East Asian Languages and Cultures | Korean Language and Culture
E505 | 27980 | Lee, H.
Graduate Students only
Your father is a generation of water, you a generation of tree, and
your son a generation of fire.
Korean names follow the Oriental Theory of Five Phases of the
universe, which is indicated by one of the two characters of their
Election is WAR in Korea. It is well reflected in the language that
Your uncle is called “sam-chon” a degree 3 kin and your cousin “sa-
chon” a degree 4 kin.
Kin relationship is measured in terms of degree; the parents-
children relation is degree one, and in between siblings is degree
Language is an important window through which one can look
into the culture and society of the people who use it, because
people’s socio-cultural behaviors and attitudes as well as thoughts
are reflected upon in their use of the language. By examining Korean
language and its uses, this course will look through the cultural
and conceptual as well as philosophical makeup of Korean people. We
will deal with the following topics:
- kinship terminology
- color terms
- sexism in language
- luck & taboo words
- structure of folk narratives
- communication styles
- loan words.
- Korean writing system (its cultural background and implication)
No background on Korea or Korean language is necessary.
This course will fulfill your SHSI (Social and Historical Studies --
Social Inquiry) requirement as well as CSA (Cultural Studies List#A)
Feel free to inquire about the course to: Hyo Sang Lee
(firstname.lastname@example.org), 855-8721 or visit the course homepage