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Educators have raised awareness of the importance of meaning in second language instruction over the last decades. However, second language (L2) education has not been as meaningful as researchers might have hoped. Drawing on Hanauer’s meaningful literacy, this qualitative research examines Korean students’ awareness of the English language learning process, elicited through a combination of poetry and interviews in their first language. Eighteen participants were recruited from two universities, one in the United States and one in South Korea. Findings reveal varying perceptions of the English learning process among the participants according to group and culture. The analysis illustrates that L2 learning is an emotionally loaded experience, even in contexts that are ostensibly normal and insignificant. This study provides illustrative vignettes in sijo—a Korean poetic form—that capture various subject positions of L2 learners, thereby elucidating how they experienced English. Moving away from the scaled version of language learning, we argue that one of the defining principles of L2 research should be to appreciate the emotive and social nature of language learning.
