This paper is intended to explore the otherness of ‘non-mainstream’ graduate students specializing in applied linguistics at various departments of English language and literature in Korea. Drawing on Honneth’s theory of recognition and its ideology, it attempted to understand the way their ‘professional identities’ are constructed both within and without the related academic communities. Through interviews and reflection journals, the lived stories of research participants illustrated that their trajectories of growth were not a transmission of knowledge and skills in applied linguistics, and that Honneth’s threefold conceptualization of intersubjective recognition (love, rights, solidarity) was usefully applied to the sociopolitical inquiry of ‘becoming professional.’ They did not feel a sense of affection, were not respected as rights-holders, and did not have mutual esteem and solidarity. The non-mainstream students strived for recognition in the graduate program by voicing their emotions in their qualitative research papers and improving their limited proficiency of English which, however, led to ‘uncritical’ conformity. They lost the emancipatory struggle for their independent and scholarly selves. The model of mutual recognition is expected to show good potential as an analytic tool for understanding the motivational and justificatory basis for social struggles. Further research is suggested to examine how Honneth’s theory can help in understanding people in different disciplines.