"Kimchi is for Everyone": Moving Beyond Boundaries

A/Prof Julie Choi has just written a book called ‘"Kimchi is for Everyone", an exploration of personal identity and continuous growth. Dr Mobina Sahraee Juybari talked to Julie about the experiences that informed the book.

Mobina: I watched "Kimchi's for Everyone" on ARTP in Action and really enjoyed what you shared about this project. Could you tell us about your early experiences growing up with multicultural linguistic influences?

Julie Choi: Sure. Well firstly, I wasn't born in South Korea; I was born in the United States. In the US, children like me who are born outside of their ancestral culture are sometimes characterized as having a hyphenated identity, so for me that would be 'Korean-American'.

One of the struggles for hyphenated identities is sometimes being positioned as ‘non-authentic’ by those from their ancestral homelands. I grew up being told that I’m not a “real Korean” and often that I don't know the “proper” ways of being a Korean girl. That kind of discourse, especially when you’re a child, can be really scarring. I think maybe that's what created a longing for acceptance in Korean communities throughout most of my formative life.

I lived in a Korean-American community in the United States with both "Korean Koreans" and Korean-Americans. When I moved to Korea for one year, I wanted to fit in even more, but there, I don't think it had to do with wanting to be accepted by Korean Koreans but by my peers at the International school that I attended who I saw as "perfect bilinguals." At the time I was jealous of how well they spoke and were able to read and write accurately and fluently.

Plus, in contexts like international schools, students typically come from wealthy or high-status families, so there's an element of social class that makes you feel you are inferior, as I came from a working-class background. These elements of authenticity, properness, fitting in, belonging, acceptance, perfection, accuracy, fluency, and class formed the constellation of my language socialisation throughout most of my formative years.

Mobina: How did this experience affect you emotionally and in terms of your identity formation?

Julie Choi: I grew more silent and I became very conscious of how other people thought about me, and as a result, I think I became a very 계산적인 (gaesan juk in), calculative person. I was constantly thinking that if I do this, they're going to do that, and I'm going to be perceived in a certain way.

The fact that language was such a huge part of my identity and the way that I'm positioned through language—what you get right, what you get wrong, and the whole idea of needing to be perfect and accurate—had a complete stranglehold on my sense of self. Years ago, the one friend I had, who spoke Korean and English, when I was studying at Beijing University shared her memory of me when I was writing my autoethnography for my PhD (Choi, 2016, p. 69). I think her perceptions capture well how I felt about myself too – uncomfortable, awkward, and out of place.

As an adult now, I have learned, studied, and researched issues in multilingual language learning and identity development, so I'm not as vulnerable as I was when I was a child. But my experience has taught me how powerful these discourses, grounded in harmful language ideologies, are in their long-term effects on the body. The minute I'm sitting in front of a Korean native speaker, I still feel like my body clamps up because I'm ready to be judged. It just takes me a moment to recognize that I'm being unfair to my conversation partner and to approach the interaction with openness, but these insights come from years of studying these phenomena and developing self-awareness.

Judith Butler’s book ‘Excitable Speech’ (1997) where she explores linguistic vulnerability and how words can injure and cut us very deeply helped me so much in understanding the shaping of my relationship to the Korean language but also the necessity of that linguistic vulnerability for our existence as social beings. That was an important turning point for me because her work offered a different way to think about something that I so badly wanted to break free from. 

Mobina: Thank you for sharing those personal insights. The way you describe the embodied experience of language identity is quite powerful. I'd love to explore how these experiences influenced your work. Let's move on to your beautifully written book. I loved the title "Kimchi is for Everyone." At first glance it looks simple, but it's very critical and creative. It has ideological and metaphorical depth because the word "kimchi," beyond its literal meaning as a type of Korean cuisine, symbolizes Korean culture and language. And even beyond that, it can stand for any named languages and cultures because it comes with that second phrase "for everyone." What inspired you to choose this title?

Julie Choi: Ok so maybe the title in the front of the book and the slogan in the back of the book both have some history behind them that may be relevant here. I’ll start with the page featuring chefs worldwide using kimchi in their dishes as a starting point.

The slogan ‘Kimchi has gone global and so should you!’ on this page is inspired by an incident during my PhD. On a forum where Westerners discussed Korean dramas, I asked what Korean viewers thought about some specific aspects of the dramas they were watching. A woman responded, "Why are you looking for insights of Koreans on this site? Don't you know that Korean dramas have gone global and so should you?!" 

I was completely stunned by this non-Korean telling me to “go global”. It forced me to confront how I'd been excluding others with meaningful connections to Korea, even as I'd experienced exclusion myself. I think placing "Kimchi has gone global and so should you!" on the back cover is my way of challenging closed-minded thinking about who can claim cultural connections. So that’s one bit of my answer.

Connected to creating the back cover (above), I needed to create a blurb. People kept asking me, "Is this for adults or children? Will this language be too hard or too easy?" My simple answer was: “Well, it's for everyone and anyone open to engaging with linguistic and cultural differences is welcome, regardless of their literacy level.” So that’s how I began understanding that this book ‘Kimchi’ really ‘is for everyone’.

As for the actual title, bell hooks' title Feminism is for Everybody came to mind. While our topics differ, I found resonance in our shared desire for inclusion and challenging power structures. I'm using kimchi as an entry point to question harmful language ideologies that affect multilingual speakers. Language, culture, and identity are constantly evolving processes. Like the global spread of English, kimchi's global journey means there's room for everyone's knowledge and preferences—that's when I decided it should be called Kimchi is for Everybody. But I think my illustrator read that as "Everyone" and so it became ‘Kimchi is for Everyone’ in the end. I think that actually works better phonetically.

