Nate Ming Curran
Biographic Data
| ID | 939701 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nate Ming Curran |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nate Ming |
| FAMILY NAME | Curran |
| SIGNATURE | CURRAN N M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hong Kong Polytechnic University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6477-8730 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 54 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Ideal migrants in an ideal city: Discursive constructions of talent in Hong Kong's relocation branding campaign
“Anytime, Anywhere”: Online Language Tutoring Platforms and the Rise of the (Im)Mobile Language Teacher
This article examines how online tutoring platforms (OTPs) have facilitated new forms of (im)mobility—and discourses of (im)mobility—among online English tutors. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews with online tutors, the article critically interrogates OTPs' primary selling point: that online tutors can work “anytime, anywhere.” While OTPs ostensibly render tutors' location trivial because tutors and students connect via the internet, the find…
Platformization of language education
This editorial introduction provides an overview of the special issue. It introduces readers to the topic of platformization, articulates areas of overlap among the seven contributions, and points to new directions for future scholarship
Self-branding and the commodification of regional identity on Douyin
An increasing number of individuals on Chinese social media seek to make a living by uploading short videos that mix English language teaching with entertainment. Combining elements of traditional teaching with business acumen and a flair for the dramatic, these “platform language teacherpreneurs” (PLTs) compete for viewers and students in a highly competitive and algorithmically unforgiving attention economy. This article examines the self-brand…
English in authoritative Covid-19 public health signage in South Korea: Multilingual and monolingual practices for domestic and foreign audiences
The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic quickly led to the introduction of COVID-19 public health signage in many locations around the world. However, the language practices of these signs remain under-examined even years after the emergence of COVID-19. This study examines 39 unique authoritative COVID-19 public health signs collected in South Korea which contain English. We find that the use of English within signage intended for a domestic Kore…
English tutors’ emotions, agency, and identity development in the aftermath of China’s Double Reduction policy
The “Double Reduction” policy, implemented by the Chinese government in 2021, aimed to reduce the burden facing parents and students by restricting after-school tutoring. The policy had enormous implications for teachers working in China’s shadow education industry, hundreds of thousands of whom were forced to leave their jobs. Grounded in theories of language teacher identity, emotions, and agency, this study investigates the Double Reduction po…
Language teachers’ use of social media platforms and online tutoring platforms: A scoping review
Around the world, language teachers use for-profit digital platforms to find and instruct students. Although a plethora of recent studies have addressed this emerging phenomenon, there has not yet been an attempt to synthesize the existing literature. In response, this scoping review provides an overview and synthesis of existing studies that explicitly focus on language teachers’ use of digital platforms in for-profit contexts (N = 39). Based on…
Interculturality, linguistic diversity, and social inclusion: Current issues and future challenges
Iterative Self‐Branding: Chinese Language Teachers’ Understanding and Rationalization of Working on Online Tutoring Platforms
Online tutoring platforms (OTPs) are an increasingly popular way for learners to study languages and for teachers to earn money. On many OTPs, individual teachers are responsible for attracting potential students via self‐branding. While scholarship has examined OTP teachers’ self‐branding practices and identified some of the most popular self‐branding strategies, little scholarship has examined whether teachers are aware of their incorporation o…
I Want to be Part of Them”: A Phenomenological Study of Chinese Table Tennis Players Seeking Nostalgic Leisure Experiences in Korea
Competing for Views and Students: The Implications of Platformization for Online Language Teaching
Language teachers increasingly make use of digital platforms to find students, upload teaching material, give lessons, and promote themselves. This article examines the accounts of two popular English teachers from China on the social media platform Douyin and explores similarities and differences in the two teachers' self‐branding strategies. We suggest that the two teachers are emblematic of platform language teacherpreneurs : individuals who c…
Language learners or hallyu fans? Identity and Korean language learning in the digital wilds
Foreign English teachers’ intercultural reactions to China's “Double Reduction” policy
