Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T21:51:19.322Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

English fever and American dreams

The impact of Orientalism on the evolution of English in Korean society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2020

Jinhyun Cho
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The current paper examines how English has evolved to become valued language capital in South Korea (henceforth ‘Korea’). Since the late 20th century, Korea has experienced the phenomenon of ‘English fever’, which refers to the frenetic and at times over-zealous pursuit of English-language proficiency across Korean society (J. S. Y. Park, 2009). Researchers have examined ‘English fever’ through various prisms, including education (Park & Abelmann, 2004; J. K. Park, 2009), neoliberalism (Piller & Cho, 2013; Cho, 2015; Lee, 2016), and local socio-politics (Shim & Park, 2008). Rarely has the phenomenon been approached from a historical point of view. Considering the fact that a historical examination of language can provide critical insights into the local processes through which distinctive ideologies of language have been shaped and popularized (Cho, 2017), this paper traces the historical evolution of English in Korean society by focusing on three key periods, i.e. Japanese colonization (1910–1945); the post-independence period and modernization (1945–1980); and military dictatorship and globalization (1980-present). Drawing on the theoretical framework of global centre-periphery divisions embedded in Orientalism (Said, 1979), the analysis focuses specifically on the influence of the United States on the rise of English in Korea. In doing so, I show that ‘English fever’ is not a recent phenomenon but has its roots in historicity through which the seeds for the ongoing phenomenon of ‘English fever’ were planted in Korean society.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 142 - 147
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bourdieu, P. 1986. ‘The forms of capital.’ Cultural Theory: An Anthology, 1, 81–93.Google Scholar
Cho, J. 2012. ‘Campus in English or campus in shock?: Korean students hit hard by English-medium lectures.’ English Today, 28(2), 18–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cho, J. 2015. ‘Sleepless in Seoul: Neoliberalism, English fever, and linguistic insecurity among Korean interpreters.’ Multilingua, 34(5), 687–710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cho, J. 2016. ‘Interpreting English language ideologies in Korea: Dreams vs. realities.’ Unpublished PhD thesis. Sydney: Macquarie University.Google Scholar
Cho, J. 2017. English Language Ideologies in Korea: Interpreting the Past and Present. Cham: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choi, C. 1993. ‘The discourse of decolonization and popular memory: South Korea.’ Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 1(1), 77–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chung, Y. T. 2002. ‘Refracted modernity and the issue of pro-Japanese collaborators in Korea.’ Korea Journal, 42(3), 18–59.Google Scholar
Cummings, B. 1981. The Origins of the Korean War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dirlik, A. 1996. ‘Chinese history and the question of Orientalism.’ History and Theory, 35(4), 96–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, R. 1986. ‘Education, society and the Korean returnee in anthropological perspective.’ Global Economic Review, 15(2), 35–52.Google Scholar
Joo, E. 2004. ‘Under the gaze of the American other.’ Korea Journal, 44(1), 199–220.Google Scholar
Kang, J. M. 2011. 한국 사회의 소통 위기 [Communication Crisis of Korean Society]. Seoul: Communication Books.Google Scholar
Kang, J. M. 2014. 조선일보의 숭미사대주의 [Worship of the U.S. by Chosun Ilbo]. Gyeonggi, Korea: Kaema Gowon.Google Scholar
Kim, M. 2008. ‘한국소설에 나타난 미국의 이미지 [America's image reflected in Korean novels].’ The Learned Society of Modern Korean Literature, 25(8), 457–86.Google Scholar
Kim, J. 2012. ‘The birth of academic subalterns: How do foreign students embody the global hegemony of American universities?’ Journal of Studies in International Education, 16(5), 455–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, J. 2015. 지배받는 지배자: 미국 유학과 한국 엘리트의 탄생 [The Rulers Who Are Ruled: Sojourning in America and Emergence of Korean Elites]. Seoul: Dolbaegye.Google Scholar
Lee, H. 2013. ‘해방공간 “미국 대리자” 의 출현, 조선의 미국화와 책임정치 [The emergence of “American proxy” in liberated space: Americanization of Chosun and trusteeship].’ The Studies in Korean Literature, 45, 269–304.Google Scholar
Lee, M. W. 2016. ‘“Gangnam style” English ideologies: Neoliberalism, class and the parents of early study-abroad students.’ International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 19(1), 35–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maliangkay, R. 2011. ‘Koreans performing for foreign troops: The Occidentalism of the C.M.C. and K.P.K.’ East Asian History, 37, 59–72.Google Scholar
Min, E. K. 2013. ‘English speakers in Korea: A short literary history.’ In Wee, L., Goh, R. B. H. & Lim, L. (eds.), The Politics of English: South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 269–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, C. I. 2004. ‘Changing South Korean perception of the United States since September 11.’ AZIYA KENKYU, 50(2), 45–57.Google Scholar
Moon, C. I. 2015. ‘Between banmi (anti-Americanism) and sungmi (worship of the United States).’ In Steinberg, D. I. (ed.), Korean Attitudes Toward the United States: Changing Dynamics. New York: Routledge, pp. 139–52.Google Scholar
Nam, T. 2017. 세계의 정치는 어떻게 움직이는가 [How Does Global Politics Work?]. Seoul: Changbi Publishers.Google Scholar
Paik, N. C. 2000. ‘Coloniality in Korea and a South Korean project for overcoming modernity.’ Interventions, 2(1), 73–86.Google Scholar
Park, J. K. 2009. ‘“English fever” in South Korea: Its history and symptoms.’ English Today, 25(1), 50–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, J. S. Y. 2009. The Local Construction of a Global Language: Ideologies of English in South Korea. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, J. S. Y. 2010. ‘Naturalization of competence and the neoliberal subject: Success stories of English language learning in the Korean conservative press.’ Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 20(1), 22–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, S. J. & Abelmann, N. 2004. ‘Class and cosmopolitan striving: Mothers’ management of English education in South Korea.’ Anthropological Quarterly, 77(4), 645–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piller, I. & Cho, J. 2013. ‘Neoliberalism as language policy.’ Language in Society, 42(1), 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Said, E. 1979. Orientalism. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Shim, D. & Park, J. S. Y. 2008. ‘The language politics of “English fever” in South Korea.’ Korea Journal, 48(2), 136–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin, J. C. 2012. ‘Higher education development in Korea: Western university ideas, Confucian tradition, and economic development.’ Higher Education, 64(1), 59–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, J. K. 2007. ‘Imperial mimicry, modernisation theory and the contradictions of postcolonial South Korea.’ Postcolonial Studies, 10(2), 171–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoo, S. Y. 2001. ‘Embodiment of American modernity in colonial Korea.’ Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 2(3), 423–41.Google Scholar