 Hello everyone. A very warm welcome to you all for joining us today at SOAS's undergraduate taster day. So my name is Grace Ko and I teach Korean literature and translation in the department of East Asian languages and cultures at SOAS. The taster lecture that I will be presenting is from one of the modules that I co-teach with colleagues specializing in Chinese and Japanese literature in the department. The module is called Gender and East Asian Literature and it is available as a guided option to students in their second year of the BA Chinese, BA Japanese, BA Korean and BA East Asian Studies degrees. It is also available as an open option to students from other degree programs in the school. As a 15 credit module, it is taught over one term or 10 weeks of classes that consists of a lecture and seminar hour each week. For each class, there are a set of required readings consisting of primary texts or literary works and secondary sources or academic studies related to the literature. We also provide a list of suggested further readings for the final essay assignment which is a research paper. And so now I will present a portion, well actually it's kind of a condensed version from one of the lectures entitled Modernization and Gender in Korea. The new woman early feminism and romantic love in Korea from 1920s to 1930s. Now the words of the historian Kelman Hwang, the Korean Enlightenment period was characterized by intellectual experimentation and adaptation as the leading intellectuals attempted to reconcile the new ideas and models originating from the West as well as from contemporary Japan and China. It is associated with the so-called Gabo reforms or Gabo Gyeongjang or Gabo Gyehyeok in Korean which began in 1894 and was finalized in 1896. These were a series of major reforms in response to the Donghak peasant revolution in the 19th century. And the reforms were suggested to the Korean court and government during the reign of Gojong, the last king of Joseon and the first emperor of Korea. Similar to the Meiji restoration in Japan, the reforms declared among other things the abolishment of all forms of legal ownership of people, so slavery as well as the traditional social class system that had existed in Korea for centuries. By extension, social equality was promoted as was meritocracy for government posts, wider opportunities for education, and fair military conscription. A modern fiscal management system at the level of government was to be developed and merchant monopolies were to be ended. All official documents were to be written in Korean, not classical Chinese, as had been the case until this time. And the reforms also allowed widows to remarry and the age of marriage was raised to 20 for men and 16 for women. So while Korea became independent from China's external interventions at this time, the envisaged future of a sovereign Korea did not last long with the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910. Since the Korean Enlightenment period and into the Japanese colonial period, many new changes took place that could be considered markers of modernization. These markers could be physical, structural, or conceptual. Some are visible in landscapes, so here we have an image of traditional houses, a photograph of Seoul in 1904 prior to the Japanese annexation of Korea to modern architecture and buildings. So this is a cityscape of Seoul during the Japanese annexation or colonial period. Other markers of urbanization and modernization are things like modern transportation, trams, electricity lines, and generally everything that involves urban landscapes. And as we will see in images later on, fashion and clothing are also noticeable as markers of modernity. Other markers were related with modern education and literacy. During the Korean Enlightenment period, there was increasingly more widespread usage of Korean imprint culture, including newspapers, including the Daehan Mei Shinbo, later known as Mei Shinbo, which was co-founded by an English journalist named Ernest Bethel and a Korean Yang Gi Tak in 1904. The Daehan Mei Shinbo or the Korea Daily News was published in Korean mixed script in Korean and in English, and here you have the three different versions on the slide. Newspapers became an important platform for literary writers to publish their work, including poetry, short fiction, and serialized fiction, as well as essays, commentaries, letters to the editor, and artwork, including etchings and cartoons. Literary code read journals were another new form for writers who co-founded and edited them, as well as published their works through them. As many were funded by writers themselves, they were often short-lived, as you might be able to see in the dates of these particular journals. But there were also some that managed to carry on for a longer range of time, for instance, kebyok. With kebyok, though, as the founders and editors were from the Korean religion Tandogyo background, it had a tumultuous publication history due to numerous instances of confiscation and closure by the colonial government. There were different types of literary journals, including those that were dedicated to poetry, and others that focused on translations of world literature into Korean, or popular journals that appealed to a wider general audience beyond literary and intellectual circles. With these diverse publication outlets, literary activity thrived in 1920s and 1930s Korea. Though male writers dominated the literary scene, there were a small number of women who also participated quite actively in the modern literary and cultural scene. In the next part of the lecture, I will introduce some of these women writers and what the so-called new women were Shin Yeosung in Korean signified through them and in Korean literature and society of its time. Intellectuals, artists, and writers promoted all things in light and quote-unquote modern, which included the new women through cultural and printed media. Here in the slide, there are two covers or journals targeted for women published by the kebyok group in the early 1930s when kebyok itself was an hiatus. Yoo Soo-yeon, a cultural critic in her review of Sayuri's book on the topic, Shidae Olgul Tapsi Kyojiruboen Geumdae, postulates that these covers have a surreptitious agenda, an enlightenment strategy akin to a type of propaganda, that through visual imagery they evoke an idealized image of modernity to have the people or general leadership yearn for modernization. They were calling out to its readers to