Lead supervisor:
Dr Elaine Wing Tung Chung 
Other supervisor(s):
- Dr Xuan Wang
Start date: October 2025 (Full time)
Subject Pathway:
Politics, International Relations and Global Language Based Area Studies
Thematic Cluster:
Rights and Governance Cluster
The inflow of foreign languages into Korean society: implications for politics and diplomatic strategy
Korea has historically been a largely monolingual society. However, it has been shaped by the introduction of various foreign languages through French- and English-speaking missionary work, as well as major geopolitical events such as Japanese colonisation and the Korean War, a focal point of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. These events facilitated the inflow of foreign languages, impacting Korean society across multiple dimensions.
This proposed research explores the relationship between imported languages and their implications for Korea’s domestic political landscape and international relations. The study aims to address how linguistic shifts have shaped Korean politics and pivoted its global diplomatic strategies. Ultimately, this research seeks to highlight the intrinsic power of language and contribute to future global policymaking, particularly for South Korea and its international partners.
Research Impact
This project aims to establish a foundational framework for domestic and international policymaking, specifically for South Korea and its global partners. Historically, academic discourse has been dominated by Western perspectives, leaving a noticeable research deficit concerning non-Western regions.
By addressing this imbalance, the proposed study seeks to bridge the academic gap between Western and non-Western contexts. Furthermore, by elucidating the link between foreign language inflows and political shifts, this project will contribute to the development of new theoretical frameworks and/or the refinement of existing ones, to be utilised in future interdisciplinary research.
Bibliography
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Pacheco Pardo, R. (2021) ‘Foreign Policy’, in Han, J., Pacheco Pardo, R. and Cho, Y. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics. Online edn. Oxford: Oxford Academic. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.34.
Seo, J. and Cho, Y.C. (2021) ‘The emergence and evolution of International Relations studies in postcolonial South Korea’, Review of International Studies, 47(5), pp. 619–636. doi: 10.1017/S0260210521000504.
Snyder, S.A. and Easley, L. (2014) ‘South Korea’s Foreign Relations and Security Policies’, in Pekkanen, S.M., Ravenhill, J. and Foot, R. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of the International Relations of Asia. Online edn. Oxford: Oxford Academic. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199916245.013.0023.
Sohn, B. and Kang, M. (2021) ‘“We contribute to the development of South Korea”: Bilingual womanhood and politics of bilingual policy in South Korea’, Multilingua, 40(2), pp. 175–198. doi: 10.1515/multi-2020-0034.
Song, J.J. (2012) ‘South Korea: language policy and planning in the making’, Current Issues in Language Planning, 13(1), pp. 1–68. doi: 10.1080/14664208.2012.650322.
Sungwon, Y. (2017) ‘Globalization and Language Policy in South Korea’, in Tsui, A.B.M. and Tollefson, J.W. (eds) Language Policy, Culture, and Identity in Asian Contexts. London: Routledge, pp. 37–54. doi: 10.4324/9781315092034-3.
Biography
MSc Social Science Research Methods (2025 - ), Cardiff University
MA Translation Studies (2017-2018), Caridff University
BA French Language and Literature, Chungnam National University, S. Korea