Why is learning and maintaining heritage languages in South Korea so challenging? | Melbourne Asia Review
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South Korea (hereafter Korea) has been moving towards becoming a more multicultural society since the 1990s. Korea’s embrace of global culture and the increasing presence of bicultural families (typically families where one parent is from a non-Korean culture) and ethnic minorities has led to the meaningful development of multicultural policy and support for migrants and their expanded families. Nonetheless, for marriage migrants (more than 80 percent are immigrant women) and their children born to parents from different cultural backgrounds in Korea, the journey to reconnect with their heritage—mostly from their foreign parents—through learning the heritage language involves significant and persistent obstacles.

Statistically, alongside the rise in families with parents from different cultural backgrounds, the number of students from bicultural backgrounds in Korea has steadily increased over the decade since 2012. However, due to Korea having the lowest birth rate in the world, the overall student population in Korea is decreasing at a 2.4 percent per year, which means that the proportion of students from multicultural families is increasing. In response, the Korean government and communities have provided limited heritage language learning support to help families and students from bicultural backgrounds settle well. However, it appears the support is insufficient for the majority of them. This may contribute to the lack of acknowledgement regarding the importance of learning and maintaining the culture and language of foreign parents. Furthermore, there is a possibility that they will avoid or neglect their invaluable heritage cultures and languages.

This article aims to highlight the various complex and persistent difficulties encountered by bicultural children attempting to learn their heritage language. It especially focuses on the need to balance linguistic diversity with the dominant language power in the Korean mainstream community.

‘Bi-cultural’ and ‘multi-cultural’

Before discussing this further, it is important to clarify the terms ‘bicultural’ and ‘bicultural families’. In government departments, such as Statistics Korea and Korean Educational Statistics Service, the term ‘multicultural families (da-mun-hwa ga-jeong)’ includes three different family structures: households with naturalised citizens, marriage immigrants married to Koreans (including naturalised persons), or children of foreigners living in Korea.

In Korean society, however, the term ‘multicultural families’ is typically used to designate families consisting of Korean and foreign parents. This might be because this type of family unit is significantly larger than other family structures. As such, the terms ‘multicultural families’ and ‘multicultural students (da-mun-hwa hag-saeng)’ are widely used to refer to families with Korean and foreign parents; and students in those families. These families are often composed of Korean men and foreign women from lower-income Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Mongolia, Cambodia, and the Philippines. Intriguingly, the concept of a ‘multicultural family (da-mun-hwa ga-jeong)’ in Korean society is commonly perceived as not typically including a family structure composed of Korean and Western individuals, particularly white native English speakers from English-speaking countries. This is one example that demonstrates the influence of the ‘English language’ on Korean society and its high status. Thus, the term ‘multicultural families’ seems to carry negative connotations related to particular family backgrounds. From this perspective, this article uses the term ‘bicultural families’ instead of ‘multicultural families’ to mitigate biased views in the general population and to simply indicate a family structure in which the parents are from two different cultures.

Ambivalent social approval

Notably, the attitudes of the Korean general public towards ethnic minority cultures and languages have steadily become more favourable over the past three decades. Many foreign parents in my study have experienced positive feedback from their Korean families regarding their ethnic heritage, cultures, and languages. Over time, extended families have shown a positive change in these heritage cultures and languages through close interaction despite initial unfamiliarity.

So, why do foreign parents still find it difficult to pass on their heritage language to their children?

For a long time, Korea has been perceived as a monolingual and monoethnic society. In a culture that places a high value on conformity, those who speak languages other than Korean (or possibly English) might be seen as outsiders or less integrated. Additionally, Korean mainstream community still covertly or overtly holds discriminatory views regarding those from economically disadvantaged Southeast Asian countries. This perception can discourage people from practising and improving their heritage languages, as the fear of judgement or discrimination outweighs the desire to learn, even when their primary motivation is to attach to their heritage roots. Parents also often have as a desire to shield their children from unnecessary isolation or discrimination by their peers.

In other words, foreign parents and their bicultural children still face difficulty learning and developing their heritage language in their daily lives, mainly outside the home, despite some positive change in general perspectives in Korean society. Many foreign parents strongly desire their children to learn their heritage language to deepen mother-child bonding and maintain their connection with extended family in their mother’s homeland. However, they hesitate to support their children learning their heritage language for the reasons stated above, as well as a lack of educational support for their children learning their heritage language.

Persistent language prestige

In addition to the enduring stereotypes against different cultures prevalent in Korean mainstream society, foreign parents are expected to learn and assimilate into Korean culture and language, which influences foreign parents’ decisions on whether to pass on their heritage language to their children.

In light of Korea’s linguistic homogeneity and an emphasis on the Korean language in alignment with cultural identity and national unity objectives, the emergence of less popular or less widely spoken minority languages, such as Vietnamese, Thai, Mongolian, and other Southeast Asian languages, presents undoubtedly significant educational and social dilemmas. Along with Korean dominating as a primary language, the prioritisation of additional languages such as English, Japanese and Chinese creates a linguistic hierarchy that raises challenges for bicultural children striving to maintain their heritage languages. In the Korean education system, the primary emphasis is on Korean and English, underscoring the profound influence of English as the dominant foreign language of communication.

