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Current Status of Korean History Classes at European Universities and Examples of Educational Material Use

Kim, Hun Tae
Kim, Hun Tae
Professor, Latvia University

1. Introduction

In the last 10 years, various overseas universities, especially European universities, have been opening the Korean Studies major. However, most universities, with the exception of universities with a long history of Korean Studies, are in short of professors who can teach Korean History or Korean Literature, the basic fields of Korean Studies. In addition, educational materials on Korea are not enough in terms of quantities as well as contents. Against this backdrop, some universities do not have history classes in the required courses and even so, they end within a year. Considering the importance of history classes in the field of Korean Studies, this is a very unfortunate situation and it is fundamentally and inevitably caused by the short history of the Korean Studies major. In particular, it is still difficult to find educational materials on Korean history in local languages except in English, making it a urgent issue to be tackled.

Thus, the lack of textbooks related to Korean history as well as history education environments ,which many European universities are facing, are closely linked to the lack of Korean history experts and researchers active in the corresponding region. Accordingly, I will examine the current status of history coursed in European universities in detail, focusing on the lecturers, and briefly examine the publications related to Korean history. I will also introduce in detail the educational materials used in Korean History courses at the Latvia University.

2. Current Status of Korean History Courses in European Universities

2.1. If a lecturer is local
2.1.1. If a lecturer has majored in Korean history
Local Korean history lecturers in European universities who finished master's degree or higher degree in Korean history in Korea or in local country are at the Université Paris VII (Paris Diderot) in France, the University of Naples in Italy, and the University of London (SOAS) and Oxford University in the UK, Sofia University in Bulgaria and the University of Wroclaw in Poland. Most of these universities have a relatively long history of Korean Studies for over 20 years, except for the University of Wroclaw in Poland with 7 years of history.

2.1.2. If a lecturer has not majored in Korean history
Cases of local lecturers, who have not majored in Korean history, can be divided into two categories. One is the cases when a lecturer is completely not related to history major, such as the Babes-Bolyai University in Romania and the Sofia University in Bulgaria. In the Sophia University, Korean history is taught by a major and a non-major together, unlike the Babes-Bolyai University where a non-major lecturer has majored in Korean Studies. The other is the case of Erciyes University in Turkey, where a lecturer has majored in history, but not in Korean history. One of the biggest issues when a local non-major teaches Korean history is that Korean history course is taught by a person who majored in Chinese or Japanese history. One of easily seen phenomena is that these lecturers may educate students from the perspective of China or Japan on key historical issues, which have long been discussed among the three East Asian countries. That is, this may instill a Chinese or Japanese perspective on the key historical issues in East Asia to students majoring in Korean Studies. In fact, there are some students complaining about such instructional style of the corresponding lecturer.

2.2. If a lecturer is Korean
2.2.1. If a lecturer has majored in Korean history
It is relatively rare that Korean scholar who majored in Korean history teach at European universities. Representative cases include the University of Tübingen in Germany and the Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania. This can be resulted in two ways. One is when a Korean scholar who majored in Korean history teaches a course under KF Visiting Professor Program, which is available when a lecturer can conduct lectures in a local language or English. The other is when a university in Korea sends a history major to overseas universities under an academic exchange program. In this case, there are relatively few lecturers from Korea compared to other fields of Korean Studies. Considering the fact that there are not many Korean history majors from European countries, one of the most realistic options is that universities in Korea dispatch experts to teach history classes under the academic exchange program.

2.2.2. If a lecturer has not majored in Korean history
Currently, Korean who has not majored in Korean history but in charge of the course work at the University of Wroclaw in Poland, the Latvia University in Latvia and University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. Although the lecturers at these universities are not Korean history majors, they have nearly 10 to 15 years of teaching experience in Europe, and have taught in various fields of Korean Studies such as Korean culture, literature, society, and history, as well as Korean language. They have built their own educational materials for the history course and are in charge of the Korean history courses. Some European universities that have Korean Studies major are in this situation. In the University of Wroclaw in Poland, in particular, a local lecturer who majored in Korean history and a Korean lecturer are teaching the Korean history course together, which can be said the most ideal way. Under this environment, a local lecturer with Korean history major and a Korean lecturer can run the course in a complementary relationship, which can create synergies in making local teaching materials for Korean history in the long run.