participate in the movement and become modern men and women. But there were other images of the modern women or modern girl that incited titillating images of women that were subject to scorn and judgment by the public. The cartoon image published in the January 1927 edition of Gyeolgwon-gun on the left is a woman in modern clothing hotly flaunting down the street attracting much attention over the wall of what looks like a pack of high school boys in an all-boys school. The men's gazes are seemingly fixing on our body evoking images of the modern woman as lacking modesty and chastity. The other image on the right, which is a well-known etching, also published in Gyeolgwon-gun in the same year, depicts a so-called modern girl with a so-called modern boy in a rather exaggerated and farcical manner. And here we have a number of other images that depict different attitudes towards the new woman. In this setting, while the vast majority of published writers were men, there were a number of women writers who participated in the spear of the literary scene who were considered to be pioneers or the first generation of modern women writers. These include Kim Myung-soon, Kim Won-joo, and Na Hye-seok. Kim Myung-soon on the left of the slide was the first to publish a short story titled, Uishime Sonyeo, or A Mysterious Girl, in the November 1917 issue of the literary journal Changchun for Youth, winning a literary competition sponsored by the magazine. Her work garnered praise from Lee Kwang-soo, who was a prominent and prolific writer during the colonial period. Then in March 1918, Na Hye-seok on the right, far right, published her first short story, Gyeong-hee, in a woman's journal, Yeo-jage. And in March 1920, Kim Won-joo in the middle founded her own journal called Shin Yeo-ja, or New Woman, the first journal published by Korean women with the feminist credo. The journal published essays and fiction by women, including those of Kim Myung-soon, Na Hye-seok, and Kim Won-joo herself. And titles of their works include Chun Yeo-hae Ga-neun Gil, which is a maiden's path, Gye-si, or Revelation, Honor Sonyeo-hae Sa, or Death of a Girl, which dramatized the suicide of a young girl in protest against her arranged marriage to become a concubine of a wealthy man. There's also an essay by Kim Won-joo titled, Uri Shin Yeo-ja Yeo-goa Joo Jang, which translates as our demands and claims as new women. And it was an essay that criticized sexism in Korean society. And then there were other various other examples, for instance, by Na Hye-seok, three years ago from my diary four years ago. And her cartoons, including one of Kim Won-joo's busy daily routine as both the journal editor and a wife with traditional family duties. I want to draw your attention to Na Hye-seok, with examples from her essays which present early feminist views in modern Korea. Now, Na Hye-seok's life story is one that includes, as historian Kyung-moon Hwan summarizes succinctly, and I quote, love, romance, family drama, sexual scandal, faith and betrayal, art, politics, nationhood, and modern social change amidst an epic backdrop, end quote, through three historical figures or, you know, real characters in a love triangle, each a significant figure in Korean history of the Japanese colonial period. Now, Na Hye-seok was first and foremost a painter. She was also a poet, novelist, essay writer, and one of the pioneers of Korean feminism, along with Kim Young-soon and Kim Won-joo, who I mentioned before. She called for changes in society in ways that resonate with feminist slogans and discourses even today. Na was born in 1896 in Suwon-Kangri Province to a wealthy family. Her father was an official in the Korean government and the succeeding colonial government. She was sent to study art in Tokyo, Japan, in her teens, just prior to the colonial period, and when she returned to Korea at the end of 1910, she worked as a teacher while continuing painting in her own time. She was among the first Korean artists to paint in the European style of oil paintings. She participated in the March 1st Independence Movement in 1919 and was imprisoned shortly, but subsequently freed. The lawyer who represented her was Kim Woo-young, who was to become her husband. Now, their courtship and marriage were voluntary and not arranged, thus considered a quote-unquote modern relationship by the standards of their time. Historically associated with what is known as Tai-yu Yeon-ae, literally translated as free love, but it's more to do with people having a choice to choose whom they wish to marry. Both have gone down in history as very modern and progressive people. Now was Kim's second wife, and he promised and enabled her to pursue her painting career, which began with her works entering in a special exhibition sponsored by the colonial government two years after the March 1st Movement. Though his family was historically middle-class, with the changes that took place in Korea with the Kabul reforms, colonization and modernization, Kim rose to become a high-level official in the 1920s and later became one of the highest-ranking Koreans in the Japanese imperial government, for which he was deemed a Japanese collaborator after the liberation of Korea in 1945. I mention all this because to highlight that Kim's status allowed him and his wife to travel abroad to Manchuria, America, and Europe in the 1920s. Now, Na Hye-suk sojourned in Paris, France for nearly a year to study painting when she met and started the scandalous love affair with the Korean social activist and tandogeul leader Choi Din, who was 20 years older than her. When Na Hye-suk returned to Korea as a result of her affair with Choi that caused a great public scandal, her husband divorced her with full custody of their children. Na's stories proves that in spite of modernization, Korea still largely remained a traditional society when it came to perceptions of gender roles and family. Though she was a public figure whose reputation became tarnished by her affair and divorce, Na did not passively accept her situation. She sued her former lover, Choi, for abandoning her after, quote, violating her chastity, demanding monetary compensation for the losses she suffered as a result of their affair. As a writer who regularly contributed essays of social criticism throughout her life, particularly on women's social status, family life and what she believed to be to be the contradictions and double standards of modern Korean society, after her divorce, she published a series of confessional essays