Fighteeng!

Here's badass Korean rapper, MC Sniper. I doubt his lyrics are consistent with classical Korean.

I didn’t know that Korea used to have another national holiday until I read this editorial at the Chosun Ilbo lamenting how modern popular use of the Korean language has apparently butchered its initial design and intent.

“… the crudeness of the Korean used on the Internet and heard on television, as well as jargon, shortened words and other slang are an insult to our ancestors. We have ended up maiming our written language rather than advancing the alphabet we inherited from our forefathers.”

Hmm… I’m not sure if this is a fair comparison, but is he advocating the analogous position that contemporary usage of English would be blasphemous next to classic examples such as Shakespeare or the King James Version of the Bible?   Has Western street culture influenced Korea to such an extent that there might be such a thing as Korean Ebonics?

What I like, but also bothers me the most about learning Korean formally at university programs is that although I’ll learn the correct way of speaking and writing, I won’t be able to converse in a way that will connect with the locals.  For example, I can understand the formality used when I’m speaking with customer service people at restaurants and stores, but when I’m with a group of Korean friends just hanging out, a lot of it just goes over my head.

While I sympathize with what this guy is saying about preserving the original beauty of the Korean language, I wouldn’t mind attending a class on Korean slangs that complemented the standard stuff, so I can understand some of the jargon coming out of Korean gangster movies or Korean hip hop.

Nearly every Korean newspaper has a short section on learning English that inevitably uses American idioms from examples such as the TV show Friends or The Office, so I don’t see the harm in teaching foreigners the free spirited and casual Korean that is used everyday anyways.  After all, didn’t the late Roh Moo Hyun endear himself to voters by using Korean slang during his campaign speeches?

In a survey in September by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 68.8 percent of respondents said they favored reinstating Hangeul Day as a national holiday. Serious thought is needed about how such a holiday can be spent meaningfully, since it marks the moment when the written language began enlightening the people.

Hey, I’m all for another holiday that gets me off of work, but I agree that needs to be done in a meaningful way, or else it might devolve into another Columbus day or Labor day that gives people an excuse to just fart around the house the whole day.

Moreover I learned from wiki that just 8 years ago, employers had discontinued the holiday to get another day of productivity out of its workers.  But that was when they didn’t even get Saturdays off.  Since that time, Korea has become a global economic power, so the old argument that having a Hanguel day was hurting the GDP seems misplaced.

So I say too, bring back Hanguel day!

The Chosun Ilbo profiles a fascinating professor named Robert Fouser at Seoul National University who teaches Koreans how to teach the Korean language to foreigners.  The fact that he’s not a Korean (but an American) is a pleasant surprise, but what was more remarkable was that he thinks Koreans ought to be learning more about their own language than English.  Why?

… “There are people who need to speak English at work for business purposes, but not everyone in the country needs to speak English well,” he says. “In fact, I believe the emphasis should be on classical Chinese in order to improve Koreans’ understanding of their own language. Learning Japanese or Chinese seems a lot more effective for Koreans than struggling to learn English. This is the very reason why Latin is regarded as so important in France and Germany, because Latin forms the basis of their languages.”

Sure, of course it’s more effective for Koreans to learn Japanese or Chinese because of greater similarities in language than English, but just because it’s easier doesn’t mean that it’s beneficial in terms of their careers.  An article few days earlier reveals that 80% of Koreans think that their poor command of English is a detriment to their salary.   Most Koreans might not use English much everyday in the office, but the ability to use it is a barometer to see who the best employees are.

I think as a professor of the Korean language, Fouser is probably a bit disappointed that Koreans who strive to teach their language to others do not sufficiently understand the roots and history of their own native tongue.

So will learning the language of their neighbors necessarily also improve the spread of the Korean language? Not quite.

Fouser points to the lack of a systematic approach to Korean language teaching despite increasing numbers of foreigners who are interested. “There needs to be a more professional and comprehensive body for Korean language education to spread the language,” he says.

