Meeting Friday 9am--all welcome

Hi everyone,

We just wanted to give you all a heads-up on our next report-back and planning meeting. we'll be meeting quite early (9 a.m.) on friday, but cafe med serves a mean breakfast. the details of our meeting are as follows:

time: 9 a.m.
date: friday, 6/6
place: cafe med (on telegraph, across the street from moe's, upstairs as usual)

our meetings are open, and we welcome anyone interested in attending. now that we're between sessions (i.e., the end of spring semester and the onset of the various summer sessions), our numbers have drastically dwindled, and we definitely could benefit from your creative energy and contributions to our activities. as we move into summer, we're not only collectively brainstorming and developing creative outreach strategies, but also, actively pounding the pavement in neighborhoods within the bay area. please join us.

see you this friday!

Testimonial from Julia Kwon

For me, college has been a time to learn a language that I grew up with in a formal setting. The Korean department's effective program and knowledgeable teachers have allowed me to correct many of the mistakes that hindered me from using my Korean in more professional settings. Not only that, but now I can write a letter to my grandparents, who only know Korean. As mundane as that may sound, it is a skill that I did not have before taking Korean languages at Berkeley. In fact, some of most valuable experiences at Berkeley have come from taking Korean classes. There is NO REASON to cut back EALC language classes, and MANY REASONS not only to keep the program, but also to build it up. Furthermore, Berkeley should be PROUD of having such highly recommended classes and instruction from wonderful professors.

Completing my first course, K1BX, is what sparked my interest to enroll in more classes. The summer course, K10AB, was phenomenal! My language skills improved dramatically after just one summer. It is no wonder that students prepare for study abroad by enrolling in these very language classes. As a result, cutting EALC classes would be wrongly assuming that EA countries are not sought out destinations for learning and working.

Many of my fellow classmates, who are enthusiastic about learning Korean, are not L&S students. Thus, limiting classes to only L&S majors would be excluding a chunk of our school population who has a DESIRE to learn new languages. For reasons such as these, Berkeley should be offering MORE classes not less.

-- Julia Kwon, Development Studies major (juliakwon AT berkeley.edu)

UCLA students protest cuts

Students at UCLA have begun to protest the deep impact of the state education budget cuts on the Korean and other Asian language programs there; according to UCLA students, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Indonesian languages are among those hit particularly hard.

A petition entitled Save Korean/Asian Language and Culture Programs has been set up, as has a Facebook page called "Save Korean Studies". Their group email address is "saveasianstudiesucla AT gmail.com". Please help out by signing their petition and joining their group.

We look forward to hearing more about their work and opportunities for collaboration. Good luck everyone!

Meeting tomorrow

Hi everyone,

Our next planning meeting will be tomorrow. The details are as follows:

Time: 10 a.m.
Date: Wednesday, 6/4
Place: Cafe Med. (on Telegraph, across the street from moe's between Haste and Dwight, upstairs as usual)

We greatly welcome the presence of anyone interested in attending.

YTN television coverage

If you haven't seen it already, please check out the substantial coverage given to the budget cuts and activity of this committee in support of the Korean, Japanese, and Chinese programs at Berkeley in a recent news piece by YTN in Korea: "버클리대 '한국어과'를 살리자!" (From UC Berkeley: 'Save the Korean Program!')

Many thanks to Will, Professor An, Christine, Ben, Chulha and Jun for translation, and Sunhae Kim of YTN.

Testimonial from Jacob Rogers

I'm a sophomore majoring in history and trying to get a minor in Japanese. I'm finishing Japanese 10b right now, but if Japanese courses are cut I may not be able to complete my minor and still graduate in four years. Japanese has let me learn about another culture and broaden my way of thinking, which is key with the way our world has become globalized. While I would be sorely disappointed if I can't finish my minor, I think it's a greater travesty that the flagship university for the entire West Coast can't offer four years of language to any interested students.

-- Jacob Rogers, History major, Japanese minor (intended)