[KS] failed Koreanists littering the streets

jrpking at interchange.ubc.ca jrpking at interchange.ubc.ca
Mon Apr 14 20:51:27 EDT 2003


Lee JooBai wrote: 

> Professor Ross King writes of certain exceptions.
>(in other words, not counting missionaries, Peace Corps grads, and 
> >soldiers & spies). This is a serious indictment of the current 
> state of language teaching in our field.

> Immediately, all of them strike me as men with a sense of mission.
> We have the men of god, men of peace, men of war, and
> men of ...?
> But is there something special about their experiences or
> constitution that makes for their less difficult acquaintance
> with Korean?

I don't think Korean is any 'less difficult' for this group or that the members of these groups are somehow better language learners than the rest of us -- they are just given better resources and opportunities to go about learning it: missionaries have a training network that provides the opportunity for extended in-country study, and are backed up by reasonably well organized and reasonably well funded home institutions. And of course they have God on their side. Mind you, I've met a lot of missionaries with rubbish Korean, too, but they still do a lot better than anybody who comes out of a North American university program. Peace Corps members, too, had well organized language training, and the opportunity for extended in-country study (typically AWAY from Seoul, always a good thing). But of course that route is now defunct. As for soldiers and spies, if you are familiar with the Defense Language Institute, you will know that they run classes of at most 6 students, often offer one-on-one training, and in general (even though their administrators are always moaning about finances at conferences) have at their disposal vast government and military resources (plus salary incentives) that university Korean language teachers can only dream of for their students and programs. 

And as you rightly mention, all of these groups (one presumes) are characterized by a high motivation and a sense of purpose -- very important in language learning. They're not just learning Korean as 'their fifth class' as most of my UBC students are.

In any case, these groups all invest heavily in Korean language training, and have at least a vague sense of the magnitude of the investment required. But North American universities, North American Korean American communities, and the organizations/ foundations/ governments/electorates that support them, don't have a clue and/or don't give a damn, and are not making the investment. This lack of investment is understandable and not all that surpising in all but one case: the South Korean foundations. 

It is part of our job as Koreanists to raise awareness about Korea and to pound home to those who would listen (in fact, even to those who would not) that learning Korean is a whole lot different from (and a whole lot more expensive than) learning French or Spanish. 

In the case of South Korean foundations (and their government sponsors), one would assume that they DO in fact realize how very much in the Korean national interest it is for North American students of all ages to be learning Korean, and that under the new Korean administration they might try to increase what, at present, is a wholly insufficient level of support for Korean language study overseas. 

But sometimes I wonder if even the Korean government funding organizations fully realize what is at stake and how expensive it is to get this right. My feeling lately over here in Seoul is that many of them (and their Korean professoriate advisors) have given up on North Americans ever learning Korean, and would rather spend their limited resources on 'cheaper' countries where students are more enthusiastic about learning Korean: south-east Asia, the former USSR, and China, in particular.

Ross King
Associate Professor of Korean, University of British Columbia
and 
Dean, Korean Language Village, Concordia Language Villages





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