in popular journals like Samcheol-li, including a famous piece called Yi-hun Go-baek-seo, or confessional thoughts on divorce that was published in two parts in 1934. And here this is an excerpt from her Yi-hun Go-baek-seo, which included many other controversial yet intelligent criticisms of men and Korean society's double standards. As bold and accurate as she was in her essays, as her biographer Yi Gu-yeol Pradit, the publication of her piece proved to be, and I quote, an act of self-annihilation and a masochistic sarcasm flung at her own society, end quote, as the public reaction was one of disbelief and condemnation. Her final years were lived alone in relative poverty and isolation. In this transitional period of modernization, new ideas and concepts were introduced, including romantic love, which not only became a popular theme and storylines for Korean literary works, but which was also conceptualized as a significant marker of modernity in different ways by different writers. So, for instance, above and beyond its basic meaning, relevant to the actors or characters involved, romantic love, like many other new concepts, represented a predicament of life and society at large. For example, romantic love signified the freedom of choice in marriage, 자유 연애, and by extension, individual freedom to act outside traditional conventions, something new and extravagant that could have an impact on the course of societal wars over time. Of course, there were different opinions among different writers, such as Lee Kwang-soo on the left, who believed it was part of a broader social action, whilst for writers like Kim Dong-in on the right, romantic love itself could not change social values, whereby it invalidated relationships conceived in any other than simple physical terms. Lee Kwang-soo's Mujung, or Heartless, labeled as the first modern Korean novel, has as its main characters modern men and modern women who advocate education, studying abroad, and 자유 연애, or the freedom to court and choose whom to marry. In spite of the grand images of the new women and free love, or the right to choose whom to marry, financial independence and careers for women were limited in reality. Working in factories came to be seen as an opportunity for women to be employed and receive an income. Though the hours were long and the conditions frequently not favorable, like 자유 연애 or free love, becoming a factory girl was seen as a way of being independent and in control of one's own. So for all the discourse on the new woman, free love and women's liberation, which emerged alongside a westernized Japanese colonial version of modernization in Korea in the early 20th century, how these concepts were accepted or realized in its times seemed to have been limited and contentious. In Korea, traditional gender roles remain strongly embedded in social customs and in the people's minds, which caused a rift between the minority pioneers or rebels as society saw them of early Korean feminists. The middle image on the slide is another cover of the journal 신여성, which was first launched in 1923, when new women was emerging as a new problematic and sensational concept. The image on the right is of an essay in a January 1925 issue of 신여성, which is titled Women's Liberation and Our Inevitable Demand. The caption for the photo on the left with the two women states that there was a trend during the 1920s where educated men would frequently leave their wives in their hometown and take in a modern girl as their concubine, which led to the growing rivalry between new women and more traditional women and resentment by the latter group, which formed the majority of the female population at the time. This continued to be the negative image and judgment of the new woman and what she represented later in the 1930s. So for all their modern and progressive agenda, when it came to the new woman concept, it did not fully realize itself, but in not only Korean society, but also others, including Japan, China, and in the West, where the concept first developed around the same time. In spite of this, in our times when new feminist movements are active and more prevalent in Korean society than ever before, it is interesting to see how the discourse and rhetoric of the early Korean new women writers resonate strongly with the issues and problems that were being raised, questioned, and criticized by Korean feminists today. Some questions to consider, though, are the relationship between perceived notions of gender and modernization, particularly when they stem from colonialism, then how gender roles are articulated and assigned historically and in present day discourses, and finally the ways in which we understand or identify so-called gendered characteristics or elements such as values and emotions and their representations. So this ends my taster lecture. So it's a condensed version. And in the seminar sessions, I would then normally share a discussion among students regarding their reaction or responses to the readings, lecture, and questions for consider consideration assigned each week. But at this juncture, before we take questions, I want to thank you all for joining me. And since it is the start of the Korean Lunar New Year, the Year of the Ox, I would also like to say in Korean, 새해 복 많이 받으세요 for Happy New Year. So we welcome any questions from the audience, either related to the lecture content or our Korean and East Asian Studies degrees at SOAS. Thank you very much. So I'll stop sharing the screen now and come back to join you. Thank you. Great. So we've had a few questions into the chat. So one of the first questions was from Jess Little, and she says she's curious about the year abroad. She's intending to do either politics and social or social anthropology with Korean. And she wanted to know when will her year abroad be? And are there any details on where it will be, costs, et cetera? Okay. Thank you, Jess. So at this juncture, I also want to introduce you very briefly in case I have to ask. I'd like to introduce to you Dr. Alan Cummings, who is also one of the panelists, who is the associate head of our department, and also handles admissions for the department as well. So I may have to ask Alan at some points, but I think this question I can ask, I can answer. And that is, if you are a joint degree, whether you're a joint degree student or a single subject student, the year abroad in Korea takes place in the third year. So it used to be in the second year, but it's changed now. And in terms of details on costs for