Almost Home Kevin Yi

Bryan is Seoul born, New England educated, and now New York living.

What's it take for a teen to fit in when moving from a homogenous Asian megacity (Seoul) to the sleepy pastures of a New England prep school?

Sneak peek of this episode:


How Bryan came to feel the concept of "race"
The significance of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich in Bryan's US life
Bridging the Korean and Korean-American communities in college
Experience adapting back to Korea after many years abroad

Nick and Jun are 6th gen Indo Chinese - they're ethnically Chinese but their families have been in Indonesia for multiple generations. Now, they are residents of Singapore.

What will overseas Asians born multiple generations after that big jump from the motherland think and sound like? As it turns out, we don't have to guess - just take a listen.

Sneak peek of this episode:


Jun's reason for holding onto his non-Mandarin Chinese dialect
Thoughts on what cultural aspects to teach the next generation
The differences between Indo Chinese hailing from Jakarta vs Batam
How the Singaporean government categorizes Nick

Nahum is a Singaporean of Chinese descent who's learned Korean to a professional level rather than Mandarin and his family's Chinese dialect.

How should we feel about learning a language that's not the one we've inherited from our parents and grandparents? And how much do we really lose without this 'mother tongue'?

Sneak peek of this episode:


Navigating the motivations for learning one language over another
Responsibility (?) and value of knowing Mandarin as an ethnic Chinese in the workplace
Significance of Mandarin as it differs across geographies

Requirements to identify as a Chinese person
Also featuring inputs from:



Brian, a Chinese-American in Singapore learning Mandarin to do business in Asia


Clare, a Singaporean Chinese who uses Mandarin extensively in the workplace

Catherine is a Taiwanese woman hailing from Kloof, South Africa. After attending college in the Asian-American mecca known as California, she now resides in New York.

2nd generation immigrants blend resident and parents' cultures to create their own. So how do you do it when you're the only Asian kid in school and, at times, lost in translation with your own family?

Sneak peek of this episode:


School in South Africa is a not-so-safe space for an Asian kid growing up
How it feels when crossing from South Africa to Asian-dominated Southern California and Taiwan
Becoming a different person when using Mandarin vs. English

Eun Hee is a Korean who grew up in Mexico City and moved to New York by way of Boston.

Trilingual without a tribe, she's found peace in the grey area between the cultures of her motherland (S. Korea) and adopted homeland (USA). Let's find out how she got there.

Sneak peek of this episode:


How Korean-Mexicans and Korean-Argentineans co-exist in Mexico City
Fitting in (or not) with her adult alter-egos - the 'Koreans from Korea' and the 'Korean-Americans'
How racism feels different in the US vs Mexico
Pronouncing, abbreviating, and struggling to get her name right in the American workplace

Diego and Eun Hee are ethnic Koreans raised in Mexico with an American education.

For culture-hoppers like these, it's clear that one name does not fit all. So how to fit in? Should we?

Sneak peek of this episode:


How "Susan" became "Eun Hee" - a name that is unfortuantely mispronounced daily
Why Diego's parents named his brother twice
Korean naming techniques and why you won't find the textbook on it
A future ruled by BTS - how do we feel about Korean names used by non-Koreans?