Column
Research and Educational Trends of Korean Studies
in Mongolia
This paper examines the current status, tendency, and trends of the education and research of Korean studies in Mongolia since 1990, and suggests challenges and measures for development. In Mongolia, the demand for the education of Korean studies is rapidly increasing due to social, cultural, and economic factors. However, the educational conditions are not properly provided, resulting in a stagnant growth or deteriorated quality of the education. As these issues in the education of Korean (language) studies have already been studied and pointed out by several scholars, this paper is to propose the challenges and measures for development focusing on the research of Korean studies.
Korean studies in Mongolia can be largely divided into two areas: Korean studies research and Korean language education. Of the two, Korean language education has achieved a greater development. On the occasion of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Mongolia in 1990, Korean language courses were opened at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. Following suit were the National University of Mongolia (1991), the University of Foreign Languages (currently University of the Humanities, 1992), Ulaanbaatar College (1993), and the Ulaanbaatar State University (1995). The number of Korean language students at regular education institutions increased sharply as these universities taught Korean as a major or a minor.
The rapid development of Korean language education in Mongolia has considerably elevated the level of the faculty, educational materials, curriculums, and contents. As of 2021, about 10 universities are operating regular Korean language courses. The number rises to 20 if universities that teach Korean as an elective course are counted. More than 10,000 students majored in the Korean language or Korean studies over the past 20 years, and many Mongolian students also majored in Korean studies at Korean universities.
A brief introduction to Mongolian Korean studies is as follows: Korean studies in Mongolia started in the 1970s by Professor B. Sumiyabaatar of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. Before the two countries established formal relations, there had been little in Korean studies in Mongolia, except what had been done by Professor B. Sumiyabaatar. After the establishment of diplomatic relations, Mongolians' interest in Korea increased, and Korean studies research activities became vibrant. The number of Mongolians who studied Korea, which had been limited to one or two before 1990, increased to dozens, and they have been achieving significant results in the fields of Korean history, culture, language and literature. As the number of researchers on Korea increased, so did the number of master's and doctorate theses published by students who majored in Korean studies. Hundreds of bachelor's thesis were written by undergraduate students who majored in Korean studies.
As mentioned above, Korean studies in Mongolia continued qualitative and quantitative development and reached a certain level. It is not easy, however, for those at home and abroad to have a full grasp of the level and scope of research. This often causes difficulties in selecting a research topic or a thesis topic, and the research topics and objects overlap in some cases.
It is against this backdrop that we need to take a look back on the path that Korean studies in Mongolia have taken so far and check out research results, and explore a new research direction. To this end, all the research results that have been made over the past 30 years must be collected and organized.
There have been several papers on Korean language education and Korean studies research in Mongolia. But it is hard to say that they cover all of the domestic research results because they focused on researchers at major universities and research institutes, including the National University of Mongolia, and they dealt only with outstanding achievements in Korean studies. They also did not fully deal with researches (such as master's and doctoral theses) made by Mongolian students who graduated from universities in Korea. In particular, analysis of the research results was not carried out sufficiently.
Therefore, this academic study aims to make a list of research papers and make a content analysis of them to examine the level of the researches to enable systematic understanding of the current state of education and research related to Korean studies in Mongolia.
Thanks to the rapid development of Korean language education in Mongolia, the standard of the faculty, educational materials, curriculums, and contents have reached a high level. The situation began to change in the 2010s, however. In 2007, a total of 25 higher education institutions – five national universities and 20 private universities provided Korean language education. In 2021, only 11 universities are teaching Korean as a major and two as a liberal arts course. The number of universities teaching Korean dropped by 50 percent compared to that in 2010.
As a result, the number of teachers of Korean studies has decreased. Currently, the number of Korean language teachers at 11 universities is 74 -- 50 Mongolians and 24 Koreans. In 2009, the corresponding numbers were 63 for Mongolians and 45 for Koreans, which shows that there was about a 30-percent decrease.
Nevertheless, the number of students of Korean language has continued to increase since 1991. As of 2019, the number of students in Mongolian universities who took Korean language as a major or a liberal arts course totaled 3,201. The number of students who took Korean as a liberal arts (optional) course was 2,260, far exceeding 941 students who took Korean language as a major.
Korean studies in Mongolia are evolving in various fields, including linguistics, history, sociology, literature and art, culture and folklore, pedagogy, politics and diplomacy, economy and business administration, and interpretation and translation. It is very difficult to introduce the research results in all the areas, so this paper will focus on the research results in traditional academic fields such as linguistics, history, and folklore.
1) Current state of studies of Korean language and other social sciences-humanities
This chapter aims to examine the current state of research of social sciences-humanities, including Korean language, in Mongolia since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Mongolia (March 26, 1990). This study covers the research results of domestic researchers and scholars in Mongolia, and deals with theses, general papers (domestic academic papers) published in academic journals, and books (including professional books and textbooks). It is not certain, however, that this study can cover all the research results made in Mongolia since 1990 since there is no system yet to verify and search all related research results in the country. Nevertheless, this study tried to collect as much information as possible and therefore, it reflects to a certain degree the research results in Mongolia. In particular, it reviewed papers presented to academic conferences held in Mongolia over the past 10 years and published by leading Korean studies journals. Of course this study must have missed some, but it is expected to be a sufficient reference for understanding the trends in the development of Korean studies in Mongolia.
