22. Foreigners’perception of Hangul!

[말레이]

22. Foreigners’perception of Hangul!

“Hangul is the simplest and most excellent alphabet

in the world,

and King Sejong is the Leonardo da Vinci of Korea.”

Pearl S. Buck (Pearl Sydenstricker Buck, Pearl S. Buck)

“Through the Korean Wave, ‘Korean’ is changing from ‘Korean as a Foreign Language’ to ‘Korean as a Second Language.’” (2014.01.09 Yonhap News)

During the Korean language training period, we had a special time. We evenly distributed the countries where all the trainees lived and divided them into several groups. Each group discussed and confirmed how Korean was used or treated in each country they came from, and then we all gathered together to present the cases each group had shared. First, we chose a representative to represent each group, and according to the leader’s instructions, we shared the image of Korean in their country and their favorability ratings.

After the discussion time, all the trainees finally gathered together and began to share the cases shared by each group. First, the lecturer who gave the case presentation said that there were cases where people who were not Korean but did not spare their utmost praise for Hangul or the excellence of Hangul, and introduced several cases as follows.

In the June 1994 issue of Discovery, a widely known American science journal, an article titled “Suitability for Writing,” a scholar named Laird Diamond said, “Hangul is the most rational writing system in the world because it is simple and excellent, and it is particularly outstanding in terms of efficiency such as originality and symbol combination.”

Pearl Buck, a famous American female writer who wrote the novel “The Earth,” said, “Hangul is the simplest and most excellent writing system in the world, and King Sejong praised it by comparing it to Leonardo da Vinci of Korea.”

Professor J. D. McCawley of the University of Chicago is an American, but he eats Korean food every year on October 9th, Hangeul Day in Korea.

Also, a few years ago, when I heard that Korean scholars were unfortunately unable to attend an academic conference in France where world linguists gathered, there was a discussion about using Korean as a global language, and I thought it was truly surprising.

In this way, we ourselves are not aware of the excellence of our language, which is recognized by the world. In May 1986, Professor Lee Hyun-bok of Seoul National University visited the Department of Phonetics at Leith University in England, and at that time, Professor Geoffrey Sampson of Leith University praised Hangeul, saying, “It is unique that Hangeul created letters by pictographing the pronunciation organs, but the method of adding strokes to basic letters to derive letters of the same phonetic series (‘ㄱ-ㅋ-ㄲ’) is very systematic and excellent.” While doing so, he classified Hangul as a phonetic alphabet, but as a new level of feature system. Professor Sampson's classification method is the first of its kind in the world, and it proves that Hangul is the world's only feature system and the best writing system. And finally, on October 1, 1997, UNESCO designated our country's Hunminjeongeum as a World Documentary Heritage. This is a project that UNESCO started in 1992 to prevent the loss of world documentary heritage that contributed to human culture and to establish effective preservation methods. The target of registration is major documents, manuscripts, oral tradition materials, and audiovisual materials that have global preservation value stored in libraries or archives of each country. The main selection criteria for world documentary heritage include world historical influence, records of human history, information on important places and regions, achievements of historical figures, important themes related to world history and culture, original form and style, contemporary value, preservation in its original state, rarity, etc. After the UNESCO International Advisory Committee deliberates every two years, the UNESCO Director-General makes the final approval decision and decides on registration. According to the book “Understanding Language, Culture, Biodiversity, and the World” published by UNESCO (the UNESCO Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) in 2003, there are about 6,700 languages ​​on this planet, but only a little over 300 languages ​​have written characters. Races that live without written characters are unable to record their history or culture in written form, and so they are unable to enter the civilized world. And the characters currently used by humans include Hangul, which is used to write our Korean language, the Roman alphabet for English, German, and French, the Cyrillic alphabet for Russian and Mongolian, the Devanigari alphabet for India’s Hindi, the Arabic alphabet for Arabic, the Kana alphabet for Japanese, the Greek alphabet, the Hebrew alphabet, and the Thai alphabet, etc., making it a major accomplishment that the most recent effort to organize and systemize old characters and create new characters is truly remarkable. Furthermore, the Linguistics Department of Oxford University, which boasts authority in linguistics research, ranked these 30 letters in the mid-1990s based on criteria such as rationality, scientificity, and originality. The letter that ranked first was none other than our Hangul, and it was also recognized that Hangul is the best letter of all letters in the world. Since 1989, UNESCO has been awarding awards to organizations or individuals who have contributed to lowering the illiteracy rate of mankind. The name of the award is the “King Sejong Award,” so it is easy to infer what people think of Hangul.

After the lecturer’s introduction of a few cases, the groups finally began to present their images and popularity of the Korean language in their respective countries.

