Korean Studies in Vietnam: 20 Years of Teaching and Research

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Korea, with the sponsorship of the Center for Asian Studies Support - VNU, on December 21, 2012, the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi organized a scientific conference with the theme "Korean Studies in Vietnam - 20 years of teaching and research".The conference was not divided into many sub-committees but mainly focused on discussing two fields of training and research in Korean studies. The conference was attended by representatives of scientists and lecturers from universities and research institutes in the North and South with 10 reports and 10 counter-arguments covering all issues of history, socio-economics, culture and language of Korea. It can be affirmed that the Korean studies industry was born in Vietnam as an inevitable need reflecting the development in the relationship between the two countries for more than 20 years now. Although the period of 2 decades is not long compared to other fields of regional studies, it is enough to look back on a journey, evaluate the achievements and remaining problems in order to draw experience, propose directions for sustainable and systematic development and training and research in this field. In the morning session, the scientists listened to and discussed issues of Korean language, literature and culture with the following topics: Survey of studies on Korean intransitive and transitive verbs compared to Vietnamese; Consider the factors affecting the meaning of the tense-supplementary root words in Korean and propose teaching methods for Vietnamese people; Study the thoughts of poet Ko Un through the poetry collection "Tomorrow's Song"; The process of adaptation to Korean culture of Vietnamese brides immigrating to Korea and Analysis of the content of articles about Korea published in Vietnamese newspapers. In the field of language, there were 2 reports that mainly focused on Korean language research, specifically verbs and tense endings in Korean with the aim of proposing appropriate methods in teaching and researching Korean in Vietnam. Regarding these 2 reports, the conference highly appreciated the research results achieved by the authors but also emphasized the importance of unifying the linguistic terminology used in teaching and researching Korean in Vietnam. There was only 1 report on literature but it also opened up a new direction in teaching and researching Korean literature in Vietnam. Up to now, Korean literature has only been paid attention to in the field of ancient literature and the history of literary development. By introducing and discussing an author of modern literature, the conference came to the consensus that more attention should be paid to the field of modern Korean literature, finding out its characteristics and trends and, if possible, comparing it with the case of Vietnamese literature. The field of Korean culture received the attention of the delegates with the content presented in relation to Vietnam such as the adaptation to Korean culture of Vietnamese people (specifically Vietnamese brides) or the perception of Vietnam towards Korea through the content in Vietnamese newspapers, etc. In this field, there were discussions proposing the next research direction of synthesizing and classifying with criteria and going into specific analysis of the issues. In the afternoon session, the presentations and opinions focused on discussing historical, political, economic and social issues such as: Looking back at reform and innovation in Korea and Vietnam from modern times to the present; The ups and downs in Korea's foreign policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from 1948 to the present; Korea's policy views on the issue of realizing the ASEAN Community (AC); The role of the government in Korea's economic development; Understanding the 386 generation in Korea. Two historical reports covered the reform and innovation of Korea since the modern era and the policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from 1948 to the present. Based on the analysis of historical issues, scholars discussed and looked at the foundation and future development trends of Korea. At the conference, experts and researchers on Korean studies found some common points in research issues on the role of the government in the economic development of Korea, as well as the international relations of Korea with countries in the region. In particular, the issue of the need to emphasize more on the research direction on the role and influence of Korea on the ASEAN community was discussed. In the social topic, there was a report analyzing the role of the generation born in the 1960s in the development of Korean society, showing a new and quite interesting perspective when studying Korea. The conference was evaluated as having high professional quality, an event that contributes to encouraging scientific research activities, especially in the field of Korean studies in the future. The conference proceedings, including the discussion section, will be a valuable reference document, showing some results in Korean studies training and research in Vietnam, and at the same time, raising issues in some areas that can develop into new directions in the future.