The Chinese government's 2021 “Double Reduction” policy decimated the online language tutoring industry. Beyond erasing billions of dollars of value, hundreds of thousands of foreign‐based online English teachers lost their jobs as a result of the policy. This article examines online English teachers’ responses to the Double Reduction policy. Drawing on analyses of YouTube videos about the ban uploaded by 13 Inner Circle English teachers, I argue…
Banal Koreanness: National imagery in multicultural-themed television shows
This article analyses how three South Korean multicultural-themed reality television programmes discursively produce Koreanness. We ground our study in scholarship on 'othering' and the notion of banal nationalism (Billig, 1995) and conduct a thematic analysis of the shows. Our findings show that the programmes adopt a Korea-foreign dichotomy that becomes a lens through which viewers can vicariously experience the existence of a unified South Kor…
Gig Economy Teaching: On the Importance and Dangers of Self-branding in Online Markets
The gig economy is rapidly transforming service-based industries, including online teaching. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people worldwide to work remotely, gig economy teaching generated billions of dollars in revenue and was responsible for millions of lessons per month. Although the global labor market is currently experiencing a major shift because of the gig economy, applied linguists have paid little attention to gig…
Discrimination in the gig economy: The experiences of Black online English teachers
This article examines the rapidly expanding market for online English learning and tutoring. It focuses on the experiences of Black American online English teachers employed on a variety of popular online teaching platforms (e.g. Cambly, italki, PalFish, VIPKid etc.). Specifically, the article considers how specific affordances of online English teaching platforms (e.g. customer ratings and algorithms) function to disadvantage non-White teachers.…
Pop cosmopolitanism and online language learning: Findings from a discrete choice experiment
This article considers the burgeoning online market for language learning as representative of an emerging form of Internet-enabled pop cosmopolitanism. The analysis is based upon a survey-experiment conducted on one of the world’s largest online language learning platforms. Drawing on theories of media globalization, cosmopolitanism and language ideologies, the study explores the factors that drive participation in online language learning and t…
Standing out and fitting in: Korean coffee entrepreneurs’ strategies for survival
Prompted by the meteoric increase in the number of coffee shops in South Korea over the past two decades, this article explores the various strategies that coffee shop entrepreneurs in Seoul adopt to succeed in one of the world’s most saturated markets. Grounding our study in Bourdieusian notions of taste and distinction as well as contemporary research into coffee shop culture and social class identity, we conducted two rounds of semi-structured…
Banal nationalism and conversational cosmopolitanism: The potential of online language education for intercultural communication
202307 bcww
From garbage to Covid-19: Theorizing ‘Multilingual Commanding Urgency’ in the linguistic landscape
Across the globe signage which conveys directives regarding appropriate behavior in public, such as ‘Do Not Enter’ signs, is made multilingual in ways that other signage is not. This paper examines two examples of multilingualism in directive signs within Seoul, South Korea in order to theorize what gives rise to multilingualism in directive signage while other signage remains monolingual. Examination of Vietnamese and Arabic on signs prohibiting…
Factors driving teacher selection on online language tutoring platforms: An experiment-based approach
202307 bcww
Adapt, acquire, defuse, learn: Filipino online English tutors as intercultural bricoleurs
Americano, latte, or English: What do menu languages in Korean coffee shops tell us about the meaning of English today
Across the world, in many places in which English is not widely spoken, English text often appears on posters, storefronts, billboards, street signs, warning signs, menus, and many other forms of publicly visible written texts. English is often featured alongside one or more additional languages. These signs are typically seen as unremarkable by passersby looking to buy goods, for information regarding prohibited activity, or even just for a comf…
More or less a foreigner: Domestic reception of multinational K-pop groups
Producing multiculturalism: Casting and editing migrants in Korean reality television
This article examines the role of production techniques in shaping representations of cultural diversity in South Korean reality television. We first discuss the South Korean government’s evolving guidelines concerning the representation of minorities on television and identify in the guidelines exhortations against discriminatory framing of migrants. Next, we qualitatively examine three popular multicultural-themed reality television shows and d…
We are cheaper, so they hire us: Discounted nativeness in online English teaching