If we summarize the content presented by each group, it is said that there has been a craze recently in many countries and regions around the world to learn Korean and Hangul. And the reason is that the most influential factor was the influence of the Korean Wave, and the reason is that our companies want to learn Korean in order to advance into the local market and work for local Korean companies, and furthermore, they get paid much more if they work in Korea than if they worked in their own country, so they can enjoy more material things with the same effort.

This phenomenon is particularly prominent in the Asian region, especially in Southeast Asia, and the contents presented by local Korean language teachers in each country were as follows.

Korean in China - China is by far the country with the largest number of people who want to learn Korean. This is basically due to the influence of the Korean Wave, but it is said that the expectation of working together with Korean companies has increased due to the development of the Korean economy and industry. For this reason, in 2006, about 10,000 people applied to take the Korean Language Proficiency Test for Foreigners and Overseas Koreans, and the craze for learning Korean has swept through China to the point that the number of test locations in China had to be increased to 10. Moreover, CETV, China's state-run educational broadcaster, began broadcasting Korean language education programs for teenagers in May 2005, and it is said that this was the first foreign language education program broadcast by CETV other than English.

In addition, the number of students registered for cyber classes has reached 100,000, and 3,000 to 4,000 students take free Korean language classes offered by the Korean Embassy in China every year. In late 2004, Korean language classes began to be offered in Chinese middle and high schools. The Korean language craze among Chinese youth at Qingdao University in Qingdao, where most Korean companies have advanced into, is said to be a clear example of the Chinese people's interest in Korean language and the Korean Wave. Qingdao University has not only increased the number of students in the Korean language department every year since 2001, but has also established a three-year specialized Korean language course and a Korean language department at night school, and opened additional Korean language classes at two foreign language institutes within the university.

In addition, it is said that Korean language classes are competitively offered at institutes specializing in foreign languages, and are gaining popularity that is comparable to English and Japanese. In addition, Yanji City in Yanbian Province announced in June 2006 that the city government would administer a Korean language proficiency test to civil servants and open Korean classes to teach Korean to civil servants. Yanbian radio also broadcasts a Korean language learning corner called “Special School” every morning. In Yunnan Province in China, which is far away from Korea, Korean language departments have been established at Yunnan Normal University, Yunnan Nationalities University, and Kunming University. In addition, Gansu Province, which is considered a remote area even in China, is a place where Korean companies and overseas nationals rarely advance, but Korean language schools are opening one after another in the city of Lanzhou, the provincial capital, and it is said that there are currently over 10 schools that are thriving. And from June 2006, over a period of about three months, Chinese economic organizations and newspapers conducted a survey of 15 million Chinese netizens about the ‘Korean Wave’, and the top ten words that symbolize Korea included dramas and ‘Hangeul’. This is probably because dramas, songs, and movies provide motivation for learning Korean, and Hangeul and Korean language learning serve as creative channels that lead back to Korean culture.

Recently, the Chinese government announced a law that strictly limits the import of foreign cultural products, and as a result, exports of Korean dramas to China have plummeted. This seems to be a comprehensive regulation of ‘foreign culture’, but in fact, it is a warning against the ever-increasing penetration of the Korean Wave, and it can also be seen as the Chinese government’s intention to put the brakes on this movement.

However, the Korean language learning boom that started out of cultural curiosity is further fueled by the advancement of Korean companies into China. In the case of the Shandong region alone, the employment rate of graduates from Korean language departments at universities is 100%, and with popularity soaring, there are now over 8,000 students majoring in Korean language in 33 universities. Considering the rapid economic growth of China, and the fact that exchanges between Korea and China will expand further in the future, it seems likely that this phenomenon will further expand in the future.

Korean in Japan - The Korean Wave in Japan is also said to be a growing trend, starting with dramas and movies, and then Korean food, with more and more people trying to learn Korean. First of all, “Winter Sonata,” which recorded the highest viewership ratings ever for a Korean drama and created various topics, was not only broadcast in its original language, Korean, but Japanese people also praised the drama for the beautiful sound of the words “I love you.” This emotion led to a desire to learn Korean, and Korean language schools in Japan were sold out. Then, in 2002, the Japanese educational authorities included Korean in the university entrance exam, and Korean language education is being provided in about 300 schools in Japan. According to data from the Japanese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the number of Japanese universities that opened Korean language courses increased from 143 in 1995 to 335 in 2003. In the case of NHK Hangul Course, a representative Hangul course in Japan, 200,000 copies were sold in 2004, and to continue this enthusiasm, the Korea Tourism Organization invited 200 students of NHK Hangul Course in Japan to Korea in 2005 to hold a Hangul Experience Event where they could experience Korean along with Korean traditional culture. This Hallyu craze is also well reflected on the Japanese web. In the case of biglobe, a Japanese portal site, there is a special Hallyu page that not only provides various information about Korea, but also a corner for learning Korean. The song "Ganadara" in the "Enjoyable Introduction to Korean" corner is a song that teaches basic Hangul through the song, and it is a song that is famous even among young Koreans because of its fun video and melody. In addition, the ‘Korean Journal’, which was launched in Japan during the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, mainly contains articles related to learning Korean for readers who are learning Korean, and it is said that it has published about 50,000 copies, which is not inferior to English or Chinese magazines.

