Shifting voices and shaping selves: language attitudes, identity reconstruction, and social integration in a case study of a North Korean refugee

This mixed-methods instrumental case study explores how a bisexual North Korean refugee navigates language attitudes, trauma, and identity reconstruction across five varieties: his native Hamkyong dialect, North Korean, Seoul Korean, Yanbian Korean dialect, and English. Combining thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with quantitative language attitude surveys, this study illuminates how language serves simultaneously as survival strategy, emotional refuge, and means of transnational identity formation. Findings reveal that emotional connections to language significantly shift with trauma, migration, and intersectional marginalisation. English emerges uniquely as a language of emotional affirmation and aspirational identity. By foregrounding a refugee’s voice rather than the North Korean regime, this study contributes to critical language awareness by highlighting how language attitudes reflect broader experiences of marginalisation, resilience, and imagined futures.