A comprehensive discussion on the overseas promotion of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, took place at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday (June 24). The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Presidential Council on National Competiveness talked about how best to globalize Hangeul around the world.

The initiative, titled the King Sejong Project pursues a new language policy for the rapidly changing environment. As Korea''s exchanges overseas continue to increase, it has become even more important to come up with a unified Latin alphabet spelling for cities, regions and general geography of the country. The steady rise in demand for a more comprehensible Korean dictionary for the young, digital generation and foreigners studying the language was another topic for discussion.

The meeting drew up four major strategies divided into 10 smaller tasks that could elevate Korea''s image of high culture. The four strategies include establishing a more universal spelling for Hangeul; simplifying the general usage of Hangeul; gearing up both the distribution and accessibility of Hangeul; and finally preserving Hangeul-related cultural heritage and keeping up the spirit of Hangeul.

Reconsidering a new Romanization standard

The government has decided to come up with a new standard for spelling out Korean names in English, recognizing that the current English spelling system differs a lot from the more commonly used McCune-Reischauer system, an internationally-recognized academic standard. A careful study will be made on the effect of the current Latin alphabet spelling system starting from this year, broadening to include Hangeul spelling for loanwords in 2010 and regulations on a standard language in 2011.

Compilation of new Korean dictionary

Existing Korean dictionaries also contain lots of loanwords from China, due to the heavy influence of Chinese culture in the past, even when Korea has alternative words. Many have pointed out that this is only slowing down the learning and communication of the young, digital generation.

The government therefore plans to create a series of new web dictionaries, some that cater to the taste of a new generation and some for multi-lingual learning – for example, Vietnamese-to-Korean, Thai-to-Korean and another 20 languages or more. The government will enrich vocabularies by including newly coined words, regional dialects and others.

At the meeting it was also decided to establish a comprehensive consulting center for Korean language at the National Institute of the Korean Language. It is actually a scaling up of the existing Ganada Telephone service (771-9909) that advises in the correct way of speaking Korean as well as vocabulary usage, among others. Ganada telephone is, understandably, a Korean language service only, but may be serviced in other languages in the future. 

King Sejong as brand name for Hangeul

The King Sejong Institute will be nurtured as a unified brand name for globalizing Hangeul from now on, through systematic cooperation between government ministries, thus enhancing better recognition and accessibility of the Korean language and its culture abroad. Also, from the latter half of 2009 to 2011 the government has decided to set up a comprehensive website called the “U-King Sejong Institute,” bringing together all the related Hangeul education webpages operated by various institutions.

Establishment of a Hangeul Culture Museum

In order to pass on and enhance competitiveness of Hangeul as a great cultural asset, the government has decided to build a Hangeul Culture Museum, complete with exhibition room, experience room, training room and symbolic sculptures by 2012. A field study will be conducted in the near future. The government will also encourage industry related to Hangeul culture and design to popularize the letters and make Hangeul a representative brand of Korea.

By Kim Hee-sung
Korea.net Staff Writer

* source : Korea.net