Minor in Korean Studies at BU

There have been many requests from Korean students who studied Korean language whether Boston University supports those prospective students to minor in Korean. This is a guideline for how students could declare a minor in Korean studies at BU.

From my past years’ experience of advising students, it has been a strong impression that many students tend to misunderstand the administrative terms in the minor issues. “Minor in Korean” means students have to take four semesters of language instruction as a prerequisite. Students have to take six other (Korean) literature and cultural courses to fulfill a “minor” in Korean at BU. However, this is currently not supported by BU administration simply due to the lack of the offered courses.

Alternatively and more encouragingly, there is a way to minor Korean through the Program of East Asian Studies. BU East Asian Studies is an interdisciplinary program that has professors from the departments of International Relations, Asian Languages and literatures, Politics, Religion and History to teach students a broad range of East Asian related topics and issues in a broad range. From this program, we support “Minor in East Asian Studies” with a concentration of Korean, China and Japan studies.

To minor in East Asian Studies with concentration of Korean Studies, students can choose Korean related courses in order to build their background about Korea. The following is a suggestive list of courses that student may choose in pursuit of this goal.

Core Required Courses

1. Four semesters’ of Korean 1-4 (LK 111, LK 212)
   *Students may enter in different levels according to the result of the placement test.
   
   
2. Two semesters’ of Korean 5 and 6 (LK 311, LK 312)
   * These courses count as Korean literature and culture courses.
   
   
3. Two core courses under this list.
   
   
   • CAS LK 283 Modern Korean Culture through Cinema (in English translation)
   • CAS AH 225 The Arts of Asia
   • CAS LC 283 Chinese Civilization
   • CAS HI 389 Introduction to Early Chinese History
   • CAS LJ 250 Masterpieces of Japanese
   • CAS LJ 282 The Culture of Samurai
   • CAS PH 247 Introduction to Chinese philosophy
   • CAS RN 103 Religions of the World: Eastern Chinese Religion
   • CAS RN 211 Chinese Religion
   • CAS RN 215 Japanese Religion
   • CAS AN 318 Southeast Asia: Tradition and Development
   • CAS AN 344 Modern Japanese Society: Family, School and Workplace
   • CAS AN 379 China: Tradition and Transformation
   • CAS GG 381 Geography of Asia
   • CAS IR 368 Contemporary East Asian Economics
   • CAS LJ 283 Modern Japanese Culture in Cinema

For the course registration info go to BU Class Schedule

Electives

Two elective courses under this list

• CAS IR 275 The Pacific Challenge
• CAS IR 520 The State and Public Purpose in Asia
• CAS IR 332 Korea: From Seclusion to Division
  *temporarily not offered due to the retirement of the professor
• CAS IR 518 Korean and Major Powers
  *temporarily not offered due to the retirement of the professor
• CAS RN 360 The Taoist Religion
• CAS AR 261 Heritage of Asia
• CAS AR 262 Asian Gods & Goddesses
• CAS AN 360 Asians in America
• CAS AN/SO 305 Comparative Family Systems in Asia
• CAS AN/SO 505 Asian Development: The Case of Women
• CAS HI 262 Asian American History

For the course registration info go to BU Class Schedule

Awarded Degree

East Asian Studies is the standard program at most schools (e.g. no separate Korean, Chinese, Japanese minors/majors) thus students will certainly be recognized of their quality in this area of study after their graduation.

After declaring your minor with the director of the Program of East Asian Studies with the suggested courses, your minor will appear as “Minor Concentration in East Asian Interdisciplinary Studies (Advising code: B-0312) on your diploma. If you wish to state your qualification as a Korean studies minor on your qualifying letters, such as a resume or a cover letter, you are also encouraged to state “Minor in East Asian Studies Concentration on Korean studies” for clarity.

If you have any questions about minoring in Korean studies please contact Prof. Roh (jmroh@bu.edu).