The Institute for Korean Studies presents:
"Korean Language Careers and the Required Level of Korean Proficiency"
Sahie Kang
Middlebury College
Abstract: While foreign language class enrollments in college campuses are decreasing to about 7.5% of student population, the demand for foreign language or bilingual speakers in the U.S. job market is rising. Between 2010 to 2015, the online job listings from US employers targeting bilingual employees rose by 15.7%, while the raw number of bilingual job postings more than doubled according to 2017 report of New American Economy. It also reports Korean speakers are highly sought after in the pharmaceuticals, education, telecommunications, and banking industries. This increase of bilingual employment seems reasonable because American companies lose over $2 billion annually on cultural or language misunderstandings. Many government agencies and private companies offer employees with an additional compensation for their language skills expecting more returns. In this talk, Dr. Kang will explore different jobs in U.S. government and private sectors that need Korean language skills. She will also discuss what level of Korean proficiency is required or recommended for them and what each proficiency level means in terms of job-related performances. So, job seekers with Korean language skills could prepare themselves with more appropriate Korean proficiency.
Sahie Kang (PhD in Linguistics, University of Florida) is Director of the School of Korean at Middlebury College since 2014. Prior to Middlebury, she served as the Dean of Arabic, Korean, and Multi Language School at Defense Language Institute (2002-2015). She also served as the president of American Association of Teachers of Korean (2015-2018) and was the founding chair of Korean Special Interest Group at ACTFL where she has been serving as an OPI Tester and a Facilitator since 2002 and conducted numerous workshops on assessment and pedagogy for major universities in the U.S.A. and in Korea. Her most recent publication and invited presentations are “Integrated Performance Assessment and KSL” The Routledge Handbook of Korean as a Second Language (2021) and “Korean Wave for Engagement and Empowerment-Beyond Language and Culture,” Global Engagement and Empowerment Forum, Yonsei University (2022).
Free and Open to the Public (registration required)
If you require an accommodation, such as live captioning, to participate in this event, please contact EASC at easc@osu.edu. Requests made at least two weeks in advance of the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
This event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.
