June Kang
Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, June first became renowned in the public as Miss Korea Canada in 1993. After having married the Korean celebrity Choi Min-soo, June moved to Seoul to start a new chapter of her life. Since then, she has been featured on the Korean television reality show What it means to be a Mom (엄마가 뭐길래; pronounced as Ummaga Muogillae). June is one of two Canada 150 Ambassadors with the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, and is Vice-Chair of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in South Korea.
What does being a Korean-Canadian mean to you?
I was born and raised in Toronto. Until the age of 23, I lived in Toronto and then moved to Korea. Now, I have already spent half of my life in Korea and the other half in Canada. I can’t understand how that happened, it just turned out that way. I feel very proud to be a Korean-Canadian. I believe in my generation, there aren’t too many Gyopos (a.k.a. overseas Koreans; 교포) who were actually born and raised abroad. There is a term for that: 2.0 generation. I don’t think that is common in my age group. I feel like I’ve been part of a frontier, having come to Korea at 23 unexpectedly, and living here somewhat like a hidden foreigner – looking Korean but feeling very much different. It’s that third culture kid life basically.
What’s been exciting for me is living out but at the same time witnessing the response of the Korean public because I ended up marrying a celebrity, a public person. So living with him for 23 years has been very interesting for me because I have been able to receive feedback over the years.
“AS A CANADIAN, I GOT TO LIVE OUT THESE UNIVERSAL TRUTHS THAT I REALIZED WAS NOT EXCLUSIVE TO ANY ONE CULTURE OR HERITAGE.”
When I first came to [South] Korea, people were saying, ‘Wow, you seem so well mannered, well behaved, and all of that.’ In Korea, they are very conscious of etiquette. It just feels like they are sensitive about that. But they would say it as if you were raised in Korea. I found that very interesting. In Korea, [there exists] a very ethnocentric way of looking at Korean people – that only Koreans have etiquette and mannerisms – which is not true. But I realized that I was exhibiting universal truths and values that communicated with Korea even though I was born and raised in Canada; more as a Canadian than a Korean-Canadian because I never felt different while I was being raised in Canada. I always was a part of a cultural melting pot.
For me, it’s been such a huge miracle and blessing because I have been able to get feedback from the public all throughout my life here. I feel like if the public was uncertain of me when I first came, it’s only now after 23 years having lived with my husband with the values that I know are true to me that they are also seamlessly truthful for Koreans. Today, I feel like the Korean public is responding in a very favourable way, supporting me and really just rooting for my husband and I, and our life. I attribute a lot of that to the fact that I was raised with these universal truths. And as a Canadian, I got to live out these universal truths that I realized was not exclusive to any one culture or heritage.
I don’t particularly like to express that there is a Korean way, or a Canadian way. I want to say that as human beings, we all seek the best ways [to live and behave,] regardless of heritage. But it’s kind of my little test with my own life to see how Koreans react to me, how they feel about me, and how they perceive or assess how I lived out my life with my husband. Thankfully, while we were sharing our lives with the public, it’s been very well received at the end of it all.
As a Canada 150 Ambassador, do you have any remarks for Canada’s 150th birthday?
“IT’S SUCH AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE AND COUNTRY”
I learned about the Confederation when I was in grade 7. I remember the class where I was taught about this, very well. We had to draw a picture reflecting the Confederation and I drew a chain link, a gold link, that chained everyone together. That became a link to solidify Confederation in Canada. I recall my metaphoric graphic being regarded highly by the teacher.
And here I am after all these years later as a Canada 150 ambassador. I feel thankful to be Canadian. I think [Canada] is a really highly regarded country universally, and I feel truly honoured that I am a part of that celebration, especially as an honourary ambassador. I never thought of myself as being anyone more special in any way, so this recognition is far beyond an outcome I could fathom. Again, Canada is such a highly regarded country in so many ways, known for its fairness, neutrality, freedom and multicultural diversity. It’s such an inclusive culture and country, and for that I feel very proud that I have roots connected to that country.
What was your first impression of Korea?
When I came 23 years ago, I knew that I was starting from scratch because no one in this country knew who I was when I was marrying this public person. It was very exhausting in the beginning because I felt like I wanted to tell everyone that I was born and raised in Canada, sharing my diverse experiences, the friends I had, families and acquaintances, but I couldn’t. At that time, it didn’t matter really who I was, though I was known as Miss Korea Canada. It was very limiting for me because I knew that was not the entirety of who I was. [Plus], I couldn’t fully live out the fact that I was Canadian because at that time, there were far less expatriates and foreigners living here compared to today, so fewer opportunities for me to really share my cultural identity.
