One might ask what does Jeong Yag-Yong (1762-1836) — who is more commonly known by his pen name “Dasan” have to do with Korea University and its faculty’s decision to turn its back on the innovations of its current president Dr. Euh Yoon-dae, whose efforts have recently placed Korea University ahead of other Korean colleges in global ranking?
Plenty.
Dasan was a very talented and prolific author of over 300 books and an expert in more than one field of study. He was very influential right up until the time he espoused a new concept called “Silsagusi” (Pragmatism), whose thought advocated introducing western culture to Korea, based upon innovation. This was a political mistake on Dasan’s part since his ideas were opposed by the traditional-minded Confucian and Buddhist political powers that boycotted western culture during the late Chosun dynasty. As a result of his ideas, Dasan was banished from the royal court to a mountain-side, close to Kangjin.
The decision of Korea University’s faculty to turn away from the pragmatic and modern approach towards running Korea University — as begun by Dr. Euh — is an eerie parallel to what happened during the Chosun Dynasty to Dasan. It is a story about the old, entrenched yangban and scholars who did not want to change or lose power, thus ridding themselves of a threat. It is also a “practical” demonstration of how the politics of mediocrity can kill the future prosperity of a society, anywhere and at any time.
All this comes at a time when Korea University is just now celebrating its 100-year anniversary as one of Korea’s oldest colleges. Korea Anniversary has recently been ranked as one of the 200 best colleges in the world. As per the Chosun Ilbo:
It is the only private Korean university to rank among the top 200 universities in the world according to the Times of London, at 184 in 2005 and 150 this year.
This is, in large part, due to the hard work of the current president of Korea University, Euh Yoon-dae, who received his masters in business from Korea University and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (Beta Gamma Sigma). Dr. Euh once stated that “Korea University is not satisfied with being in the top-tier of Korean post-secondary institutions. It is no longer content to be judged by local standards, preferring instead to take its cues from the best universities overseas.”link. Euh further stated that “We have to invite foreign service providers into Korea to increase the competitiveness of our service sector. You can’t create a competitive edge if there is no competition . . .” link to Financial Times article.
This also comes at a time when Korea is desperately attempting to compete with Japan and China and improve its position in the world marketplace. Instead of stepping forward to meet this challenge to the country, the faculty of Korea University have decided to step back into the dark past of the late Chosun Dynasty — all for the sake of their jobs and comfort.
Perhaps, now more than ever, this is the time for new approaches to education in Korea and for new people who embody the “practicality” of Jeong Yag-Yong (Dasan), rather than the mediocrity of scholars that helped bring about the eventual doom of the Chosun Dynasty as chronicled in history.
33 Comments
Demanding that the professors lecture in English is not progress, but a representation of own biases in favor of the American educational system and a means to ensure that his quotas are met (1000 students a year sent on exchange programs). Since such a decision borders on cultural and linguistic emperialism, I can understand in part why the professors were not too pleased (it’s KOREA University, after all). Besides, would you want to lecture in a language that you only use sparingly? For many of these professors, English is a ‘library language’, they read reference books written in English, but they never speak it. Besides, his goals could have been just as easily achieved if, instead, he had required the professors to use the latest editions of American textbooks in lieu of their Korean translations.
poor old anna, for all her expat networking, she still can’t get on top of things. at least this one didn’t set the market tumbling
I think the same way about having professors use English, Someguy, it does seem impractical, however English is the international language of business today, not Korean and, as such, it does not mean that there is a bias towards the “American educational system”, but rather a reflection of the realities of todays business. Having English used in the classroom would help Korea University alumni in doing business on a global basis and not just with a chaebol in Korea. If China should take over as being the language of business (God forbid), then I would expect Chinese to be used and learned.
I am lead to believe it is also more than an issue of using English from what I read and hear. The faculty complained that the president treated the college more like a business. Here is an example:
Meaning that he put people under pressure to perform and not just get by as well as having control over who got hired. This decision is more about politics.
First off, thanks for posting this thought provoking piece. It is, indeed, the eternal question in Korea. I’m a little surprised that Korea isn’t interested in having a “vanity” university, something steadily moving up the world rankings, since such things are seemingly so vital in this country. Are there majority English-taught universities in France? Yes. Germany? Yes.
