The number of Korean language learners in the UK has grown significantly in the past decade. However, pedagogical guidance and learning resources to foster a critical understanding of contemporary Korean society remain relatively limited. Existing provision tends to prioritise language acquisition over critical cultural engagement, and where cultural content is included, it rarely challenges the Western-centric frameworks that learners bring to their encounter with Korean society. This leaves learners without the critical resources to navigate the complexities of social phenomena in Korea, including its contested gender landscape. This paper analyses gendered narratives produced by a group of British learners of Korean as a case in point, arguing for the urgency of a decolonial approach to Korean as a Foreign Language (KFL) pedagogy. Drawing on interviews with female British learners of Korean, this paper examines narratives about femininities and feminism in Korea as articulations of gendered experience shaped by Western hegemonic norms. In doing so, it uncovers how white hegemonic femininity operates within these learners’ understandings of gender in Korean society. Using critical narrative analysis, the paper examines the discursive construction of hegemonic femininity among this group and raises questions about how Korean language educators might draw on critical pedagogy to promote a more decolonial understanding of gender. Such an approach would encourage learners to reflect critically on their own culturally situated positionality, and to move beyond surface-level language acquisition toward a more reflexive and critical understanding of Korean culture and society.