It is widely understood that 'positive' feelings like enjoyment and curiosity can motivate language learning. However, motivation also emerges from 'negative' feelings, like shame, frustration, and antagonism. Some people learn languages to resist, to prove others wrong, and to transform an unjust situation. This presentation is about such 'negative' motivation, and how and why it manifested for one learner of Korean.

This presentation is based on a narrative study of the experiences of a Korean adoptee from the US learning Korean. With illustrative examples from this learner's narrative, the presenter will demonstrate the power of painful emotions and unwelcome social pressures to foster and sustain a long-term commitment to language learning. At issue are the ways that the Korean language and the Korean ethnicity are discursively related, the ways that society pressures individuals to conform, and the ways that language learning decisions can be a response to this pressure. EASTER EGG 2