While research on foreign English teachers in Korea has tended to focus on their work as language educators, this research examined their experiences as language learners, their interactions with native Korean speakers, and whether they felt that knowledge of Korean had provided them with social benefits, with a view to providing insight into the discourses that surround foreign teachers and the Korean language in Korea.
More globalized Korea
The Korean government has made a number of policy decisions in response to increased multiculturalism, decisions that Watson (2012) suggests have to be understoodin light of the discourse of Korean cultural and ethnic exclusivity. For example, while the Korean government has stated that: ‘policymakers need to be aware that migrant workers or spouses are not subjects that should be assimilated into this country but human beings who have different cultural standards’ (p. 239), Watson suggests that statements of this sort are carefully crafted to avoid infringing on the idea of Korean ethnic uniqueness, whilst paying lip service to multiculturalism. Indeed, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies has suggested that a majority of multicultural programs in Korea are ‘culturally assimilating,’ in that they may focus on teaching Korean norms to foreign residents (Lee, 2014).
Also, the Korean government has instituted a minimum Korean language competence standard for acquiring certain visas (Heit, 2010; Lee, 2010). Modern Korean society has complex relations to ethnicity and nationality, and a strong sense of the importance of homogeneity is in evidence. Groups that have been shown to experience discrimination in Korea include immigrant spouses from countries such as the Philippines and Mongolia (Lee, 2010), multi-ethnic public school students (Kim & Kim, 2015) and ethnically-Korean Chinese and American immigrants (Cho, 2012; Redmond, 2014; Seol & Skrentky, 2004), though Korean immigration policy provides advantages in visa acquisition to immigrants of Korean ethnicity (Kim, 2008;Park & Chang, 2005). This research presents the experiences of foreign English teachers, another minority and immigrant group in Korea, to contribute to this body of data.