Of course, Koreans are particularly sensitive about their language and we all know this. But really, if there’s one University teaching 60% of its classes in English does that mean EVERY university in Korea is going to follow suit and eventually teach all it’s classes in English? Silly.
This is an interesting piece about how Winston Churchills alma mater has recently opened a branch in Beijing….the article says it’s one of 100 such schools in China.
http://www.iht.com/articles/20.....chools.php
My university, Kyunghee, is also pushing hard to get more classes taught in English — that’s partly why they hired me to lecture about tourism subjects; the fact that my Korean’s not good enough to deliver lectures in actually pleased them, and continues to. It has nothing at all to do with “imperialism”, just everything to do with globalization — and students being able to get jobs after graduation. The university is both attracting and sending evermore international exchange-students — i’m constantly amazed at how many young “foreigners” I see on campus, and they’re not language teachers — and it wants to continue ramping that up.
Many of my fellow professors, the Korean ones, can speak English quite well — having obtained their graduate degrees in America, Canada, Europe or etc. They just remain quite reluctant to use it in the classroom, only because of the traditional Korean shyness about that (combination of being seen as not nationalistic enough and fear of making mistakes in front of your inferiors). They are certainly capable of doing it, and are increasingly doing so as the pressure for that increases and it becomes more of a norm. The administration keeps raising that pressure, and is also strongly pushing the professors to try to publish articles in English in international-level journals — soon, that will be a factor in our salary-levels!
The students are increasingly desiring and even demanding classes taught in English, because they’re focused on getting jobs and know how important English ability is — and know that just taking some “conversation” classes in the Institute isn’t enough for them. Most of them now plan on doing at LEAST one semester abroad, usually in an English-speaking country, and many of them hope for graduate studies overseas — so they want lectures in English here, to prepare them well.
It all adds up to a winning and win-win movement.
But I don’t know the details of what just happened at Ko-dae, really WHY the reformist President wasn’t supported for re-election — if anybody finds a good article explaining that, i hope they’ll post it…
Kyunghee University is also choosing a new President soon.
I wonder if you would have so easily belittled the professors’s decision if the issue was about them lecturing in Chinese or Japanase. Sorry, but I can’t stop myself from thinking that your biased on this issue because your own linguistic pride.
“linguistic pride”???
That notion is so alien to me that I do not even know how to comment other than you have never been more wrong in your entire life. I am more proud of what Korean I possess since it cost me more to acquire it.
I was immediately reminded of the Dasan upon reading the article in the Chosun Ilbo. The more I thought of it, the more I was struck by the sense of history repeating itself. The more I read of the issues surround the decision, the more I found suggesting such as well. I have also listened to enough Korean university professors talk candidly about their workplace environment to understand the “old-boy” mindset that would find Dr. Euh’s ideas to be unsettling.
By the way, most of the universities in France and Germany that offer courses in English also offer courses in the official languages. Providing lectures in English does not have to be done at the detriment of the official language.
I hope I’m wrong, Elgin.
Not denying the ‘old-boy’ mindset/protecting their position in the ivory towers of academia does not exist (main reason why the Korean educational system is a mess…those would could change it just sit on their asses). But in this case, I have to side–somewhat–with the professors (although, maybe for different reasons than theirs).
My grandmother was fortunate enough to get accepted to a highschool in Korea where all of the teachers spoke Japanese.
Some of the teachers actually knew enough Korean to get by with in every day usage, enough to learn about things here and write scholarly articles to Japanese-language magazines and newspapers informing the people back in Japan, and around the world, about Korea. There were even some students at her school from all kinds of nations, Formosa, Manchuria, even China! Some of her fellow students actually went on to study at university in Japan and came back to Korea as professors at universities (WOW) (although she said some remained shy about speaking in Japanese for fear of making mistakes or not appearing nationalist enough.) My grandmother said she was really close to one of her teachers who had actually married to a Korean woman, and that he actually benefitted in his career from having limited Korean-speaking ability. She said that thanks to him, and other kind teachers like him at her high school, she managed to graduate quite fluent in Japanese and get a job in a sewing factory and make 200 won a week, a tremendous sum at the time. She says that by the time the US Army invaded, she had become the spokesperson for nearly 100 employees in her factory as a result of her Japanese language ability, which to this day, she attributes to her high school’s administrators that had encouraged the development of language abilities that would enable the students to pursue meaningful careers.