It is really a different place today. 23 years ago, it [South Korea] was not as cosmopolitan as today. At that time, it was much more homogenous. I remember feeling very different. I remember feeling very apologetic everywhere I went because I was living out what expectations there were as an ethnic Korean. While I looked Korean, I wasn’t behaving in a way that was culturally acceptable. So I think that was challenging for my husband as well as the public. It took time for me to get acquainted. There was a lot of focus on me that I never expected. It was really tough for me, what was culturally anticipated of me. It was very much an international marriage for me. I remember feeling extremely challenged to try and live out our lives in the best way that I could, trying to reflect whatever values I had that could be acceptable for Koreans. That was my focus.
What were some of the challenges you encountered in Korea?
I always thought that I was an amazing cook. I thought I was just really good at putting ingredients together, whipping up meals. I kept telling that to my husband, ‘I am such a good cook. You are going to love my cooking.’
“WHEN I WANTED TO MAKE LASAGNA, IT WAS HARD TO FIND PASTA OR TOMATO SAUCE.”
But when I came to Korea, I realized that I was really limited with ingredients that I was used to. I had to re-equip myself with all the vegetables and materials that I had in Korea. Then, I realized that I was not really a good cook because it was all relative. I didn’t have my familiar seasonings or ingredients that would enable me to cook meals I knew how to make growing up in Toronto. Standard North American ingredients just weren’t available at that time. When I wanted to make lasagna, it was hard to find the appropriate pasta or tomato sauce.
As a result of me having kept telling my husband that I was a great cook, he expected that Korean meals would be prepared properly and authentically. I knew my Mom knew how to make Korean [foods], but I had never actually made any Korean food myself before. I’d never made kimchi – that’s for sure. When I came here and realized I didn’t know how to do basic Korean cooking, my husband was quite disappointed. ‘Oh my goodness, I thought you were a good cook,’ he told me. I said, ‘I thought I was too, but not Korean food.’ He got me a Korean cookbook in English, and I started to learn how to make Mooguk (무국; radish soup) as my first dish. [They were] easy recipes but really hard nonetheless because I was learning step by step, familiarizing myself with ingredients I had never used before and trying to understand what tastes and textures I was trying to achieve. It was even more challenging because there was no internet at that time.
Going by the book was tough. You couldn’t see video tutorials or anything like that. It was difficult to determine if you were doing any dishes properly. So I remember food was a huge challenge. In Korea, it’s not just meat and vegetables. You have so many accompanying side dishes called banchan (반찬; side dishes) that also need to be coordinated and appropriately complementing to the relevant main dishes.
[My husband] always thought that there would be a huge table full of hundreds of dishes. So I really tried hard to create as many dishes as possible. I didn’t know what complemented what. I didn’t know where to begin. But I had to start with each painful dish. When I created these meals, he would finish it in three minutes. I would feel so sad, devastated, and insulted. It could even end up with a satisfying burp, my husband’s natural closing reaction to a good meal. But I would think, ‘Oh my goodness. I have to prepare for the next meal.’ Because he was an actor, he would stay at home on days he wasn’t working. When he stayed home, he would eat all three meals. So I had to find something new to make for each main meal, in addition to all my creative snacks in between! That was really tough. Cooking was a huge challenge.
“THE NUANCES WERE DIFFERENT. WHAT WE LAUGHED ABOUT WAS DIFFERENT.”
Communication was another huge challenge. The nuances were different. What we laughed about was different. We barely knew each other when we got married. Whatever I would say or laugh about, he would always have to question where the origin of that was coming from, what intention was behind it, and how I was perceiving him or the situation. Everything was at question. There was no other way around it because we were strangers to each other when we got married. And that’s a whole lesson about marriage and living with another human being. Communication was a significant challenge. Misunderstandings were standard. Culturally the whole dynamic of husband and wife was completely different than what I was thinking. We could never have a good debate or argument because it was always understood that I as his wife should be prepared to acknowledge he was the superior of us and therefore having the right to assess and end all conflict – which would mean I wouldn’t have a say. That would mean I would have to listen to whatever he wanted to convey, challenged with the limited Korean that I had, and think, ‘Okay, I think it makes sense, but what about the piece where I get validated?’ There were always pieces [of conflict] that were never resolved. So I thought, ‘How do I communicate with him without offending him?’ I had to be creative. I started to draw comic strips of our conflicts because he wouldn’t give me a chance to speak. I would write little speech bubbles with inaccurate and broken Korean because my Korean was limited. I would include whatever I picked up (including foul language) into the speech bubbles. Then, I would leave it on his pillow case. He was filming and recording day and night at that time. There was a very famous drama back then called Moraesigae (모래시계; Sand Clock). He began this just after we were married.