This article considers the rapidly expanding online market for English teaching. Drawing on interviews with 11 Filipino online English teachers and the first author's own experiences teaching English online, we examine how teachers feel under the conditions of precarity they experience in the gig economy for language teaching. In addressing the experiences of Filipino teachers, we introduce the notion of "discounted nativeness." Discounted native…
Competing for Views and Students: The Implications of Platformization for Online Language Teaching
Language teachers increasingly make use of digital platforms to find students, upload teaching material, give lessons, and promote themselves. This article examines the accounts of two popular English teachers from China on the social media platform Douyin and explores similarities and differences in the two teachers' self‐branding strategies. We suggest that the two teachers are emblematic of platform language teacherpreneurs : individuals who c…
English fever and coffee: Transient cosmopolitanism and the rising cost of distinction
This article examines the intersection of English and coffee in Seoul, South Korea, in order to document how distinction (ala Bourdieu, 1984/2008) functions under the prevailing conditions of neoliberalism. A mere two decades after Starbucks first opened in Korea, high-end specialty coffee shops proliferate. Drawing on photographs of the exteriors, interiors, and menus from 89 coffee shops in the trendy Seongsu-dong neighborhood in Seoul, we exam…
Producing multiculturalism: Casting and editing migrants in Korean reality television
This article examines the role of production techniques in shaping representations of cultural diversity in South Korean reality television. We first discuss the South Korean government’s evolving guidelines concerning the representation of minorities on television and identify in the guidelines exhortations against discriminatory framing of migrants. Next, we qualitatively examine three popular multicultural-themed reality television shows and d…
Conflict and responsibility: Content analysis of American news media organizations’ framing of North Korea
This article features a content analysis of the entire corpus of news articles published about North and South Korea by five major American news websites in 2016. It provides an insight into the multiple and contradictory ways in which North Korea is framed by the American news media. The study finds that responsibility for the ongoing crisis on the peninsula is attributed to a small number of actors and that attribution of responsibility, as wel…
Anthropomorphizing AlphaGo: A content analysis of the framing of Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo in the Chinese and American press
Banal Koreanness: National imagery in multicultural-themed television shows
This article analyses how three South Korean multicultural-themed reality television programmes discursively produce Koreanness. We ground our study in scholarship on 'othering' and the notion of banal nationalism (Billig, 1995) and conduct a thematic analysis of the shows. Our findings show that the programmes adopt a Korea-foreign dichotomy that becomes a lens through which viewers can vicariously experience the existence of a unified South Kor…
Banal nationalism and conversational cosmopolitanism: The potential of online language education for intercultural communication
202307 bcww
From garbage to Covid-19: Theorizing ‘Multilingual Commanding Urgency’ in the linguistic landscape
Across the globe signage which conveys directives regarding appropriate behavior in public, such as ‘Do Not Enter’ signs, is made multilingual in ways that other signage is not. This paper examines two examples of multilingualism in directive signs within Seoul, South Korea in order to theorize what gives rise to multilingualism in directive signage while other signage remains monolingual. Examination of Vietnamese and Arabic on signs prohibiting…
Interculturality, linguistic diversity, and social inclusion: Current issues and future challenges
I Want to be Part of Them”: A Phenomenological Study of Chinese Table Tennis Players Seeking Nostalgic Leisure Experiences in Korea
Language learners or hallyu fans? Identity and Korean language learning in the digital wilds
Neoliberalism From Above and Cosmopolitanism From Below: A Korean-English Meetup Group in the United States
This article applies theories of cosmopolitanism-from-below A. Appadurai (2011), F. Kurasawa (2004) to an empirical case. Drawing on participant-observation and interviews conducted over the course of 20 months at a Korean-English Meetup group in the United States, this article explores the practices of an explicitly “cosmopolitan” group. Specifically, it focuses on U.S. Americans and Korean interns, and considers their experiences and motivation…
Learned Through Labour: The Discursive Production of English Speakers in South Korea
Korea has long been recognized as host to an English ‘fever’ (Kim, 2013; J. K. Park, 2009; Shim & Park, 2008), the intensity of which is such that ‘the entire nation, from the president to average citizens, is emotionally and discursively invested in globalization and English language education’ (Lee, 2011: 146). Many universities have minimum TOEIC/TOEFL scores as a graduation requirement (J. S. Y. Park, 2009: 42), and of Koreans who took the TO…
