Scholars have noted that English usage in Korean society is laden with indexical value. On the one hand English is linked with modernity (Lee 2005), chicness (Park H.J. 2004), and global cosmopolitanism (Park J.K. 2009). On the other hand, for a long time it has also been linked with negative values, such as immodesty, pretentiousness, and being a traitor to the nation (Park J. 2009). While the traditional linguistic ideologies are still very much alive and in circulation, I argue that recently a new language ideology has been forming, which I call phonological accuracy. This shift occurs along with the changes in social climate and as Koreans are no longer viewed as citizens of what used to be the “hermit kingdom”, but see themselves as global citizens. As a result, phonemes from foreign languages which used to be markers of immodesty are now finding their way into everyday spoken Korean. By using a foreign phoneme, a speaker of Korean can position themselves as either a trendy global cosmopolitan, an elite snob whose loyalty to the nation is suspect, or a poser. In this paper, I focus on the phonological borrowing of /f/ and what it means to the modern day Korean, who is no longer limited to speaking "pure" Korean
