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A Study on Marriage Immigrant Women's Life History Regarding their Korean Language Learning

Eun-Jyung Choi 1 Jeong-Ae Lee 1 Kang, Mi-Ok 2

1전북대학교
2Utah Valley University

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study explored the life histories of four female international marriage migrants from China (Korean-Chinese), the Philippines, and Vietnam, and traced the ways in which their motivation and attitude for Korean language learning have influenced their marriage and settlement in South Korea. Four aspects were found: (1) Voluntary Korean learning (Vietnamese), (2) Korean learning for survival (Vietnamese), (3) mastery level of Korean as a Korean-Chinese bilingual, and (4) passive Korean learning as a fluent English speaker (Philippina). Participant (1) used her Korean language skills to materialize her unfulfilled dreams. On the contrary, participant (2) had very limited Korean skills and experienced much discrimination in her daily life at the very beginning of marriage. As she became fluent in Korean, she has made many positive changes in her life and is very satisfied with her current life. Participant (3) silenced herKorean-Chinese identity and tried to be assimilated to Korean society using her fluent bilingual skills. Participant (4) strategically used her English skills to navigate South Korean society and managed her life successfully despite limited Korean skills. These findings give suggestions to those who pursue a multicultural society that values mutual understanding with migrants and builds up empathy among people.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.