Ep.16 — Youjin Choi: Growing Up, Moving Abroad and Finding Contentment

Youjin Choi joins us on Banana Lab to share her journey from moving to New Zealand from Korea at the age of nine to building a career in hospitality marketing, leaving home for a working holiday in Germany, and eventually returning with a different perspective on family, identity and what it means to be content.

Youjin reflects on arriving in New Zealand without speaking English, learning the language through cartoons and friendships, and growing up as the eldest daughter in an immigrant family. She shares the responsibility she felt translating for her parents and becoming the “fixer” in her family, as well as the resentment she experienced growing up and how living abroad later helped her better understand the challenges her parents had faced as immigrants.

We also talk about Youjin’s career in experiential marketing, her relationship with photography, discovering running, and why she decided to move to Germany before turning 30. She shares stories from working in a café, learning German, travelling around Europe, navigating cultural differences, and transporting a rescue dog from Greece to Germany.

The conversation also explores the complicated experience of growing up between cultures. Youjin reflects on not always feeling Korean enough to fit into Korean communities, standing out when visiting Korea, navigating questions around relationships and family expectations, and learning to stay curious without changing herself simply to fit in.

Ultimately, Youjin’s year abroad challenged the idea that moving somewhere else will automatically create a better life. She reflects on comparison, gratitude, faith, perspective, and learning to find joy by being content with what she has.

Topics include:

• Growing up Korean in New Zealand
• Being the eldest child in an immigrant family
• Translating for parents and family responsibility
• Experiential marketing and photography
• Moving to Germany on a working holiday
• Learning German and working abroad
• Travel and cultural differences
• Korean Kiwi identity and belonging
• Family expectations and relationships
• Faith, gratitude and finding contentment
• Returning home and adjusting to ordinary life

A warm, reflective and funny conversation about immigration, family, identity, adventure, and learning that sometimes the biggest change isn’t where you live, but how you see the life you already have.