KOREA FOUNDATION

In recent years we have witnessed an explosion in the number of foreigners who share their experiences of Korean food and culture on online video platforms and social media. Yet viewers would be forgiven for wondering if such content represents sincere efforts to fully and deeply understand Korea.

  For those looking for a little more meat to their Korean cultural content, there is an institution that provides systematic, professional teaching on the language and history of the country—the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, located in the center of the British capital near Russell Square and the British Museum. As suggested by its name, SOAS specializes in research on Asia and Africa and serves as the center of Korean Studies in Britain. SOAS became the first British institution to teach the Korean language in the 1940s and has been leading Korean Studies across Europe since the 1980s.

  Unlike Korean Studies classes in North America, where children of Korean immigrants tend to form the majority, the students attending SOAS’s classes are not generally of Korean or Asian descent, but instead are primarily of British or European ancestry. These students have come to develop an interest in Korea through K-pop, dramas, film and other cultural media, and they not only study the Korean language but also literature, history, politics, and society.

  Selected as a beneficiary of the Korean government’s Overseas Leading University Program for Korean Studies grant in the mid-2000s, SOAS has been continuously receiving research funds from the government and it prides on having one of the world’s best Korean Studies curriculums. Students who take intensive Korean language courses at King Sejong Institute London and complete an exchange program at a Korean university will have a command of the language great enough to major in Korean Studies.

  In 2016, Korean writer Han Kang and British translator Deborah Smith received the Man Booker International Prize for the English translation of Han’s novella The Vegetarian. Smith, who received her doctorate in Korean literature at SOAS, said in an interview that she was able to concentrate on translation of Korean literary works thanks to the support of the Korea Foundation. Many students are now following in her footsteps, studying Korean with great passion to grasp the complex Korean sentiment that is difficult to convey through translated texts.

  Recently, the center has been making efforts to promote understanding of the painful history of Korea, screening a documentary highlighting the hardships suffered by civilians during the Korean War and inviting speakers to share their own personal testimonies of the suffering. To the Korean observer, these efforts are both surprising and impressive. With undertakings s

Written by Kim Shinyoung

#Europe #UK #University #Korean_Studies