#3 Interview with Jessica Conte

Guest: Jessica Conte
Interviewer: Chris
Recording Date: November 15, 2007
Length: 52 minutes

Jessica Conte is a half-Korean, half-Italian American mostly from Seattle, Washington, although she also grew up partly on Yongsan Garrison, a military base in central Seoul, and in Alabama. In this interview we discuss Jessica’s experiences growing up in an eclectic mix of American enclaves, her time studying abroad in Mexico learning Spanish and her move to Korea with her younger brother. Jessica sheds some light on her experiences being interpreted ethnically in three countries, learning Korean without going to school, the support she’s received from Korean friends, and Koreans’ reactions to her ethnicity, her teaching and her tattoos. At the time of the interview, Jessica had been living in Korea for a little over a year.

Above, Jessica is pictured with her brother, Matt … in what appears to be an alley … in Insa-dong.

Click here to listen.

Be forewarned: during a few minutes of part three of the interview the sound system in the cafe was going crazy. Either the speakers were broken or the CD was skipping, but the coming and going and popping of the background noise is pretty annoying.

Tags: half-korean, korean american