Ross King (born February 25, 1961) is a Canadian linguist and Koreanist. He has been the head of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia since July 2008.[1]

Education

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King first became interested in the Korean language during his second year of undergraduate studies. He first visited Korea in 1981, during the Gwangju Uprising, and learned Korean by talking with locals.[2]

He has a Ph.D. in linguistics from Harvard University and has published books in both English and Korean.[3]

Career

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King is a researcher in Korean historical linguistics, Korean dialectology (especially Koryo-mar, the dialect of Koryo-saram),[4] and literature in the Sinosphere.[5] In 2022, he spent a year as a visiting scholar in Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea.[6]

King is also an advocate for greater South Korean private and public investment on international language learning of Korean, in order to capitalize on and sustain the success of the Korean Wave.[7][8] In 1999, he established the Korean Residential Language Camp (Korean숲속의 호수; lit. Lake in the Forest) in Minnesota, to encourage Korean language immersion.[9][10] For his contributions to the development of international Korean language learning, he was given the Oesol Award, named for the Korean linguist Choe Hyeon-bae (whose art name was Oesol).[6]

Personal life

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According to a reporter from the Weekly Chosun, King speaks English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean fluently.[6] He is married to a Korean woman, whom he met at Harvard.[2]

References

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  1. ^ King, Ross. "Curriculum Vitae". Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  2. ^ a b 추, 인영 (2022-10-04). ""일본학, 돈 남아 도는데…" 한국어 가르치는 캐나다 교수 한탄". JoongAng Ilbo (in Korean). Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  3. ^ "[59th] Korean Language Evolves Into Dialects Abroad". The Korea Times. 2009-10-30. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  4. ^ "Old Korean dialect survives ordeal in Central Asia". The Korea Times. 2011-10-10. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  5. ^ King, Ross. "Ross King Ph.D., Harvard | Centre for Korean Research". ckr.iar.ubc.ca. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  6. ^ a b c 이, 정현 (2022-11-13). "미국에 한국어마을 만든 미 교수 "한류는 병 주고 약 주는 것"". Weekly Chosun (in Korean). Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  7. ^ Jae-hee, Choi (2023-08-17). "[Hello Hangeul] 'Korea is squandering opportunities of Hallyu'". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  8. ^ "Korean studies struggles to grow despite success of K-pop, K-dramas". The Korea Times. 2022-06-30. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  9. ^ ""일본학, 돈 남아 도는데…" 한국어 가르치는 캐나다 교수 한탄". JoongAng Ilbo (in Korean). 2022-10-04. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  10. ^ "Korean Residential Language Camp | Concordia Language Villages". www.concordialanguagevillages.org. Retrieved 2023-09-02.