Korean Studies Dissertation Series 1
by Ki-joong Song

size: A5new, 212pages. publisher: Jimoondang, 2001.

About this book
Korea has had a long history of training official interpreters in foreign languages. Modeling after Koryo institution, the Choson government established the Bureau of interpreters, Sayogwon, in 1393, one year after the inauguration of the dynasty. Since then, this bureau was maintained for five hundred years as the unique institute for training in foreign languages in Korea and as an office of the Choson government which was responsible for supplying all the official interpreters for diplomacy. In the Sayogwon, the four languages ?Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese, and Jurchen(later replaced by Manchu) ?were taught and textbooks and glossaries for the study of the languages were published and revised in the alter periods. Those books extant today are invaluable sources for the historical study of the four languages.
In the first part of the presents study the history and institutional features of the study of foreign languages in the Choson dynasty are discussed. In the second part, the textbooks and glossaries, both the extant and lost ones, published for the study of the foreign languages are introduced with detailed bibliographical information.

Contents
I. The History and Institutions
Introduction
1. The Beginning
2. The Four Studies, Sahak
3. Government Policies and Social Status of Interpreters
4. Officials
5. Students, Saengdo
6. The Yokkwa Examination

II. Books for the Study of Foreign Languages
Introductory Remarks
1. Books for the study of Chinese
2. Books for the study of Mongolian
3. Books for the study of Japanese
4. Books for the study of Jurchen and Manchu


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