Korean

This course instructs on intermediate-level Korean language vocabulary, grammar and expressions in all skill areas including reading, writing, listening, and speaking. 

This course analyzes contemporary Korean politics from the four perspectives: international politics, political economy, political culture and political processes. From the perspective of international politics, it analyzes how Korean politics has been influenced by international politics surrounding the Korean peninsula. From the political economy perspective, the course introduces how Korean politics has influenced our economic development and vice versa. From the perspective of political culture, students learn to compare contemporary Korean culture with traditional political culture to find out what continuities and discontinuities there are between them. From the political process perspective. the course examines characteristics of Korean political process in comparison with other democratic countries.

This course examines the relationship between art and philosophy. Art is the fruit of practical life and the object of philosophical reflection. We gain insight into ourselves and our world through philosophical thought. The course discovers the historical origin and context of the major concepts regarding art, the background and meaning of philosophical discourses around art, and the process of formation and transfiguration of the definition of art and its critical categories.

In this course, we attempt to understand humans and their surroundings specifically the culture and the society. The concepts in this course help students to change their usual perceptions of cultural situations newly through the "reading the culture" method. Furthermore, this course aims to provide exposure to different kinds of research methods and traits of anthropology, and by applying these observations, it helps students to learn how to perceive various aspects of modern society and how the contexts of these relate to each other.

Korean sign language is completely different in structure and grammar from the Korean language per se. Korean society is noticeable for linguistic and racial homogeneity, which has led to a low tolerance for the users of foreign languages. Also widespread in Korean society is the pathological approach that recognizes hearing impairment as an abnormal condition requiring medical rehabilitation and normalization. These add to the numerous handicaps and exclusions that the hearing-impaired have to live through in all stages of their life. Learning and sharing sign language is a step towards eliminating the causes of the discrimination and alienation to which the hearing-impaired are exposed. In other words, it helps us better understand the language, lifestyle, and cultures of the specific minority group whose presence in society is otherwise not easily visible. By learning a manual-visual language, students familiar with oral-aural languages obtain a new understanding of human communication systems. They also have an opportunity to appreciate the values and possibilities of Korean sign language by exploring its historical development and methods of word formation, along with diverse subcultures of hearing-impaired communities.

This course examines central concepts and theoretical perspectives of sociology and provides and introduction to sociological perspectives. Topics include culture, socialization, and self-formation; deviant behavior and crime; social performance, gender roles, and family; social inequality and class; power, politics, government, and state; labor and social division of labor; and religion and society.

Through an integrated curriculum of vocabulary, grammar, speaking, listening, writing, and reading, this course enables students to: 

1) Communicate in Korean at an advanced level in formal discourse;  

2) Understand newspaper and newspaper articles on politics, economics, society, and culture and provide one’s opinion on given topics; and,  

3) Understand Korean culture through idioms, proverbs, etc.  

This course provides an overview of Latin American society and culture. Specifically, it focuses on Hispanic culture and its underlying characteristics, and examines the social and historical contexts in which manifestations of popular culture have developed in various regions of Latin America during the 20th century.