Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g0BNtm010723; Fri, 11 Jan 2002 18:55:48 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 18:55:48 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <20020111235321.CQOA6264.mta01-srv.alltel.net@[162.40.68.187]> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Anna Silliman <anna@handsonenglish.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:6867] Re: Dialect or language/Hangul X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 1581 Lines: 31 > >>In short essays, my young adult Korean students repeatedly named as the >>person they most admire the king who had Hangul invented . Whatever >>problems the system may have in Korea it certainly evokes national pride. >>Howard Herrnstadt > >Yes, it certainly does. When I taught in Korea, my students very often >mentioned King Sejong and how scientific the writing system is. Now that I >have studied the language in more depth, I can agree. It's very easy to >learn to read Hangul because it just makes sense. One of my students sat >down with me at a coffee shop one day for an hour or so and showed me how >to read and write Hangul, and after I left I was able to read signs pretty >easily. I didn't necessarily know what they meant, mind you, but being able >to read and write it helped me out tremendously! >Lorraine Dutton > I meet with a Korean woman once a week for some tutoring (she's a Registered Nurse and works at a local hospital here). Today I asked her about this--Her explanation was that the king invented this writing system "based on how people speak" (does this mean it's phonetic?) that was easy for people to learn, in order to give them the power of literacy that until then belonged only to the rich and powerful (who had the leisure to devote to learning the more difficult characters). She said that the elite tried to fight this movement because it undermined their control, but that it spread quickly among the common people anyway. I got the impression my student felt this new writing system was a democratizing event. Anna Silliman
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jan 17 2003 - 14:43:53 EST