So far, there have been more than 100 master's theses related to Korean studies in Mongolia, and the number will increase if Mongolians who have received doctorate degrees in Korea are included.
A review of master's and doctorate theses in Mongolia
This paper reviewed master's and doctoral theses (109 master's theses, 11 doctoral theses) related to Korean studies in Mongolia, and obtained the following results.
In the case of master's theses, papers on Korean-Mongolian comparative linguistics topped the list with 43. Among them, there were 19 researches on comparative studies of vocabulary, 11 on morphology and syntactic theory, and eight on idioms.
Comparative linguistics was followed by the Korean teaching method, which produced 17 researches. In particular, since the opening of a Korean language education master's degree program at the National University of Mongolia, a lot of research in this field has been conducted in the 2010s.
There were a total of 14 researches on oral literature, of which comparative studies of proverbs accounted for the largest proportion with 12. Relatively many studies, 11 in total, were also conducted on Korean-Mongolia translation. There were two master's theses on Korean literature.
Researches on modern international relations (i.e., Korea-Mongolia relations) have also been active, with eight in total. The researches mainly dealt with international relations in Northeast Asia and the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and cooperation and exchanges between Korea and Mongolia in certain areas. Lastly, there were eight researches on history, four on folklore, and one on classical materials and one on transcription.
Four of the domestic doctoral papers in Mongolia were on historical studies, three on international relations (two on Korea-Mongolia economic relations, one on law), one on Korean teaching method, two on comparative study of Korean and Mongolian vocabulary, and one on comparative study of oral literature. In conclusion, more than 90 percent of the topics of master's-doctoral degree theses were comparative studies, and comparative linguistic studies were outstanding among them. This shows that Korean studies in Mongolia can be said to be not pure Korean studies, but comparative studies of Korean and Mongolian, and comparative studies of certain academic disciplines in both Korea and Mongolia, or studies of Korean-Mongolia relations and their bilateral exchanges.
There also were various textbooks, conversation books, dictionaries (wordbooks), and Mongolian translations of Korean books (literature and research books), but they were not covered in this study because they are to be dealt with separately.
2) The recent trends in Korean studies
In order to check out the trends in Korean studies research, this paper examined papers presented to domestic and international academic conferences held in Mongolia since 2010, and "Korean Studies," the academic journal published by the Department of Asian Studies of the National University of Mongolia.
It showed that there were five academic papers on traditional Korean-Mongolia comparative linguistics, including those by B. Sumiyabaatar and Ts. Shagdarsuren. There are a total of 11 papers on Korean morphology and syntactic theory. It is commendable that some of these researches were not comparative studies of Korean and Mongolian, but dealt only with Korean. Of course, quality is another matter, but it was good in itself to find that there were non-comparative studies.
There were a total of 24 researches on vocabulary, some of which dealt only with Korean. G. Bayarmaa, B. Purevsan, and T. Munkhjargal published the most papers in this field. There were, however, no more than three papers on Korean phonology and phonetics.
Papers in pedagogy (Korean) and Korean teaching method - 32 in total - occupied the largest proportion of Korean studies in Mongolia. Leading researches in the fields included D. Sainbilegt, D. Erdenesuren, and T. Munkhjargal.
There were also six researches on Korean-Mongolia translation. But there was only one research on oral literature, a considerable decline from the previous period.
Next came researches on diplomacy and international relations, which totaled eight. Their main topics were the situation on the Korean Peninsula and its relation to Mongolia.
There were relatively many studies on modern Korea-Mongolia cooperation and exchanges, which can be regarded as the results of efforts to put together cooperation and exchanges on the occasion of the 20th and 30th anniversaries of diplomatic relations between Korea and Mongolia. There were a total of 20 papers related to this topic, and they may well be good references for future researches since they summed up cooperation and exchanges that had been made in various areas over the past 30 years.
Among them, there were relatively many papers that analyzed modern Korea-Mongolia economic exchanges.
Papers on Korea's image and perception, Korean culture, and the Korean Wave (hallyu) have been increasing recently. There were seven such papers in total. D. Oyuntsetseg is regarded as a leading authority in this area.
Besides, there were three research works on folklore, three on sociology, two each on women's studies and North Korean studies, and six others (two on transcription, and one each on traditional Mongolian studies teaching materials, comparative law, calligraphy, and art).
Meanwhile, it turned out that historical study, which had a total of 32 research papers, was the most vibrant field of Korean studies in Mongolia.
Overall, papers on Korean-Mongolian comparative linguistics topped the list with 43 (26 percent), followed by those on pedagogy and Korean teaching methods with 32 (19.4 percent), and history with 32 (19.4 percent). This shows that linguistics, history and pedagogy (teaching method) are the main fields of Korean studies in Mongolia. This trend was confirmed in the master's and doctoral theses. The number of general research papers that exclude master's and doctoral theses slightly decreased in linguistics and increased in pedagogy and history instead.
