In South Korea, over 10% of new couples involve a foreign bride. Most come from Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia), and others from East Asia (China, Japan). Such couples now produce almost 6% of births. Their children tend to do badly at school and many drop out, the commonly cited reason being the child’s poor acquisition of language skills from a foreign mother. In reality, Damunwha (“multicultural children”) have no trouble with spoken Korean. Their deficiency is in written Korean, particularly in literary and specialized vocabulary that is largely learned at school. They actually do well in subjects that emphasize the spoken language and social interaction, like music, painting, and physical education. They do badly only in those subjects that require abstraction and memorization, like mathematics and social studies. Damunwha children are also more prone to hyperactivity, impulsivity, and non-compliance with rules. These divergences in cognition and behavior seem confined to children of Southeast Asian mothers, since children of Chinese or Japanese mothers perform as well as those of unmixed Korean parentage. It looks as if the country’s social norms, particularly those of Confucianism, favored the spread of certain cognitive and behavioral traits within the Korean population, and more broadly among East Asians. These traits include not only high cognitive ability but also a high capacity to obey rules, to defer gratification, and to control impulsive behavior.
References
[1]
Ahn, J. (2015). Finding a Child’s Self: Globalization and the Hybridized Landscape of Korean Early Childhood Education. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 46, 224-243.
https://doi.org/10.1111/aeq.12104
[2]
Bearden, C. E., & Glahn, D. C. (2017). Cognitive Genomics: Searching for the Genetic Roots of Neuropsychological Functioning. Neuropsychology, 31, 1003-1019.
https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000412
[3]
Chia, D. X. Y., Ng, C. W. L., Kandasami, G., Seow, M. Y. L., Choo, C. C., Chew, P. K. H., Lee, C., & Zhang, M. W. B. (2020). Prevalence of Internet Addiction and Gaming Disorders in Southeast Asia: A Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17, Article No. 2582.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072582
[4]
Choi, O., Jang, K. S., & Kim, N. Y. (2019). Factors Affecting the Internet Game Addiction Risk of Elementary School Students in Multicultural Families. Journal of Health Informatics and Statistics, 44, 64-72. https://doi.org/10.21032/jhis.2019.44.1.64
[5]
Cochran, G., & Harpending, H. (2009). The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution. New York, NY: Basic Books.
[6]
Frost, P. (2019). The Original Industrial Revolution. Did Cold Winters Select for Cognitive Ability? Psych, 1, 166-181. https://doi.org/10.3390/psych1010012
[7]
Frost, P. (2020). The Large Society Problem in Northwest Europe and East Asia. Advances in Anthropology, 10, 214-234. https://doi.org/10.4236/aa.2020.103012
[8]
Hawks, J., Wang, E. T., Cochran, G. M., Harpending, H. C., & Moyzis, R. K. (2007). Recent Acceleration of Human Adaptive Evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104, 20753-20758.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0707650104
[9]
Jo, J. Y., & Jung, M. (2017). Rethinking Diversity in South Korea: Examining the Ideological Underpinnings of Multicultural Education Policies and Programs. In W. Pink, & G. Noblit, (Eds.), Second International Handbook of Urban Education (pp. 195-212). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40317-5_13
[10]
Kang, S. W. (2010). Multicultural Education and the Rights to Education of Migrant Children in South Korea. Educational Review, 62, 287-300.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2010.503599
[11]
Kovas, Y., & Plomin, R. (2008). Genetics of Learning Abilities and Disabilities: Implications for Cognitive Neuroscience and Translational Research. In J. Reed, & J. Warner-Rogers, (Eds.), Child Neuropsychology: Concepts, Theory, and Practice (pp. 46-57). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
[12]
Lee, H. K. (2006). International Marriage and the State in South Korea. Master’s Thesis. Daejeon: Pai Chai University.
[13]
Lee, J. S., Kim, J. M., & Ju, A. R. (2018). A Structural Analysis on the Effects of Children’s Parentification in Multicultural Families on Their Psychological Maladjustment—Comparison with Children in Monocultural Families. Journal of the Korea Institute of Youth Facility and Environment, 16, 117-130.
https://www.earticle.net/Article/A329970
[14]
Lim, T. (2017). The Road to Multiculturalism in South Korea. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.
https://www.georgetownjournalofinternationalaffairs.org/online-edition/2017/10/10/the-road-to-multiculturalism-in-south-korea
[15]
Lynn, R., Cheng, H., Choi, Y. Y., Cho, S. H., & Lee, K. H. (2018). Sex Differences in Intelligence of University Students in South Korea. Mankind Quarterly, 59, 108-114. https://doi.org/10.46469/mq.2018.59.1.9
[16]
Moon, S. H., & An, H. J. (2011). Anger, Anger Expression, Mental Health and Psychosomatic Symptoms of Children in Multi-Cultural Families. Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 20, 325-333.
https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2011.20.4.325
Park, S. (2011). Korean Multiculturalism and the Marriage Squeeze. Contexts, 10, 64-65.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504211418459
[19]
Park, J. H., & Nam, J. S. (2010). The Language Development and Psychosocial Adjustment of Multicultural Children. Studies on Korean Youth, 21, 129-152.
[20]
Plomin, R., Owen, M. J., & McGuffin, P. (1994). The Genetic Basis of Complex Human Behaviors. Science, 264, 1733-1739. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.8209254
[21]
Rinaldi, A. (2017). We’re on a Road to Nowhere. Culture and Adaptation to the Environment Are Driving Human Evolution, But the Destination of This Journey Is Unpredictable. EMBO reports, 18, 2094-2100. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201745399
[22]
Shin, J. (2018). Minority Youth’s Mastery of Academic Vocabulary and Its Implications for Their Educational Achievements: The Case of ‘Multicultural Adolescents’ in South Korea. Multicultural Education Review, 10, 35-51.
https://doi.org/10.1080/2005615X.2018.1423539
[23]
Song, M. (2012). Damunwha Hakseng Omansidae Jiwonchek geuphada. Segae Ilbo, September 17. http://m.segye.com/view/20120917024230
[24]
Starcevic, V., & Aboujaoude, E. (2017). Internet Gaming Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Addiction. Current Addiction Reports, 4, 317-322.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-017-0158-7
[25]
Statistics Korea (2020). Vital Statistics of Immigrants in 2019.
http://kostat.go.kr/portal/eng/pressReleases/8/3/index.board?bmode=read&bSeq=&aSeq=387061&pageNo=1&rowNum=10&navCount=10&currPg=&searchInfo=&sTarget=title&sTxt
[26]
Warner, M. (2011). In Hypercompetitive South Korea, Pressures Mount on Young Pupils. PBS News Hour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpS2JJYfbZ8
[27]
Wikipedia (2021a). List of Sovereign States and Dependencies by Total Fertility Rate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependencies_by_total_fertility_rate
[28]
Wikipedia (2021b). Multicultural Family in South Korea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicultural_family_in_South_Korea
[29]
Yi, Y., & Kim, J-S. (2017). Korean Adolescents’ Health Behavior and Psychological Status according to Their Mother’s Nationality. Osong Public Health and Research Perspectives, 8, 377-383. https://doi.org/10.24171/j.phrp.2017.8.6.04
[30]
Yu, J-O, & Kim, M. S. (2015). A Study on the Health Risk Behaviors of Adolescents from Multicultural Families according to the Parents’ Migration Background. Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing, 26, 190-198.
https://doi.org/10.12799/jkachn.2015.26.3.190