Korean in Mongolia - The Korean Wave in Mongolia can be clearly seen in an anecdote reported by a Time magazine reporter. When a Time magazine reporter got stuck in the sand in the Gobi Desert, he went to a ger, a traditional Mongolian house, to ask for help, and the house said that they were watching the Korean drama Dae Jang Geum and that they would help after it ended. In addition to this Korean Wave, as we have seen historically in this article, the enthusiasm for Korean language and culture in Mongolia is very hot due to the closeness that has existed since long ago, like brothers. On October 2, 2006, the 3rd ‘Mongolian Hangeul Day Grand Festival’ was held, and a whopping 1,500 people flocked to the festival, which consisted of five categories: a Korean speaking contest, a Korean writing contest, a Korean singing contest, a calligraphy contest, and a Korean writing contest. The capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, was bustling with activity. In Mongolia, Korean language courses were first officially opened at the University of Mongolia in 1991, at the Mongolian State University of Foreign Languages ​​in 1993, and at Ulaanbaatar City University in 1995. Ulaanbaatar University, a private university, first began Korean language education in 1993 and currently offers graduate courses in Korean studies and Korean language education. In addition, Korean language departments have been established at the National University of Humanities, National University of Education, Han-Mongolian Technical College, and Or Hong University, and it is estimated that there are currently 15 universities with Korean language departments and that there are about 3,000 students majoring in Korean.

Korean Language in Vietnam - The Korean wave is also blowing in Southeast Asia, and among them, the Korean Wave is blowing the strongest in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, anything that appears in Korean dramas, from women's cosmetics to men's hairstyles, is popular. Furthermore, as the Korean language learning program broadcast on the cable channel Hanoi TV became popular, the state-run VTV also organized a Korean language learning program, and it is said that 8 universities in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and Dalat have opened departments related to Korea and about 900 students are studying Korean studies.

As the number of students who majored in Korean language and are getting jobs at local Korean companies increases, young people in Vietnam are starting to study Korean language beyond just interest and culture to prepare for a solid future. Even used buses and new cars in Hanoi city center have clear Korean signs, and Korean not only gives passengers a sense of trust and familiarity, but also improves the image value of products, which can increase transaction prices.

Korean in Myanmar - It is said that even in rural areas in Myanmar (formerly Burma), people understand words like “Hello”, “Oppa”, and “Thank you” due to the influence of Korean dramas. Currently, there are two foreign language universities in Myanmar, and both universities have Korean language departments. Yangon Foreign Language University opened a Korean language department in 1993, and Mandalay Foreign Language University opened a Korean language department in 1997. Some of the students who initially graduated from the Korean language department became professors at their alma mater after completing their training in Korea, and currently, about 150 students are studying Korean at Yangon Foreign Language University.

Korean in Thailand - Burapha University near Bangkok, Thailand, held its second ‘Korean Speech Contest’ for students in the winter of 2006, and it is said that 19 students from 9 universities participated in a fierce competition. The Korean language department, which was originally only at Burapha University, was opened in the remaining 8 universities one after another due to the Korean Wave craze. Langkamhaeng University said that it had to hire a new professor in the Korean language department in a hurry because 100 applicants applied for the 25-seat quota. Thailand has been a country that has been visited by many Korean tourists for a long time, and the Korean Wave caused by the broadcast of Korean dramas has ignited a fire in learning Korean. It is said that Koreans who are in charge of tour guides in the region are joking that they feel a sense of crisis because of this situation, so you can guess how excited they are.

Korean in the Middle East - In addition, the popularity of Korean dramas is said to have played a big role in the enthusiasm for learning Korean in the Middle East. Egypt, which was the first in the Middle East to import and broadcast Korean dramas, also opened a Korean language department at Ain Shams University in Cairo, the first in the Middle East. Despite its recent opening, 150 people applied for the 25-student quota, making it a popular department that had to be expanded to 32 students.

Not only are young people who have indirectly experienced Korean society and culture through dramas interested in Korea and the Korean language, but students who want to get jobs at Korean companies that have advanced into Egypt enthusiastically learning Korean. In addition, the drama Dae Jang Geum, which recently recorded the highest viewership ratings in Asia including China and Japan, has been broadcast in Arabic-speaking countries such as Jordan following Egypt, and other drama export contracts are being made one after another, so this enthusiasm is expected to continue.