“WE OVERCAME OUR COMMUNICATION BARRIERS THROUGH MY STICKMEN COMIC STRIPS”
He would come in the middle of the night, and he would just wake me up and say, ‘I didn’t realize the conflict we went through earlier was the way you described in the comic strip.’ I would say, ‘It’s because I don’t ever get a chance to speak.’ And he would say, ‘I am so sorry. I am so sorry. Next time I will let you speak.’ But the next time would come, and he would say, ‘Nononono. I know what happened. This is what happened.’ He would speak to the end, and then again I would have to draw a comic strip. These situations continually surfaced.
I ended up drawing lots of comics to convey and communicate what I was feeling. Over time, they helped resolve much of the challenges we were going through. So he got to learn a lot about me, how I was seeing the world, and how I was seeing him. The saying that a picture says a thousand words, really materialized for me. That is generally how I believe we overcame our communication barriers, through my stickmen comic strips, which enabled me to describe and portray difficult situations requiring understanding and perspective.
The challenges of living a committed life with another individual are inevitable. You’ve been raised separately with different backgrounds wherever you are in life. You have been the protagonist of your story. You grew up that way. All of a sudden, not only sharing but letting someone else be the protagonist is painful because it is like emptying yourself. It’s like living for another person. So, you have been receiving all your life and realize this when you get married because when you get married, that is when you are sharing and giving to another, merging two roads to become one. Merging two roads to become one is a most painful experience. I often refer to this in my lectures, that I realized when I got married that two humans were not meant to live together, because it is that difficult.
I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone’s dreams to get married, but I now understand why there are so many divorces. There are inevitable hurdles throughout that journey of married life. When you overcome each hurdle, you realize how unpredictable all the variables are. When you are able to overcome the hurdles, the reward waiting for you at the end is usually quite profound. You can witness it coming back in many folds. That’s what can keep you motivated to continue and confront the next challenge. But now having survived 23 years of married life, I am so empathetic to all couples that experience hurdles, and at times having to give up. I understand now why so many people find it challenging to continue in their relationships and go beyond. Everyone has different circumstances and thresholds. So I strongly believe that we should never judge failed marriages.
What was one of the most memorable periods during your life in Korea?
“I REALIZED THAT IT’S TOUGH TO LIVE OUT A CERTAIN IMAGE.”
I can certainly share with you my reality, where – you can imagine, if you live with a celebrity, everything is open to the public. You live in a fishbowl. And whatever you go through, the public will see it, and hear about it. So in a society where everyone is very self-conscious about how others perceive them, everyone has a desire to try and show the best aspects of themselves and their lives. Everyone ultimately wants as many people to agree that you are living your best life. That’s typically human nature.
But living with my husband, I feel, has stripped me of that luxury. To want to look like, ‘Oh, we’re living a really nice life.’ To have any luxury to show off. He helped strip me of that, and it actually made me be as authentic as I feel I am today. It forced me to be as I am, because I realized early on that it would be exhausting to try and live out a certain image. So rather than doing that, I realized that when you live as who you are, it’s much easier.
I quickly ended up focusing on ‘being’ a certain image while I worked at an international school for thirteen years, having only recently stepped down this past August. I realized that being a part of a specific society – one that involved parents and staff that were a part of the oldest international school in Korea (seventh oldest in the world), I needed to be very protective of an image for the School. I lived most of my 13-year tenure, trying to sustain an image for the School and its community. However, if any sensational news regarding my celebrity husband or family hit the press, I always had to ensure I was protecting not only my personal public life, but that of the School’s.
“WHY WOULD YOU APOLOGIZE WHEN IT WASN’T YOUR FAULT?”
During one of the more difficult times in our public life, there was a sensational incident where my husband came up against an elderly man who jumped on his car. It ended up becoming quite a big drama. Thank god for CCTV cameras! But it took two years to put closure on this case. In the meanwhile, when this case broke out, a sensational article hit the newsstands, depicting my husband having fought and punched a seventy-year-old.