accommodation, we don't have that online. But usually what happens is that every year in term two, so actually around this time, students have various briefing sessions with the year abroad coordinator when all those information, so including accommodation, applications, visa, you know, modules to be taken in Korea, et cetera, everything is basically provided, including, I believe, a briefing pack, so called like briefing pack. So I'm unable to give you the specific details because it's something that I'm familiar with. But if you did have, I know this is a very common question that students have. So I'm just wondering Alan, is there a way that maybe students can get in touch with someone for this information? I think the information that we've normally kind of give you at this stage is just to say that students, it's always quite a mixed pattern. There's some students who want to live in dormitories at Korean universities and there's a process by which you can apply for that accommodation. But some of that accommodation kind of quite, shall I say, strict rules. So lots of students also choose not to stay in university accommodation. And they find somewhere to rent a flat near the university sometimes with some friends. So obviously there's going to be quite a difference between privately rented accommodation. And obviously with that, there's kind of really, really cheap to really expensive. It just kind of depends upon your own capabilities. But university accommodation itself is not particularly expensive. But like, Grace, I don't have the precise figures here. And obviously it changes a bit from year to year. But if you want to write to me, I can try to get you some more information on that. And yeah, so it is in the third year. So maybe shall we go to the next question, then, which is somebody has not honestly asked, this is one for you, Grace, I think, where would I be able to read works by Na Haesok? That's okay. That's a very good question. So I don't know if the participants today will be able to access the recording, because it was in my PowerPoint slides. So unfortunately, not as many of her works are available in English translation, but there are a few and translated by Kim Young-hee. So I showed a slide, for example, with some English translation from her confessions on divorce. But there's also a short story by her Kyung-hee, which is available in English translation. So I think for that, if I were to maybe Kim or someone else, or you can email me, you can email me and I can provide you with a full reference for that particular work. Yeah, we will be sending out the recording through an email. So again, following that email you'll see for the recording, if you do have further questions or follow up questions after that, we can always make sure that we send out further information to you on that as well. Thank you. Okay. Okay, and then I think another question has come through says, if I don't take this specific degree, are the modules, oh, can you take modules from this course? I can answer that one if you like. Yeah, so on every degree it's asked, there will be some modules which are identified as being open option modules, which means that anybody in any department in the school is able to take them. Most, you know, if you look on the website, you can find the structure for all of our degrees. And generally, for many degrees in year one, you won't have any open options, but, you know, in your second year and your third year you will have open option modules where you can choose to do a language or you can choose to, you know, if you're taking economics and you're really interested in, I don't know, Tibetan religion, you can go off and take a module in Buddhism. So yeah, some of our modules are available to students in other departments. And, you know, I guess if you're, if you've come to this talk you're perhaps interested in Korean language. So we do have, you know, a step sequence of Korean language modules that students from any department in the school can take. I guess I can introduce the next question. So Siri, you've asked, I've been studying Korean for about seven years, and you're wondering if you have to start at the beginning of the course or not. I'm happy to take that one as well. Basically, if you have studied some Korean before, when you arrive we can give you a placement test, and depending upon the result of that placement test, we can begin you at a higher level. You know, it's never good for, you know, students who are absolute beginners and more advanced students to be in the same class because the more advanced students get, you get bored, and you know, the less advanced students, the beginner students, it just feels a little daunting to them to have somebody in the class who's kind of sitting there at the back, and rolling their eyes going, you're still doing this stuff, this is really easy. So yeah, we always try to put you at a level that's going to be right for you, and there's a placement test that we can get you to figure out what that level might be. I guess I think the next question is probably one for you guys. Yes, thank you. So I'll just read out the question, and this is from Agnes Darnold. So because of the development of feminism coinciding with general modernization, is there a degree to which the early feminists absorbed the rhetoric of the Enlightenment without critical analysis, and was there a harmful aspect to this relationship? That's a very good question. And just to clarify, so what I mentioned, Enlightenment in the Korean context, it's firstly specifically pertaining to a Korean Enlightenment, which is different from the Enlightenment movement in Europe. But nevertheless, if we consider any rhetoric that involves like kind of new ideas, I think there have been many different scholarship since particularly sort of the end of the last century, and certainly in the 21st century, reevaluating these early feminist discourses. And I think there is always that danger at any juncture when new ideas emerge and intellectuals engage with them, particularly when some of the ideas were those that were imported from abroad. I think in its time, the way that people engage with them, there are sort of critical approaches. So there would be some level of critical analysis, but also depending on the particular political agenda that intellectuals or writers feel are necessary urgent to that time, they might sort of make use of these rhetorics to suit their needs for its time. But then I think historically then, fast forward