Following Egypt’s lead in Korean language education, Jordan, Algeria, and Morocco have also opened Korean language courses, so we can expect a craze for Korea in the Arab world as well.

Korean in Central Asia - Although it is not as popular as China or Japan, Central Asia is also experiencing its own Korean Wave. In Uzbekistan, the drama “Winter Sonata” was broadcast four times on Uzbek TV, and there is a lot of interest in Korean films and traditional dances in addition to dramas. A dance troupe made up of Koryo female students is on the verge of becoming stars, and Korean is so popular that Koryo young people use it more than others. There are about 12,000 students learning Korean at 120 Korean language schools throughout Uzbekistan, and most of them are young people who are trying to get jobs at Korean companies operating in Russia and Uzbekistan. In Kazakhstan, it is difficult to find enthusiasm for Korean popular culture such as dramas, but they are paying attention to Korea for economic reasons, and various attempts are being made to create a Korean Wave there as well.

Korean in South Korea - This phenomenon is also happening in South America, on the opposite side of the globe. In the spring of 2006, the Korean drama “Winter Sonata” was broadcast in Ecuador, South America, and the Korean Wave craze in Brazil in particular was the greatest in South America, and it is now natural for young people to imitate Korean culture and enjoy Korean video games. In addition, Korean dramas were exported to Ghana and Tanzania in Africa, and in Russia, Choco Pies have become a national snack, and in South Africa and other African regions, saving up a few months’ salary to buy a Samsung cell phone is a source of pride. So, while the Korean Wave craze may not have swept through these countries as much as it did in Asia, it is clear that opportunities are being created to help people understand Korean culture and spread the Korean Wave craze in Central and South America and Africa. In addition, since countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka are subject to the Korean language test for the foreign worker employment permit system, the number of Korean language learners is expected to increase rapidly not only for employment at Korean companies that have advanced into those countries, but also for the purpose of getting a job in Korea. This enthusiasm for the Korean language in these countries, which started out of cultural curiosity but has now been met with economic benefits, does not seem likely to die down easily.

There is another major reason for providing opportunities to encounter Hangul in foreign countries, and that is the increase in overseas activities by Koreans and Korean companies, which has a significant impact on the local economy. The number of ‘Korean signs’ and ‘Korean brochures’ targeting Koreans staying for a short period of time for tourism purposes has increased noticeably, and even Koreans themselves are surprised.

In the case of Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China, Koreans account for about 80% of all tourists, so Korean convenience facilities have been expanded and Korean guide signs have been installed throughout the tourist destination. The range of signs is wide, from the names of items sold in various stores to precautions at tourist attractions. However, there are many spelling and grammar errors, which is regrettable, but the relevant authorities are paying enough attention to manage correct Hangul spelling, so these issues are expected to gradually improve.

Also, a big change has recently occurred on the streets of Japan. The names and notices of various public institutions that were previously written only in Japanese are now written in foreign languages. In particular, it is noteworthy that Korean is written alongside English and Chinese. In Shinjuku, Tokyo, it is said that advertisements, signs, and job advertisements written in Korean are easily seen to the point that it feels like you are in Korea.

This phenomenon is gradually increasing in Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Thailand, and such materials are frequently appearing on the blogs and homepages of Korean travelers who have traveled there. It is said that T-shirts with clear Korean writing are the most expensive and pretty items, and that the names of snacks are written in Korean along with English and Chinese characters.

As the number of Korean tourists has increased significantly, a place has appeared in front of a local city in Laos that sells simple Korean food and writes the main menu in Korean.

A photo of a young Canadian with a tattoo that reads, “I refuse to be ordinary” was posted on one internet news site. According to the description on the site, he said that he knew the meaning of the word and got it tattooed on the recommendation of a Korean friend and liked it, which is not common even among Koreans.

At one time, the cute Korean tattoo on the arm of Hines Ward, who was famous as a football player in the United States, also became a hot topic.

On the other hand, according to teachers from Europe, there is no sign of a Korean wave that can be called a craze in Europe yet. However, it seems that they are accepting other cultures with a respectful attitude, and among the videos posted on the homepage of the Korean Embassy in the United States, there are several videos showing Germans singing Korean songs at a concert called “Singing 100 Years of Korean Popular Music” held in Berlin, Germany in 2003, and there is even a record store owner who claims to be a fan of “Sanulrim.”

In the end, the emotion that good music gives is the same regardless of country or ethnicity, and in that sense, Korean popular culture is also sprouting up in a corner of Europe. Through this Korean Wave, we can see that the 'Korean language' that people increasingly want to learn is changing from 'Korean as a Foreign Language' to 'Korean as a Second Language.'