It was a perfect storm and very sensational for the public because of my husband’s persona. The gravity of that topic and conflict really became the news of the year. He was at the front cover of every newspaper and magazine. There were about 150 reporters who gathered instantly at an immediate press conference to capture a statement from my husband. While my husband knew he was the victim, the news had already gone viral and the truth of the moment couldn’t be retrieved. He literally knelt before the public on national news. I was livid. I couldn’t understand why. I had asked my husband, ‘Why would you apologize when it wasn’t your fault? Why would you let the people think they were right?’ I had a real dilemma about this. When I watched him during his press conference, he actually called my name out at the end of his statement of apology, saying ‘June, I’m sorry you’re seeing this.’ When he did that, I cringed because I didn’t want to be associated with this situation at all! Who wants to even be someone’s friend in a situation like that? It was an extremely difficult time.
He told me, ‘This is something you will never understand. But in Korea, with the elderly, you just cannot have conflict like this. I needed to give everyone what they wanted, which was an apology.’ That was something we agreed to disagree about.
“BUT IT GAVE HIM CREDIBILITY WITH THE PUBLIC FURTHER DOWN THE LINE.”
A couple of years later, a crew from MBC came out and wanted to film a special on this incident. They did a lot of research and collected all sorts of footage. They created a program to justify what had really happened. Thankfully, it put everything in its rightful place, but the damage had already been done. I had noticed during the two years before any closure was made, people always greeted me with a bit of pity and apprehension. I’m grateful now as I look back and see how the press conference that had occurred before ended up serving as a public witnessing for the future, so people today could appreciate the unfortunate circumstance my husband had faced.
He doesn’t do things for popularity. He’s a very unedited person, which comes with its challenges, but to look back and realize that I was a part of this – whether it was my choice or not – was not something I would have ever anticipated or imagined. In the end, my husband regained a credibility from the public further down the line. Living with my husband these days, I feel as though we can really appreciate all that we have today as a family. Having lived out some of the most difficult, extreme circumstances under the scrutiny of the public and managing to raise our two sons in the best ways we could, feel like something short of a miracle.
Recently, I finished filming for 60 episodes of a reality show that gave the public an idea of how we were as a family. If the public had any presumed thoughts or perceptions about us, I know that the program provided a great deal of insight to show some truths about the culture created in our family. The program broke cultural norms that were difficult for viewers to accept in the beginning. Ultimately, we as a family, wanted to share truths of how we survived our public challenges, whether or not our ‘ways’ of handling situations were culturally acceptable or not.
In Korea, the dynamic of couple relationships are really challenging. Korean cultural norms can make it difficult for couples to live lives that are unpretentious. So we have a lot of couples reaching out to us to say, ‘Thank you. You’re a healing family’ and we’ll get reactions from all over the world – on Facebook and Instagram, for example, constantly getting letters of this nature. It makes us wonder whether we may be breaking some paradigms in Korea, sharing our living example to give hope to couples who may be struggling under various Korean cultural burdens to live out mainstream expectations.
How do you maintain your Canadian roots?
“CANADIAN HERITAGE AND CULTURE I’D BEEN RAISED IN: VALUES OF INCLUSIVITY”
What has been very beautiful to me is that universal truths and values are always appreciated, wherever you are. When I was true to my own values, which I believe was in large part, an outcome of my upbringing in Canada, being able to publicly share how I lived my life out with a public figure may have given me some credit for the Canadian heritage and culture I’d been raised with. I feel that a significant part of my Canadian culture reflected the values of inclusivity. When I first got married, I was just Miss Canada in Korea. I was this actor’s wife. But over the years I think I’ve been able to turn that around. Now I find that people are curious about where my values come from, curious about the culture I’ve embodied here. ‘How was she raised to create this lovely family with such a charismatic public figure?’ might be a question often asked.
When we did our reality show, we were able to bring a third of the crew to Toronto, where my parents are. They literally scoured every part of my parents’ home – a huge chunk of my life. All because viewers wanted to understand where I was coming from, where my home was, and where my values came from.
I think that was one way of sustaining my Canadian roots – through yet another miraculous way. Who would have cared 23 years ago when I first got married? I was just the wife of a famous actor. Especially in a culture where there is a great deal of pride regarding customs and traditions, it was incredible for me to see people take interest in another origin.
