UC Berkeley [Getty Images via AFP=Yonhap News Archive]

Eighty-three years after becoming the first U.S. university to offer Korean language classes, UC Berkeley, a prestigious institution in the western United States, is set to graduate its first students with a major in Korean studies.

The Department of East Asian Studies at UC Berkeley announced on the 11th that three students who chose Korean studies as a double major will receive their degrees at the commencement ceremony scheduled for the 19th (local time).

This marks the first achievement, one year after the Korean studies major was established within the department last year.

Ilise Kim (Korean name: Kim So-young), one of the first graduates, expressed her pride in the curriculum, stating, "I am proud of UC Berkeley's Korean studies curriculum, which allows for a deep engagement with Korea's history and culture by studying not only modern and contemporary history but also ancient writing systems like hyangchal, and by directly researching primary sources such as classical literature."

Another graduate, Joanne Moon, shared her reflections, saying that studying the poetry of Yun Dong-ju and learning about the Japanese colonial period, the Korean War, and the history of division helped her find her Korean identity as she grew up in America.

Moon, who wrote her graduation thesis on the topic of Korean women's labor in the 20th century, plans to continue her research at the University of Hawaii graduate school, focusing on Korean women who immigrated to the United States during the Japanese colonial era and the camptowns formed after liberation.

Professor Jinsoo An of the Department of East Asian Studies commented on the graduation of these Korean studies majors, saying, "Although the establishment of a Korean studies major is quite late, it is a truly meaningful event," adding, "This is because UC Berkeley was the first American university to begin offering Korean language classes in 1943, when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule."

Choi Bong-yoon teaching a Korean language class at UC Berkeley [Courtesy of the Department of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley]

The first Korean language class at UC Berkeley was established after activist Choi Bong-yoon, who was then a faculty member in the Department of Oriental Languages (the predecessor to the Department of East Asian Studies), persuaded the university. He also personally authored the first Korean language university textbook in the United States.

The Korean language classes, for which Mr. Choi sowed the seeds, have now become popular courses with 400 to 500 students annually. The department has seven full-time Korean language instructors and hosts an annual "Korea Day" event featuring performances, thesis presentations, and essay contests.

UC Berkeley commemorated this tradition by holding a "80th Anniversary of the Korean Language Program Celebration" in 2023 and establishing the "Choi Bong-yoon Scholarship." The Center for Korean Studies, founded by the university in 1979, has been awarding the "Lee Hong-young Book Prize" since 2022 to recognize outstanding academic books related to Korean studies.

Professor An, who has been instrumental in establishing the undergraduate Korean studies major, is also working towards establishing a graduate program in Korean studies.

Furthermore, Professor An reported that students are actively campaigning to rename the collection of rare Korean books in the East Asian Library, currently named the "Asami Collection" after its owner, Rintaro Asami, a former official of the Government-General of Chosen, to reflect a critical examination of colonial history.