Asia Institute Seminar
“Korea’s New Role as Global Development Partner”
May 25, 2012 (Friday)
6:30 PM
Speakers:
Peter M. Beck, Korea Representative for the Asia Foundation
Emanuel Pastreich, Director, The Asia Institute
Discussant:
Ki-Hwan Kim, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Korea Development Institute
Here is the talk that President Obama delivered at the Hanguk University of Foreign Studies on Monday. Much speculation in Korea as to why he picked this university, as opposed to Korea University. Well you could say that many of the rank and file of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are from Hanguk University of Foreign Studies, as opposed to the political appointees from Korea University. But honestly, we do not know.
The speech is quite interesting because of the specificity about Korean culture and society that it brings up. A serious effort to engage in Korea.
More on why we need to demand more proficiency in Korean language of internationals
Emanuel Pastreich
February 8, 2012
There are several underlying factors behind the reluctance of Koreans to demand high proficiency in Korean from foreigners.
First, the Korean language is viewed primarily as an extension of Korean ethnic identity, and not as an object for objective investigation and evaluation. Many Koreans think that ethnic Koreans should speak perfect Korean and foreigners are a bit odd if they speak any Korean at all. Most Koreans evaluate ability in