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The Local Construction of a Global Language: Ideologies of English in South Korea by Joseph Sung‐Yul Park
Author(s) -
Lee Jamie Shinhee
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-971x.2009.01614.x
Subject(s) - ideology , citation , media studies , history , english language , sociology , library science , linguistics , political science , computer science , law , philosophy , politics
It is impossible to gauge the full impact that the spread of English continues to have on the world. In South Korea alone, private English education costs reached 20.9 trillion won (roughly $13.7 billion US) in 2008 (Kang, 2009). ‘English mania’ is so extreme that a surgical operation has been developed that severs a small piece of tissue under the tongue in the hopes of improving English pronunciation (Shin, 2004). While neither of the preceding two sentences are likely to surprise anyone teaching or learning English in South Korea, there is a relatively small amount of research offering a rich interpretation of the beliefs that enable these trends. In light of the current atmosphere Park explores the ways that citizens of one country rationalize such extreme measures in the frantic pursuit of English proficiency and the various social meanings that English takes on in such a setting.