How wonderful it would be to contribute so much to Korea’s young people.
@SomeguyinKorea:
“By the way, most of the universities in France and Germany that offer courses in English also offer courses in the official languages. Providing lectures in English does not have to be done at the detriment of the official language.”
Well, being German myself, I can confirm that presently, in the better German universities, the language of tuition is BOTH English AND the national language. But that is most definitely not regarded as the final stage of the ongoing conversion from German to English as the primary language for Higher Education in Germany.
Rather, it is an intermediate stage in an ongoing process, the goal of which, of course, must be to teach ALL courses in English. Because, if the conversion were carried out incompletely, its priimary point would be lost, which is, after all to make it possible for qualified foreign students to get their complete university education in Germany without having to bother with the German language in an academic context.
Might still be useful for flirting, though…
dlatn,
Japan’s main linguistic contribution to Korea is Konglish.
“to make it possible for qualified foreign students to get their complete university education in Germany without having to bother with the German language in an academic context.”
Warum ist mir das nicht eingefallen? Actually, I have. In any case, those are very different goals from the ones behind the plans to ‘anglicise’ Korea University.
Yes, this comment about linguistic pride is amusing. Most Anglophones don’t have pride in being English speakers, it’s just the way things are. I was going to say that they also don’t seem to attach language to identity so deeply, but then again, I have heard a lot of Anglos — especially Canadians — mispronounce Korean in the most pathetically Canadian-sounding way, just so that they wouldn’t sound like they were “trying” to speak Korean correctly.
Anyway, thanks for the interesting and somewhat depressing post, Marmot.
Linguistic Pride? who what when? About a billion people read speak English and another 2.5 billion people are learning to read speak it. Not even 1 billion read speak Mandarian and only about 500 million are learning it. If you want people to read your article then you must write it in English.
“Linguistic Pride? who what when? About a billion people read speak English and another 2.5 billion people are learning to read speak it. Not even 1 billion read speak Mandarian and only about 500 million are learning it.”
You seem very proud of that.
Well conversely why don’t we take a look at the foreign students who are studying in Korea. I’ve worked at two Universities here, occasionally teaching Chinese or Vietnamese students. My wife (Korean) completed her graduate school in a Chemistry lab where 10-20% of the students were foreign born. I’ve also met various international students in my own Korean language classes. I can tell you here, it’s a joke. International students come to Korea and the expectation is for them to speak Korean immediately, which they can’t. So they sit in science lectures given in Korean, they rely on other Koreans to help them (in English of course), and they are treated by their professors, by in large, like vermin. So what happens? Well, if they stick it out, they do their time, they absolutely hate Korea on a level most of us can’t even imagine, and they go home with survival Korean and probably very little education.
Someguy, it sounds like you think all Universities should stick to their own language and culture, which probably works fantastically at the University in Pyongyang. But sorry, that strikes against the very idea of a University. Universites in California often offer 25% of their classes in Spanish. Are you against that?
This issue is not about English in classrooms. That is a red herring.
To summarize, the moral of this story is that if one tries to improve a system filed with a bunch of lazy and mediocre guys that like it just the way it is, they will meet resistance and could get squashed — no matter how correct or good they may be.
Having attended both undergraduate and graduate school in Spanish, and done military courses in French, I emphathize with non-native English speakers attending English-language institutions. I note, however, that a recent Economist article on Business Schools mentioned a university in Tolouse, France, as currently rated 5th best MBA program in the world. They will soon open a 2 year MBA program that will be taught entirely in English. This in the heart of French linguistic chauvinism. I can see where certain programs, such as business, can benefit from an English language curriculum. But it is equally obvious that many areas of study will require fluency in the native language. English should be the language of the business, and perhaps Asian engineering and other hard sciences, faculties, but national languages have their spheres of necessity too.
What is at stake for future Korean business executives is this: Will they get selected for the positions requiring near-native fluency in English? Fluency that can only be acquired by years of practice and exposure. Or will those jobs go to some native English-speaking expat whose last name is Lee, Park or Kim.
Well, if your intent was simply a discussion about “nepotism in Korea” then I take back my initial praising of your posting. There are far better examples of that available.
