Language ideologies in educational migration: Korean jogi yuhak families in Singapore

Abstract

This paper discusses the connection between language ideologies and educational migration. South Korea is experiencing a boom in short-term migration among pre-university students, a phenomenon known as jogi yuhak. This trend is driven in part by ideologies that link valorized forms of English with specific geographical locations; but at the same time, transnational experiences of educational migration also shape and contest those dominant ideologies, opening up spaces for their rearticulation. This paper illustrates this process through a study of jogi yuhak families in Singapore, exploring how the cultural and linguistic diversity of Singaporean society interacts with language ideologies that drive jogi yuhak. Through an analysis of the families' accounts of their linguistic investments, it demonstrates how the material constraints surrounding the lives of the families and their lived experiences contribute to a negotiation of imagined geographies that connect language, place, and social space. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.