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Promotion of Korean Studiesin Germany and Beyond

Participants attended a workshop in Berlin to discuss ways to further promote Korean Studies in German-speaking countries and to facilitate information exchange.

Arranged by the Korea Foundation Berlin Office’s Director Min Young-joon, a workshop was held on October 25, 2008 to promote Korean Studies in German-speaking countries. The gathering, which included the attendance of about 25 Korea-related faculty members from universities in German-speaking countries, began with a luncheon discussion at a traditional German guest house, amidst a collegial atmosphere.
The main session of the workshop featured my presentation on the matter of strengthening cooperation among Korean Studies scholars in German-speaking countries, followed by notable presentations on such issues as ‘ways to train young scholars to meet the increasing demand for Korean Studies scholars,’ by Free University of Berlin Professor Lee Eun-jung, and ‘changes in Korean Studies caused by the expansion and development of the Korean Studies program at the Free University of Berlin,’ by University of Bochum Professor Marion Eggert. Following the presentations, the participants engaged in active and spirited discussion, which could be regarded as the highlights of the workshop proceedings.
This event in Berlin served as a valuable occasion for a majority of the Korean Studies and Korean language educators in German-speaking countries to get together, after quite a long interval. It was an especially meaningful opportunity for the participants to get to know one another on a more personal basis. Various scholars were attending the first meeting of this kind, while others enjoyed the chance to renew their somewhat-distance relations. It is expected that the personal networks formed through the Berlin meeting will serve as a foundation for the maintenance of closer cooperative relations and the launch of joint research endeavors. In this sense, most of the participants appreciated the workshop for its positive and fruitful results.



Information Exchange
The participants decided to develop the workshop format as a forum to promote information exchange, on a variety of matters such as the status of Korean Studies at each university and the search for future Korean Studies scholars. Related to this, I introduced the ‘Korean Studies Day’ (Koreawissenschaftliche Tage), an annual event in the fourth year of operation, which is organized and hosted by the University of Vienna. This event includes a symposium that attracts the keen interest of scholars from not only German-speaking, but also East European countries, since the University of Vienna is located along a crossroads, linking East and West Europe. I also noted that the Korean Studies Department of the University of Vienna has started to publish an annual journal, titled ‘Vienna Report on Korean Studies’ (Wiener Beitraege zur Koreaforschung), which highlights the Korean Studies research conducted in German-speaking countries.
Free University of Berlin Professor Lee Eun-jung mentioned her plans to organize a symposium on Korean Studies, in the field of Social Sciences, for German-speaking countries in early 2009. According to Professor Lee, the symposium will serve as an extension of a meeting conducted by Patrick Koellner (GIGA Hamburg), in Bonn in December 2000, with invited researchers including not only Korean Studies scholars of Social Science fields, but also scholars of politics and sociology, who work on Korea-related themes.
News from the three universities of Leipzig, Frankfurt, and Tubingen was highly encouraging: The University of Leipzig is taking measures that practically guarantee the opening of a Korean Studies program, while the University of Tubingen and the University of Frankfurt are working on the recruitment of a tenured or contract-based professor or associate professor, related to which the universities are expected to upgrade their Korean Studies programs from minor-level to major-level courses. Such developments are likely to provide Korea-related young scholars in German-speaking countries with somewhat brighter prospects for a rewarding future.
Since German-speaking countries have recently adopted a two-tier study system, which offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees instead of the previous one-tier system of a master’s
degree, the workshop participants discussed the need for standardization to establish a uniform criterion to evaluate the quality of Korean Studies in German-speaking countries.
Professor Lee Eun-jung said that she would prepare a list of recommended political science books for students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree course on Korean Studies, based on the opinions of the workshop participants. As for comparing the Korean language proficiency of Korean Studies graduates of individual universities, University of Bochum Professor Eggert emphasized the need for more conscientious efforts by language instructors to assure a better understanding of Korean, since 60-70 percent of modern Korean is comprised of Chinese characters.

Alternate Host University
The participants agreed to organize and hold this kind of workshop event on an annual basis, with the individual universities being allowed to alternately serve as host of the gathering. Dr. Albrecht Huwe of the University of Bonn stressed that since such an event would enhance the status of Korean Studies departments at each university, a regular workshop would also serve as an occasion to help the university authorities and other departments acquire a better understanding about Korean Studies, and to contribute to attracting support for Korean Studies departments and scholars through promotional efforts.
For all these reasons, I am grateful to Director Min Young-joon for her efforts to assure that the workshop proceeded smoothly, and also to Dr. Huwe for his volunteering to organize the next workshop, which will be held in Bonn, in the autumn of 2009. The upcoming workshop for German-speaking Korean Studies scholars will focus on presentations of the key research projects of the Korean Studies departments of each university.

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