Greetings, netizens. One of my favorite Korean holidays, 한글날 (Hangul Day), is on October 9. Last year our Embassy at Gwanghwamun hung a banner to mark the day. We had such a positive reaction to the banner that we decided to hang a new banner this year. Here it is, in case you do not get to Gwanghwamun to see it in person.
Banner hanging on the front of the Embassy to commemorate Hangul Day
I am often asked for advice on how to learn a foreign language. Like most foreigners who have tried to learn Korean, I found learning Hangul wonderfully easy. The script is logical, phonetic, and also very beautiful and artistic. Learning to speak, understand and read Korean, however, is a lifelong enterprise. I know I will never be as fluent or skilled in Korean as I would like. Sometimes I feel I am communicating well; sometimes, even after all these years and all the practice I’ve had, I feel like a complete beginner.
But I tell others, whether they are, like me, learning Korean as a foreign language, or whether they are like many of you netizens learning English as a foreign language, to be confident. Do not be afraid to use the language. And find something you really enjoy doing that you can do in the foreign language. For me, it was activities like tae-kwon-do. I also loved Korean poetry. For others, it can be music or art.
With this in mind, I was intrigued when Harvard University Professor and Director of Harvard’s Korea Institute David McCann told me about his idea of promoting the writing of “English sijo,” meaning sijo-style verse written in English.
Like me, Professor McCann first came to Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer, and while living in Andong he fell in love with Korean poetry, and with sijo. Professor McCann has introduced Korean literature, including sijo, to American readers, publishing books on and translations of Korean poetry and literature.
Professor McCann told me some time ago he wanted to introduce the idea of writing “sijo” style poems in English, thinking that learning about sijo would be a good introduction to Korean culture and literature for non-Koreans. Earlier this summer, we decided to hold an “English sijo” event at my Korean-inspired residence in Seoul.
On June 14, Professor McCann, along with Korea’s great poet Ko Un and other well-known poets and scholars, joined me and 24 Korean high school students from throughout Korea for an English sijo competition modeled (very loosely!) after the Korean traditional civil service exam “과거.”
Posing with the group of English sijo contest participants in front of my residence
Students concentrate hard as they compose sijo in English
The students were given a theme “Hope” and an hour to write their sijo. Poet Ko Un announced the first, second, and third place winners. The first place winner, Ms. Kim Eun Su, read her poem, titled “The Moon,” aloud to the participants:
The Moon
I sigh as if the ground would sink, yet today the moon glistens beyond my sorrow.
I run, I hide and beg to get away but still a stream of light fills my empty heart,
Tonight I rise without a single doubt, I throw away my worries and embrace the moon.
I hope the students enjoyed trying to write sijo in English as much as we enjoyed their efforts. And I hope writing sijo in English catches on in the United States, too; it will provide a window into Korean culture even for those who do not read Korean well or read it only in translation.