A content analysis of theses related to Korean studies in Thailand during 1988-2009

Abstract

The objectives of this research was to study the interest of graduated students theses related to Korean Studies in Thailand in forms of Thesis , graduated Thesis , thematic of paper ,term paper and independent study of the graduate students. The studied theses are from both public and private universities in Thailand during 1988-2009 from 15 universities. The research methodology is to study the documents and to collect the theses from various sources. The data were then analyzed in terms of frequency distribution and percentage in form of tables; categorized by the academic institutions and the year of research, fields of study, the content, summary, and the findings of research. The quantitative study found that from 90 issues, most theses were published by Chulalongkorn University. The research topic mainly focuses on the international relations, law, and the influence of Korean culture to the Thai’s society. The qualitative research showed that the graduate students studying Korean Studies in Thailand did not only because the Korean trend, but they studied of the situations relate to Korea, especially the ones that Thailand has been involved with. The students linked these situations with the knowledge of their own fields of study .From the analysis yielded that Thailand has closer relationship with South Korea more than with North Korea, especially in terms of trade-investment, tourism, and culture. With the Korean entertainment culture, it is known as Korean wave that influencing over the Thai’s society for example, Korean series, and Korean Stars. This has caused the imitating behavior among Thai people such as costume fashion. Moreover, this helps spread the Korean food and Korean language to be more well-known including the desire to travel in South Korea. On contrary, for the South Korean products were not as popular as expected during the year of study compared to the culture in Thailand. It is because of the quality and the satisfaction of the previous products with the use of inappropriate marketing media of Korean products. Thus, it was unable to reach many of Thai consumers, electroacoutics and cosmetics products in particular