Rena, the second-generation, female English dominant speaker
Rena’s father and mother had moved to the U.S. 22 years ago when they entered a university in the U.S. After Rena’s father found a job in the U.S., the family became permanent residents and planned to stay in the U.S. permanently. Rena and her two older brothers (5th- and lOth-graders each) were born in the U.S. and began their initial schooling in the U.S. During school breaks, the family has visited Korea once a year for a month. Rena’s mother believed that visiting Korea was a good opportunity for Rena to learn about Korean culture and customs. According to the mother, learning about Korean culture and manner is more important than having fluent Korean proficiency for Rena since they did not plan to go back to Korea and permanently stay in the U.S. Thus, the parents’ reason to send Rena to the Korean HL school was to provide Rena with an opportunity to be familiar with the Korean culture and manners/va-lues. Since Rena’s parents came to the U.S. during their teenage years, their English proficiencies were superior to those of other Korean parents in this study. It was reported that the parents often used English when communicating with Rena instead of asking Rena to use Korean.
“English is obligatory, but Korean is an extra language."
Rena’s mother thought that learning the Korean language itself was not highly important for her child. From the mother’s perspective, it was not mandatory for Rena to acquire perfect Korean proficiency. Rather, she viewed Korean as a tool that reflected Rena’s cultural roots. The mother’s following statements displayed her beliefs that she regarded Korean as an “additional” language because “extra” time and effort were needed to teach Korean in the U.S.:
Korean is an additional (my emphasis) language while living in the U.S. I believe that having the ability to speak perfect Korean is not mandatory while living in the U.S.... It is true that extra (my emphasis) time and effort are required when teaching Korean (to my children).
