I understand the nationalistic feeling about Hangul and their decision to get rid of Chinese characters, but it is really sad to hear this wonderful Chinese invention really is being forgotten in Korea.
Ignorance of Chinese is Ignorance of Korean, Chosun Ilbo, March 14 2007.
Obviously it would be much easier for me to learn the language if they used Chinese characters, but even apart from my personal preference, literary Chinese was an international language among Asian countries for a long time. I really hope they start teaching Chinese characters at school again.
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6 comments:
it is shocking that most high school students in Korea do not learn the chinese character at schools. When I was in middle and high school, it was a mandatory course, even though it was not emphasized. I think those problems may originate from the fever of exams for SKY universities (seoul national univ. yonsei, and korea), which are the three best universities in Korea. Even though I can read and write Kanji (chinese characters) because of my Japanese proficiency, I was not good at Kanji while in school. Yet, the older I get, the more I realize the importance of Kanji even in KOrea. Regardless of the current situation in Korea, the level of Kanji is an important tool for the intellectuals.
I also am pretty surprised by the result of that survey. However, since it was limited to that particular university, I would be cautious about extrapolaiting that result to the rest of the Korean student population. I would be more interested in viewing the results of a nation-wide survey and seeing how they compare to that particular university. I would also think that how much Chinese one learns/knows is also dependent upon what field of study one wants to pursue. For example, a person studying engineering would need to know less about Chinese characters than a student studying philosophy.
I think the survey is an important figure showing the national trend in Korea. Even a survey conducted 7 or 8 years ago showed that 80 % of Koreans (not limited to a particular university) can not write "Dae Han Min Kuk". Yet, I agree with Grace's theory of fields of study.
To me, the survey does reflect that some Koreans try to cut the Chinese tie.
On one hand, I agree it's important to learn Chinese characters. On the other... Chinese was the Latin of East Asia. And nobody here studies Latin anymore. Ok, fine, I know... a few people. But it's certainly not the preponderance. It's not an exact comparison, but I still think it's an interesting one.
Although the chinese characters are still used in Korea to a great extent, I agree with Erin that chinese characters are Latin of East Asian languages. Yet, I don't predict that the chinese characters will face the same destiny of Latin.
Also, Diana, I think it is too extreme to diagnose that "Some Koreans try to cut the Chinese tie" by looking at the decreased interest or emphasis on the characters.
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