#24 Interview with Diana Sargent

Guest: Diana Sargent
Interviewer: Chris
Duration: 47 minutes
Recording Date: June 17, 2009

Diana Sargent is a 28 year-old half-Korean American from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and has been living in Korea for the past four years (having originally planned on staying for only one). Diana grew up in various locations with many Latino friends, identifying more with this community than other Korean Americans. After studying at three universities and finishing at Brigham Young, she was surprisingly not placed in Korea for her mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and her one and-a-half extra years in Salt Lake City, Utah, eventually factored into her decision to move to Korea thereafter.

Diana originally came to Korea to work teaching English, but changed focus as time passed to learn Korean and then attend graduate school for a master’s degree in international relations at the Ewha Women’s University Graduate School of International Studies. She eventually took a job working as a news reporter for TBS (Traffic Broadcasting System) in Seoul.

In this interview Diana discusses her various stages of life in Korea and how they evolved, being the outspoken American in her graduate program, working in news broadcasting (including dealing with the seemingly obligatory culture of after-work drinking), as well as dating in Korea and the image of the sexually liberalized Western woman.

“For anyone that’s looking to come to Korea, just ask ‘Why?’ Why are things different? Why does this person act that way? Why is that person treating me like this? If you can seek to understand those things, life will be so much easier, as opposed to coming in and expecting people to conform to you […] there’s got to be some give-and-take there.”

Click here to listen.

#19 Interview with Annie Koh

Guest: Annie Koh
Interviewer: Chris
Duration: 56 minutes
Recording Date: March 31, 2009

Annie Koh is a 30 year-old Korean American from Chicago who has been living in Korea for about four years. Annie has the perfect Asian American academic record: Phillips Exeter, Yale, Seoul National … but also proves that going to an Ivy League school doesn’t have to end in giving up your dreams of making a difference in the world. After college Annie moved to the Bay Area where she worked on a fellowship for an Asian arts foundation and worked as one of the founders of HYPHEN magazine. In this interview, Annie talks about her experiences growing up in a primarily Jewish environment and living on a track of academic success, discovering Asian America at a less-than-progressive ivory tower university in the US and exploring the world of activism and creativity in Korea.

Click here to listen.

#18 Interview with Lisa Collins

Guest: Lisa Collins
Interviewer: Chris
Recording Date: March 19, 2009
Duration: 59 minutes

Lisa Collins is a 29-year old, half-Korean, half-Irish American form Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lisa has lived in Korea on and off for over four years and her time here has included intensive language study through both a language school and a US government specialists’ training program, as well as graduate work at the Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies and Korea University. Lisa currently works at a Korean think tank that specializes in US-Korea relations and North-east Asian policy. In this interview she discusses moving back and forth between the US and Korea for training in international studies and law school, studying Korean long-term at a professional level, the Korean group mentality and perpetual branding as a cultural outsider.

Click here to listen.

#16 Interview with Sarah J.

Guest: Sarah J.
Interviewer: Chris
Recording Date: January 30, 2009
Length: 57 minutes

Sarah J. is a 26 year-old Korean American who spent her formative years between Fiji, Hawaii and California. She moved to Korea four years ago with the intention of working at a hagwon for one year, but ended up finding work in broadcasting, and ever since has continuously extended her stay. One peculiarity of Sarah’s story is her experience with her Korean boyfriend, whom she met before he had performed his mandatory military service. In this interview listen to Sarah discuss her experiences working as an English teacher and then in the English-language broadcasting field, maintaining her relationship with a man for whom she waited for two years, and constantly contemplating the merits of staying.

Click here to listen.

#7 Interview with Bill Packard

Guest: Bill Packard
Interviewer: Chris
Recording Date: January 10, 2008
Length: 55 minutes

Bill Packard is a half-Korean American from Toledo, Ohio. Bill came to Korea after college and some work experience in America and first moved to Suncheon where he spent about two years teaching English. After a quick move back to America to see if things worked there, he moved back to Korea, this time to Seoul, where he’s roughly been for the past three years working in the publishing industry. In this interview Bill discusses growing up slightly ethnically isolated yet well-integrated, as well as the surprising normalcy of growing up with two parents of different ethnicities before his move to Korea.

Click here to listen.

#5 Interview with Kelli Donigan

Guest: Kelli Donigan
Interviewer: Nari
Recording Date: December 14, 2007
Length: 60 minutes

Kelli Donigan is 33 years old and was adopted to Michigan at the age of 6 months. In this episode she opens up about her experiences growing up in an all-white community, coming back to Korea in her 20’s, and her subsequent work for returning adoptees. Kelli contributes a unique perspective as she has lived in Korea for over 10 years. Listen for her detailed description of Korea’s transition from “beepies” to “handphones.” Above, she is pictured between two Korean friends.

Click here to listen.

#4 Interview with Joo Kim

Guest: Joo Kim
Interviewer: Chris
Recording Date: December 11, 2007
Length: 52 minutes

Joo Kim is a 24 year-old Korean American from Palisades Park, New Jersey. Although he’d only been living in Korea for 7 months at the time of the interview, we thought it would be interesting to hear from someone of his perspective: Joo is the first male, first fluent Korean-speaker and first member of the US Army to be interviewed by Canaries in the Motherland. In this interview we discuss his family’s move to America, initially to a white suburb and eventually to a high-density Korean neighborhood, obtaining US citizenship at the age of 21, and almost haphazardly entering the US military to come to Korea.

Oh yeah, Joo and Chris also went to college together. Above, Joo is pictured with a muskrat on his head.

Click here to listen.

#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.

#1 Interview with Robyn Shultz

Guest: Robyn Shultz
Interviewer: Chris
Recording Date: October 31, 2007
Length: 44 minutes

Robyn Shultz is a 25 year-old Korean American adoptee from St. Louis Park, Minnesota. She was adopted at three months old and did not return to Korea until the age of 24 to spend a year teaching English. In this interview we discuss her experiences living and working in Korea, including her experience meeting her biological mother and half-brother. Above, she is pictured with her biological mother at a hoi (raw fish) restaurant in Busan, conquering her life-long aversion to all things seafood.

Click here to listen.

Also, for more adventures from Robyn, a.k.a. Park Joo-Young’s, life, check out her photoblog, “Globe Trotters.” It chronicles her travels from Morocco (just before coming to Korea), to her time and travels here.

Bear in mind: this is the first episode, we’re still experimenting … and figuring out how to work all the software. :)