Becoming a ‘good parent’: Social class and talk labour among South Korean parents

Abstract

This ethnographic study explores how South Korean parents understand their language use as a significant resource for their children's education. By expanding the concept of ‘talk labour’, this article examines how South Korean parents report on managing their day‐to‐day communication with their children as part of their educational work and how they conceptualize and evaluate their talk labour in different ways according to their socioeconomic backgrounds. Acknowledging the multifaceted dimensions of talk labour, we can better understand the diverse strategies employed by South Korean parents in relation to their aspirations for their children's futures as well as their aspirations to become ‘good parents’.