Guest: Gregory Chan-wook Diggs Yang
Interviewer: Chris
Duration: 49 minutes
Recording Date: June 19, 2009
Gregory Chan-wook Diggs Yang is a 34 year-old half-Korean, half-Black American who has been living in Korean for the past seven years. Born in Seoul, Greg grew up in Busan, Germany and Illinois (among other locations) as his father was in the American military. As an adult, Greg lived in Illinois, where he went to university, Colorado, where he worked, Los Angeles, where he attended graduated school in education administration, and San Antonio, where he worked as a public school teacher. While evaluating his life and experiences, Greg decided that his goal in life would be to found a school for mixed-race Korean children living in Korean that would offer them the chance to visit the United States. Although this goal has taken on a different form, namely the start of a foundation, it was the spark that inspired his move to Korea.
Seven years in Korea provides one with a wealth and breadth of experiences. Greg began as a public school English teacher in a small Korean town, knowing little Korean. He commuted for hours on weekends to attend Korean class and later when he moved closer to Seoul continued with a rigorous schedule of work and commuting. On that note, Greg has worked as a teacher, editor, translator for the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, and most recently as a teacher training staff member at Seoul National University.
In this interview, Greg discusses growing up in Korean culture, Black culture (at separate times), financial and educational decisions that moved him around America as an adult, the dedication necessary to learn Korean and the multiple facets of living in Korea and being racially interpreted as a person of mixed Korean ancestry in Korea.
“I used to get upset when people would talk to me in English when they saw me, and then I realized it’s because when I’m with foreigners and talking with foreigners, they’ll talk to me as I’m a foreigner, but when I’m by myself, and in my ‘Korean mode’ if you want to call it that, or with my Koreans friends, they’ll talk to me in Korean. So, I guess because of my unique features who I am associated with when they see me a lot of times will determine how they approach me with the language […] When my Korean is so good that they never say I speak Korean well, that’s when I know I speak Korean well.”
“Growing up I used to think I would marry a Korean woman because I knew my African American side so well and I wanted to give my children the knowledge of both, and now I feel like I know the Korean well enough that I can marry anyone and feel like I can give them both the Korean and African American cultures.”
Canaries in the Motherland 