So yes, there's the element of Korean language and culture connected to this, but not in a sense that views kimchi as some static entity "owned" by certain people. My take is that kimchi has history, tradition, and cultural significance but remains fluid, dynamic, and constantly evolving according to people's taste preferences. What is "authentic" is the unique combination of ingredients and preparations that make sense to each consumer. This very openness attached to kimchi is what has transformed it into a sustainable global phenomenon.

Mobina: Maybe through kimchi, it's actually that safe place where you can reflect back on those vulnerabilities, struggles, and challenges that you've had during your childhood and regain a sense of your identity?

Julie Choi: I think you're right. Kimchi has become a cultural touchstone that creates a safe space for me to revisit and work through those childhood vulnerabilities. It's also my way of "talking back"—a concept bell hooks explores deeply. Through kimchi, I'm reclaiming my relationship with Korean identity on my own terms. I might even know more about kimchi-making than some younger Koreans today who no longer make it at home. There's a certain power in preserving these traditions, especially as they're fading in some contexts.

Mobina: You've mentioned language ideologies that affected you. Can you elaborate on these specific beliefs about language that you encountered during your childhood or while working on this project?

Julie Choi: As you can see, the ideas around authenticity were huge for me, and those spring from standard language ideologies and language purism. I'm drawn to translanguaging because it breaks those boundaries and embraces fluidity, opening up possibilities for people rather than constraining who they can be.

While "multilingualism" serves its purpose terminologically, it often reduces language to a static object or code rather than recognizing it as a dynamic social practice deeply interwoven with bodies, spaces, and lived experiences. Using resources like the kimchi book in my teaching for instance, allows my students to directly experience this alternative understanding of language—one that honours its social, political, and cultural dimensions.

To me, it is really important how we think about language. We can create new terms endlessly, but if we don't fundamentally reconsider what we mean by language, I think we're missing the point. That’s something I learned deeply whilst studying with my doctoral supervisor Emeritus Professor Alastair Pennycook.

Mobina: What questions about language and identity have your experiences raised for you?

Julie Choi: I'm often interrogating the very foundations of how we categorize language and identity. Questions like: What exactly is "authenticity" and who gets to define it? Who benefits from these definitions? Who is deemed "native" and who is relegated to "non-native" status? Who's included and excluded by these labels? Who's exoticized, who's marginalized—and who profits from this arrangement? Similarly, with concepts like native vs non-native, which is still very much a topic of interest for many language learners, I try to open up spaces for questioning these established categories. We examine the power dynamics and conditions that underlie these seemingly neutral classifications and consider how they shape our understanding of language learning and linguistic identity.

These aren't just academic questions; they're deeply personal when your own identity is repeatedly scrutinized and positioned as somehow less legitimate.  And the categorizations aren't neutral either - they're enforced through power structures that have real consequences for how multilingual people experience the world. Professor Emerita Claire Kramsch’s (2009; 2012) work has had a profound influence on me in this area of language and identity in helping me understand the larger social, historical, and political dynamics that shape identity and legitimacy in multilingual and global contexts.

The friendly look of 'Kimchi is for Everyone' might not seem like it's challenging old colonial ideas or pushing back against mainstream assumptions, but there's actually a lot going on beneath the surface. Everything in this book—the title, the content, the pictures, the different languages, how things are arranged on the page, and even some unusual choices for a picture book—was a deliberate decision and a meshwork from my history.

I've always been really inspired by what Professor Li Wei said back in 2011: "the best expression of one's criticality is one's creativity" (p. 1223). I guess I’m using what I might call ‘creative criticality’ (Choi, 2015), to spark important conversations about the intersections of language, culture and identity. I love that I can do that through a picture book because I also love reading picture books – just being surrounded by beautiful and thoughtful picture books brings me joy.

Mobina: Thank you Julie for this illuminating conversation. Your work demonstrates how even a picture book can challenge established norms around language and identity.

Julie Choi: Thanks so much for this conversation, Mobina. You've taken me on a whole philosophical journey back to my childhood, to my PhD, reminding me of all the great scholars that had a profound impact on my becoming. I feel energised to get back in the classroom to spread some more kimchi power!

Acknowledgment: We would like to acknowledge Melissa Slamet, PhD Candidate and Website Coordinator of ARTP Lab, for her help with the recording of this interview.

Further engagement: Explore the "Kimchi is for Everyone" conversation series on the ARTP in Action YouTube.  After watching, complete the accompanying survey for an opportunity to receive a copy of the picture book.

References

Butler, J. (1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. Routledge.

Choi, J. (2015). Creative criticality in multilingual texts. In R. Jones & J. Richards (Eds.), Creativity in Language Teaching (pp. 146-161). New York: Routledge.

Choi, J. (2016). Creating a multivocal self: Autoethnography as method. New York: Routledge.

Kramsch, C. (2009). The multilingual subject: What foreign language learners say about their experience and why it matters. Oxford University Press.

Kramsch, C. (2012). Imposture: A late modern notion in poststructuralist SLA research. Applied Linguistics, 33(5), 483-502. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ams051

Li, W. (2011). Moment analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(5), 1222-1235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.035

Julie Choi is Associate Professor in Education (Additional Languages) at the University of Melbourne. She is co-editor of the books Language and Culture: Reflective Narratives and the Emergence of Identity, Plurilingualism in Teaching and Learning: Complexities across Contexts, and author of Creating a Multivocal Self: Autoethnography as Method. Julie’s current teaching and research interests focus on community and arts-rich language learning, creativity and criticality in language and literacy pedagogies using multilingual, multimodal, multimedia, and digital technologies.