[KS] Languages in Korea - and culture, and politics

[Afostercarter at aol.com]

Professor Sasse's point about the cultural dimension
- in this context, also political - is very true, and highly pertinent.

If such resentment still smoulders in Germany, 15 years after reunification, 
then a fortiori one shudders to think what the equivalent midnight bar talk 
in Pyongyang
circa 2030 will be like. (Perhaps employing the language of fists, as well as 
words...)

One thing's for sure. After reunification, south Koreans will look 
down on north Koreans. Literally so; they are already taller.
(Somehow, I doubt that north Koreans will look up to south Koreans.)

Perhaps one reason why South Koreans currently seem so obsessed
with the past, is that the future looks too ghastly to contemplate?

I tried to raise such (to me) urgent issues in a journalistic article last 
autumn:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200410/21/200410211823517339900092309231.html

It seems weird that unification - as a concrete, perhaps imminent challenge,
rather than a cosy abstract dream - goes almost undiscussed in Seoul.
Were I South Korean, thinking about the Korea my children will grow up in 
- let alone how we get from here to there - would keep me awake at night.


Aidan FC

AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University 

Home address: 17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK 
tel: +44(0)  1274  588586         (alt) +44(0) 1264 737434          mobile:  
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Email: afostercarter at aol.com     (alt) afostercarter at yahoo.com      website: 
www.aidanfc.net
[Please use @aol; but if any problems, please try @yahoo too - and let me 
know, so I can chide AOL]



In a message dated 26/05/2005 11:37:14 GMT Standard Time, 
werner_sasse at hotmail.com writes:



> Subj:Re: [KS] Languages in Korea 
> Date:26/05/2005 11:37:14 GMT Standard Time
> From:werner_sasse at hotmail.com
> Reply-to:Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> To:umyang at gmail.com, Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Just a short note on the "language difference" between the three Koreans 
> (South, North, China) The difference is not on the language/lingustic level, it 
> is still mainly cultural. In Pyongyang, and when talking to Chine-Koreans in 
> Seoul, I had no other problem but cultural vocabiulary. And that problem is 
> easily solved by asking what it means when s.th. is not understood (just like 
> I also do when with my friends in S-Korea...) 
> 
> Being from W-German my observation when travelling in E-Germany is, however, 
> bad enough. The problem is not mutual un-intellibility, the problem is 
> psychological. They immediately realize that I am a "Westerner", and all negative 
> feelings between the "richer" and the "poorer" (in economical aspects, 
> aspects of historical deprivation, a.s.o) come up. Precisely because the language 
> remaind "the same", but the culture changed. (Once after drinking until 
> midnight with some guys in an E-German pub, when we finally called it a day, one of 
> them said:"You are from w-Germany, BUT you are o.k., neverthe less")
> 
> By the way, with "cultural vocabulary" differences and problems arising from 
> there: living in Hamburg, a university man, middle class, lover of books, 
> and the like, I experience utmost difficulty when I talk to a labourer in the 
> harbour....
> 
> Finally: I know, that language is part of "culture", I just made the 
> differnce between "language" and "culture" (meant to be understood below that 
> general level) in order to stress my point.
> 
> Greetings to everyone, Werner Sasse
> 
> P.S. Who ever came up with 20 languages spoken in Korea at some time?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >From: Cedar Bough Blomberg <umyang at gmail.com>
> >Reply-To: Cedar Bough Blomberg <umyang at gmail.com>,Korean Studies Discussion 
> List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> >To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> >Subject: Re: [KS] Languages in Korea
> >Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 
> 
> 

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