checks. When I asked why they took the other guys check, they asked for ID, and my Korean passport was not enough for ID -- they wanted a PA driver's license. They did accept checks from me several jars of Kimchee and several bags of rice later. Also, the Korean community in Pittsburgh is pretty small and since most of the Koreans go to the same handful of churches, the merchants see their Korean clients in church and hang out with them on weekends. It could be that they don't like to take checks from anyone, but have a hard time refusing checks from other Koreans they hang out with. If merchants are not supposed to take checks only from people they know, there is a good chance the Korean merchants here don't know about it -- there are no personal checks in Korea. Anyway, there might be reasons other than racism behind the checks. As for YBK, the quality of service and food is VERY inconsistent. The authenticity of Korean food in any of the Korean restaurants in Pittsburgh is quite low. All tend to use too much MSG and don't seem to be able to make good and fresh ban-chan (the side dishes of various spiced veggies, tofu and meats). For a while, about a year and a half back, Winner's in Oakland had some pretty good Yook-kae-jang (beef and vegetable stew with dried ferns in it). The Korean groceries have some prepared dishes which are generally better than the stuff in the restaurants. Han Kim
Pittsburgh, PA