(Interview) K-Culture Story Contents Research Institute offers free academic Korean studies courses
2024-09-30The photo shows the institute logo and an image of Professor Ahn Seung-Beom (Photos from the official website of Kscs, the official website of the Republic of Korea's e-government)
Despite the increasing popularity of Korean culture, some false facts about Korea are still fixed in people's minds. However, due to the Korean government's various efforts those false facts will be corrected soon enough.
In this article, we will focus on the efforts of the K-Culture Story Contents Research Institute (Kscs) to spread Korean culture and convert people's enthusiasm for the Hallyu wave into academic interest in Korean studies.
They offer various courses for free and they are available on K-MOOC website.
I was honored to interview the research director at the institute Professor Ahn Seung-Beom to elaborate more on the institute's efforts and the courses it provides. This interview was held via Zoom on September 12th.
First of all, it is an honor to meet you, please introduce yourself to the readers.
I’m Professor Ahn Seung-Beom, I’m a professor in the Department of Korean Culture and Literature at Kyung Hee University. I’m the director of research at Kcsc which is among the research institutes established by the university.
Besides that, I have experience as a film critic, writer, and poet.
When was the research institute established?
We fully created our first course in July 2021. It has been more than 3 years now, before 2021 we did some research but we were recognized as an official institute in 2021. We received governmental support, and since then we have been creating these online courses, that allow us to conduct research on various aspects of Korean culture.
What kind of courses do you provide exactly?
The courses are divided into themes: courses about the Korean language, courses about traditional culture, and courses about modern culture such as K-pop, K movies, K webtoon courses, etc. We aim to reach a goal of 50 courses in 5 years so we create 10 courses each year.
the level of difficulty of the courses varies depending on its level, the subject of beginner courses is mostly the Korean language as it is essentially to know Korean to understand its traditional and modern culture. We aim to make those courses easy and engaging by using enjoyable teaching ways, like learning through K-pop or K-drama.
The photo shows some courses provided by the institute (Photos from K-MOOC official website)
What courses are the most attractive to students?
So far, Korean language courses attract the most students. Honestly, that wasn’t expected but they gained the highest enrollment rate, and K-pop and K-drama courses came after them.
We have an M.O.U (Memorandum of Understanding) with university professors worldwide and we regularly survey what is needed to understand Korean culture better.
Do you plan to provide the courses in any languages other than Korean, Chinese, and English?
We plan to provide our courses in the 6 Official languages of the UN: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. However, we face challenges translating the courses into Arabic because there are few translators available. Anyway, we plan to have one or two courses translated into Arabic in our fifth year.
Do you plan to provide offline courses in any country?
We promote our online courses at many universities, and we have doctoral researchers with different specialties such as K-pop, traditional culture researchers, etc. We often send our researchers to various countries to teach and conduct research.
Also, as we have signed M.O.Us with around 20 foreign universities, we plan to collaborate in research, host conferences, and publish books together besides sharing courses.
The photo shows the institute members through various international collaborations offline and online ( Photos from the official account of Kcsc)
What kind of books do you publish?
We publish books annually, after completing the 10 courses we create them based on their lectures, translate them, and then distribute them, they serve as a study guide.
We also publish research books annually about the year’s Korean cultural trends and we are currently preparing a dictionary for Korean culture researchers, it will be published in English.
What are the benefits of the courses’ certifications?
Even though they might not directly help in employment, companies will recognize them positively in your CV as they represent the passion and knowledge of Korean culture.
What challenges do you face while creating the courses?
We try to consider how different countries perceive Korean culture. For example, an Indian person might approach the courses differently from a Vietnamese person so we always consider what foreign learners find intriguing about Korean culture while developing our courses.
Why do you think there are many misunderstandings about Korean culture?
I think people tend to limit Korea and its culture by focusing only on certain things like K-pop artists or the political conflicts in the past. Because of these cultural, political, and historical factors, only shallow and fragmented ideas about Korea are widely known.
To know what kind of country Korea is, what characteristics Korean culture has, and what it means to be Korean, there is a need for a platform that shares knowledge and information that can provide a deep understanding of Korean culture.
What do you think about K-pop's huge popularity, is it a positive or a negative thing from your point of view?
I think that K-pop is more hybrid than authentically Korean. Some music kinds have clear nationality but K-pop combines different global trends and rhythms. Anyway, the singers are Korean and they sing in Korean so I think K-pop is a combination of global and local things, that is what it has always been.
Lastly, do you have any last words for people who want to learn about Korean culture?
Due to the Korean wave, the demand for studying in Korean language and culture departments is high, making it hard to be accepted in these departments. However, I believe that more students should be allowed to study Korean culture. So through the courses we provide we create a generation interested in Korean culture and you will be the connection between your country and Korea.
The photo shows screenshots from the interview (Photos from Eman Ahmed)
Keywords:
Kcsc
Korean Culture
Korean language
Online courses
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