The number of researchers covered in this chapter was 80, of whom 59 or 75 percent understood Korean. This figure is relatively large considering the Mongolian population and the number of domestic researchers of foreign studies. This number will of course increase further if researchers of history (originally majoring in Mongolian history) who will be mentioned in the later chapter are included. It can be estimated that currently there are about 80 Mongolian researchers of Korean studies.
3) Current state and future trends of research on the history of Korea-Mongolia relations
Research before 1990
The first research work mentioning about the history of Korea-Mongolia relationship was "A Brief History of Mongolian" by A. Amar. After that, Volume 1 and Volume 3 of "The History of the People's Republic of Mongolia" had brief descriptions about Korea, mainly dealing with how the Mongolian Empire ruled Goryeo while it was conquering foreign lands, Korea-Mongolia relationship at the time, and the Yuan Dynasty's expedition to Japan. These descriptions, however, were based on researches made by the Soviet Union, not on South Korean historical materials.
The first scholar who used Korean materials like "Goryeosa (History of Goryeo)" in the study of the Mongolian history was Dr. Ch. Dalai. In his book titled "Mongolia in the Era of the Yuan Empire," which covered one single topic, he made more detailed descriptions about the expedition to Japan, and mentioned that Goryeosa contains important records about the Yuan Empire, especially those which can shed light on the Goryeo-Mongolian relationship of the time.
Mongolia started to have experts who majored in Korean studies in the 1960s, who began putting out research works specialized in the history of Korea-Mongolia relations in the late 1960s.
B. Sum'yabaatar, who graduated from a university in North Korea after majoring in the Korean language, laid the foundation for Korean studies in Mongolia as he put out a single-topic research work, which was titled "The "13th-14th Century Korea-Mongolia Relationship Materials" and which covered the origin of the Korean and Mongolian people and the relationship between their languages.
Summing up the researches of the Korean history before 1990, it can be said that except for the single-topic researches (published in a book), Korean history was mentioned briefly in researches on other topics or did not go beyond being translated from the works of foreign researchers.
Research after 1990
Mongolia began to go on the path of democratization in 1990, and established diplomatic relations with South Korea, which helped the two countries expand and develop bilateral relations in all areas, including politics, economy, and culture. The increased interactions began to result in quantitative and qualitative changes in the study of the history of Korea-Mongolia relationship.
From then on, cooperation between Korean and Mongolian scholars and researchers began in earnest, which gave an opportunity for them to obtain materials that had been difficult to do previously, especially those from Korea. For example, Professor B. Sum'yabaatar published a revised edition of his book "A History of Middle Ages Korea-Mongolia Relations – References" – while teaching at Dankook University as a visiting professor.
Korean studies researcher B. Lkhagva received a doctorate in 1995 with a thesis titled "Characteristics and Mutual Impact and Traces of the 13th -14th Century Korea-Mongolia Relations." Dr. Lkhagva later published his thesis as a single-topic book titled "From the Tradition of Korea-Mongolia Relations." This book is important in that it is the first publication to examine the overall aspects of Korea-Mongolia relations in the Middle Ages.
Also, Ch. Dalai, a full member of the Academy wrote a separate booklet using Korean and Mongolian historical materials with a view to making a fresh evaluation of the historical relationship between Korea and Mongolia during the ancient and medieval times.
After 1990, an extraordinary phenomenon emerged in the history of Korean studies in Mongolia: Mongolia began to train experts majoring in Korean, and some of them received master's and doctorate degrees in Korea-Mongolia relations. For example, Professor J. Battör Batter of the National University of Mongolia obtained a doctorate in history in 2000 with a thesis titled "Major Issues of the 20th-Century Korea-Mongolia Relations: 1910-1950." He also published a single-topic publication and academic papers on modern Korea-Mongolia relations.
Besides, Shin Sang-gyun and 하이산다이 tried to make a comprehensive review of the history of modern Korea-Mongolia relations since 1990. Korean studies researcher Ts. Tserendorj obtained a doctoral degree in Korea in 2010 and published several papers on Korean history and Korea-Mongolia relations in the Middle Ages.
Professor G. Erdenechmeg of the Department of Asian Studies at the National University of Mongolia received a master's degree with a thesis titled "The Impact of Marriage on Korea-Mongolia Relations in the 13th -14th Century" and published several papers on the medieval Korea-Mongolia relations.
She further deepened her studies and earned a doctorate in 2016. Professor B. Ariunbaigal of the Department of Asian Studies at the National University of Mongolia also received a master's degree with a research on the 13th-century Korea-Mongolia materials, and published several papers. She eventually obtained a doctorate in 2018.
Besides those mentioned above, among single-topic works which covered regional history, there were some that indirectly mentioned the history of Korea-Mongolia relations and their cultural relationship. Noteworthy among them were works by Sh. Natsagdorj, Ch. Dalai, Ts. Shagdarsüren, T. Mönkhtsetseg, J. Bor, and D. Ulambayar.
