William E. Skillend
Encyclopedia
William E. Skillend (April 26, 1926 - February 21, 2010) was the first British academic specializing in the Korean language
, and the first professor of Korean at SOAS.
Skillend was born in Liverpool
and went on to study at Christ's College Cambridge, where he took a first in Japanese. After completing his Doctorate there, he became one of the generation of British orientalists who started as military translators (in his case at Bletchly Park).
He established the Association for Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) in 1977.
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, and the first professor of Korean at SOAS.
Skillend was born in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and went on to study at Christ's College Cambridge, where he took a first in Japanese. After completing his Doctorate there, he became one of the generation of British orientalists who started as military translators (in his case at Bletchly Park).
He established the Association for Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) in 1977.