Koreans need to be more confident about modern history 한국인들, 현대사에 자신감 필요

[김우정]

한국에서 40년이상 생활한  마이클 브린의 한국인들에 대한 칼럼입니다.
지난 올림픽 개회식에서  사회자가 우리나라를 북한으로 소개한 일이 있었습니다.
필자는 한국은 이런일을 떨쳐버릴 자신감이 있어야한다고 말합니다.
1985년, 2차세계대전 이후 한국은 세계에서 가장 눈부신 발전을 이룩한 국가이기때문입니다.
 
Koreans need to be more confident about modern history
한국인들은 현대사에 자신감을 가질 필요가 있다

By Michael Breen 마이클 브린
Michael Breen (mike.breen@insightcomms.com) is the author of "The New Koreans."
마이클 브린(mike.breen@insightcomms.com )은 '더 뉴 코리안'의 저자이다

Posted : 2024-08-08 15:51 Updated : 2024-08-08 15:51
Korea Times

When South Korea’s Olympic athletes were wrongly introduced as North Koreans at the opening of the Paris Olympics, it was a minor error for the French announcer, but a major offense for Koreans and therefore a gargantuan gaffe as far as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was concerned.
파리 올림픽 개막식에서 한국의 올림픽 선수들이 북한인으로 잘못 소개되었을 때, 프랑스 아나운서에게는 사소한 실수였지만, 한국인에게는 중대한 범죄였고, 따라서 국제올림픽위원회(IOC)에 관한 한 엄청난 실수였다.

That is because the IOC understands better than most the importance of national identity.
IOC가 대부분의 국가 정체성의 중요성을 더 잘 이해하고 있기 때문이다.

Sometimes, though, it seems that Koreans themselves, in their sensitivity to slights, react less out of confidence than out of complicated uncertainty about their own identity.
그러나 가끔은 한국인 자신들이 사소한 것에 민감하다는 점에서 자신감보다는 자신의 정체성에 대한 복잡한 불확실성 때문에 반응하는 것처럼 보인다.

This may be a difficult argument to make because matters of national identity lie deep and their expression‎ is so familiar that people can react to any tugging at the roots as they would to dental surgery without anesthetic.
이것은 국가 정체성의 문제들이 깊게 자리잡고 있고 그들의 표현이 매우 친숙하기 때문에 사람들이 마취 없이 치아 수술을 하는 것처럼 뿌리를 잡아당기는 것에 반응할 수 있기 때문에 말하기 어려운 주장일 수 있다.

However, as a way into this point, consider the common spectacle in downtown Seoul these days of tourists parading around in rented Joseon Dynasty-era costumes. You will see them posing for photos by the statues of Admiral Yi Sun-sin and King Sejong and video recording ceremonies at the royal palaces where guards are paid to dress up in uniforms from the same period.
그러나, 이 점에 도달하기 위한 방법으로, 관광객들이 대여한 조선시대 의상을 입고 행진하는 요즘 서울 시내의 흔한 광경을 생각해 보아라. 여러분은 그들이 이순신 장군과 세종대왕의 동상에 의한 사진과 같은 시대의 호위무사들이 제복을 입도록 돈을 받는 궁궐에서의 비디오 녹화 행사에서 포즈를 취하고 있는 것을 볼 수 있을 것이다.

Of course, tourists are here for vacation and it’s fun to dress up and fun to see them enjoying themselves in this way. But consider it from the point of view of what we are promoting as representative of this country. The identification of Korea with the Joseon Dynasty is not an automatic development. It was a conscious decision for tourism promotion. Tourists like history so, here we are, let’s give them some.
물론 관광객들은 휴가를 위해 여기에 왔고, 이런 식으로 즐기는 모습을 보는 것이 즐겁고 재미있다. 하지만 우리가 이 나라를 대표해서 추진하는 것의 관점에서 생각해보라. 한국과 조선의 동일시는 자동적인 발전이 아니다. 관광홍보를 위한 의식적인 결정이었다. 역사를 좋아하는 관광객들이 여기 있다, 그들에게 무엇인가를 좀 주자.

But why do we do this? I ask the question because Koreans themselves have almost zero respect, let alone interest, in this part of their history.
그러나 우리는 왜 이러는 것일까? 나는 이 질문을 하는 것은 한국인들 자신들이 역사의 이 부분에 대해 관심은 고사하고 존중심도 거의 없기 때문이다.

The greatness of Korea is all recent. This remarkable country that is so admired around the world is the result of the blood, sweat and tears of the three generations since its founding in 1948. Before that, this peninsula was a hellish place.
한국의 위대함은 모두 최근의 일이다. 세계인이 그토록 동경하는 이 놀라운 나라는 1948년 건국 이후 삼대가 피와 땀과 눈물을 흘린 결과다. 그 이전에 이 반도는 지옥 같은 곳이었다.

If you think I’m being grumpy, let’s put a few details on the table. In the early 17th century scholars reckon, for example, that three or four out of every 10 Koreans was a slave. Society then was structured in a merciless caste system. The prevailing culture restricted action and enforced duties at all levels, stifling freedom, creativity and progress. As a result, Koreans limped into the 20th century among the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world.
만약 내가 심술궂게 굴고 있다고 생각한다면, 몇 가지 세부사항을 테이블 위에 올려놓자. 예를 들어, 17세기 초 학자들은 한국인 10명 중 3, 4명이 노예였다고 추측한다. 그 당시 사회는 무자비한 카스트 제도로 구성되어 있었다. 지배적인 문화는 행동을 제한하고 모든 단계에서 의무를 강요하여 자유, 창조, 진보를 억압했다. 그 결과, 한국인들은 세계에서 가장 가난하고 취약한 사람들 사이에서 절뚝거리며 20세기로 접어들었다.

