Past, Present and Future Prospects of Korean Language Education in Manipur University

Past, Present and Future prospects of Korean Language Education in Manipur University; Special emphasis on Grammar education. (Case markers)

Author:

Dr. VUNGSUANLAL KULLAI

Guest Faculty

Department of Foreign Langauge (Korean)

Manipur University

India-110067

Abstract:

Manipur, one of the states in the North-eastern corner of India bordering Myanmar had seen the rise of Korean influence since the early 90’s. This can be marked as the time when Korea and it’s culture was first introduced to the people of Manipur and it’s neighboring states. But, formal introduction of Korean language and it’s socio-cultural studies started just a decade ago in 2012 at Manipur University with the opening of a one year certificate course in Korean which was further upgraded to a two years Post graduate advanced diploma in 2019. Three years Honours Degree in Korean language was introduced in the year 2020 and at present the course is upgraded to a five years integrated course in Korean language following the New Education Policy, 2020. This paper will research on the exponential growth of Korean language course at Manipur University since its inception.

Key words: Korean language education, grammar education, case markers, morphology, syntax.

Introduction

The relation between Korea and India can be traced back to as early as late 4th century. Since then, the relation between these two countries has been mostly peaceful as it revolves around religion and trade. In recent years, it has taken huge strides and has become truly multidimensional, spurred by a significant convergence of interests, mutual goodwill and high-level diplomatic exchanges. With this came the introduction of Korean language education in India. Korean language education was first introduced in Jawaharlal Nehru University in the year 1971. At present there are only 2 Universities (Jawaharlal Nehru University and Manipur University) in India that provide Masters’ level courses in Korean Language. Other institutes that provide Korean language course in the level of 3 years Bachelors’ course include Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi and as a short-term certificate courses include Delhi University, University of Calcutta, English and Foreign Languages University: EFLU, Central University of Jharkhand, Magadh University, Indira Gandhi National Open University: IGNOU, etc. In addition to these institutes, there are 7 Korean Cultural Centres in India that provide Certificate Course in Korean Language.

Korean language was first introduced in Manipur University in 2012 with a vision to excel in research and produce language experts as educators in Northeast region. Its mission is to enable students to compete at the global level for various scholarships and career opportunities, to impart the importance of learning Foreign languages and to broaden the horizon of prospects in the field of language learning and research. To this day, number of students who cleared the Korean language course offered at the department is a few over 100. And many of the graduates from this course have joined Korean company or pursued higher studies in the field both abraod and within India. Since the introduction of Korean language course as a one year certificate part-time course in 2012, the program continued till 2018 and it was further upgraded to a full time post graduate advaced diploma course in 2019 and in 2020 it was further upgraded to a three years full time Honours degree course. And at present it is furthermore upgarded to a five years integrated Masters’ course.

Korean Language Education at Manipur University.

One year part time certificate course in Korean (2012-2018)

Korean language course was first introduced as a Part time one year certificate course at Manipur University since 2012 with 12 students enrolled for the course, and it continued till 2018. Two special subjects were taught during this course namely;

1. Fundamentals of Korean language

Fundamentals of Korean language deals with grammar, writing, listening, reading, current affairs, socio-cultural education and history.

2. Spoken Korean

This subject is mainly focussed on the spoken form of language.

Two years Post graduate full time Advanced diploma in Korean (2019-2020)

With the arrival of Korea Foundation visiting professor (through an MoU with Manipur University) from South Korea in the late 2018, two years Post gaduate Full time Advanced diploma in Korean language was introduced in January 2019 as an improvment upon the existing one year part time certificate course.

Table 1: Curriculum of Advanced diploma in Korean.

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Three years full time Honours Bachelors’ degree in Korean.

In pursue of higher learning and with the motivation to realize the vision and mission of Korean language education at Manipur University, a Three years full time Honours Bachelors’ degree course in Korean was introduced in early 2020.

Curriculum of BA 1st semester and 2nd semester is as below:

Semester -1

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Semester -2

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Future Prospects of Korean language education in Manipur University:

Introduction of Five years Integrated Masters’ degree in Korean (2022)

Recently, in the month of January 2022, Introduction of a Five years integrated Masters’ degree was approved and the present three years honours degree was upgraded to five years following the New Education Policy, 2020. Under this course, there is a provision for multiple exit and entry. Also, after successful completion of the course by a student for the first year, a one year certificate course degree will be awarded, after successful completion of two years, a diploma certificate will be awarded, after three years of successful completion of the course, a three years Bachelors’ degree program will be awarded, after four years a Bachelors’ degree with honours will be awarded and after successful completion of five years with internship a Masters’ degree course shall be awarded.

Psycholinguistics, Teaching Korean as a Foreign language, Korean language, literature and culture, Comparative lingusics, Language education, comparative translations (English-Korean/Korean-English) are some of the specialized subjects to be taught during this five years integrated Masters’ degree course.

Special emphasis on Grammar education (Case marker studies)

Grammar explains the forms and structure of words (called morphology) and how they are arranged in sentences (called syntax). In other words, grammar provides the rules for common use of both spoken and written language so we can more easily understand each other.

Difference in sentence structure of target language and language medium used for instruction:

Most of the student’s mother tongue language stucture is same as Korean language structure, but, 1/3rd of the time, classroom setting for B.A. 1st year student is such that target language is taught in English medium that has a different sentence structure in Korean. (korean: SOV, English SVO).

In order to help understand the concept and meaning of words, especially in Grammar class, worksheet such as in Table 1 are presented to the students as an extra worksheet apart from the textbook worksheet, that gives meaning in both English and Manipuri.

Table 1: Illustrative Explanation chart for grammar class:

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Case markers.

Case markers are one of the basic patterns that are taught in the Beginners’ level. Korean case markers can be considered much more richer than Manipuri case markers.

Table 2: Comparative analysis of Korean and Manipuri Case markers. (Kullai, 2017)

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Common challenges in the process of Korean language instructions in Manipur University.

1. Unavailability of natural like surroundings.

As much as the influnce of Korean wave is prevalent in Manipur, there is not much natural like surroundings favorable for imparting language skills and knowledge.

Hope: Korea corner project is ongoing, so that may act as a small area where it can feel natural.

2. Shortage of teaching faculties:

There was and is always a shortage of teaching faculty since the introduction of the course with just one permanent faculty. A teacher has to complete not less than 16 hrs of teaching per week with the second batch soon to be admitted during fall semester this year.

Conclusion:

Korean language Education in Northeast India and Manipur in particular was introduced 11 years ago but still it can be considered a very new concept or a new venture. Majority of the applicants to the course in Manipur university are highly influenced by Hallyu. But, Korean language education has a very different connotation to the concept of Korean wave¹. Hallyu of course was one of the main motivation of applicants intending to learn Korean language. Due to this reasons, drop out rates was high during its earlier phases. And still, to these days drop out rates crossed 10%. This happens mainly because of the fact that there was no proper sensitization among the youths of Manipur what it means to learn a language and the carrier opportunities it offers. But, number of student admitted shows an incresing trend with upgradation of course as shown in the table below:

Table 3: Number of students on a yearly basis from 2012 to 2020

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It is expected that With the right motivation and sensitization of the actual concept of Korean language education, and also further development of infrastructure and course offered will bring about upward curvation of statistics keeping on par with the present trends.

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¹ Henceforth, refer to as ‘Hallyu’.