a century later, and then the way that we then evaluate and analyze whether the extent to which they were critical enough and whether perhaps by disappropriating without kind of challenging its views sufficiently enough, whether that was harmful, I think we get different kinds of answers in different periods. And it really kind of shows us also the paradigmatic shift between the time of the reception, so to speak. So I think this is a very good question. And all I can say for now is that there are various different studies that do engage with this problem. Okay. And then the next question from Alia is for those of us who have been studying Korean for a few years, what level will be beginning the course and how is this decided? I think this is similar to what Dr. Cummings mentioned earlier. So usually we increasingly now for Korean, we have many students who come to us and say that they've self-studied or they study Korean. So at the beginning, there's usually a language placement test during enrollment to determine which level classes that students can enter. And the difference between the classes, obviously, I mean, they're quite intensive. So sometimes students might think that they should be in the second year, but actually because of the content that's covered throughout the first year is quite vast-paced and quite, you know, intensive, they might be placed in the first year module, but with the advice that think of the first bit as review and then at some point when we catch up, you know, it will last very quickly. So there are placement tests at the beginning, which then kind of determine and then we have our language teachers who are there to answer any specific questions about the different modules. Great. And I can probably take the next one. So again, there's been a question raised. So hello, are there any temporary long distance learning opportunities for students who are unable to enter the UK due to COVID or visa issues at SOA? So currently for this year, we have kind of employed that approach because obviously, we are still pretty much in kind of a high risk area in terms of COVID. And obviously, we know that during the last year in order for students to make those decisions at the time when, you know, we really know what was going to happen. We allowed for our students to join us through distance learning and obviously, our learning was online. Moving forward to this year, we are continuing to evaluate that. And as we get closer to the summer, we will be looking at what the situation is like in the UK, but also what the situation is like globally and how that impacts on both kind of travel, but also on visa issues. So we're in constant communication with the UK VI and talking to them about various different practices and processes that we can put in place for students to be able to make sure that we get them all the way through from applying to us, accepting their offers to us and then getting their visas and being able to come over. So it is something that we are very aware of. It is something that we are looking into and we will continue to advise you of that as soon as we can as the year progresses. But if we do need to, we can put those kind of allowances into place for students. Thank you. And I think I'll take the next question because it's in relation to the lecture content, I suppose. So the question was from George, with the rise of the new ideas of gender through K-pop and Korean media, do you believe that the challenges that face these women is facing modern views of gender in Korean society today? So what I gathered from that question, what you're asking is perhaps the way that K-pop and Korean media representations are also kind of projecting, you know, new ideas of gender and in relation to women, but also men. And there are lots of interesting studies that are coming out that are looking at the different kind of image and representations of gender with popular culture and globalization and media. So certainly, yes, at every juncture, the ways in which society sort of comes up with ideas of gender is certainly, you know, obviously affected not only by intellectual discourse, but also more so than ever, you know, in our times with technology and such with popular kind of representations of that. So, okay. And then the next question from Sankavi is related, I suppose, to the UCAS applications. So it says, hi, I wanted to know if there were any recommended books for Korean studies for A-level students to prepare for this course or to put on our UCAS application. That's a very good question. It's not something, unfortunately, that we can, unfortunately, there is no one book that, you know, necessarily says, here's like Korean studies. I think it all depends on students' particular interests. And if you go on the website and there are like, we have our undergraduate modules and all the details for each module. And not all of them, but many of them kind of list, you know, readings, right? So there are a whole host of different types of reading materials. And depending on your interests, I think I would encourage you to look at our undergraduate pages, the module pages. Yeah. And I would probably add to that in terms of your UCAS application and kind of what you might want to include with that. Even though it's important to think about what outside reading you might do outside of, say, your current classes and schooling that you're taking, it doesn't necessarily always have to be an academic resource that you're reading. What we want to know is how you're currently engaging in this particular subject area or why you're even interested in this particular subject area. And it doesn't have to be that you've read every single resource on it and you're an expert in it because if you were an expert in it, you probably wouldn't be coming to study it with us because you know it already. But it's more just to see how you kind of gain that first interest. And so usually when I'm talking to students, particularly about what they might put in their personal statement, it's, it could be an experience, it could be an article that you wrote, it could be a TV program that you watched. It could be having maybe some friends or family from a particular area. So really, we just want to know where that interest kind of sprung from and how you think you're going to take that interest further. So it's not to say that you need to veer off a list of books that you've read, but more talk about what you read in those books, what interests you. And it even doesn't