“외국문화로서의 한국문화”교육의 가능성

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to determine the feasibility of Korean Culture as a Foreign Culture (KCFC) education. Until now, the trend of Korean cultural studies in general has been to view it as existing within a fixed regional space with an embodied shape as a conclusive reality and to attempt to objectively grasp an understanding of that reality. Because it was unable to objectify, delocalize, and alienate, KCFC was left simply as a vehicle of Korean as a Foreign Language (KFL) education. Therefore the position, the boundary, and methods of Korean culture studies need to be changed. First, the territory of Korean culture from the Korean peninsula needs to be expanded to include the countries of East Asia as well as the ever expanding realm of cyberspace; second, the communicational means for conveying the facts about Korean culture needs to be expanded from the Korean language to include all other languages; third, the sovereignty over Korean culture needs to be expanded from the ethnic Korean people to include all people who participate in shaping Korean culture. In order to implement this paradigm shift, I present the following five step KCFC education process. 1. Adequate provision of facts about Korean culture 2. The re-evaluation of cultural knowledge based on the Korean viewpoint as an outsider’s viewpoint 3. Comparison of Korean culture with the learner’s culture 4. The re-evaluation of the learner’s culture as an outsider’s viewpoint 5. Defining the universality of Korean culture in terms of human relations The remaining problems are related to the concreteness of the education field. Currently the tasks that must be done are establishing a curriculum and related studies, and devising teaching methods that are in accord with the learner’s level. The most important requirement, however, is the training of teachers for KCFC education. Just as KFC has established its independence and disciplinary field distinct from National Korean Language studies, KCFC must also become independent from National Korean culture studies and establish its own field. Then it will no longer be just a tool in language education and will be able to acquire its own autonomous identity.