The writers of the co-authored works such as the five volumes of "Mongolian Military History," "External Relations of the Mongolian Empire," and "The Yuan Empire of Mongolia" covered to a certain extent the history of Korean-Mongolian bilateral relations, culture, and military issues.
But except for the co-authored work "External Relations of the Mongolian Empire" (B. Lkhagva wrote the part on Korea-Mongolia relations), they cannot be regarded as the first researches that used original materials written in Korean because they were not authored by those who majored in Korean studies.
Scholars like D. Tsedev, D. Sum'yabaatar, J. Boldbaatar, A. Ochir, Ts. Shagdarsüren, S. Tsolmon, N. Khoshigt, and A. Punsag published works that covered Korea-Mongolia relations from ancient to modern times and various aspects of cultural exchanges.
Works published in recent years on Korea-Mongolia relations included one by Professor S. Tsolmon who clearly mentioned how Korea-Mongolia relations were reflected in Mongolian historical materials, a collection of Korean materials on Korea-Mongolia relations of the era of Kublai Khan, which was published by Professor D. Sum'yabaatar, and a collection of articles and Op-Ed pieces related to Korea-Mongolia relations that were published by Mongolian newspapers from 1945-1990, and a collection of seminar materials.
Besides the history of 13th-14th century Goryeo-Mongolia relations, there is a trend in recent years of paying attention to the history before and after that period. In other words, researchers began to expand the scope of research on the history of the relations between the two countries to the period before and after the Mongolian Empire.
Mongolian researchers published several papers after conducting research on the period after the Mongolian Empire, especially Korea-Mongolia relations during the Joseon Dynasty.
The work to induce young researchers into this category and help them obtain master's and doctoral degrees is also expanding to an appropriate scale. For example, young researchers recently examined the "Annals of the Joseon Dynasty" to do a research on materials related to the education of Mongolian language at the Korean translation and interpretation office called Sayeokwon. The research was aimed to shed light on Joseon's policy toward Mongolia by looking into the translation office. Researchers also did a research on yeonhaengnok, a travel record made by envoys to the Qing Dynasty, to shed light on Korea-Mongolia relations during the 17th and 18th century. They also collected and analyzed news articles on Mongolia and Korea-Mongolia relations published by Korean newspapers in the first half of the 20th century.
Another important direction of the Korean studies research is the history of ancient Korea-Mongolia relationship, but so far, comprehensive research on the two countries' bilateral relations during the period has not been done properly. Nevertheless, there is a recent small development in the area as single-topic works and papers began to come out on ancient Korea-Mongolia relations, especially on relations between countries that had ruled Mongolia like Huns, Xianbei, Rourans, Göktürks, and Khitan and Korean dynasties Goguryeo and Balhae.
In addition, there are works to translate and publish in books the basic Korean historical materials like "samgukyusa" and "samguksagi." This is expected to become a strong foundation for in-depth research on the history of Korea-Mongolia relations.
This study observed the state and trends of Korean studies education and research in Mongolia during the 31 years from 1990 when the two countries established diplomatic relations to 2021. Issues related to education of Korean language and Korean studies at Mongolian institutions of higher education have already been studied and pointed out by several scholars in the past, so I would like to say a few words on the study of Korean studies as a conclusion of this study.
The research outcomes in Korean studies over the past 30 years show that those on linguistics, history (history of Korea-Mongolia relations), and pedagogy were most outstanding. It also was confirmed that Korean studies research results have been growing steadily and that their ceaseless qualitative and quantitative development have brought up the level of Korean studies to a fairly high level compared to the previous period.
The number of Korean studies researchers active in Mongolia also increased considerably, reaching about 80. Most of them are professors and instructors who majored in Korean studies and who belong to universities. Besides Korean studies researchers who understand Korean, there are several scholars in other research fields who are interested in Korean studies and write papers.
This progress and trend are not free of problems, however. Above all, I would like to point out that there are many who study diverse areas at the same time instead of majoring in a certain specialized area. The failure to do an in-depth research on one single field directly affects the quality of research.
I would like to suggest the following to develop Korean studies research in Mongolia and take it to a new stage.
It is true that the comparative studies and research on the history of Korea-Mongolia relations have been an important direction of Korean studies, but it is also worth paying attention to researches on pure Korean language studies and Korean history. In particular, study of the history of Korea-Mongolia relations requires translation into Mongolian of major Korean historical materials and publication of them with the addition of academic notes so that they can be used as academic materials. At the same time, various teaching materials, including those related to Korean literature, folklore, religion, culture, and geography, should be developed.
Lastly, many jobs for Korean studies researchers should be created. If not, there is the possibility that the situation of Korean studies education and research may go into a worse direction than now. Therefore, continuous and active support is needed from the Korean government and research institutes.
1. Introduction
Since they established diplomatic relations in 1990, South Korea and Mongolia have had active exchanges in various fields, including politics, economy, society, culture, science, and education. As bilateral cooperation and exchanges increase, Mongolians have had an increasingly stronger aspiration to learn experience of Korea and their zeal for learning Korean has also continued to grow.Korean studies in Mongolia can be largely divided into two areas: Korean studies research and Korean language education. Of the two, Korean language education has achieved a greater development. On the occasion of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Mongolia in 1990, Korean language courses were opened at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. Following suit were the National University of Mongolia (1991), the University of Foreign Languages (currently University of the Humanities, 1992), Ulaanbaatar College (1993), and the Ulaanbaatar State University (1995). The number of Korean language students at regular education institutions increased sharply as these universities taught Korean as a major or a minor.