have to be that you agree with that. In a lot of instances, we want to see what you've read and then possibly what your views on that are kind of moving forward and how it might change every time you read a new text or, you know, a new article or engage in a different way. So that's kind of my suggestion to you in terms of that. Thank you. And then there was a question about what months, from what months does the school a year abroad run? For Korean, it's from September. So first of September is when the Korean semester starts. So just to answer that question very quickly. And then the next question was how is the decision of which partner universities, in particular, you go to abroad made. So before when our numbers were smaller, when we used to send students to one institution, that was an issue. But now as we have more universities, it's based on sort of meritocracy, I suppose, your marks. So I think you put down the university like first choice, second choice. And usually depending on your grades, the year abroad coordinator or the program convener will assess that. And depending on how you do in the first term, and leading up to the time of application, which is around, as I said, the second term, then students are told which partner universities that they can apply for. And then the other question after that is related to the content of the lecture. So Juju asked, if there was a social stigma around the Korean new woman due to them transgressing social expectations, why were they seen as more desirable for men to the point they would abandon their wives for them? That is a very good question. And I think that's a verennial question. But as I pointed out, what was interesting was that they were typically taken as concubines. So in that last example that I pointed where the rifts between the more traditional women was because men would marry the more traditional women, leave them in the countryside, and then for work or whatever else, they would have their modern sort of new women as girlfriends or concubines or whatever. But it is a very good question for which I don't know. I don't know why. I think it's a question that could be investigated in different ways. And I think maybe also sometimes when you look at this, it could be the stigma is more associated to the woman than to the man. And I think that's quite common in a number of different, I guess, different cultures that you can see this occurring in terms of that kind of stigma. Absolutely. Yes, Kim, I think you're spot on there. Thank you. Okay, so then other questions. I think some hopefully from what we previous questions or answers might have addressed. So the next question was I've been studying Korean independently for two years now. Do I have to start from beginner Korean? So again, you'll be placed. And then what would the year brought affect someone with a pre-settled status? Kim or Alan? Well, I think the rules I've read are around settled status. I think once you have settled status, which is when you've been, when you've had pre-settled status for five years or something, then you're able to leave the UK for up to a year for study, which the year abroad would be classified as study. But with pre-settled status, I think you're still allowed to leave. You have to go from the UK. It's not like you're imprisoned in the UK when you have pre-settled status. But I think whether your status would kind of revert after coming back, after having been away for six months or longer, I'm not quite sure. So we would need to kind of look at what the Home Office is currently saying about that. I'll note that one down and add it to a kind of a follow-up email for us. Thank you. I can also take Rihanna's question, which is how much the BA Korean covers Korean history, culture, and comparison to language modules? Well, you can see the whole syllabus for the degree on the website. So in first year, 50% of what you do is language. And 50%, the other 50% is there's a course called Reading and Writing, which is like a university study skills module. There's a module called K-Culture, which is about Korean popular culture. And then there's another module called East Asian Civilization, which covers Korean history, but it also covers Chinese and Japanese history as well. So in first year, it's 50-50. That proportion, it changes a little bit through each year. But you can see the full syllabus on the website. And normally each year, you will have a substantial language module, or perhaps several language modules that you can take. And of course, you also have a choice. The further you go up through into second year and fourth year, you have a widening choice of things you can take as well. So you can kind of sculpt your degree to look the way you want it to look. I think that's probably similar. The same answer to Malyeong's question. Do you get to talk the language as well with the political system? So we understand language as existing within a culture. So in order to speak Korean properly, you need to understand Korean culture and society. So we teach you both things. So it's not just a language school, it's a university. So we want also to train you to how to think, how to think about and read about and understand the culture and the society and the history of the region you're studying. Shai has got a question. Conditional offer and the condition you get distinction in VTech and 2A is at A level. I think that's a really specific question. Yeah, I can get back to you on that one. So I'll put my email address in and then if you want to email me on that further, then we can go ahead and discuss that as well. We'll just put that into the Q&A. Okay. And then the next question, which is one that many applicants have is to do with, oh sorry, I think, what kind of degree and things related to Korean culture take you in terms of work in Korea? Well, our graduates have gone in various different diverse paths. There are those who are in Korea teaching English or doing further studies or working for companies. In the case of other students, people go into various different diverse career paths. But in relation, I think what I'm guessing what you're asking is, what a degree, doing a BA degree, is that kind of advantageous? What can that get you? It depends on your own interests of what kinds of work that you're looking for. What I can tell you is in Korea, we now have increasingly more foreigners wanting to come and work in Korea. But I think those with a degree in career related subjects who can speak Korean, that's almost