Korean Job Discussion Forums

[taobenli]

Hello-

I'm writing a term paper on Korean Language and Korean Identity for a linguistic anthropology class. I know that some of you are academics or aspiring academics. I have found some good books and articles on this topic but I need more. Newpaper and magazine articles are fine, too, but I'm especially looking for more "academic" material. And sadly, I need English sources, cause my Korean's not good enough yet.

Some topics I'm interested in reading about are:

1. focusing on Hangul as a way of reinforcing "Koreaness" (things like Hangul Day, things Koreans have written about the "uniqueness" of their language and how it makes them Korean)

2. Hanja (Chinese characters) in Korean culture, how they are taught in school, people's changing attitudes towards hanja, and four-character idioms

3. Borrowing of words from English (and other languages) in comtemporary times- how does this reinforce or break down national identity? Is it a generational thing or are borrowed words popular for all generations? is there a "Language police" in Korea like in France?

I really appreciate your help!

[Len8]

I know Hanja is taught in middle and highschool, and that the characters appear everywhere i.e. the newspapers, signboards, textbooks etc. It seems to be an accepted part of Everyday Korean life. Remember that students enjoyed practicing drawing the characters in my English classes at middle school many years ago.

The Korean language has a lot of what they call Konglish words that are a cross between Korean and English, and they use a lot of English and other European words regularly. There is a site with Konglish words frequently used. They use a few german words a lot too. For example "Arbyte" or whatever way it's written is supposed to mean part time job.

they don't have a language police, but they have a lot of cultural fanatics who would would be happy to see every foreigener booted out of the country.

[ladyandthetramp]

Actually, there are language police...

There was an article not too long along about KB Bank and some other business being sued, and losing, because they do not also write their name in Korean on their signs. They are supposed to write the Korean as big as or bigger than the English. Since KB lost, they should be changing their signs soon, in theory.

Relatively minor, but it still exists.

[Medic]

There was an article in the papers somewhere about the effect learning English would have on Korean culture. Anyway the article was very biased and implied that any foreign influence was destroying Korean culture.

Someone wrote a reply refuting the claim of course citing the fact it would help spread the culture and that it would make a lot of stuff that is not available to Waeguks more available. A lot of Korean history, social customs, etc would be open to scruitiny and study if it were to be avilable in English. If Korean culture were open for everyone to see then there would then be a greater appreciation of it. Right now it's not really appreciated as much as it could be, because the korean people don't really share all of the nuances about their lifestyles now, and the way they used to be.

There was also a thread not to long ago about Korean people trying to spread the usefulness of hangul.

[peppermint]

Hanja is taught in elementary schools too- caught a kid doing their homework in my class yesterday. I think they're just learning to form the characters, but what would I know?

There are tons of words borrowed from other languages. English and Japanese are big ones, but German has had an influence too.

[Len8]

Don't know if this is relevant, but every region has their sartori or dialect. The Kyungsanpoak do satori used to grate on my ears when i first moved hear from Seoul. Am now used to it. not a great Korean speaker, but you like to hear the same kind of sounds you are used to when you move around. The kyungsam dialect is different again.

I know the foreigeners on TV try too, but never really get the dialects down right. I have been told this by Koreans. The only foreigener i have heard on TV with an accent remotely similar to the Koreans was someone from India. He was a character in some late programe bout the Korean war. The Koreans and us foreigeners used to look on in shock when he spoke.

Puojin mal I think is the word for correct Korean. I was so happy to hear some students yelling at some country hick farmer in his supermarket to use pujin mal instead of the garble he was speaking. His ignorance rubbed me up the wrong way too, so it was a relief to hear other Koreans getting pissed of at him.

[visviva]

There have been a few articles in the Korean Journal of Applied Linguistics on related topics... even that journal is overwhelmingly EFL-dominated, though. You might check out the Korean Journal of Sociolinguistics, if you can find it. It's put out by the Korean Society of Sociolinguistics, which has tables of contents on its (all-Korean) site. The KSS claims that the journal is available through Kyobo, although that may not mean you can find it on the shelf... Judging from the tables of contents, the journal has a mix of articles in Korean and English, with the odd piece in Japanese or German thrown in for good measure.