The curriculum in public schools is heavily standardised, with a strong emphasis on Korean, English, and a few other widely spoken foreign languages, leaving little room for the inclusion of other languages. English, especially, alongside the Korean language and mathematics, is compulsory throughout the school years in Korea. This is due to its status as a lingua franca, essential for accessing international opportunities and facilitating effective communication. Similarly, Japanese and Chinese hold prominent positions in South Korea due to historical, cultural, and economic ties. As a result, proficiency in these languages is often linked to social status and success, further elevating their importance within the Korean linguistic landscape. This also sends a subtle message about the value—or lack thereof—placed on further linguistic diversity. The focus on widely spoken languages presents persistent challenges for individuals with bicultural backgrounds who wish to maintain their heritage languages while facing pressure to prioritise Korean and other widely spoken languages.

In Korea, while Southeast Asian languages may be viewed with curiosity or seen as exotic, they generally occupy a lower position in the linguistic hierarchy due to their national economic status and are seen as less relevant. Consequently, these languages face marginalisation due to limited institutional support and resources for their learning and preservation. This dynamic poses significant challenges for individuals of Southeast Asian background who strive to maintain their heritage languages while navigating the pressures of linguistic assimilation within Korean society.

Can the digital era help the maintenance of heritage languages?

In recent decades, the Korean government has implemented initiatives and support for foreign parents and their bicultural children, including heritage culture and language classes, as well as programs for visiting extended families in the home countries of foreign parents. This highlights the government’s recognition of the importance of developing and maintaining minority heritage languages in a society on the path to becoming a multicultural one. This support aims to promote healthier and more integrated lives within their community. The government has shown respect for minority heritage cultures and languages by offering cultural and language classes through family centres across Korea.

However, there remains a lack of educational support from the government and family centres for the maintenance of all heritage languages. While family centres offer language and cultural classes for individuals from Chinese, Vietnamese, English, and Japanese backgrounds, support is often unavailable for those from other backgrounds, such as Thai or Mongolian, especially if their heritage language is that of a further marginalised ethnic minority. This is because the number of individuals from these heritage language groups is smaller and it is costly to provide classes for all ethnic minority languages and cultures within the community. For this reason, those living in metropolitan and larger cities, who are expected to have more accessible support due to their larger population, often still struggle to find adequate assistance. This challenge is greater for those in smaller local cities or rural areas, where opportunities to learn heritage language and maintain cultural identity are even more limited. Therefore, if an individual’s heritage language is a minority language rather than a widely spoken one, such as Chinese, Vietnamese, or Japanese, the issue remains significant regardless of one’s place of residence.

So, can digital technologies bridge the education gap for those who lack support in maintaining their ethnic heritage languages, and cultures?

In today’s interconnected world, it is clear that digital platforms and social media have the potential to, at least partly, address educational disparities. They offer a wealth of resources and opportunities, particularly in language learning, regardless of geographical constraints. These platforms provide access to diverse educational materials such as online resources, interactive apps, and courses tailored to different languages. Recent language learning apps (e.g. Rosetta Stone, Babbel, Bussu, Memorise, and Super Duolingo) can be alternative ways to begin learning a language and to get exposure to it, especially in circumstances where it’s hard to find resources for particular minority languages. While it cannot be guaranteed that these apps are totally reliable, they can be valuable supplements to the limited resources available in mainstream education (as demonstrated by some language schools in Australia such as the New South Wales School of Languages, Community language schools and community languages program K-6). This can help people to start learning minority languages without a financial burden and can overcome issues related their geographical location and the hierarchy of languages in Korea.

Nevertheless, various factors may hinder the effectiveness of digital tools for learning minority languages. A major challenge is the availability and quality of content, which can differ greatly across languages and platforms. Additionally, not everyone has equal access to digital resources or necessary devices such as computers, laptops, or tablets. This digital divide can intensify educational inequalities and restrict opportunities for language learning and cultural engagement.

Therefore, the fundamental purpose of support should be ‘no one left behind’ based on a complementary relationship (e.g. hybrid or blended learning) between digital platforms and the traditional education system which is achieved by providing adequate education in digital literacy. While digital platforms provide convenience and accessibility, they cannot fully replicate the immersive experience of learning a language within a community of speakers, which is particularly important for bicultural families and their children. Such experiences are essential for achieving fluency, gaining deeper cultural insights, bonding with their heritage roots, and building connections with people from similar backgrounds. This is crucial for maintaining a strong connection to their heritage. Thus, digital technologies can significantly enhance language learning and cultural preservation efforts, complementing traditional methods supported by the government and community that promote community-based language acquisition and cultural transmission.

Conclusion

In Korea, many families from linguistic minorities grapple with preserving their native languages while adapting to a predominantly Korean-speaking society. Despite partial government support and technological advancements, learning minority languages remains challenging due to implicit societal pressures, language hierarchy, and insufficient educational support. Accordingly, foreign parents and children from bicultural backgrounds face many obstacles in maintaining their heritage culture and language. The struggle to preserve one’s mother tongue in a Korean-dominant society exemplifies the broader challenge of safeguarding linguistic and cultural diversity in an increasingly homogenised world.

Valuing and supporting minority languages can foster a more inclusive and culturally rich society, advancing towards a healthier multicultural community. Concerted efforts are needed from various stakeholders to address these challenges effectively: individuals should foster domestic support and confidence in their ethnic culture and language; communities ought to demonstrate genuine affirmative attitudes towards foreign parents and their children’s family background as they are also the same citizen in the community; and the government must develop educational and practical support systems to cultivate an inclusive society that values and embraces linguistic diversity. This three-part harmony will unlock South Korea’s full potential as a multicultural society, enriching its social fabric for future generations.

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bicultural families heritage languages language support multicultural policy South Korea