University of British Columbia

Provided Programs&Courses

Undergraduate

1. Program (Korea-related degree offered) : Bachelor of Arts Asian Studies
   • Program Remarks - UBC’s Department of Asian Studies focuses on approaches to Asia based in the Humanities (language, literature, history, culture, religion, philosophy, gender studies, performance, visual culture) and features strong coverage of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea) and South and West Asia (India, Pakistan, and the Persianate world) and is one of the leading programs of its kind in North America.
   1. Korea-related Courses : ASIA100 Introduction to Traditional Asia
      • Course Remarks - A survey of the histories and cultures of Asia before 1600 and the coming of the Europeans. Emphasis will be given to parallel themes in the development of the civilizations of South, Southeast and East Asia.
   2. Korea-related Courses : ASIA101 Introduction to Modern Asia
      • Course Remarks - A survey of the emergence of modern Asia. Aims at an understanding of how the various peoples of Asia have maintained distinctive cultural identities despite centuries of political, economic, social and cultural change.
   3. Korea-related Courses : ASIA200 Cultural Foundations of East Asia
      • Course Remarks - A comparative survey of the beliefs, assumptions and values which have shaped the civilizations of East Asia in both traditional and modern times.
   4. Korea-related Courses : ASIA300 Writing and Culture in East Asia
      • Course Remarks - Practical, aesthetic, historical, technological and political issues pertaining to the use of Chinese characters - hanzi (Chinese), kanji (Japanese), or hanccha (Korean) - throughout the region.
   5. Korea-related Courses : ASIA307 Korean Language and Writing in Culture and Society
      • Course Remarks - An examination of Korean language and writing using approaches from sociolinguistics, the sociology of language, and linguistic anthropology.
   6. Korea-related Courses : ASIA317 The Rise of Korean Civilization
      • Course Remarks - The evolution of a distinctive Korean civilization within the East Asian cultural sphere. Primary focus on cultural, social and political development from the earliest times to the sixteenth century.
   7. Korea-related Courses : ASIA337 The Korean People in Modern Times (1600 to the present)
      • Course Remarks - The transformation of Korea from a Confucian state into an industrial nation. The rise of nationalism and modern ideologies in Korea. Cultural, social and economic changes Korea has undergone as it has entered the modern world.
   8. Korea-related Courses : ASIA347 Traditional Korean Literature in Translation
      • Course Remarks - An introduction to Korean literature from ancient times to 1900.
   9. Korea-related Courses : ASIA356 Korean Cinema 
      • Course Remarks - Introduction to the work of the major film makers.
   10. Korea-related Courses : ASIA357 Modern Korean Fiction in Translation
       • Course Remarks - Selected novels and stories written between 1906 and the present.
   11. Korea-related Courses : ASIA377 History of Korean Thought
       • Course Remarks - An examination of Korean religious, philosophical, and scientific thought from the earliest written records to the present day, with particular focus on the interaction of Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and, in the present century, Christianity.
   12. Korea-related Courses : ASIA410 International Relations in Premodern East Asia
       • Course Remarks - International relations, particularly between Korea and Japan in the premodern East Asian context, focusing on migration, trade, diplomacy, war, collective memory, mutual perceptions, and the context of the Sinocentric international order.
   13. Korea-related Courses : ASIA457 The Modern Korean Novel
       • Course Remarks - Survey of major single-volume novels, ranging from Yi Kwang-su's Heartlessness to Ch'oe Yun's There a Petal Silently Falls, in translation.
   14. Korea-related Courses : KORN102 Basic Korean
       • Course Remarks - An introduction to the grammar and syntax of modern spoken and written Korean. As of 2011W, credit will be granted for only one of KORN 100/101 or KORN 102.
   15. Korea-related Courses : KORN200 Intermediate Korean
       • Course Remarks - Reading and writing of modern colloquial Korean at an intermediate level. As of 2011W, credit will be granted for only one of KORN 201/202 or KORN 200.
   16. Korea-related Courses : KORN301 Readings in Korean Topics I
       • Course Remarks - Readings in intermediate-level Korean on aspects of Korean culture, customs, and contemporary life, along with structured conversations based on those readings. As of 2011W, credit will be granted for only one of KORN 301/302 or KORN 300.
   17. Korea-related Courses : KORN302 Readings in Korean Topics II
       • Course Remarks - Continuation of KORN 301. As of 2011W, credit will be granted for only one of KORN 301/302 or KORN 300.
   18. Korea-related Courses : KORN410A Modern Korean Short Fiction - MOD KORN SHRT FC
       • Course Remarks - Reading and translating twentieth-century Korean short fiction.
   19. Korea-related Courses : KORN410B Modern Korean Short Fiction - MOD KORN SHRT FC
       • Course Remarks - Reading and translating twentieth-century Korean short fiction.
   20. Korea-related Courses : ASIA 452 – Literature of the Korean Diaspora
       • Course Remarks - A survey of literature, in translation, from the Korean diaspora, focussing on writing by ethnic Koreans in North America, Europe, and Japan.