always certainly very much appreciated by prospective employers in Korea. So there is that advantage that although there might be different job opportunities, to have that pre-knowledge of Korean culture and language could definitely, you know, help students for those people who are interested in finding work in Korea later on. And then in terms of the next questions about how is the course assessed, again, all the details can be found on the website because each module has different methods of assessment. So some involve exams and other continuous assessments. Others are based on just essays or portfolio or oral presentations. So each module has slightly different assessment methods. And those are found in the individual descriptions of each module. And then is there any specific information about taking Korean and linguistics as a combined degree. So for all combined degrees, the information again is online. If you go to the BA Korean and, for example, program page, then and if you look under the structure, it'll tell you sort of what the structure would look like. But typically, it's half and half. So and in the half and half for joint degree students, particularly in the sort of first two years, it's very much a guided curriculum. So you won't you might not have as many sort of alternative options that you can take, but there will be certain core compulsory modules that are required for the Korean side, as well as the linguistic side. But there'll be a combination. In the case of the Korean side, it'll be a combination of language and particularly in the upper years, other kind of content, you know, culture, history and those types of modules. Grace, could I just add something on that? Because I think that's something that's maybe a little bit confusing about the SAAS website. So if you want to do a joint degree, you need to look at two different web pages in order to discover what the content of that degree is. So to find the Korean stuff, as Grace has said, you go to the East Asia Department website and you look up BA Korean and and it will give you the structure for the combined degree. And then for the linguistic side, you need to go to languages, cultures and linguistics there, their website and look under BA linguistics and so their combination agree and that will give you the the structure for the linguistic side of it. So you need to look in both places to get the full picture. And then I think for the next question, there's a question on are there clubs or societies to join at SAAS to learn Korean if you don't want to take it as a degree? Well, there are. There's a lot of different societies that you could join to possibly have a little bit of an introduction to Korean as a language, but also to the cultural side of things. And then there are a lot of students who do kind of just language sharing. So, you know, they can teach you Korean if you can help them with their English sometimes or possibly other languages if you're coming from European countries. But also there is the opportunity to take language classes as part of another degree at SAAS. So if you are taking a politics degree or a development studies degree or an economics degree, we do allow you to take a number of language modules as you're going through your program. And I think sometimes for students who are maybe beginners who feel maybe a little bit worried about taking that step into kind of a language, the fact that you can take that in your first year does provide them with a little bit more confidence in doing so. And what I might just do is maybe I can ask Christabel to give maybe her experience of different societies that she's joined as a student with us. Hi, hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi, hello. So, my name is Christabel. I am currently a law and Korean student at SAAS in my second year. And about societies, there's quite a lot. I was quite, when I first came, I was quite overwhelmed because there's too many, I wanted to join them all. But ones that I do find quite interesting, there's like a Korean society, which I'm still currently in. And right now it hosts very like vast opportunities where you can start doing language exchanges and you can meet other people who are doing the same degree as you. And sometimes they're not even doing Korean or doing a language at all. Sometimes they just want to join and then they can learn other things from this society because they can speak to each other about the culture and the history and everything like that. And there's also a Korean dance society. I believe that still runs, I'm not entirely sure, but that you explore the historical aspects of Korean dance and you also get to learn different dances, which is really cool. And then recently there's a K-pop society, which is really cool as well, which I'm still in. And sadly, like because of the situation we're in currently, we're trying to come together on Zoom and then discuss things that we can do outside of when lockdown is over and things like that. And the other societies, oh, if I can remember, there's... I mean, it's hard to remember. We've got about two... There's quite a lot of societies, yeah. But those are the ones that I can remember off the top of my head. But I think the Korean society at the moment, this one's very active currently. And I believe that it's very good for when you... Before you come into the university, you can... I believe the Facebook page is up as well. You can have a look and see what they do. And yeah, it's quite interesting. Sorry, I saw another question as well. Yeah, yeah, K-pop society is very fun. I do agree. I read the comment about K-pop society. It is very fun. You meet very lovely people, different types of people. They're all in different years. There's some that in fourth year, there's some in third year. First year, oh, they're so amazing. You get to have a good time, you know, discuss the songs you like and things like that and dance and go to competitions as well. That's another big thing, which is really fun. I've been to quite a few and I've had my first share of wins and losses. Thank you so much. Thank you. So, I mean, that's great. It just goes to show there's lots of different ways that you can engage. And even once you're at the university, there'll be lots of different open lectures and events that we run. And we don't just say it has to be a student who studies Korean, it could be a student studying any program with us who wants to go along to those events. There's lots for you to see and do. You can also