Interviewee: Eric Yook
Interviewer: Christopher Adinaro
Interview Summary:
My interview was with Colby College junior Eric Yook, a twenty-one-year-old from Daejeon, South Korea who lives in New Jersey. During our interview, Eric focuses on the impact his migration had on him, as well as his ideas on identity. He delves into how his ideas of identity were shaped, how it affects his worldview, and talks about his family—how he was closer to his mother’s side due to them living in Korea than to his father’s family, who immigrated to the U.S.—alongside his ideas on cultural and social isolation. This interview covers topics such as migration, immigrants, identity, Korean Americans, family, culture, and reintegration.
I met Eric Yook through the Colby College Volleyball Club in 2024 after returning from a semester abroad. The interview took place in my room on October 8, 2025.
My name is Christopher Adinaro, a senior Global Studies and East Asian Studies double major at Colby College. I am interested in Eric’s story due to being a Korean adoptee myself, who has struggled with my identity in the past, and wanting to give a voice to stories like ours, for people like us to hear and learn from.
Biography:
Eric Yook was born in Daejeon, South Korea in 2004, and is currently a sophomore at Colby College. While his paternal grandparents and extended family moved to the U.S. in 1991 and became citizens, his maternal side stayed in South Korea along with his direct family. His family later immigrated from Daejeon, South Korea to Palisades Park, New Jersey in 2019. He attended school in Korea until the third grade, when he came to the U.S. on a student visa and lived with his grandparents. Eric returned to Korea for sixth through eighth grade, and then moved again to the U.S. to attend Dwight Morrow High School. He currently lives with his father and brother in the U.S., while his mother lives in Daejeon.