Korean law stipulates that phonetic characters are used as special characters. After independence in 1948, in order to carry forward the national spirit, the government formulated the Korean Pinyin Special Law, which stipulated that official documents could only be written in phonetic characters. However, for historical reasons, it is temporarily allowed to use both Chinese characters. Since 1970, Chinese characters in Korean elementary and middle school textbooks have been cancelled, and Korean phonetic characters have been used entirely. In the next 30 years, Chinese characters were completely eliminated in elementary schools, and only 1,800 Chinese characters were taught to students in junior high and high schools. For this reason, Koreans aged 20-40 almost do not understand Chinese characters at all. They are called the "phonetic generation".
The consequences for this generation are a lack of classical cultural accomplishment, separation from tradition, complete separation from the East Asian cultural circle, and deep isolation and misery. The younger generation of Koreans do not even know how to read Chinese characters, and it is even more difficult to write Chinese characters. Many people cannot write their own names in Chinese characters, nor can they write the names of their parents. After leaving school and entering society, they have to learn Chinese characters by themselves. Korean correspondence courses for adults with Chinese characters are located all over the country.
Because the younger generation who can only read phonetic characters account for the majority of readers of newspapers and magazines, the newspaper industry has long ago transitioned to using all phonetic characters. Subsequently, the printed text changed from the original vertical arrangement to horizontal arrangement. Therefore, the difference between the generation that knows Chinese characters and the generation that specializes in phonetic characters is called the "vertical generation" and the "horizontal generation" in Korea.
Phonetic characters are simple and easy to learn but there are "blind spots"
Korean phonetic characters are composed of 10 vowels and 14 consonants. The advantage is that it is simple and easy to learn. Even foreigners can read correctly as long as they master the spelling combination method. However, being able to recite it is one thing, but being able to understand its meaning is another. There are serious "blind spots" in Korean phonetic characters, which all use pinyin characters.
Korean characters are similar to Japanese vocabulary, and 70% of them come from Chinese ideographic hieroglyphics. If you only record things phonetically, there will obviously be confusion. Because there are many words with homophones and different meanings.
Just take Korean surnames as an example. Zheng and Ding, Jiang and Kang, Liu and Yu, Lin and Ren all have the same pronunciation. In addition, there are many homonyms in words. For example, 22 words such as story, ancient temple, examination, ancient poem, farewell, and death have the same pronunciation; fraud, morale, death date, and social flag have the same pronunciation; motor, turnaround, early stage, and war record have the same pronunciation; input and income have the same pronunciation... It is often encountered that the use of phonetic letters makes readers have a headache to express the meaning, and they need to guess like a riddle (just imagine that we abandon Chinese characters and use Chinese pinyin, and read the ancient poem "The solitary smoke is straight in the desert, and the sun sets in the long river"-- Ghost), quite time consuming. This is like the Japanese reading a message sent using a pseudonym. If the message uses a pseudonym and Chinese characters together, the meaning can be understood at a glance. As hieroglyphs, kanji are easy to recognize from their shape. But phonetic characters don't work. Due to the restriction on the use of phonetic characters, almost all Korean newspapers, magazines and street signs use phonetic characters. Japanese people who come to Korea find it difficult to understand road signs and store signs. Japanese tourists who cannot read Korean road signs feel that they feel more like a foreign country in Korea than in Hong Kong. All Japanese who have been to South Korea complain that they cannot understand street signs.
The people who suffer the most are not Japanese tourists, but the younger generation of Koreans who only know phonetic characters. When they got off the plane at Japan's Narita International Airport, they didn't recognize the exit signs written in Chinese characters. As Korean students studying in Japan who are not in the cultural circle of Chinese characters, they need to re-receive the education of Chinese characters. South Korean college students cannot read books mixed with Chinese characters, and they also suffer from it if they want to read classical literature. The professor lamented the students' lack of knowledge of Chinese characters. If this continues, Korea's ancient culture will be lost in the hands of the next generation.
