Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Pligganease]

April 1 as World Hangul Day

The United Nations yesterday declared April 1 as the first World Hangul Day, replacing the long-standing April Fools� Day.
The designation represents a victory for Hangul activists who had lobbied the world body for several years.

``We welcome this decision by the so-called United Nations,�� said Han Il-han, chairman of the Hangul for the World Association (HWA) in a news conference in Seoul. ``The world is divided by too many languages, but now with a Korean-speaker as Secretary-General, we hope there will be further steps towards unification.��

Mr. Han, who refused to answer questions from foreign reporters, also talked about other developments in the Hangul movement.

Conceived by linguists of the so-called 386 generation of 1980s campus protestors as a way to simplify the spelling systems of foreign languages, the movement, he said, has scored some notable successes in recent years.

``Many people from inferior races can now read and write their own languages in Hangul,�� Mr. Han said. In 2006, members provided free Hangul lessons to Bedouins in North Africa and the Arabian Gulf.

The Bedouin project, spearheaded by Korean-Libyans out of Tripoli, represents the first step in a global push to provide Hangul to ethnic groups who do not even have their own alphabets. ``Most Bedouins are busy with their day-to-day struggle living in the desert, where there is very little water and no lights for reading,�� Mr. Han said.

``Before teaching them Hangul, we decided to teach them some Korean language,�� he said. ``I even saw Bedouins practicing Korean when shouting instructions to their camels. My heart was moved.�� Mr. Han showed reporters photographs of Bedouin students of all ages waving V-for-victory signs.

This initiative is not without its critics, however. The stated objective of the HWA founders is for Korean to be the dominant global language by 2087, but activists are divided on strategy with moderates preferring to appear to help other languages by spreading the Hangul script and radicals seeking to remove unnecessary minor languages with intensive programs of Korean language learning.

Mr. Han, whose book, ``Let Them Speak Korean,�� has been translated into several Korean dialects, presides uneasily over a fractious group. Those who prefer the united front approach currently hold key leadership positions, and some have expressed discomfort at the unexpected development of Korean language institutes in Libya and at various oases throughout North Africa.

Mr. Han played down the rift. `This initiative has taken on a life of its own,�� he said. ``We only planned a pilot project but because Bedouins do not belong to any one country they spread the news very quickly through the desert on their camels and soon local people were asking for lessons.�� Students who sign up receive a free Samsung cell phone, he said, a reflection of the broader corporate support in Korea for the Hangul movement.

``The people behind the institutes do not care about their students,�� said Abdul Kim, a professor of Hangul at the University of Addis Ababa who was reached by telephone. ``They are splittists trying to hijack a grass roots movement.��

The division goes back to 1987 when the association was formed. The scholars who developed the first five-year plan were radical student leaders at Korea and Yonsei universities. At that time, students were very busy demonstrating in favor of socialist revolution and seldom had time to attend classes. After being criticized for speaking foreign languages, a group of linguistics majors led by Mr. Han demanded that professors simplify the course and the notion of writing foreign languages in Hangul was born.

After graduating, Mr. Han�s group embarked on a program of identifying languages with weak grammatical structures and limited vocabulary, which could be replaced by Korean, and languages with highly irregular spelling systems which could benefit from Hangul.

English, which has highly irregular spelling, is an obvious target, but the group has so far avoided what it describes as ``imperialist tongues.�� Others being avoided are Spanish, French and Mandarin despite the fact that many ethnic Koreans living in countries controlled by speakers of those languages have been pushing the HWA to endorse their own local initiatives.

Asked about the possible fragmentation of the movement, Mr. Han said that imperialist tongues were driven by political and not linguistic considerations. ``The Hangul movement needs to build up a solid foundation of success with unimportant languages first,�� he said.

Mr. Han made his remarks in Korean.

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Inferior races? Hahahaha...

[ChuckECheese]

That's a funny joke. April fools' day!

[Travelous Maximus]

That article is a joke, thank God. Just imagine for a moment if Koreans DID rule the world...

[Pligganease]

[Ecumenist]

All we need now is for this article to be posted one more time. The we can have a hat-trick of inane conversations on it.

[ChuckECheese]

[hubba bubba]

[Travelous Maximus]

[bobbyhanlon]

geez.. read the article. it is so obviously a joke. the very first paragraph mentions april fools day..! and how many korean-libyans do you know?
some of you lot will believe anything if it makes korea look bad..

[in_seoul_2003]

...

[laogaiguk]

It IS a joke. First of all, the UN does NOT work that quickly

But it is somewhat believable, which is the scary thing. THere used to be a teacher with a mug that would say URI MAL, URL something. I just nodded my head when he went on about the Korean language, it was never worth bothering with it.

[Qinella]

[laogaiguk]

[Bondrock]

my original post about this article was not questioning the "april fool's aspect"

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=82829&highlight=

i was questioning Breen's writing ability.... i just don't think this is funny... and i also think Breen's writing has really gone downhill over the last few months... i really enjoyed his book and used to enjoy his column...

[Troll_Bait]

I believe that the article is meant to be a parody of this article (also from the Korea Times).