Becoming Cosmopolitan Citizens in Learning Multiple Languages and Cultures: The Case of Minority Teenagers in South Korea

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: Korean Family Language Practices: Transnational Perspectives

Abstract

This case study examines how Korean minority youth born in transnational marriage families find ways to use globalization to their own advantage in constructing their identities. Drawing on an ecological theoretical framework, I used ethnographic methods. The primary data sources were fieldnotes produced through twelve months of fieldwork in Incheon; interview transcripts with the student, mother, and teacher participants; and the student participants’ artifacts. Despite the pervasive social stigmatization imposed on these minority youth, two focal minority teenagers were in the process of constructing their identities as cosmopolitan citizens by using their linguistic and cultural resources. Specifically, they were willing to belong to different communities around the world and developing ethical values such as tolerance and solidarity.

Author

• Jaran Shin, University of Massachusetts Boston