Conflict and responsibility: Content analysis of American news media organizations’ framing of North Korea
This article features a content analysis of the entire corpus of news articles published about North and South Korea by five major American news websites in 2016. It provides an insight into the multiple and contradictory ways in which North Korea is framed by the American news media. The study finds that responsibility for the ongoing crisis on the peninsula is attributed to a small number of actors and that attribution of responsibility, as wel…
A reflection on South Korea’s broadband success
Drawing on the extant literature on information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Korea, this essay identifies and discusses three factors that have contributed to Korea’s broadband achievements. The first factor is the Korean state’s long-term objectives, including policy principles. The second is regulatory decisions, including late privatization. The third factor is unique attributes of Korea, including population density and the afterm…
Anthropomorphizing AlphaGo: A content analysis of the framing of Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo in the Chinese and American press
Welcoming Difference or Reinforcing the Status Quo? The Influence of Multicultural Television Viewing on Multicultural and Gender Attitudes in South Korea
Drawing on the nascent literature on multiculturalism in Korea, this study explores the influence of viewing South Korean multicultural television content on two attitudinal measures: support for multiculturalism and opposition to sexism. Conducting a survey of South Korean citizens (N = 500) revealed that although heavier viewing of multicultural television content has no significant effect on support for multiculturalism, it does significantly …
Neoliberalism From Above and Cosmopolitanism From Below: A Korean-English Meetup Group in the United States
This article applies theories of cosmopolitanism-from-below A. Appadurai (2011), F. Kurasawa (2004) to an empirical case. Drawing on participant-observation and interviews conducted over the course of 20 months at a Korean-English Meetup group in the United States, this article explores the practices of an explicitly “cosmopolitan” group. Specifically, it focuses on U.S. Americans and Korean interns, and considers their experiences and motivation…
English, gatekeeping, and Mandarin: The future of language learning in South Korea
While South Korea’s ‘English fever’ has long been the focus of popular and scholarly interest, Chinese has been increasing in popularity in South Korea, concomitant with the rise of China in the global economy. It has even been suggested that Chinese might in the future challenge the dominance of English in South Korea. Drawing on a wide range of government, popular and scholarly discourse, supported by interviews, this article considers the cond…
A Pand(acad)emic Plea for Self-Care and Shorter Hours
English fever and coffee: Transient cosmopolitanism and the rising cost of distinction
This article examines the intersection of English and coffee in Seoul, South Korea, in order to document how distinction (ala Bourdieu, 1984/2008) functions under the prevailing conditions of neoliberalism. A mere two decades after Starbucks first opened in Korea, high-end specialty coffee shops proliferate. Drawing on photographs of the exteriors, interiors, and menus from 89 coffee shops in the trendy Seongsu-dong neighborhood in Seoul, we exam…
Americano, latte, or English: What do menu languages in Korean coffee shops tell us about the meaning of English today
Across the world, in many places in which English is not widely spoken, English text often appears on posters, storefronts, billboards, street signs, warning signs, menus, and many other forms of publicly visible written texts. English is often featured alongside one or more additional languages. These signs are typically seen as unremarkable by passersby looking to buy goods, for information regarding prohibited activity, or even just for a comf…
More or less a foreigner: Domestic reception of multinational K-pop groups
Producing multiculturalism: Casting and editing migrants in Korean reality television
This article examines the role of production techniques in shaping representations of cultural diversity in South Korean reality television. We first discuss the South Korean government’s evolving guidelines concerning the representation of minorities on television and identify in the guidelines exhortations against discriminatory framing of migrants. Next, we qualitatively examine three popular multicultural-themed reality television shows and d…
We are cheaper, so they hire us: Discounted nativeness in online English teaching
This article considers the rapidly expanding online market for English teaching. Drawing on interviews with 11 Filipino online English teachers and the first author's own experiences teaching English online, we examine how teachers feel under the conditions of precarity they experience in the gig economy for language teaching. In addressing the experiences of Filipino teachers, we introduce the notion of "discounted nativeness." Discounted native…
