Importance of Chinese letter study in Northeast Asia era

A college professor of the Korean Literature Department asked his students to write down the name of university in Chinese characters. Out of 15, 9 couldn’t write them correct. In 2011, when Professor Lee Myung-hak at Sungkyunkwan University asked Seoul citizens to write down their children’s names in Chinese letters, 62.8 percent of those in their 30s couldn’t write them. Chinese letters are secret codes to young generations who can sing along English lyrics and get used to search in English on the internet. Generations learned in only Korean letters without Chinese characters in the elementary schools are having difficulties in communication such as writing and reading in Chinese letters after they grow up.

In the current public education curriculum, 1,800 Chinese letters are taught in middle and high schools. According to the 2009 educational curriculum revision, some words of the moral, society and mathematics textbooks for students above the third grade in the elementary school are written in both Korean and Chinese. But how to run classes to teach Chinese letters is left to the discretion of elementary schools. As 70 percent of Korean words have originated from Chinese letters, there are cases where the meaning of a word is not fully understood if it is written only in Korean. More importantly, students who received education only in Korean letters are likely to have poor vocabulary and thinking skills. A gap in proficiency of Chinese letters often leads to a gap in academic performance as students advance into a higher grade.

National Education Curriculum Revision Research Committee consisting of experts by the education ministry held a public hearing for vitalization of Chinese character education in the elementary school’ on Monday. The committee’s chairperson Kim Kyeong-ja proposed four ways to write Chinese character in elementary school text books, which includes writing Chinese letters in brackets or in blank margins next to the text or at footnotes. In any ways, the objective is to strengthen Chinese letter education through textbooks. As Chinese letters are ideograms in the nature, a person who learns a Chinese letter can understand historical, literary and philosophical contexts in the letter. Learning Chinese letters helps Korean students to improve proficiency in Korean and understand the ways of the world.

Supporters for exclusive use of Hangeul, the Korean letters, strongly oppose the Chinese letter education citing that there is no difficulty from the Korean-only education and Chinese letter education will add a burden to students. However, public opinions are positive toward Chinese letter education. In a survey during the Lee Myung-bak administration, 89 percent of the public supported more active Chinese letter education. Emergence of the Northeast Asia era is another important factor that we need to take into consideration. Korea, China and Japan are all in the oriental civilizations influenced by Chinese characters. If a person knows basic Chinese letters, the person can communicate with nationals of the three nations. Now is the time to proactively review Chinese character education getting rid of the complex of toadyism.

shchung@donga.com