The leadership was so useless and venal that in 40 years of living here, I’ve never heard a single Korean express the – not unreasonable, given nationalism – idea of bringing back the monarchy.
지도력은 너무나 쓸모없고 천박해서 이곳에서 40년을 살면서 나는 단 한 명의 한국인도 왕정을 되살리겠다는 생각을 비합리적이지 않고 민족주의적으로 표현하는 것을 들어본 적이 없다.

As we know well, after World War II, Koreans were divided. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea attracted most intellectuals with its ideological promise of justice and equality. Obviously hard to foresee back then because freedom was not the norm, but its leader, Kim Il-sung, managed to achieve the impossible feat of creating a state that was actually worse than Joseon Korea.
우리가 잘 아는 바와 같이, 2차 세계대전 이후, 한국인들은 분열되었다. 조선민주주의인민공화국은 정의와 평등이라는 이념적인 약속으로 대부분의 지식인들을 끌어들였다. 자유가 정상이 아니었기 때문에 그 당시에는 분명히 예측하기 어려웠지만, 그 지도자인 김일성은 조선보다 실제로 더 나쁜 국가를 만드는 불가능한 위업을 달성했다.

On this side of the DMZ, meanwhile, the Republic of Korea became the greatest nation-building success story of the 20th century.
이런 면에서 한편 DMZ의 대한민국은 20세기 최고의 국가 건설 성공신화가 되었다.

But contemporary South Koreans are not leaning back to appreciate this progress, like satisfied bankers, our thumbs in our braces.
그러나 현대의 한국인들은 만족한 은행가들처럼 우리의 교정에 엄지손가락을 치켜세우며 이러한 진전을 높이 평가하기 위해 뒤로 물러서지 않고 있다.

We are reacting to what is real, which means warts and all. Just as people are more likely to moan about their own family than someone else’s, the instinct is to be critical. We can color the past with nostalgia and gaze across the border and imagine something better whether it’s there or not, but we know ourselves with the level of familiarity that engenders contempt.
우리는 사마귀 등 모든 것을 의미하는 실제적인 것에 반응하고 있다. 사람들이 다른 사람들보다 자신의 가족에 대해 신음할 가능성이 더 높은 것처럼, 본능은 비판적이어야 한다. 우리는 과거를 향수와 국경 너머 시선으로 물들일 수 있고, 그곳에 있든 없든 더 나은 무언가를 상상할 수 있지만, 우리 자신을 경멸을 불러일으키는 친숙함의 수준으로 알고 있다.

The way to counter this is to stop whining and tell ourselves the more compelling and accurate story. But, for some perverse reason, this doesn’t happen. Each new administration, each generation, seems bent on painting its predecessor as worse. It suited Park Chung-hee to portray Rhee Syngman as the North Koreans painted him. Just as it suits the current government to portray its predecessor as bordering on traitorous.
이에 맞서는 길은 투덜거림을 멈추고 보다 설득력 있고 정확한 이야기를 우리 자신에게 들려주는 것이다. 그러나 어떤 비뚤어진 이유에서 인지 이런 일은 일어나지 않는다. 각 새 정부와 각 세대는 전임자를 더 나쁘게 그리는데 혈안이 되어있다. 북한 사람들이 이승만을 그를 그렸던 것처럼 묘사하는 것은 박정희에게 적합했다. 현 정부가 전임자를 배신자에 가깝다고 묘사하는 것이 어울리는 것처럼 말이다.


The fact is that, for all of their sins, the people who established this country and have led it since have done something that through the historic long lens appears heroic.
사실은 그들의 모든 죄를 위해서 이 나라를 세우고 이 나라를 이끌어온 사람들이 역사적인 긴 렌즈를 통해 무엇인가를 한 것은 영웅적으로 보인다는 것이다.

What future generations care about is not individual perfection, but contribution for the better.
미래 세대가 관심을 갖는 것은 개인의 완벽함이 아니라 더 나은 것을 위한 공헌이다.

If we were able to look at the early leaders of this country for how they built the country up that it might flourish, rather than try and pull them down and thereby question the virtue of our own identity, next time an Olympic announcer gets things wrong, we might have the confidence to shrug it off.
만약 우리가 이 나라의 초기 지도자들을 볼 수 있다면, 그들을 끌어내리고 그로 인해 우리 자신의 정체성의 미덕에 의문을 제기하는 것이 아니라, 그들이 어떻게 나라를 번영시킬 수 있도록 건설했는지를 살펴볼 수 있다면, 다음 번에 올림픽 아나운서가 일을 그르치면, 우리는 그것을 떨쳐버릴 자신감을 가질 수 있을 것이다.

#Olympics올림픽 #Identity정체성 #History역사 #Koreans한국인들 #Leadership지도력 #Progress진전 #Confident자신감 #Success성공 #Nationalism민족주의 #Criticism비판