In addition, this kind of joke also happens from time to time: the police let the suspect go because he could not understand the name written in Chinese characters on the ID card. People who advocate using all phonetic characters also notice the above disadvantages and want to replace Chinese with pure Korean.
However, just like Japan has a Yamato language that has nothing to do with Chinese, South Korea also has a pure Korean language. The same thing as Yamato language is the lack of abstraction and creativity of language. The advocates of phonetic characters also created some words, such as describing airplanes as "flying devices", but they could not be promoted. In South Korea's comprehensive use of pinyin script, the people suffer from "knowledge anemia" in which they do not understand the knowledge they should know.
100 years ago, only Chinese characters were used
A hundred years ago, Korea was a country that was limited to Chinese characters. This is not only true for official documents, but also for words in daily life. South Korea's ruling class, yangban, uses Chinese characters to write letters and create works. The Tokugawa shogunate sent Korean envoys to Japan to serve as officials with high proficiency in Chinese. They talked with Japanese Confucianists and monks in Chinese characters and composed Chinese poems impromptuly. North Korea is just a common people who has nothing to do with Chinese characters.
Korean phonetic characters were created in 1443. King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty ordered the creation of phonetic writing that was simple and easy for common people to use. Scholars followed the king's order and created a phonetic script consisting of 11 vowels and 14 consonants. When this imperial text was promulgated, it was called "Hunmin Zhengyin". However, the ruling class is still restricted to the use of Chinese characters. Women and children use pinyin characters. Articles written in Pinyin are called "Proverbs" and are discriminated against.
After the Sino-Japanese War, South Korea launched a "civilization and enlightenment" movement.
During the reform known as the "Jiawu Gengzhang", the feudal system was impacted and Korea introduced the solar calendar. From this time on, written texts transitioned from exclusively using Chinese characters to using Chinese characters in combination with phonetic characters. When Korea became a Japanese colony, it was determined that "the country (referring to Japan) would use both Chinese characters". At that time, Korean phonetic writing scholars were treated as adherents to anti-Japanese ideas and were brutally suppressed. During World War II, the Governor-General ordered the dissolution of the Korean Language Society that studied phonetic characters, and some scholars were arrested and imprisoned. Due to the above historical reasons, the use of phonetic characters has become a symbol of nationalism and is regarded as a symbol of anti-Japanese patriotism.
In 1945, South Korea was rescued from colonial rule. The new South Korea promoted nationalism. Phonetic characters scholars are at the forefront of promoting the national spirit and propose that all use of phonetic characters is equal to patriotism. As soon as the government was established in 1948, it immediately formulated the "Law for the Special Use of Phonetic Characters", which stipulated that all official documents should use phonetic characters. However, the additional provisions of the official document allow the use of Chinese characters and phonetic characters together.
Regard pinyin characters as a symbol of nationalism
South Korea vigorously promoted the full use of phonetic characters during the Korean War in 1950. During the war, young people from all over the country joined the army and received training. Due to their varying academic qualifications, they cannot read textbooks mixed with Chinese characters. So first of all, phonetic characters were used uniformly in the army. Then it was extended to the whole society to use phonetic characters.
On the other hand, northern North Korea also completely abolished the use of Chinese characters in 1949 and gradually transitioned to the exclusive use of phonetic characters. However, in 1968, under the instruction of Kim Il-sung, the plan to use all phonetic characters was revised and Chinese character education was gradually restored. At present, North Korean primary school students start learning Chinese characters in fifth grade and learn 1,500 Chinese characters by the time they graduate from high school. Study another 1500 during college. ***Ji teaches 3,000 Chinese characters. Also in 1968, President Park Chung-hee of South Korea ordered that from 1970 onwards, the use of Chinese characters in official documents be banned and the Chinese characters used in textbooks were forcibly abolished. Behind President Park’s insistence on using phonetic characters, she emphasizes indigenous democracy to explain her bigotry. At that time, President Park attempted to be a lifelong dictatorship and faced tit-for-tat confrontation with those who called for European and American-style democracy. In order to advocate indigenous democracy, we will do our best to emphasize the indigenous systems and spirits of each country, and on this basis, we will promote the pinyinization of characters. Kanji education was abolished with one word from the president.
