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John Chong South Korea Analysis

Decent Essays

In John Cho’s article “Global Fatigue- Transnational Markets, Linguistic Capital, and Korean-American Male English Teachers in South Korea,” the author analyzed Korean American male migrants’ psychological transition activities when they had returned to South Korea and taught English there as English teachers. Cho argues that Korean American male English teachers have been struggling in “contradictory feelings of privilege and anxiety in South Korea” and he also deems these feelings originate from their linguistic capital of English. (Cho, 219) According to Cho’s words, he explains this proud feeling is original generated from Korean-American males’ linguistic privilege of proficiency in both English and Korean languages while the feeling …show more content…

Cho refers another interviewee’s words “ South Korea is a ‘man’s society,’” this reflects the fact that many Korean-American males have gained the sense of masculine status that emasculated in American society. (Cho, 224) I agree with what the author thinks the main reason why many Korean-American males incline to stay longer in South Korea after their one-year English teaching contracts with the English institutions is because the high masculine status in the South Korean society. The Korean society makes Korean-American males feel more powerful in South Korea than in the United States, this can be considered as the basic element that consists and shapes the feeling of privilege to Korean American migrants in South …show more content…

The author emphasizes this phenomenon by presenting how competitive the job opportunity is in the United States. With the growing English-speaker demand by the English language market in South Korea, there is an increasing number of Korean-Americans returning to South Korea to look for jobs. Nevertheless, many Korean-American English teachers have become more worried about their stable lives in South Korea after one-year contracts with English institutions. The author deems this anxious feeling is bonded with timing problem that most returned Korean-Americans have

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