Abstract

This study explores how North Korean refugees in South Korea navigate different ideologies about language and construct their own language ideologies and identities while adjusting to and learning a new variety of Korean. Drawing on interviews with four North Korean refugees, the study finds that they have suffered from stigmatization because of their socially marked North Korean accents, leading them to internalize a hierarchical view of the two varieties of Korean and to strive to speak like South Koreans. The participants have at times strategically concealed their identities in order to pass as non-North Korean and protect themselves from discrimination. However, the participants have also positioned and repositioned themselves and their linguistic and cultural resources through imagining different possible futures. Challenging the inferior identities imposed on them by the mainstream society, they have constructed imagined identities as valuable assets for a future, reunified Korea. In doing so, they have used their bidialectal and bicultural skills to differentiate themselves from South Koreans and empower themselves. The findings of the study shed light on the complex interactions between language ideologies, language use, and identity construction, with implications for refugee language-support programs.

摘要

本研究探讨了在韩国的朝鲜难民如何驾驭不同的语言意识形态，构建自己的语言意识形态和身份，同时适应和学习一种新的韩语。该研究通过对四名朝鲜难民的采访发现，他们因具有社会标志性的朝鲜口音而遭受耻辱，导致他们将两种韩国人的等级观念内化，并努力像韩国人一样说话。参与者有时会战略性地隐藏自己的身份，以伪装成非朝鲜人并保护自己免受歧视。然而，参与者也通过想象不同的可能未来来定位和重新定位自己及其语言和文化资源。他们挑战主流社会强加给他们的劣等身份，将想象中的身份构建为未来统一的韩国的宝贵资产。在这样做的过程中，他们利用自己的双语和双文化技能将自己与韩国人区分开来并赋予自己权力。该研究的结果揭示了语言意识形态、语言使用和身份构建之间复杂的相互作用，并对难民语言支持计划产生了影响。