“Someguy, it sounds like you think all Universities should stick to their own language and culture, which probably works fantastically at the University in Pyongyang. But sorry, that strikes against the very idea of a University. Universites in California often offer 25% of their classes in Spanish. Are you against that?”
You’re totally missing my point. There is a huge difference between offering a few courses in English, or Spanish, to meet the demands of the foreign students (simply put, it’s good business sense) and suddenly forcing the professors, and students to teach and learn every subject in a language other than the official language.
lirelou, I agree with you. In part, it’s about job security and solidarity. Nobody likes to see their friends get fired, especially not for a reason that should matter.
…shouldn’t matter.
R. Elgin wrote:
“This issue is not about English in classrooms. That is a red herring.
To summarize, the moral of this story is that if one tries to improve a system filed with a bunch of lazy and mediocre guys that like it just the way it is, they will meet resistance and could get squashed — no matter how correct or good they may be. ”
Indeed. To be a true agent of change is akin to jousting at windmills. Carly Fiorina, formerly of Hewlett Packard claims to have been one. I also claim to be one. And both of us are out of a job, although she is doing somewhat better than I am what with bigger speaking fees and such…
I would definitely try working for Dr. Euh Yoon-dae. He appears to be a great leader–albeit in an institution unwilling to be led into the future.
I can only imagine 2 million Korean-Americans applauding this decision. In the end, it’s the Koreans who are going to lose.
it would be nice to see at least one institution leading the education system in this way. the way i see it, no one is forced. they’re free to choose any of the thousands of other second-rate educational institutions in this country to attend or teach at. however, this was a great opportunity lost for the good people of korea due to exactly what it was attempting to change-second-rate professors more interested in tenure than preparing their students for a globally competitive landscape. for that, students best study overseas.
go USA!
Pretty much “judge”.
This may not affect the exceptional student who will not accept this and simply go overseas to get what they need and may not bring their knowledge back to Korea, Inc. For the student without the means to study abroad, this means they are stuck with mediocre programs and faculty.
It saddens me to think that the faculty of Korea University may have cheated the future generations to come. I have to look at the bright and happy faces of so many kids in my neighborhood almost every day and wonder what their future might be like. I wish the faculty of Korea University had to look at those little faces and had the honesty to ask themselves the same question.
judge judy, there are already some universities in Korea where many of the lectures are given in English. Oh, and what makes you think that the professors didn’t think that they could best prepare their students for a ‘globally competitive landscape’? Besides, someone is not necessarily doing a good job at preparing their students to be competitive just because they are teaching in English.
No, they aren’t, but nobody here is claiming that.
> SomeguyinKorea wrote:
> There is a huge difference between … and suddenly forcing
> the professors, and students to teach and learn every
> subject in a language other than the official language.
You seem to be arguing under a misapprehension throughout this thread — as far as we know, the above has never happened nor ever even been attempted. Korea University and mine and others are simply trying to increase the number of courses taught in English, by professors who are perfectly capable of that but just not doing it, to students who are perfectly capable of understanding it but just aren’t being given the chance — increase it from, let’s say, 3% of all courses offered up to maybe 15~20% as the long-range goal. I’m not aware of any university in this country that is aiming for 100% English usage — tho one might come along before long, and it will probably be more crowded with applicants than Kodae is…
R. Elgin, just as an aside, what’s up with “the Dasan”?
That’s similar to the American President’s recent much-ridiculed usage of “the Google”… Are you doing that intentionally, for a reason that i would benefit by being enlightened upon, are you obscurely adding to the ridicule nof GWB, or are you just being iconoclastic with that…?
Dasan is a favorite of mine, i love teaching about him and his broad-minded friendship with Cho-eui-seonsa down in Gangjin & Haenam… would really have liked to have been present for their conversations!
Sorry San. You are right. I had somehow gotten into the habit of using “the” in front of Jeong Yag-Yong’s pen name. I just broke the habit.
I still know how to spell “potatoe”.
Awl right then…
Still, i hope that if anybody finds a good article explaining the details of what just happened at Ko-dae, really WHY the reformist President wasn’t supported for re-election — that they’ll post it, as i’m real curious what went on with that… was it ONLY reactionary turf-protecting profs, or is there more to the story…?