k_kiki 
The University of Oxford is one of the oldest universities in the world, and its influence spans a wide range of fields, including academia, politics, and society. It is particularly influential in the United Kingdom, where it has produced 28 British prime ministers, and all but two of the 13 British prime ministers since Anthony Eden took office in 1955 have been Oxford graduates.
In addition to this political influence, its academic achievements are equally impressive. There have been more than 70 Nobel Prize winners from Oxford, and the university has produced many senior politicians around the world, including former US President Bill Clinton. As such, Oxford is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious universities in the world, and its status is unwavering.
Recently, however, the university has been undergoing a new transformation through Korea and the Korean language. On June 28, 2023, the first Korean Literature Festival was held at the University of Oxford, which not only introduces Korean literature to the UK, but also selects works that will be translated into various languages and placed in the University’s libraries as Oxford University “must reads.”
The festival’s selection was “If One Day We Gaze at the Same Star,” a book that addresses the issue of comfort women during the Japanese occupation. It was written by writer and actor Cha In-pyo, who was inspired to write the book in 1997 after watching a TV news report of her grandmother being reunited with her family, and feeling both compassion and anger.
CHA is a well-known actor, but he is also a writer who has written three full-length novels. His work was published in 2009, but went out of print due to its lack of popularity, and the Korean Literature Festival has brought it back into the spotlight.
Oxford University chose this book because it sends a message of forgiveness and solidarity not only to the comfort women issue but also to the current conflicts and wars around the world.
Professor Jieun Kiaer of Oxford’s School of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies said that he wanted to introduce the book to European youth, and it is notable for its empathy for pain and suffering around the world, not just in Korea.
CHA delivered a lecture at Oxford University, and the university plans to organize an annual event to introduce Korean literature and authors. Earlier this year, Oxford University also launched the Hallyu Academy, a liberal arts course covering Korean language and culture.
The program is a 10-week course that covers Korean music, drama, food, history, and more. Interest in Korean language and culture has been surging in the UK, especially due to the influence of Korean pop culture, including BTS, and Hallyu Academy is a response to this demand.
The courses are taught through the Metaverse platform and have been applied for by Brits of all ages. People applied for a variety of reasons, from wanting to watch Korean dramas without subtitles to an interest in Korean food and hanbok, and the age range ranged from middle school students to university professors.
While this phenomenon may be hard to recognize in Korea, it shows that the Hallyu craze is a global phenomenon.
The demand for Korean studies in the U.K. is so high that Oxford University has adopted Korean as a second language. From October 2023, Korean will be taught as a formal subject at the Language Center, the university’s foreign language institute, and Professor Jieun Kiaer is writing a Korean textbook.
The center has been teaching European languages such as French, German, and Spanish, as well as Asian languages such as Chinese and Japanese, but now Korean will be added to the list. The decision reflects the rapidly growing number of Korean learners.
It’s also worth noting that the age at which Korean is being taught in the UK is getting younger. The UK education authorities are offering after-school Korean classes at the voluntary request of students, and the number of Korean classes started in 45 schools in 2022 has increased to 68 schools in 2023.
This shift stems from the phenomenon that Korean is considered a “fantasy language” by the UK’s MG generation, who are attracted to its uniqueness and sophistication.
Professor Jieun Kiaer has been noticing this shift in Korean learners, and analyzes that Korean is no longer just a Hallyu craze, but a new language for European youth.
This change at Oxford University is an example of how Korean language and culture are having a global impact.
On July 4, 2023, composer Kim Young-suk gave a K-pop lecture and mini-concert at Oxford University. He was the first Asian pop musician to give a lecture at Oxford, and his talk covered the past, present, and future of K-pop.
Kim Young-suk is a composer with over 1,200 copyrighted songs and is considered one of the leading figures in Korean pop music. He gave Oxford University permission to use his work in Korean language education and was the first to release a Korean language learning song called “ganada Song”. The song is designed to help young children learn Hangul, and it has garnered a lot of attention in Korea and abroad.
Together, Kim Young-suk and Jieun Kiaer are introducing Korean culture through the Hallyu Academy, and their efforts are playing a major role in the integration of Korean language and culture into the Oxford University curriculum.
Through these changes, Oxford University is spreading Korean language and culture around the world, and it is expected that cultural exchanges between Korea and the UK will become more active in the future.
Daniel Tudor, a British journalist and author, has published a novel, “The Last Kingdom,” about King Ui Chin, the last royal of Korea.
He spent five years researching and writing the book, which centers on a relatively unexplored part of Korean history. The novel sheds new light on Korean history and has garnered a great deal of attention in the UK.
Korea’s cultural influence in various fields such as Korean literature, music, and history is spreading across the globe, and this move by Oxford University will further raise the profile of Korea.
It is expected that Korean language and culture will be more actively studied and taught at world-renowned universities such as Oxford University.