In final, I didn’t have to apologize for being a gyopo and for my foreign roots. Instead, I could bring it back to my heritage and celebrate with our audience through the footage of our reality program. It’s amazing to witness the continued feedback from Korean foreigners and others, saying ‘This is what I dreamed about! No wonder you are the way you are. No wonder you can overcome obstacles and make a strong family.’ They attribute a significant part of our family’s ability to live out a loving and warm life despite the crises we have endured, to my Canadian roots.
My commitment to support Canadian organizations continue as well, like my role with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and maintaining close ties with the [Canadian] embassy, but in terms of maintaining my Canadian roots in Korea, having lived out a personal and public testimonial as I mentioned above may be most significant for me.
How did you make the decision to share your personal life on TV?
“WHAT HURT ME THE MOST WAS THE IDEA THAT I WAS ABUSED AT HOME”
For most of my 23 years of married life, and due to my husband’s strong alpha male persona, there were always some assumptions about our relationship. In any society, you don’t want to make rash judgements about anybody, but that was the situation we were in – people were thinking all sorts of things about my husband and our relationship dynamic, even though I was actually the only one who really knew his personal side within the home.
As a celebrity, he had spent a huge portion of his life protecting himself from the view of the outside world. He had developed this thick shell. Once I got married to him, I realized why. In our home, he would be the Choi Min-soo I knew, but once he set one foot outside the door, he became the ‘public’ Choi Min-soo, a completely different man.
So in turn, when we were in public, I played the role of the ‘submissive’ wife right beside him. Trying hard not to cause any misunderstandings for the public due to my poor Korean at the time, I chose to be very soft-spoken and tried to express my words in the gentlest way possible. Soon, people were buying more deeply into this persona – this character of a sweet wife who was probably bullied at home by the charismatic and strong-natured celebrity husband.
No one had any idea what we were really like at home, and how we were with each other. My husband would say, ‘Gosh, they’re saying this about me again! It’s so unfair.’ And I would respond, ‘Well, what about me? People think I’m this little fragile flower, and you know I’m not.’ We both had our struggles about the misconceptions from the public over our real personal identities.
What frustrated me the most was the perception that I was abused at home. People thought my husband would definitely have the upper hand over me and that I could be bullied in my home. When this reality show offer came through, I saw it as a chance to set some misperceptions straight – to share our story as we really were in our home. While I had wanted to put closure on this misperception for quite some time, I knew that any standard interview on national TV would not enable me to defend that I wasn’t getting abused at home. It wasn’t something simple where I could just come out and say, ‘I’m actually not abused at home!’
“IT WAS MY OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE SOME REAL TRUTHS ABOUT WHO WE ARE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS”
It wasn’t an easy decision. Who would open their doors and allow 50 cameras in their house and start filming? You have a microphone stuck to you so they capture your breathing and everything. You’re also filming naturally for 6-7 hours and they will pick and edit the way they choose. In the show, they decided to portray that I wasn’t a good cook, contrary to the reality that I really enjoy cooking and have always been regarded as being a good cook. I just want to set that straight. [Laughter]
People may think my husband would have been the one to go for the cameras but he was actually against it. I, on the other hand, was ready to go. He said, ‘Fine, you do it, but I’m not doing it.’ But on the show, he had to briefly come into the kitchen and I told him to get lost because he didn’t like the pumpkin pie I made from scratch. He said, ‘this is something I would eat if I gave up on my body.’ And my curt comment back to him [telling him to get lost] sent waves of sensation all throughout Korean media.
People were saying, ‘Even though your husband is renown to be a troublemaker, you can’t treat him the way you do in the home. You should be nicer to him’. So all of a sudden, people who had always criticized and attacked him through media were now protecting him and I all of a sudden, became the bad guy. The significant irony behind all this was that my husband had felt that he had actually never been treated better in this household, due to the camera crew filming in the home, preventing me from treating him as I would usually do. He owed great thanks to this TV show for making his life at home so much easier for a change.
So my response back to people expressing sentiments I described earlier, would be to convey how my husband and I had managed to succeed 23 years of marriage with two sons and a happy family in the face of public scrutiny, in an era where there are high divorce rates and so many couples that are unable to survive married life. I would rather question them as to whether our ability to have remained a unified family, counted for anything? I felt that there was unnecessary scrutiny about ‘how’ we got to where we got, rather than the fact that we had achieved a solid family life. I don’t know if people, given our circumstances, would have been able to achieve the same. Overall, it was my opportunity to share some real truths about who we were behind closed doors, which has helped us make it through as a family.