Hmm… that must be a dig at the Korean language division of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, who is helping to coordinate the adoption of Hanguel alphabet by Indonesian tribes.

If anyone ought to be proficient in English, you’d think diplomats would certainly be.  That apparently isn’t the case in a revealing yet scathing editorial in the Dong-A Ilbo, titled “English Ineptness of Diplomats”.  Ouch.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell once expressed anger while in office, pledging never to meet again with Korea’s foreign minister. Powell could not converse with the Korean minister, who kept reading prepared memos. The minister was incapable of communicating in English despite being a career diplomat for more than 40 years. He responded to the criticism by claiming he prepared written speeches to more clearly communicate his message, but this episode remains a “notable incident” stemming from the poor English of Korean diplomats.

The editorial goes on to report that although the English requirement is higher for diplomats than other ministries, it doesn’t explain why the requirement is disregarded for a disturbingly high percentage of diplomats that score poorly.

“In all, 19.6 percent of the test takers failed to score level four, or a level ‘deemed enough for conducting diplomatic work seamlessly.’ In a TEPS test conducted on officials of Grade 5 or lower, 36 of 80 test takers got level five or failure.”

Even Ban Ki Moon, the UN secretary general, has weak English skills that hinders his job.

One clue might be what was uncovered in a similar editorial in the Chosun Ilbo that described the favorable bias that the domestic media has for its sports stars:

“Former prime minister and incumbent Korean ambassador to the U.S. Han Duck-soo once said it was difficult for him to be vocal when he knew there were so many people who were fluent in English.”

Ahh, so he’s carries an entourage of translators with him?  Or perhaps, the reason for the lack of English is even more appalling, that perhaps these diplomats aren’t really qualified to begin with (which suggests to me these appointments are just political rewards):

“Whether it is the mother tongue or a foreign language, content is what matters. Once a person is sure about what he or she wants to express, the words will come out. People who cannot speak either have nothing to say or do not know what to say.”

Whatever the case is here, there appears to be a market opportunity to train diplomats in English with more urgency than the pressure parents place on school kids.

The Chosun Ilbo has finally confirmed what I had suspected to the question of why some of the high rise apartment condos have these way-over-the-top names like “Samsung Royal Palace” or “Lotte Castle Gold”.   Chae Won, a professor of Korean Language and Literature, says in the article,

“The preference for foreign names is a typical advertising gimmick to flatter consumers… Eloquent-sounding foreign names are used to get potential buyers to feel like they should know such words, since they are well educated.”

And an unnamed advertising expert adds,

“Most English words have been used, so builders are having to turn to German, French and even create new words… Nowadays, it’s awkward to use Korean names.”

Sure, it makes business sense for home builders and city planners to give new neighborhoods a creative, premium label to lure the wealthy, and while these interesting names have helped rich Koreans move in, they have likely triggered more than a few rolling eyeballs, groans and bewilderment from visitors and expats like me.

I just hope they don’t get so far ahead of themselves to be indifferent to their own faux pas.  (I can see it already… your Korean friend will say , “I live at Beautiful Ocean Front Schone Mar Devant Apt on Diamond Crest Terrace-ro in Taepyoung(3)-dong.  Come over to have some dokbokki Piccante Rizo Bastoni”.  Oh god no…

It’s a little sad and ironic because for a country that prides itself on its Korean-ness, they sure are quick to attribute material wealth with foreign words rather than their own.  My Korean language instructor at Yonsei believes that many Korean linguists are afraid their vocabulary will gradually be relegated in favor of their Western equivalents.  Even now for example, bars and pubs in Seoul that offer chicken (usually fried) don’t use the Korean word for chicken (닭고기) on its storefront or menus, but often spell it in Korean just as it sounds in English (치킨).

Well, at least Korea’s fancy residential names are still consistent with their high property values, unlike many parts of the United States, where somewhat goofy European names in upscale communities have done nothing to reverse the crash in home prices.