The rapid development of Korean language education in Mongolia has considerably elevated the level of the faculty, educational materials, curriculums, and contents. As of 2021, about 10 universities are operating regular Korean language courses. The number rises to 20 if universities that teach Korean as an elective course are counted. More than 10,000 students majored in the Korean language or Korean studies over the past 20 years, and many Mongolian students also majored in Korean studies at Korean universities.
A brief introduction to Mongolian Korean studies is as follows: Korean studies in Mongolia started in the 1970s by Professor B. Sumiyabaatar of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. Before the two countries established formal relations, there had been little in Korean studies in Mongolia, except what had been done by Professor B. Sumiyabaatar. After the establishment of diplomatic relations, Mongolians' interest in Korea increased, and Korean studies research activities became vibrant. The number of Mongolians who studied Korea, which had been limited to one or two before 1990, increased to dozens, and they have been achieving significant results in the fields of Korean history, culture, language and literature. As the number of researchers on Korea increased, so did the number of master's and doctorate theses published by students who majored in Korean studies. Hundreds of bachelor's thesis were written by undergraduate students who majored in Korean studies.
As mentioned above, Korean studies in Mongolia continued qualitative and quantitative development and reached a certain level. It is not easy, however, for those at home and abroad to have a full grasp of the level and scope of research. This often causes difficulties in selecting a research topic or a thesis topic, and the research topics and objects overlap in some cases.
It is against this backdrop that we need to take a look back on the path that Korean studies in Mongolia have taken so far and check out research results, and explore a new research direction. To this end, all the research results that have been made over the past 30 years must be collected and organized.
There have been several papers on Korean language education and Korean studies research in Mongolia. But it is hard to say that they cover all of the domestic research results because they focused on researchers at major universities and research institutes, including the National University of Mongolia, and they dealt only with outstanding achievements in Korean studies. They also did not fully deal with researches (such as master's and doctoral theses) made by Mongolian students who graduated from universities in Korea. In particular, analysis of the research results was not carried out sufficiently.
Therefore, this academic study aims to make a list of research papers and make a content analysis of them to examine the level of the researches to enable systematic understanding of the current state of education and research related to Korean studies in Mongolia.
2. Trends in Korean Studies Education
In the field of Korean studies in Mongolia, Korean language education has made an outstanding progress. The Institute of Oriental Studies of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences opened Korean language courses on the occasion of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Mongolia in 1990. Afterward, following universities taught Korean as a major and a minor, which resulted in the increase of Korean language students at regular education institutions: the National University of Mongolia (1991), the University of Foreign Languages (currently University of the Humanities, 1992), Ulaanbaatar College (1993), Ulaanbaatar State University (1995), Orkhon University (1998). In the 2000s, several universities began teaching the Korean language as a major and a minor, including the Mongolian University of Education (renamed Mongolian State University of Education), Seruuleg University (2001), Korea-Mongolia Technical College (2001), Mongolian University of Science and Technology (2002), and Darkhan University (2004).Thanks to the rapid development of Korean language education in Mongolia, the standard of the faculty, educational materials, curriculums, and contents have reached a high level. The situation began to change in the 2010s, however. In 2007, a total of 25 higher education institutions – five national universities and 20 private universities provided Korean language education. In 2021, only 11 universities are teaching Korean as a major and two as a liberal arts course. The number of universities teaching Korean dropped by 50 percent compared to that in 2010.
As a result, the number of teachers of Korean studies has decreased. Currently, the number of Korean language teachers at 11 universities is 74 -- 50 Mongolians and 24 Koreans. In 2009, the corresponding numbers were 63 for Mongolians and 45 for Koreans, which shows that there was about a 30-percent decrease.
Nevertheless, the number of students of Korean language has continued to increase since 1991. As of 2019, the number of students in Mongolian universities who took Korean language as a major or a liberal arts course totaled 3,201. The number of students who took Korean as a liberal arts (optional) course was 2,260, far exceeding 941 students who took Korean language as a major.
3. Research trends in Korean Studies
This chapter summarizes and introduces the research results of Korean studies made by Mongolian researchers and scholars in Mongolia over the past 31 years from 1990 when the two countries established diplomatic relations to 2021. It is wrong to include joint archaeological investigations conducted in Mongolia in Korean studies research, this chapter deals only with the research results made by Mongolian researchers in Mongolia.Korean studies in Mongolia are evolving in various fields, including linguistics, history, sociology, literature and art, culture and folklore, pedagogy, politics and diplomacy, economy and business administration, and interpretation and translation. It is very difficult to introduce the research results in all the areas, so this paper will focus on the research results in traditional academic fields such as linguistics, history, and folklore.