Could you describe your role with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the American Chamber of Commerce?
“IT IS A GREAT WAY TO PROMOTE CANADA HERE IN KOREA”
I am and have been serving as a co-chair for the education committee for the American Chamber of Commerce for 13 years. For the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, I am serving as a vicechair for events. While I am an honorary Canada 150 ambassador, I have also been asked to take lead of the Canada Day event! I am currently helping to organize the event but felt as though I was also setting up my own party in some ways.
I have been with the Canadian Chamber for over 15 years and I have been serving on their board for about 10 years. It is a voluntary role but the main purpose of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is to develop relationships between Canadians living in Korea and also with local Koreans as well. The Chamber helps to encourage commerce between Canada and Korea. Business relationships and networking are part of the Canadian Chamber’s mission. We are a small chamber; we have about 100 members and we are familiar with each other. It is an excellent community-driven, non-profit entity with board members being elected into voluntary roles. It is a great way to promote Canada here in Korea. We also work closely with the embassy to help with their events and promote international trade.
Do you have anything you would like to add?
“I NEVER KNEW I WAS DIFFERENT IN CANADA”
I never realized I was different when I was living in Canada throughout my life there. I just thought I was Canadian. In fact, I was even the only Korean in the schools I attended, excluding university. In grade school and high school, I was the only Korean. Back then in Toronto, there were not many Korean people, except in church. What was fascinating to me was that I never knew I was different in Canada, despite me being the only Korean in most places I was associated with.
But when I got married and came to Korea, I was alarmed to become a part of the visible majority here, being one more person with black hair in a sea of people with black hair. So 23 years ago, when I would see a western-foreigner on the street, I wanted to run over and say, ‘I’m actually a foreigner too!’ I would want to engage in a conversation but would feel awkward approaching these strangers. It was a twilight zone kind of experience for me. It was bizarre.
“I WAS PART OF THIS VISIBLE MAJORITY BUT THAT WAS CHALLENGING AS A CANADIAN”
It was also interesting because as a Korean-Canadian in Korea, I experienced what prejudice meant for the first time. I never experienced discrimination in Canada. When I came to Korea, this is where I actually first encountered and felt discriminated, either among native Koreans or even with foreign expats. In the case of Foreign expats, I encountered situations where some would recognize me in a certain place where overlap was even daily while exercising at a common gym, but if I went to another event, they wouldn’t be able to recognize me, despite our regular overlap and say ‘Have we met? [Then they would say], ‘Oh, now I remember you.’ I experienced that on many occasions where I would realize that I might appear looking similar to everybody else. I was part of this visible majority but that was challenging as a Canadian. As for native Koreans, it was challenging appearing native Korean myself on the surface, but being unable to fulfill expectations associated with my physical Korean appearance. No one could see the foreigner within me [hence my description of me being the ‘hidden foreigner’].
I have travelled to Toronto back and forth with my two sons every year. Knowing that Toronto is home for me in many ways and that my upbringing was with my parents still residing in Toronto, I always wanted my kids to get as much exposure of Toronto, while their permanent living base was Korea. I always thought that are frequent trips back [to Toronto] were giving my kids their fill of being Canadian. So every year, I felt comforted and satisfied that they were getting their portion of the Canadian experience until one summer when I said to my sons, ‘We’re going back home’. I was a little taken aback with their response.
It’s kind of strange but I still consider Toronto home even after living in Korea for so long. I still feel like I’m just passing through [Korea]. But when I go back, it’s not like I feel like I’m at home either. I believe I’m caught in a bit of a limbo because of the third-culture kid syndrome. I don’t know much about Canada in terms of the working society because [Korea] is where I first started working. So I would say to my sons, ‘We’re going home’ and they would say, ‘That’s not our home. That’s your home.’ I remember feeling like, ‘After all these years of going back and forth, and going to our favourite places and eating your favourite foods…’ They would say, ‘Mom, that’s where you grew up as a kid, not us.’ So that really hurt me. I thought, ‘Do you guys not feel Canadian at all?’ It’s interesting because we are living in an era focused on globalization. So I think it is different from what I am used to and what I grew up thinking.
by Julia Park, Jinhee Park and Caleb Park