2.3. State of Locally Developed Publications
The development of educational materials is deeply related to researchers and experts of the Korean Studies. That is, development of teaching materials is only available under the presence of researchers with doctoral degrees in Korean Studies, whether in Korea or locally. The same goes for the development and translation of history textbooks. In English-speaking regions, it is relatively easy to find historical textbooks written by experts in Korean history as well as English translations of history books published in Korea. However, in non-English speaking regions, there are handful of books or translated materials on Korean history. Publications related to Korean history published or translated in English and in non-English languages are as follows.
Fig. 1, 2, 3
[Fig. 1] is one of the representative publications related to Korean history published in the English-speaking world. This book is one of the few publications covering the general history from the ancient times to the present of Korea. [Fig. 2] is a book in which Korean history are organized around specific themes, for example, rise and fall of the dynasty, foreign invasion such as the Mongolian invasion, annexation by Imperial Japan, and the Korean War. [Fig. 3] is a publication on Korean history, which was created by collaboration of local Korean history experts and native Korean experts. The book mainly focuses on turbulent modern history of Korea, and six experts provide a broad perspective on each era. Detailed evidences have also been presented by experts to help understand the vast changes in ancient countries. In particular, the book explains the traditional history and cultural environment in detail, the foundation to understand changes and development of modern Korea after 1945.
Fig. 4, 5, 6
[Fig. 4] and [Fig. 6] are representative publications on Korean history published in non-English speaking countries and [Fig. 4] is the first publication in Italy to cover general history of Korea. In particular, it faces the situation of Korea, which has long been undervalued compared to Japanese history and culture, and covers development of Korean peninsula from ancient times to modern era including loss of sovereignty by Japan and the Korean War. [Fig. 5] is a Korean history book published in France and [Fig. 6] is published in Poland. It is the only publication in Poland that covers Korean history from prehistoric times to modern times. In particular, it provides many theories and hypotheses made in Korea, Japan, and the West, as well as the traditional perspective widely known in Korea. Authors of these publications have either majored in Korean history or studied Korean history in Korea for many years. These publications are being used as basic teaching materials for Korean history courses at local universities.
Fig. 7, 8, 9
[Fig. 7] to [Fig. 9] are publications describing a specific era or field in Korean history. [Fig. 7] has been published in Italy with a focus on Korean language, history, and religion. Among the publications made in non-English languages, it stands out in terms of contents and composition, written by a person who majored in Korean history. Both [Fig. 8] and [Fig. 9] were published in Spanish. [Fig. 8] covers situation of Korea after its division in 1945 and [Fig. 9] is the Spanish translation of [Fig. 2]. As shown above, the fact is that even books on a specific period or fields of Korea are not easily found in non-English speaking countries.

2.4. The Number of History Classes
Most Korean history courses in European universities usually last for two semesters. The University of Wroclaw in Poland allocated three semesters for history courses, which is an exceptional case. Considering that a semester in Europe lasts for 14 weeks and two hours are allocated for history classes per week, students learn Korean history in 28 hours in a semester and 50 hours in two semesters. It is physically impossible to learn the history of a country, especially a country like Korea with a long history, in just 50 hours. Moreover, it is a sad reality that Korean history are often elective courses, not required courses.

3. Basic and Auxiliary Materials for History Courses

As mentioned earlier, the Latvia University where I work offers Korean history courses. The Korean Studies major was established 7 years ago in the Latvia University, but history courses only began in the fall semester in 2019, because a predecessor taught Korean Culture for 6 years before I took over the responsibility. Simply said, the course named "Asia Literature and Culture" is on Korean history and Korean culture. Therefore, there were no educational materials for Korean history in the Latvia University, so I used the materials I made in other universities as the required text. Bellows are required textbooks and reading materials I use for Korean history courses.

