KU Students Recognized at Midwest Korean Speech Contest

Three KU students participated in the 2025 Midwest Korean Speech Contest, held on April 5 in Chicago, and brought home two 3rd-place awards: Melia Whitney (KOR 108) in the Beginning level and Henri Groves (KOR 564) in the Advanced level. Competing among 40 students from 19 Midwestern colleges, they showcased the strength and dedication of KU’s Korean language program.

In addition, Korean GTA Quin Dotzert won the U.S. preliminary round of Quiz on Korea, a global quiz-show for Korean language learners. Quin will travel to Korea this fall to represent the U.S. in the final round of the show.

Thank you to our students for their hard work and cheerful achievement—we’re so proud of you!

Korea Culture Day at KU

Korea Culture Day was held on Mar 29 2025 at the KU Memorial Union. Students watched performances and cultural demonstrations, tried Korean snacks, and participated in hands-on activities and games. The director of the Korean Cultural Center of LA, Sangwon Jung, and the general manager of King Sejong Institute, Seunghoan Roh, were also in attendance. 

Kyoim Yun, Associate Professor in East Asian Languages and Cultures said, "Mr. Jung, Mr. Roh, and their delegates visited KU last autumn to explore the possibility of holding this event here. That visit was just the beginning. Since then, Mr. Roh and Ji-Yeon have done a tremendous amount of work. You can see the scale of the event and the extent of those efforts in the attached event schedule. All Korean instructors volunteered their time and talents, and many students also volunteered. The LA team was very impressed by the students’ enthusiasm and their strong Korean skills. Both Mr. Jung and Mr. Roh seemed very pleased with the overall success of the event. Mr. Roh told us at dinner that the experience gave him a great deal of hope."

KU students place at the 27th Annual Heartland Japanese Speech Contest

Congratulations to our JPN 564 students Jean Duperon, Kevin Reppar, and Aaron Moorman for placing at the 27th Annual Heartland Japanese Speech Contest! The contest was held at Johnson County Community College on March 8th, 2025. 

Speech: 1st place - Jean Duperon

        2nd place - Kevin Reppar

JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) grammar and vocabulary online quiz N3 level: 1st place - Aaron Moorman

Audience Trivia quiz: 2nd place - Jean Duperon.

The Society for Ming Studies Announces Keith McMahon Geiss Hsu Book Prize Winner

The Society for Ming Studies’ Geiss Hsu Book Prize Selection Committee announced that it has awarded this year’s prize to to Keith McMahon for his book Saying All that Can be Said: The Art of Describing Sex in Jin Ping Mei. 

The committee shared the following statement:

In his magisterial Saying All that Can be Said: The Art of Describing Sex in Jin Ping Mei, senior scholar Keith McMahon brings fresh perspectives to one of Chinese literature’s most read and researched novels. First, drawing on his wide-ranging knowledge of literary and medical works related to sex spanning multiple genres from both earlier and later time periods, McMahon offers a sharper historical contextualization of Jinpingmei than is common and does much to show what is distinctive to the novel. Second, building on decades of research, McMahon insightfully analyzes specific language choices throughout the novel, arguing persuasively that the author of Jinpingmei reveled in linguistic exuberance, both playing with words and expressions, and purposely pushing them in innovative and frequently disruptive directions. Third, and perhaps most crucially, McMahon demonstrates thatJinpingmei’s description of sex varies markedly according to the women’s familial/social status; that is, the novel does not depict sexual activities in a monolithic fashion. Past scholarship has shown that the novel as a whole may be considered an extended and often rambunctiously excoriating commentary on distinction and difference in the late Ming period, ranging from clothing, housing, and furnishings to official rank, social standing, and moral probity. In Saying All that Can be Said, McMahon masterfully demonstrates that the same narrative and linguistic flourishes mark Jinpingmei’s treatment of the most intimate elements of life in Ming China. 

The prize will be awarded at the Society for Ming Studies’ Annual Meeting, which takes place at the Association for Asian Studies’ Conference in Columbus, Ohio, on March 14 from 7 – 9 p.m. in the Morrow Room of the Hyatt Regency Columbus.