While it has become trite to comment on the forces of global change, globalization
is not simply about economy, technology or culture. When Appadurai
defines globalization as a “tension between cultural homogenization and cul-tural
heterogenization,” we can easily supplant “cultural” for “linguistic.”
Today, English is increasingly established as a global lingua franca, and non-native
English speakers such as Koreans are preoccupied with the English
learning fever. The main claim of the paper is that the English fever should be
seen neither as blind desire towards the glorious commodity of English nor as
cheerful appropriation that nativizes the language of the Other. Instead, it is a
phenomenon that is firmly grounded in local sociopolitical contexts, yet
extends the global hegemony of English onto Korean society. Relevant to our
account is the framework of postcolonialism. This paper shall examine the
English fever in Korea as well as revisit the hegemony of English in the world.