3.1. Textbook of History Courses
The main textbooks I use are two as below.
Fig. 10, 11
[Fig. 10] above is one of the materials created as "Understanding Korea Series" published by the Academy of Korean Studies. It consists of 11 chapters and each chapter is well organized with a summary of the corresponding period, making it very suitable for Korean history course materials. In light of the overseas situation with limited number of classes, it is a very useful resource for acquiring basic knowledge on Korean history. The book is designed to be easily understood by even non-English speaking students, so I use it as the main textbook. Currently, the Department of Korean Language at the Latvia University offers Korean history courses in the first semester of the second and third grades, 16 weeks each and 2 hours each week, a total of 32 hours per semester. In consideration of the hours, I teach chapters 1 to 6 for 2nd grade students and chapter 7 to 11 for 3rd grade students. Students are able to learn Korean history from prehistoric times to modern times through "A History of Korea" until graduation. The other book, [Fig. 11] is a publication covering a wide range of the premodern history, which is not known to foreigners despite long history of Korea, and the life and culture of Koreans that are not easily seen from outside. It was published both in Korean and English at the same time, and consists of 13 chapters on the development of Korean history. Each chapter begins with a world chronology to let readers know what happened to the world at the time of major historical events in Korea. Therefore, students can fully understand Korean history in the context of world history. As it is also published in English for you to easily refer to it for Korean history courses.
3.2. Auxiliary Materials for History Courses
One of the important parts of Korean history courses conducted abroad is the use of auxiliary materials. Sub-materials have high utility values in two aspects. For one, if you use videos related to certain contents, which may seem long and boring, your students will better understand the contents within a short time and their understanding will be improved effectively. For the other, it is effective for students to have an objective view on the historical issues between the three countries in East Asia, which have persisted for decades. For example, there are issues like 'sovereignty over Dokdo' between Korea and Japan, 'comfort women', 'forced labor' during the colonial period, 'Northeast Project of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' between Korea and China, 'Nanjing Massacre' between Japan and China, and 'history textbooks' in Japan. For these sensitive issues, it is better to provide as many objective materials as possible to students and allow them to judge by themselves. Specific materials for this are as follows.
Fig. 12
[Fig. 12] shows videos related to the Three Kingdoms period (Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla) produced by VANK (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea). Most of the videos made by VANK are about 5 minutes long and contain core contents on the period or key events, so they are of great use as sub-materials. You can use these short video clips for students to organize what they have learned from the main textbooks.
Fig. 13
[Fig. 13] is a video footage on Dokdo produced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and it not only shows the reasonable grounds that Dokdo is Korea's unique territory, but also shows Japanese maps and documents indicating Dokdo as Korean territory. This is a very effective material because it shows that Japanese materials also prove that Dokdo is Korean territory.
Fig. 14
[Fig. 14] is a cartoon film on comfort women made by the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and Seoul Animation Center. It tells a story of grandma Kim Bok-dong, who first revealed the existence of comfort women to the world. Because it has been made into a cartoon, historical facts can be delivered more easily and realistically to foreign students despite of its heavy story.
Fig. 15, 16
[Fig. 15] above is the Map of Marco Polo's Travels, and [Fig. 16] is a map of the Japanese Kingdom. These maps are owned by the Northeast Asian History Foundation. [Fig. 15] was made in 1774 and you can see that the East Sea area was marked as "EASTERN SEA". This is a map of Marco Polo's travels by E. Bowen, the British royal cartographer. On the other hand, [Fig. 16] was produced in 1794 by Robert Laurie and James Whittle of England. The Japanese territory was drawn by referring to information obtained from Kemper from Netherlands and Portuguese missionaries, and the Korean territory was drawn based on D'Anville's Map of Joseon. The middle of the East Sea was marked "Corean Sea" in a map of Japanese Kingdom. These empirical data clearly show that Japan's claim to mark the area as the Sea of Japan is very country-centered and against historical evidences.

4. Conclusion

I looked into the state of Korean history courses in European universities in two aspects. One is on the backgrounds and majors of lecturers in charge of Korean history, and the other is on publications related to Korean history, from both English speaking regions and non-English regions. Lastly, I introduced the main textbooks and auxiliary materials used in the Korean history courses at the Latvia University.

No argument will be raised on the statement that one of the most basic subjects in Korean Studies is the Korean history course. However, European universities are facing many difficulties in opening Korean history courses as a required course, except for some universities with a relatively long history of Korean Studies. Causes may vary, but mostly it is because of lack of Korean history experts and researchers at the doctoral degree level. Most realistic complementary measures would be dispatching Korean history experts under KF Korean Studies Support Program to universities that cannot open Korean history courses with their own resources, or inviting Korean history experts from universities in Korea which they are exchange program. However, these measures can be taken under the condition that a lecturer can teach in a local language or at least in English, proactive implementation remains to be seen. Considering that the shortage of experts and researchers abroad is closely related to the shortage of textbooks and publications on Korean history, continuous attention and reasonable solutions should be prepared.

Lastly, I specified the main textbooks and sub-materials I am using in the Korean history courses at the Latvia University. I particularly specified that videos made by educational and historical research institutions in Korea or collection materials can be used in various ways as sub-materials. These materials are very valuable in that they can help students have an objective view on the historical issues that have persisted for decades in the three East Asian countries.


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