Emory University in the U.S. says that a Korean lecturer joined its Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures in July 2011.

The school said that Dr. Choi Bum-yong will teach Korean language.

The head of the department said the university hired Choi given South Korea’s growing influence and role in international society and the increasing academic interest in Korean language and culture.

Choi earned a bachelor degree in Chinese from Yonsei University in 1996 and completed a doctorate program in Korean linguistics from the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu in 2011.