1) Current state of studies of Korean language and other social sciences-humanities
This chapter aims to examine the current state of research of social sciences-humanities, including Korean language, in Mongolia since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and Mongolia (March 26, 1990). This study covers the research results of domestic researchers and scholars in Mongolia, and deals with theses, general papers (domestic academic papers) published in academic journals, and books (including professional books and textbooks). It is not certain, however, that this study can cover all the research results made in Mongolia since 1990 since there is no system yet to verify and search all related research results in the country. Nevertheless, this study tried to collect as much information as possible and therefore, it reflects to a certain degree the research results in Mongolia. In particular, it reviewed papers presented to academic conferences held in Mongolia over the past 10 years and published by leading Korean studies journals. Of course this study must have missed some, but it is expected to be a sufficient reference for understanding the trends in the development of Korean studies in Mongolia.
So far, there have been more than 100 master's theses related to Korean studies in Mongolia, and the number will increase if Mongolians who have received doctorate degrees in Korea are included.
A review of master's and doctorate theses in Mongolia
This paper reviewed master's and doctoral theses (109 master's theses, 11 doctoral theses) related to Korean studies in Mongolia, and obtained the following results.
In the case of master's theses, papers on Korean-Mongolian comparative linguistics topped the list with 43. Among them, there were 19 researches on comparative studies of vocabulary, 11 on morphology and syntactic theory, and eight on idioms.
Comparative linguistics was followed by the Korean teaching method, which produced 17 researches. In particular, since the opening of a Korean language education master's degree program at the National University of Mongolia, a lot of research in this field has been conducted in the 2010s.
There were a total of 14 researches on oral literature, of which comparative studies of proverbs accounted for the largest proportion with 12. Relatively many studies, 11 in total, were also conducted on Korean-Mongolia translation. There were two master's theses on Korean literature.
Researches on modern international relations (i.e., Korea-Mongolia relations) have also been active, with eight in total. The researches mainly dealt with international relations in Northeast Asia and the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and cooperation and exchanges between Korea and Mongolia in certain areas. Lastly, there were eight researches on history, four on folklore, and one on classical materials and one on transcription.
Four of the domestic doctoral papers in Mongolia were on historical studies, three on international relations (two on Korea-Mongolia economic relations, one on law), one on Korean teaching method, two on comparative study of Korean and Mongolian vocabulary, and one on comparative study of oral literature. In conclusion, more than 90 percent of the topics of master's-doctoral degree theses were comparative studies, and comparative linguistic studies were outstanding among them. This shows that Korean studies in Mongolia can be said to be not pure Korean studies, but comparative studies of Korean and Mongolian, and comparative studies of certain academic disciplines in both Korea and Mongolia, or studies of Korean-Mongolia relations and their bilateral exchanges.
There also were various textbooks, conversation books, dictionaries (wordbooks), and Mongolian translations of Korean books (literature and research books), but they were not covered in this study because they are to be dealt with separately.
2) The recent trends in Korean studies
In order to check out the trends in Korean studies research, this paper examined papers presented to domestic and international academic conferences held in Mongolia since 2010, and "Korean Studies," the academic journal published by the Department of Asian Studies of the National University of Mongolia.
It showed that there were five academic papers on traditional Korean-Mongolia comparative linguistics, including those by B. Sumiyabaatar and Ts. Shagdarsuren. There are a total of 11 papers on Korean morphology and syntactic theory. It is commendable that some of these researches were not comparative studies of Korean and Mongolian, but dealt only with Korean. Of course, quality is another matter, but it was good in itself to find that there were non-comparative studies.
There were a total of 24 researches on vocabulary, some of which dealt only with Korean. G. Bayarmaa, B. Purevsan, and T. Munkhjargal published the most papers in this field. There were, however, no more than three papers on Korean phonology and phonetics.
Papers in pedagogy (Korean) and Korean teaching method - 32 in total - occupied the largest proportion of Korean studies in Mongolia. Leading researches in the fields included D. Sainbilegt, D. Erdenesuren, and T. Munkhjargal.
There were also six researches on Korean-Mongolia translation. But there was only one research on oral literature, a considerable decline from the previous period.
Next came researches on diplomacy and international relations, which totaled eight. Their main topics were the situation on the Korean Peninsula and its relation to Mongolia.
There were relatively many studies on modern Korea-Mongolia cooperation and exchanges, which can be regarded as the results of efforts to put together cooperation and exchanges on the occasion of the 20th and 30th anniversaries of diplomatic relations between Korea and Mongolia. There were a total of 20 papers related to this topic, and they may well be good references for future researches since they summed up cooperation and exchanges that had been made in various areas over the past 30 years.
Among them, there were relatively many papers that analyzed modern Korea-Mongolia economic exchanges.
Papers on Korea's image and perception, Korean culture, and the Korean Wave (hallyu) have been increasing recently. There were seven such papers in total. D. Oyuntsetseg is regarded as a leading authority in this area.
Besides, there were three research works on folklore, three on sociology, two each on women's studies and North Korean studies, and six others (two on transcription, and one each on traditional Mongolian studies teaching materials, comparative law, calligraphy, and art).
Meanwhile, it turned out that historical study, which had a total of 32 research papers, was the most vibrant field of Korean studies in Mongolia.