Graduate

1. Program (Korea-related degree offered) : Master of Arts Asian Studies
   • Program Remarks - Admission to the MA program in Asian Studies normally requires a Bachelor of Arts with first-class standing in Chinese, Japanese, Korean or South Asian languages. This implies at least four years of language study; in the case of East Asian languages, applicants who also have experience studying the target language intensively in-country for an extended period of time tend to advance through our program more quickly.
   1. Korea-related Courses : ASIA 581 A, B (002) – Research Methods and Source Materials in Korean Studies
      • Course Remarks - An introduction to primary and secondary sources in specific fields of Korean Studies as well as to the various methodologies used in the field. Students focusing on the Chosŏn dynasty are required to use materials in Classical Chinese. Students focusing on Korea in the 20th century are required to use materials in Korean and Japanese.
   2. Korea-related Courses : ASIA 582A (008) – Term 1: History and Structure of the Korean Language
      • Course Remarks - The purpose of the course is to learn the basics of Middle Korean, the language recorded in the earliest hangul records from the 15th century shortly after the alphabet was invented.
   3. Korea-related Courses : ASIA 583A, B (001) – Topics in Korean Literature
      • Course Remarks - This course is an intensive workshop seminar in Korean-to-English literary translation. Each student completes a translation of an as yet untranslated Korean short story, or a translation of any literary work that is treated in his or her MA thesis or Ph.D. dissertation.
   4. Korea-related Courses : ASIA 584B (008) – Topics in Korean Traditional Literature
      • Course Remarks - We will look at a couple different manuscripts and pay attention to the glosses and commentaries in Korean, as well as to the 18th- and 19th-century Korean translations that often accompanied in the margins.
   5. Korea-related Courses : ASIA 587 (002) – The History of the Choson Dynasty
      • Course Remarks - A survey of Korea on the edge of modernity. We will start with an examination of the sirhak thinker Tasan Chŏng Yagyong (1762-1836), and then go on to look at changes in politics, religion, culture, and literature in Korea over the course of the 19th century before the major intrusions of the outside world in the last quarter of that century. 
   6. Korea-related Courses : HIST 386 (3/6) d Korea Since 1860
      • Course Remarks - An examination of the political, economic, social, and cultural transformations of Korea since the late nineteenth century. Topics include the end of the Choson Dynasty, the history of Japanese colonial rule, the Korean war, and the two Koreas in the international system.
   7. Korea-related Courses : Law 334.001 - Introduction to Asian Legal Systems: Asian Legal Systems
      • Course Remarks - This course plans to offer introduction to the legal systems of Asia, focusing on the People's Republic of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The course has two objectives.
2. Program (Korea-related degree offered) : PhD Asian Studies
   • Program Remarks - Admission to the PhD program in Asian Studies normally requires an MA in Asian Studies or its equivalent. Before admittance, candidates for the PhD program must have an adequate command of one of the following languages: Chinese, Japanese, Hindi/Urdu, Punjabi, Sanskrit or Korean.

Coop

1. Program (Korea-related degree offered) : UBC Arts Co-op Program in Asian Studies

Collaborative

1. Program (Korea-related degree offered) : Go Global Asian Studies Degree
   • Program Remarks - Go Global and the Asian Studies Department have worked closely together to identify study abroad opportunities for Asian Studies students.  Study abroad opportunities include: Exchange, International Internships, Research Abroad, Global Seminars, International Service Learning and more.

Post-Secondary

1. Program (Korea-related degree offered) : UBC Continuing Studies Certificate Program - Translation and Interpretation for Business (Korean)
   • Program Remarks - The UBC Certificate in Translation and Interpretation for Business (Korean/English) teaches you fundamental translation skills, enhances your cross-cultural understanding and prepares you to work successfully in international and intercultural environments in any number of fields or businesses.
   1. Korea-related Courses : Korean Translation and Interpretation for Business - Part 1
      • Course Remarks - Designed to enhance bilingual fluency and cross-cultural communication abilities, this course benefits those who want to gain a better understanding of translation and interpretation.
   2. Korea-related Courses : Korean Translation for Business Part 2
      • Course Remarks - In this interactive online course, you learn practical strategies for succeeding as a business translator and practise translating from English into Korean with an emphasis on business communication. Combining translation theories and exercises, the course focuses on hands-on translation training. 
   3. Korea-related Courses : Korean Translation and Interpretation for Business - Part 3
      • Course Remarks - This advanced course helps you further your confidence in your translation skills and speed. By the end of this course, you are expected to complete your bilingual glossary buildup and meet the key criteria of accuracy, completeness and adequacy in your translation and interpretation practice.
   4. Korea-related Courses : Korean Beginner 1
      • Course Remarks - If you have little or no previous knowledge of Korean, then this is the right level for you. In Beginner 1 you learn to share information about yourself and ask basic questions of those around you. You learn structure and vocabulary that allow you to function in everyday settings such as introducing yourself, discussing your family and your likes and dislikes. You begin to understand complex language structures in an immersion classroom setting while learning to speak primarily in the present tense.

Designated Center

• Korean Studies Center : Center for Korean Research (CKR), Institute of Asian Research (IAR)
• Main Organization : IAR
• Date Center founded : 1978, 1993
• Korean Studies Center address : Institute of Asian Research, C.K. Choi Building, The University of British Columbia, 1855 West Mall
• Center website : http://www.iar.ubc.ca/Centres/ckr.aspx
• Korea-related Journal : Asia Pacific Memo, Pacific Affairs, Asia Pacific Report