TEACHING TURKISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The Turkic languages and dialects are/were spoken across a vast area from the Pacific to the Baltic Sea, and from the Arctic Ocean to the Persian Gulf.The Altaic theory, i.e. the theory about the affinity of Turkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus, including or excluding Korean, is not accepted by all scholars. One group of scholars believes that the Altaic languages represent a group of genetically related languages. Other scholars hesitate to accept the genetic affinity as a definitely proved fact. Other scholars display a clearly pronounced negative attitude, rejecting the genetic affinity, and refuting the Altaic theory.In the Orkhon inscriptions which are the oldest written records of Turkic, there are two passages related to an ancient Korean kingdom of Goguryeo (고구려/高句麗, 37 BC - 668 AD). After that time, the Koreans had little contact with the Turks for a long time until the Turkish troops took part in the Korean War (25 June 1950 - 27 July 1953) within the UN troops. The Koreans learned the Turkish language from those Turkish troops.Except for some language courses at private educational institutes, the Turkish language is taught at four universities in Korea. Turkish was taught for the first time in September 1955 at Seoul National University. Until the 1st semester of 2012, the Turkish course belonged to the Department of Linguistics at the College of Humanities. Since the 2nd semester of 2012, the Turkish course belongs to the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations at the same college.As far as the author observed at Seoul National University, there was no student who wanted to learn Turkish further or to specialize in Turkic linguistics. The primary reason is that practically nobody except a few persons can earn a livelihood in the field of Turkology in Korea.In November 2012 and June 2013, Yunus Emre Institute of Turkey requested the cooperation with Seoul National University. However, this request was rejected by Seoul National University. Thus, we lost a good opportunity for further development of Turkish language instruction at Seoul National University