The struggle over class, identity,
 and language: A case study of
 South Korean transnational families¹

Abstract

Globalization, while deterritorializing identity and culture, generates new practices and subjectivities that must be understood with reference to relationships between identity, language, and class in multiple markets. Through interviews and ethnographic observations focusing on children's language learning practices, this article examines how transnational South Korean families locate themselves in relation to the phenomenon of jogi yuhak, ‘early study abroad.’ It focuses on two graduate student families’ struggle over securing their social position by portraying themselves as different from other transnational Korean families through investing in alternate forms of linguistic capital. This reflects their contradictory and shifting subjectivities as they negotiate between foregrounding their roles as moral and intellectual elites vs. acting as materialistic parents. These transnational families’ struggles and conflicts underline how globalization in general, and jogi yuhak as a transnational strategy in particular, affects individuals’ subjectivities at the intersection of class, language, and transnationalism. 세계화는 지역사회에 기반한 정체성과 문화를 약화시키기도 하지만, 복수의 국제 시장에서의 개인의 정체성, 언어, 그리고 사회계급간의 관계와 연관 지어 이해해야 하는 새로운 관행과 주관을 생성하기도 한다. 영어와 관련된 학습 관행에 초점을 맞춘 본 연구는 조기유학을 위해 고국을 떠나 외국에 거주하고 있는 한국 학생들과 그 가족들이 어떻게 자신들의 사회적 위치를 설정하는지에 대해서 면담과 민족지학적 관찰을 통해서 고찰한다. 미국에 거주하고 있는 두 대학원 유학생 가족들이 그들의 사회적 지위를 확보하기 위해서 어떻게 자신들의 정체성과 언어적 관행을 다른 조기유학생 가족들로부터 차별화하는지에 대해서 집중적으로 논의한다. 특히, 그들에게 거는 사회에서의 도덕적, 지적 엘리트로서의 역할에 대한 공언과 부모로서의 그들 자녀들의 영어 습득에 대한 물질주의적 갈망사이에서 갈등하는 모순적이고 변덕스러운 주관이 반영된 언어적 자산의 형태를 분석한다. 이들 초국가적 가정들의 노력과 갈등은 전반적으로 세계화와, 특별히 초국가적 전략으로서의 조기유학이 사회계급, 언어 그리고 초국가주의의 교차선상에서 개인의 주관에 어떻게 영향을 미치는지를 보여준다. [Korean]

Imagined Communities and Language Socialization Practices in Transnational Space: A Case Study of Two Korean “Study Abroad” Families in the United States

“…On the other hand, the mother, as an SLA specialist, wanted to distance herself from those Korean ESA parents. This identity work that may have been intensified by my role as interviewer/researcher (graduate student in the same field), resulted in her nonchalance toward Joonho's English learning and her underlying practice with various theoretical notions (Song, ). Her effort to reify the distinction between herself and other ESA families caused her constant negotiation over time, which reflected and resulted in her change in attitudes and practices.…”

Language Learner Investment and Identity Negotiation in the Korean EFL Context

“…Study abroad has also been extended to younger students, with the number of elementaryage students going abroad for educational opportunities rising by a factor greater than 10 from 2, 259 in 1995 to 29,511 in 2006, with a slight dip in 2008 (27, 349) and 2009 (18,118) due to the global recession (KEDI, 2010). Study abroad trends show the heavy emphasis on language learning (primarily English) as an important goal, which implies a valorization of a multilingual, cosmopolitan identity less bound to the monolingual culture of Korea (Song, 2012).…”

Scalar politics, language ideologies, and the sociolinguistics of globalization among transnational Korean professionals in Hong Kong

“…Diverse language ideologies have implications for daily life through context‐bound identity politics. For example, Song () describes how Koreans in the U.S. use two language ideologies in their daily lives: namely, language as economic commodity; and language as cosmopolitan membership. While the first enables them to tap into the status of English as a linguistic resource for jobs, the latter enables them to index their identity as cosmopolitans with cultural capital.…”

“…For example, Silverstein argues that language ideologies pivot on evaluations that individuals make for language in respect of its ‘appropriateness‐to and effectiveness‐in context’ (2003: 195). Similarly, in research on the language practices of transnational Koreans, Song (: 40) emphasizes that language ideologies are adopted in a ‘contextually specific’ manner. While already a difficult construct to define, context has become more contested in the ‘time/space compression’ (Harvey ) accompanying globalization and transnationalism (Lam and Warriner ).…”