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Monash Beyond Borders Korean Studies Seminar Series 2026
Dr Eunseon Kim (ANU)
Date & Time: Friday 8th May, 2-3pm (Melbourne time)
Venue: Room 221 LTB (Learning & Teaching Building), Monash Clayton Campus, and via ZOOM
Abstract:
South Korea is often imagined as a nation bound together by a single shared language. But what happens to regional dialects under that ideal? This study explores the politics of language standardization in South Korea by examining how standard Korean came to function as the legitimate language of education, public life, and national belonging, while dialects were marked as incorrect, undignified, backward, or in need of correction. Dialects were not simply excluded; they were managed—corrected in schools, restricted in broadcasting, and tolerated mainly as subordinate forms of speech. Even recent efforts to celebrate dialects as cultural heritage or linguistic diversity do not fully escape this hierarchy: dialects are increasingly welcomed as markers of regional identity that “enrich” Korean, but usually without challenging the privileged status of the standard language itself. This study highlights how standard language ideology has shaped the social meanings of dialect: who sounds educated, who sounds provincial, and who gets to speak for the nation. In doing so, it asks what a more inclusive vision of language, identity, and belonging in Korea might entail.
Bio:
Eunseon Kim is Lecturer in the School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University. Her research explores the ideological and semiotic dimensions of Korean, especially honorifics, linguistic etiquette, and metapragmatic discourse. She is currently preparing a book manuscript on the socio-semiotic history of Korean honorifics and their role in ethno-national modernity.
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