Loving from afar
Japanese language learners and their imagined target language communities in contemporary Hong Kong
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4179359 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kazuyuki Nomura (0000-0002-0604-4392, Chiba University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 2025 |
| Issue | 293 |
| Pages | 35-59 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-26 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of the Sociology of Language (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0165-2516 • E-ISSN: 1613-3668 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/ijsl-2023-0069 |
| OpenAlex | W4408196947 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
Research has shown that Japanese language learners in Hong Kong are affectively rather than instrumentally motivated. Put simply, they tend to learn Japanese because they like people or things associated with Japan(ese). To better understand their affection for Japan(ese), I explore how Japanese language learners' imagined target language communities shape their symbolic investments in Japanese and Japanese-speaking cultural identities in contemporary Hong Kong. To this end, I conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 18 ethnic Chinese Hong Kong learners of Japanese. After data analysis, three main themes emerged: "symbolic investment", "perceived marginalisation", and "voluntary peripheralisation". My findings suggest that these Japanese language learners make diverse and personalised symbolic investments in exchange for valuable intangibles, particularly security and well-being. While they perceive themselves as marginalised from imagined Japanese-speaking communities, they also tend to remain voluntarily on the periphery of such imagined Japanese-speaking communities to construct positive Japanese-speaking (but non-Japanese) cultural identities and to secure their imagined "Japan" as a safe haven from the difficult realities of Hong Kong. These learners of Japanese thus see their "Japan" as imagined "foreign" communities to which they do not want or need to fully belong. I conclude this paper with useful implications for researchers and educators
Linguistics · Sociology · Anthropology · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Second Language Learning and Teaching
Identity and Language Learning
Communities of Practice
Learning a foreign language as leisure and consumption
The Ideology of Kokugo
An Immigration Policy by Any Other Name
Membership in an Imagined Home Community and Stance Toward English among University Students in Japan
Imagined Communities and Educational Possibilities
Investing in Foreign-Language Writing
Political Events and Cultural Othering
Many languages, many motivations
Accelerating Hong Kong’s reeducation
Understanding the motivations of fluent speakers in beginner-level foreign language classrooms
Long-term motivations for L2 learning
Learners’ perspectives on imagined community of practice in English as an international language
So What is the Appeal?” The Phenomenon of Japanese as a Foreign Language in Hong Kong
Language Socialization Practices and Cultural Identity
Hong Kong in 2020
Who initiates a global flow? Japanese popular culture in Asia
Social Identity, Investment, and Language Learning
Situated Learning
The unfinished chapter of Hong Kong's long political transition
| Highly cited | No |
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