Sven Olof Ohlsson
Teaching Swedish
I had been teaching Swedish two years in China, and now I'm teaching Swedish in Korea for the fourth year. Whenever I have visited Sweden and told someone what I'm working with they almost don't believe me. Why should any one study Swedish in China or Korea?
That's of course a good question. In this Americanised Seoul, even if it is far from being as Americanised as Beijing, English is in the premier league, Chinese, Japanese, French, German and Russian belong to division 1, and Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are next to that. Swedish is probably part of the amateur league. In mainland Asia, Swedish is taught only in Beijing and Seoul. So let's go back to the first question. Why do Koreans study Swedish?
There is a simple answer. In Korea it is not so important what you study. The important thing when you look for a job is from what university you have graduated. The company gives you the education you need to do your job. Though this is changing nowadays.
Just after I came to Seoul the students' monthly made an interview with me. They sent a reporter, together with a translator, from the Scandinavian department, but when I heard that the reporter was a senior student in the French department I told her, in French, that she could do the interview in French. She didn't understand one word of what I said, and I don't think it was because of my poor French.
However, there is another, more interesting and more complicated, answer to the question "Why study Swedish"? A lot of the students, especially the women, are interested in Sweden as a welfare state. Equality between women and men, children's care and social security are things that interest a lot of students. It may also be of importance that Sweden is one of the three neutral countries supervising the armistice in Panmunjeom. I don't think that any country has such a good reputation in Korea as the Scandinavian ones. That's a little funny, as Swedish people know almost nothing about Korea.
There are 120 students in Seoul studying Swedish as a major for four years at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. They can also choose courses in Danish and Norwegian the two last years. Every year we have five or six students that get scholarships from the Swedish Institute (something like the Goethe Institute) to study Swedish in Sweden for one or two terms, and some get it for a summer course. The Korean teachers at the department are excellent Swedish speakers as all have studied several years in Sweden. They have PhD or MA exams from Swedish universities.
What's the use of studying Swedish in Korea? Before answering that question, let me compare with Beijing. In China there are only twenty students studying Swedish, also for four years. The class I taught graduated in 2001. Two of them got a job at the Chinese foreign ministry and are now practising in the Chinese embassy in Sweden. In fact, almost all the staff in the Chinese embassies in Scandinavia and the North European Section of the foreign ministry in Beijing graduated with Swedish as a major. The Swedish embassy in Beijing has the rather unique possibility to negotiate with their Chinese counterparts in Swedish. Furthermore, the number of Swedish tourist groups in China is big and they all have Chinese guides, and several of my former students are engaged in that.
There is no Swedish tourism in Korea, and I don't think many of the employees at the Korean embassy in Stockholm have studied Swedish. So what chance is there to get a job where you can use your knowledge of Swedish? No doubt, most of the students have no use of it. But there are some possibilities.
Swedish companies in Korea have employed some of our students. The old attitude that it was preferable if the Swedish managers could talk Swedish with each other and no one else understood has somewhat disappeared, and the value of having someone who understands Swedish answering the telephone is appreciated. The Swedish embassy also employs people who know Swedish, another possibility is in all the Korean companies that make business with Sweden. And of course some go on as teachers in the university.
But maybe more important is that students study Swedish to be able to go on studying at Swedish universities, and then I don't mean that they study Swedish. The interest in welfare states, as I mentioned, is one reason. There are Korean professors at several universities who have studied in Sweden.
There is also another cultural aspect of the Swedish studies in Korea. In many ways, the department of Scandinavian Languages is a meeting point for Koreans with some sort of connection with Sweden. There is a Korean-Swedish Association and a Korean-Scandinavian Academic Society, both with Korean and Scandinavian members. And when Korean newspapers, magazines or television want a Scandinavian view of something, they ask some one here. I have myself been asked for about forty articles for Korean newspapers and magazines during the last three years.
But we all know that English is the big language. Most of our students study English as a second language the two last years. I sometimes have to remind them that English is not one of the three biggest native languages in Europe, and that it even is not the most spoken foreign language in several countries. They hardly believe me when I say that it is easier to find information in Chinese, Persian or Serbian than in English if they go to Sweden. I never use English in class or outside the classroom. My Korean is rather poor, so I only use Swedish from the very first day with students. That is the way we teach Swedish in Sweden where less than ten percent of the immigrants understand English. And anyhow most beginners' English is too poor. It's no use explaining grammar in English.
Finally, there is a certain Scandinavian aspect in our department. In Scandinavia you never use titles or family names when you talk with someone. It is absolutely impossible to call someone "Professor Ohlsson" when talking Swedish. Each year when I have new students I start by writing "Professor Sven Olof Ohlsson" at the whiteboard. Then I take away "professor", "Ohlsson" and "Olof", the last one because it is more convenient in Asia to use only one given name. The students like it but the first term there is a mix of Korean and Swedish ways. When a student sees me in the street he or she shouts "Hej, Sven" followed by a deep Korean-style bow. What they say when they talk about me I don't care, but I know it usually is "Professor Sven". Myself, I have adapted a little to the Korean system. When I talk about the other teachers with the students I say "Professor Kim". My Korean colleagues are probably unique in Korea as they introduce themselves with their given names, and talk about each other without titles.
In short: teaching Scandinavian languages in Korea is interesting and fascinating, and it really gives you possibilities to increase the knowledge about Scandinavia in Korea.
Copyright © 2002 by Sven Olof Ohlsson