audit additional classes, though I always do say for the students who are studying a language, the auditing of additional classes is something that should be considered very carefully because it's not to say that any one degree is harder than another. But you could say in terms of language, in terms of the time taken to learn them, it can be a little bit more of a commitment. So that might just be something you want to think about in terms of structuring your year and your classes and what you decide to do. Shall we have, like, a lightning round to try to get through really quickly? Because we are just about to run out of time, unfortunately. So anonymous, attendee, your question about can you send an additional personal statement? Yes, you can. You can send that to the admissions office. And then they will add it to your application. Madison, how many students should we take the Korean BA course? Grace, do you know how many we have in K100 this year? I think we've got about 70 maybe. You're muted. It's anywhere from 50 to 70. Some of these are questions which Grace might be able to answer better, but I'll just steam through a couple more. Will there be an opportunity to take the topic test during the course? Yes, you can. Several times a year. I think they're not all from our running this year because of COVID, but yeah, you can apply for that. How long does it take to finish the course? BA, Korean, either a single or joint degree is a four-year degree. How does the year-broad effect students taking a, I guess you're asking about a joint honors degree, maybe Elizabeth? So yeah, in year three, when you're studying in Korea, you are only studying modules which are related to Korean. So if you're doing Korean economics, you won't have any economics modules when you're in Korea. You may be able to audit some economics modules in Korean at the university you're at, but that depends upon that university's policy. Jazz, you've asked about attending additional language modules. That's going to depend upon the structure of that particular degree. As Grace has said, joint degrees often have quite a fixed curriculum, but you normally have an open option module probably in your final year, so you may be able to take an additional language module then. Matthew, could you be rejected by one department and accepted by the other? Yes, that can happen sometimes. In that case, the admissions office will get back to you and say, do you want to change your application to just a single subject degree? What effect does leaving the EU have on fees for people who have EU citizens but live in the UK for a long time? I think, Kim, that's maybe one for you. Do you have a lightning answer on that? Yes, so it depends on how long you've been in the UK for and whether you would be able to access pre-settled or settled status, so we would do a fees questionnaire for you on that one enabled for us to determine which you would be for us. The fees questionnaire is the same at every university, but universities can make different decisions on it, so it's well worth if you're applying to lots of different universities to ask each of them for a fee questionnaire. And, Benedita, your question about the combined degree, I think that's the same question, so in the year abroad you don't do any classes that are for the other half of your degree, so you'll take your economics modules or your politics modules in first year, second year, and your final year. And the one question that was specific to the gender in Korea was, well, it was to do with whether polygamy, sorry, how prevalent legal was the polygamy system in Korea at this time? Actually, polygamy was and still is illegal, which is why men, but men may have taken concubines, but not second wives, so that's that's the distinction. And I also answered some questions on the chat, so but just quickly because someone had asked about whether there are other universities in addition to Saogang and Korea University for the year abroad, and my answer was yes, there are other universities that are being added for the year abroad as our student numbers grow. And then there was one question about my email, so I also put that up, but I think that will also be, it's available online, it's gk5atsoas.ac.uk, and you're welcome to email me about questions about Nahezok or some of the resources from the lecture that I mentioned. If you have any questions about the degree as a whole or about the application process, well, you can write to me, I'm the admission student for the department, so my email is ac50atsoas.ac.uk, I'll stick that in in chat as well. And you can also write, of course, the admissions office if you have, you know, particularly kind of specific technical questions about, you know, applying with certain qualifications or about fees or about visas or those kinds of questions. Anything about, you know, the degree, send it to me. Great. And there was one question that I think hasn't been answered, but it was had, again, had to do with opportunity, learned about the results of Korea's journey to modernization. Yes, there are history modules or history related modules. So all that fun stuff is taught across these different modules. Okay, well, thank you so much everybody for attending today. And thank you for all of your great questions. We hope it was really helpful. I think it just obviously shows you that there's so much more to delve into. And so do feel free to reach out to us if you have any follow-up questions. You will get an email from from our team with a recording link attached to it. And then if you do have any follow-up questions from there, please do feel free to respond to that email. And then we'll hopefully be running some further sessions as we get closer to the time. So if you receive an email from us inviting you to further sessions, and you can attend, please feel free to do so. It just gives you a bit more of an insight into SOAS, into the program that you might take and into areas that you might want to explore throughout the next three or four years or for further on from then. So yeah, thank you all for attending. Thank you to Grace for a great lecture. Thank you for Kim for organizing. And thank you for Cristobal for giving your insight into the student experience on the degree. And thank you all for attending, guys. Yes, thank you all. Thank you, Kim. Thank you, Cristobal. Thank you, Ellen. And thank you all. And 새해 복 많이 받으세요. I see some Africans have written it in Korean. So happy New Year and take care of yourselves. Keep well.