kangmi: learning korean

Roadmap to Korean (Chapter 2)

Richard Harris makes the following observation in Roadmap to Korean (pages 17-18):

The Internet is a vehicle for change in a way that Koreans are not familiar with on a linguistic level—by creating a sense of anonymity, the Internet is breaking down the walls of traditional verb conjugations steeped in thousands of years of Confucian influence. ...today the Internet provides a medium by which young boys can coverse freely with older men, teachers with students, grandparents with a-joom-ma (아줌마), and all with complete secrecy. The affect [sic] that this has had on the language is profound.

People no longer have to identify themselves based on age, and so can feel freer in molding the language to suit their needs....

...it’s a clear sign that the walls of Confucianism are being eroded with respect to the language.

Harris also describes the linguistic gap between users who use the Internet (and although he doesn’t mention it, those who use text messaging) and those who don’t. By default, that’s likely an enormous generational gap. He points out that

There is an active campaign going on by the government to try and teach students the correct spelling of words in the Korean language, as teachers have begun complaining that spelling among younger students is becoming more and more erratic (presumably because of the Internet). (page 19)

Having been part of several online communities, I’ve had reason (and experience ) to contemplate the idea that people with whom I communicate online might not translate well to the other world of my life (sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t). But the context of communication in Korean makes me wonder how (or if) freer online communication will impact one-to-one personal encounters.

Posted by kangmi on July 23, 2004 at 2:00 PM2 comments