Gendered bilingualism in post-colonial Korea

In the 1960s, Japanese books became immensely popular in South Korea. Interestingly, Korean newspapers often wrote about this trend as if mainly women were interested in learning Japanese.

Osaka Metropolitan University Associate Professor Jinsuk Yang examined South Korean newspaper articles and other historical documents from the 1960s and 1970s to understand why Japanese language learning was often described as something women did, even though men were also learning Japanese. Additionally, Professor Yang studied how women’s ability to speak Japanese affected their lives during and after the time when Japan colonized Korea.

As a result, it was found that the Korean newspapers often focused on two groups of women learning Japanese: university students and workers in the entertainment industry. These articles stated that female university students were learning Japanese only to read novels, and women in the entertainment industry were learning it to talk to tourists. However, they didn’t say much about the men learning Japanese for work or study. Further, the ability to speak Japanese gave women new opportunities and ideas, which challenged traditional roles for women in Korea.

“This research helps us understand more about the relationship between language, gender, and national identity in Korea after Japanese colonial rule,” Professor Yang stated. “It can teach us about how countries and cultures influence each other, even after difficult historical periods. In the future, this kind of research might help us better understand the relationship between Japan and Korea today.”

Her findings were published in Asian Studies Review.

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