[KS] Vulnerability of Korean Programs

[DEBERNIERE JANET TORREY]

Dear
Members,









 
Recent
postings on the fate of Korean studies have prompted me to reflect on the
“ghettoization”
issue, and, on the other hand, the needs of heritage students, the
“plurality”
of which, as Paul Shepherd aptly points out, should be taken into account. 
     Obviously, on one level, the careful
screening out of over-qualified heritage students from beginning language
classes
is not only necessary for learning to take place for the non-heritage and
“true
beginner” students, but conducive
to preventing Korean programs from becoming ghettoized. We’ve been fairly
successful in moving toward this goal with the small Korean language program at
Penn State (administered by the Comp Lit department, and taught and run
entirely by grad students), and the classes are composed of a growing number of
non-heritage learners, as well as a diverse assortment of majors. This is
encouraging, as is the fact that in the last two years we’ve been able to add
a
second section of first semester Korean in spite of inadequate administrative
support as yet (no plans for recruiting a full-time Korean Studies faculty
member yet, and classes are closed if they don't meet a 15-student minimum). On
the other hand, the needs of many heritage
learners who would like to join Korean classes for legitimate reasons are turned
aside, primarily because these needs are quite diverse—-even when the issues
are limited to language acquisition—-and thus difficult to address through a
traditionally-organized
language program.
     It occurs to me that recognizing and
addressing this plurality might even strengthen the goals of de-ghettoizing
Korean programs, as the means of meeting the mixed-level needs of
heritage-speakers could coincide with the development of classes that also meet
the needs of students of other languages, whose mastery of one (Japanese, for
instance, or even Turkish), would give them an advantage over most
Indo-European-heritage
beginning learners of Korean, and make them better matched to a different sort
of language class. Of course, diversifying language programs takes the kind of
administrative support that we’re lamenting the lack of right now, but,
conversely, I wonder if such innovations, undertaken when means are available,
might
build into Korean Language and Korean Studies programs the kind of character
that would help ensure their preservation. I’m sure there are programs out
there already doing this, and I’d be interested to know what the results are.



 



Deberniere
Torrey
Graduate Instructor and PhD Candidate
Department of Comparative Literature
The Pennsylvania State University



Deberniere J. Torrey
Graduate Instructor and Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Comparative Literature
311 Burrowes Building
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
Telephone: (814) 863-1125
Fax: (814) 863-8882
E-mail: djt188 at psu.edu




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