Overall, papers on Korean-Mongolian comparative linguistics topped the list with 43 (26 percent), followed by those on pedagogy and Korean teaching methods with 32 (19.4 percent), and history with 32 (19.4 percent). This shows that linguistics, history and pedagogy (teaching method) are the main fields of Korean studies in Mongolia. This trend was confirmed in the master's and doctoral theses. The number of general research papers that exclude master's and doctoral theses slightly decreased in linguistics and increased in pedagogy and history instead.
The number of researchers covered in this chapter was 80, of whom 59 or 75 percent understood Korean. This figure is relatively large considering the Mongolian population and the number of domestic researchers of foreign studies. This number will of course increase further if researchers of history (originally majoring in Mongolian history) who will be mentioned in the later chapter are included. It can be estimated that currently there are about 80 Mongolian researchers of Korean studies.
3) Current state and future trends of research on the history of Korea-Mongolia relations
Research before 1990
The first research work mentioning about the history of Korea-Mongolia relationship was "A Brief History of Mongolian" by A. Amar. After that, Volume 1 and Volume 3 of "The History of the People's Republic of Mongolia" had brief descriptions about Korea, mainly dealing with how the Mongolian Empire ruled Goryeo while it was conquering foreign lands, Korea-Mongolia relationship at the time, and the Yuan Dynasty's expedition to Japan. These descriptions, however, were based on researches made by the Soviet Union, not on South Korean historical materials.
The first scholar who used Korean materials like "Goryeosa (History of Goryeo)" in the study of the Mongolian history was Dr. Ch. Dalai. In his book titled "Mongolia in the Era of the Yuan Empire," which covered one single topic, he made more detailed descriptions about the expedition to Japan, and mentioned that Goryeosa contains important records about the Yuan Empire, especially those which can shed light on the Goryeo-Mongolian relationship of the time.
Mongolia started to have experts who majored in Korean studies in the 1960s, who began putting out research works specialized in the history of Korea-Mongolia relations in the late 1960s.
B. Sum'yabaatar, who graduated from a university in North Korea after majoring in the Korean language, laid the foundation for Korean studies in Mongolia as he put out a single-topic research work, which was titled "The "13th-14th Century Korea-Mongolia Relationship Materials" and which covered the origin of the Korean and Mongolian people and the relationship between their languages.
Summing up the researches of the Korean history before 1990, it can be said that except for the single-topic researches (published in a book), Korean history was mentioned briefly in researches on other topics or did not go beyond being translated from the works of foreign researchers.
Research after 1990
Mongolia began to go on the path of democratization in 1990, and established diplomatic relations with South Korea, which helped the two countries expand and develop bilateral relations in all areas, including politics, economy, and culture. The increased interactions began to result in quantitative and qualitative changes in the study of the history of Korea-Mongolia relationship.
From then on, cooperation between Korean and Mongolian scholars and researchers began in earnest, which gave an opportunity for them to obtain materials that had been difficult to do previously, especially those from Korea. For example, Professor B. Sum'yabaatar published a revised edition of his book "A History of Middle Ages Korea-Mongolia Relations – References" – while teaching at Dankook University as a visiting professor.
Korean studies researcher B. Lkhagva received a doctorate in 1995 with a thesis titled "Characteristics and Mutual Impact and Traces of the 13th -14th Century Korea-Mongolia Relations." Dr. Lkhagva later published his thesis as a single-topic book titled "From the Tradition of Korea-Mongolia Relations." This book is important in that it is the first publication to examine the overall aspects of Korea-Mongolia relations in the Middle Ages.
Also, Ch. Dalai, a full member of the Academy wrote a separate booklet using Korean and Mongolian historical materials with a view to making a fresh evaluation of the historical relationship between Korea and Mongolia during the ancient and medieval times.
After 1990, an extraordinary phenomenon emerged in the history of Korean studies in Mongolia: Mongolia began to train experts majoring in Korean, and some of them received master's and doctorate degrees in Korea-Mongolia relations. For example, Professor J. Battör Batter of the National University of Mongolia obtained a doctorate in history in 2000 with a thesis titled "Major Issues of the 20th-Century Korea-Mongolia Relations: 1910-1950." He also published a single-topic publication and academic papers on modern Korea-Mongolia relations.
Besides, Shin Sang-gyun and 하이산다이 tried to make a comprehensive review of the history of modern Korea-Mongolia relations since 1990. Korean studies researcher Ts. Tserendorj obtained a doctoral degree in Korea in 2010 and published several papers on Korean history and Korea-Mongolia relations in the Middle Ages.
Professor G. Erdenechmeg of the Department of Asian Studies at the National University of Mongolia received a master's degree with a thesis titled "The Impact of Marriage on Korea-Mongolia Relations in the 13th -14th Century" and published several papers on the medieval Korea-Mongolia relations.
She further deepened her studies and earned a doctorate in 2016. Professor B. Ariunbaigal of the Department of Asian Studies at the National University of Mongolia also received a master's degree with a research on the 13th-century Korea-Mongolia materials, and published several papers. She eventually obtained a doctorate in 2018.