Gig Economy Teaching: On the Importance and Dangers of Self-branding in Online Markets
The gig economy is rapidly transforming service-based industries, including online teaching. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of people worldwide to work remotely, gig economy teaching generated billions of dollars in revenue and was responsible for millions of lessons per month. Although the global labor market is currently experiencing a major shift because of the gig economy, applied linguists have paid little attention to gig…
Discrimination in the gig economy: The experiences of Black online English teachers
This article examines the rapidly expanding market for online English learning and tutoring. It focuses on the experiences of Black American online English teachers employed on a variety of popular online teaching platforms (e.g. Cambly, italki, PalFish, VIPKid etc.). Specifically, the article considers how specific affordances of online English teaching platforms (e.g. customer ratings and algorithms) function to disadvantage non-White teachers.…
Pop cosmopolitanism and online language learning: Findings from a discrete choice experiment
This article considers the burgeoning online market for language learning as representative of an emerging form of Internet-enabled pop cosmopolitanism. The analysis is based upon a survey-experiment conducted on one of the world’s largest online language learning platforms. Drawing on theories of media globalization, cosmopolitanism and language ideologies, the study explores the factors that drive participation in online language learning and t…
Standing out and fitting in: Korean coffee entrepreneurs’ strategies for survival
Prompted by the meteoric increase in the number of coffee shops in South Korea over the past two decades, this article explores the various strategies that coffee shop entrepreneurs in Seoul adopt to succeed in one of the world’s most saturated markets. Grounding our study in Bourdieusian notions of taste and distinction as well as contemporary research into coffee shop culture and social class identity, we conducted two rounds of semi-structured…
Banal nationalism and conversational cosmopolitanism: The potential of online language education for intercultural communication
202307 bcww
From garbage to Covid-19: Theorizing ‘Multilingual Commanding Urgency’ in the linguistic landscape
Across the globe signage which conveys directives regarding appropriate behavior in public, such as ‘Do Not Enter’ signs, is made multilingual in ways that other signage is not. This paper examines two examples of multilingualism in directive signs within Seoul, South Korea in order to theorize what gives rise to multilingualism in directive signage while other signage remains monolingual. Examination of Vietnamese and Arabic on signs prohibiting…
Factors driving teacher selection on online language tutoring platforms: An experiment-based approach
202307 bcww
Adapt, acquire, defuse, learn: Filipino online English tutors as intercultural bricoleurs
Language learners or hallyu fans? Identity and Korean language learning in the digital wilds
Foreign English teachers’ intercultural reactions to China's “Double Reduction” policy
The Chinese government's 2021 “Double Reduction” policy decimated the online language tutoring industry. Beyond erasing billions of dollars of value, hundreds of thousands of foreign‐based online English teachers lost their jobs as a result of the policy. This article examines online English teachers’ responses to the Double Reduction policy. Drawing on analyses of YouTube videos about the ban uploaded by 13 Inner Circle English teachers, I argue…
Banal Koreanness: National imagery in multicultural-themed television shows
This article analyses how three South Korean multicultural-themed reality television programmes discursively produce Koreanness. We ground our study in scholarship on 'othering' and the notion of banal nationalism (Billig, 1995) and conduct a thematic analysis of the shows. Our findings show that the programmes adopt a Korea-foreign dichotomy that becomes a lens through which viewers can vicariously experience the existence of a unified South Kor…
English tutors’ emotions, agency, and identity development in the aftermath of China’s Double Reduction policy
The “Double Reduction” policy, implemented by the Chinese government in 2021, aimed to reduce the burden facing parents and students by restricting after-school tutoring. The policy had enormous implications for teachers working in China’s shadow education industry, hundreds of thousands of whom were forced to leave their jobs. Grounded in theories of language teacher identity, emotions, and agency, this study investigates the Double Reduction po…
Sociology (22 works) · Political science (18 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (16 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Linguistics (10 works) · Asian Culture and Media Studies (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Pedagogy (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Mathematics education (8 works)