The InBetween

Yena

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Personal Journals

Navigating Korean Identity and Cultural Boundaries

Oct 17

Almost Belonging: A Season in Between | 거의 소속된 사람들: 경계에서 보낸 한 시즌

In the season finale, I look back at every conversation from this season and ask what they had in common. A teacher of North Korean students, a Korean-American who came home and found she was 95% there, a foreigner who found his way into a community through pickleball, and a Seoul native who left for New York. Their stories kept landing in the same three places: the classroom, the workplace, and the friendships that are hardest to build. I share what I noticed, what surprised me, and what I’m carrying with me as I get ready to live in between places myself. 시즌 마지막 회에서는 이번 시즌의 모든 인터뷰를 다시 돌아보며 그 안에 어떤 공통점이 있었는지 이야기합니다. 탈북 학생들을 가르치는 선생님, 한국에 돌아왔지만 95퍼센트만 받아들여진 한국계 미국인, 피클볼로 공동체에 들어간 외국인, 서울에서 자라 뉴욕으로 떠난 사람. 이들의 이야기는 계속 같은 세 곳으로 모였습니다. 교실, 일터, 그리고 가장 만들기 어려운 우정. 제가 발견한 것, 놀랐던 것, 그리고 이제 저 자신이 경계에서 살아가기 전에 마음에 담아 가는 것을 나눕니다.
Sep 16

5 Years in Korea: What Pickleball Taught About Belonging

An Indian expat's honest look back at five years living in South Korea. Nandini talks about the everyday culture shocks that stuck with her, from the healthcare system to the language barrier, and opens up about how hard it was to make real friends as a foreigner in a famously monoethnic country. The turning point came through pickleball, where sharing a sport with a room full of Koreans gave her the first real sense of fitting in she'd felt in years. She also reflects on what she brought back with her, especially how disciplined, rule-following Korean driving culture spoiled her for the chaos of Indian roads. A candid conversation about isolation, belonging, and what changes in you when you live somewhere completely different.
Aug 8

The Foreigner Card: Dr. Casey Bennett on Korean Work Culture, Hierarchy, and Coming Home

AI Researcher and professor Dr. Casey Bennett spent years teaching data science at Hanyang University in Seoul and married into a Korean family before returning to Chicago. He joins The InBetween to talk about the fast culture of Korea and the year it took to "deprogram," navigating Korean workplace hierarchy, reverse culture shock, and what living between two worlds teaches you that staying in one never could.
Jul 24

Living between Seoul and New York

Michael Lee grew up in Seoul, came to the US for college at UNC, and is now an investment banker in New York. In this episode of The In-Between, he shares culture-shock stories, American portion sizes, sprawling campuses, and tipping, before getting into the deeper stuff: how living in the States changed the way Michael sees hierarchy, status, and service workers, and why living between two worlds taught him to judge people less and take them for who they are.
Jul 12

From Spain to Korea: Learning About Teachers, Students & Culture

Melani spent five years living and teaching in Korea, and in this episode, she's back home unpacking it all. We get into the culture clash between Spanish and Korean classrooms: the strict hierarchy, the near god-like respect for teachers, and the moment she was told not to get too close to her students. Melani makes the case that being a teacher is really just being human: listening, owning your mistakes, and actually connecting with the people in front of you. She also gets honest about what it's like to be a foreign teacher who doesn't always feel valued, the totally different ways students act out (or quietly don't) in Spain versus Korea, and what all of it taught her. A warm, candid conversation about teaching, culture, and finding your own approach.
Jun 30

같은 말, 다른 마음: 하늘꿈중학교 선생님의 이야기

교실 문을 열면, 모두가 한국어를 씁니다. 하지만 어떤 아이들에게 '학교'는 처음 들어보는 단어이고, '선생님'은 한 번도 믿어본 적 없는 존재입니다. 이번 에피소드의 게스트는 북한이탈주민 학생들을 가르치는 한 한국 교사입니다. 같은 민족, 같은 언어인데, 왜 이 만남은 매일 새로운 번역을 필요로 할까요? 처음 마주한 침묵, 신뢰가 생기던 순간, 그리고 '우리'라는 말이 얼마나 복잡한 단어인지에 대해 이야기합니다. 국경은 지도 위에만 있는 게 아닙니다. 때로는 교실 한가운데, 두 사람 사이의 작은 공간에 그어져 있습니다. The Inbetween이 그 경계 위에서 살아가는 사람들의 이야기를 전합니다. When you open the classroom door, everyone here speaks Korean. But for some of these kids, "school" is a word they're hearing for the first time, and "teacher" is someone they've never once had reason to trust. This episode's guest is a South Korean teacher who works with North Korean refugee students. Same people, same language, so why does every day still ask for a new kind of translation? She takes us back to the silences she met first, the moment trust started to show up, and how complicated a word like "we" turns out to be once you really sit with it. Borders aren't only the lines on a map. Sometimes one runs right through the middle of a classroom, in the small space between two people. The Inbetween tells the stories of the people living on top of that line. For more English episodes, please click on the page!
Jun 20

The Argentinian in Seoul: Story of a Foreign Teacher in Korea

Carolina left Buenos Aires for Seoul and became "Profe Caro," a Spanish teacher building a life in a country that still feels foreign some days. In this episode, she takes us back to her first day in Korea, and to all the small moments since that reminded her she's a guest here: the foods she can't find, the loneliness that sneaks up on you even in a crowded city, the encounters that quietly mark you as an outsider. But she stayed. And that's the part worth sitting with, what it actually takes to make a home somewhere that isn't yours, and who you become in the process.
Feb 18

Stranger at Home: Why Born Korean is Not Korean Enough

A student who grew up in China returns to Korea at 19 — only to find that being ethnically Korean doesn't mean fitting in. She shares stories of clashing with professors, being rejected by classmates, and learning that sometimes it only takes one person to change everything.

8 Episodes

Navigating Korean Identity and Cultural Boundaries

Creator

Yena
Years Active

2026
Episodes

8
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Yena
Show Website

The InBetween