Besides those mentioned above, among single-topic works which covered regional history, there were some that indirectly mentioned the history of Korea-Mongolia relations and their cultural relationship. Noteworthy among them were works by Sh. Natsagdorj, Ch. Dalai, Ts. Shagdarsüren, T. Mönkhtsetseg, J. Bor, and D. Ulambayar.
The writers of the co-authored works such as the five volumes of "Mongolian Military History," "External Relations of the Mongolian Empire," and "The Yuan Empire of Mongolia" covered to a certain extent the history of Korean-Mongolian bilateral relations, culture, and military issues.
But except for the co-authored work "External Relations of the Mongolian Empire" (B. Lkhagva wrote the part on Korea-Mongolia relations), they cannot be regarded as the first researches that used original materials written in Korean because they were not authored by those who majored in Korean studies.
Scholars like D. Tsedev, D. Sum'yabaatar, J. Boldbaatar, A. Ochir, Ts. Shagdarsüren, S. Tsolmon, N. Khoshigt, and A. Punsag published works that covered Korea-Mongolia relations from ancient to modern times and various aspects of cultural exchanges.
Works published in recent years on Korea-Mongolia relations included one by Professor S. Tsolmon who clearly mentioned how Korea-Mongolia relations were reflected in Mongolian historical materials, a collection of Korean materials on Korea-Mongolia relations of the era of Kublai Khan, which was published by Professor D. Sum'yabaatar, and a collection of articles and Op-Ed pieces related to Korea-Mongolia relations that were published by Mongolian newspapers from 1945-1990, and a collection of seminar materials.
Besides the history of 13th-14th century Goryeo-Mongolia relations, there is a trend in recent years of paying attention to the history before and after that period. In other words, researchers began to expand the scope of research on the history of the relations between the two countries to the period before and after the Mongolian Empire.
Mongolian researchers published several papers after conducting research on the period after the Mongolian Empire, especially Korea-Mongolia relations during the Joseon Dynasty.
The work to induce young researchers into this category and help them obtain master's and doctoral degrees is also expanding to an appropriate scale. For example, young researchers recently examined the "Annals of the Joseon Dynasty" to do a research on materials related to the education of Mongolian language at the Korean translation and interpretation office called Sayeokwon. The research was aimed to shed light on Joseon's policy toward Mongolia by looking into the translation office. Researchers also did a research on yeonhaengnok, a travel record made by envoys to the Qing Dynasty, to shed light on Korea-Mongolia relations during the 17th and 18th century. They also collected and analyzed news articles on Mongolia and Korea-Mongolia relations published by Korean newspapers in the first half of the 20th century.
Another important direction of the Korean studies research is the history of ancient Korea-Mongolia relationship, but so far, comprehensive research on the two countries' bilateral relations during the period has not been done properly. Nevertheless, there is a recent small development in the area as single-topic works and papers began to come out on ancient Korea-Mongolia relations, especially on relations between countries that had ruled Mongolia like Huns, Xianbei, Rourans, Göktürks, and Khitan and Korean dynasties Goguryeo and Balhae.
In addition, there are works to translate and publish in books the basic Korean historical materials like "samgukyusa" and "samguksagi." This is expected to become a strong foundation for in-depth research on the history of Korea-Mongolia relations.
This study observed the state and trends of Korean studies education and research in Mongolia during the 31 years from 1990 when the two countries established diplomatic relations to 2021. Issues related to education of Korean language and Korean studies at Mongolian institutions of higher education have already been studied and pointed out by several scholars in the past, so I would like to say a few words on the study of Korean studies as a conclusion of this study.
The research outcomes in Korean studies over the past 30 years show that those on linguistics, history (history of Korea-Mongolia relations), and pedagogy were most outstanding. It also was confirmed that Korean studies research results have been growing steadily and that their ceaseless qualitative and quantitative development have brought up the level of Korean studies to a fairly high level compared to the previous period.
The number of Korean studies researchers active in Mongolia also increased considerably, reaching about 80. Most of them are professors and instructors who majored in Korean studies and who belong to universities. Besides Korean studies researchers who understand Korean, there are several scholars in other research fields who are interested in Korean studies and write papers.
This progress and trend are not free of problems, however. Above all, I would like to point out that there are many who study diverse areas at the same time instead of majoring in a certain specialized area. The failure to do an in-depth research on one single field directly affects the quality of research.
I would like to suggest the following to develop Korean studies research in Mongolia and take it to a new stage.
It is true that the comparative studies and research on the history of Korea-Mongolia relations have been an important direction of Korean studies, but it is also worth paying attention to researches on pure Korean language studies and Korean history. In particular, study of the history of Korea-Mongolia relations requires translation into Mongolian of major Korean historical materials and publication of them with the addition of academic notes so that they can be used as academic materials. At the same time, various teaching materials, including those related to Korean literature, folklore, religion, culture, and geography, should be developed.
Lastly, many jobs for Korean studies researchers should be created. If not, there is the possibility that the situation of Korean studies education and research may go into a worse direction than now. Therefore, continuous and active support is needed from the Korean government and research institutes.