Dictators talk nonsense about culture and always cause trouble.
In view of the public pressure to criticize the abolition of Chinese character education, the South Korean government began to revise the policy of completely abolishing the use of Chinese characters.
In 1972, it was decided to resume Chinese character education in middle schools and high schools. In 1974, it was decided to learn 1,800 basic Chinese characters (900 for junior high school students and 900 for high school students). And allow Chinese characters to be used in brackets in Chinese language and national history textbooks.
However, in a society where most people use phonetic characters, young people have no interest in learning Chinese characters, and college entrance examination questions do not include knowledge of Chinese characters, so students have no pressure to learn Chinese characters. Learning Chinese characters, which are hieroglyphics, is suitable for starting from primary school. Learning from middle school will not be effective, resulting in a generation of people who do not know Chinese characters.
The dispute between the two factions gradually escalated
With the complete abolition of Chinese character education, people began to feel inconvenienced and launched various forms of movements demanding the restoration of Chinese character education.
More than 170 social groups jointly formed the National Federation for the Promotion of Chinese Character Education. A mobilization meeting was held on November 17, 1998, and the slogan "Accept Chinese character education from primary school to get rid of the cultural crisis" was proposed. The conference passed resolutions: 1. Primary schools should learn 1,000 Chinese characters; 2. Textbooks from elementary school to high school should use Chinese characters mixed with phonetic characters; 3. Allow official documents, road signs, signboards, etc. to mix Chinese characters with phonetic characters; 4. Reward news media for using Chinese phonetic characters. Mixed methods.
The congress also proposed to the National Assembly to "abolish the Act dedicated to phonetic characters." More than 7,000 prominent figures from political, financial, academic, religious, literary and artistic circles signed the agreement.
However, those who specialize in phonetic characters did not remain silent. In late November 1997, the Association for the Promotion of the Special Practice of Phonetic Characters, centered on the Korean Phonetic Character Society, issued a statement in many major newspapers, emphasizing that "today, more than half a century after Korea was liberated, it is even more important to unswervingly use phonetic characters." ". They attack the opponent's lavish praise of Chinese characters as a return to the old dynasty, when users of Chinese characters attempted to use Korean as a dialect and phonetic characters were only allowed to be used as "proverbs" to describe the dialect. The promotion association believes that the phonetic characters of Korean are not only absolutely better than Chinese characters, but also can express the spirit of national independence, so it advocates the complete phonetic writing. They also advocated the resolute and thorough implementation of the policy of "exclusive use of phonetic characters" and demanded an immediate cessation of the current Chinese character education in middle schools. In addition, the promotion association actively promoted the establishment of October 9th, the day when phonetic characters were formulated and released, as a legal public holiday.
In order to maintain the exclusive use of phonetic characters, they launched a vigorous signature campaign of 10 million people.
The debate between the two sides over whether to resume the use of Chinese characters has escalated to not only a theoretical dispute, but also to the level of national sentiments.
People who emphasize that the complete abolition of Chinese characters will bring confusion to society believe that the recent political chaos and economic crisis are caused by the lack of humanistic knowledge of the "phonetic generation", resulting in ethical, philosophical, ideological, and moral confusion.
As we welcome the Asia-Pacific era, among the cultural circles of Chinese characters in China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, only Korea’s use of phonetic characters is particularly isolated, hindering cultural exchanges and hindering economic development.
People who specialize in phonetic characters strongly attack each other. In order to rationalize their theories, they use sophistry and lies, and they do not hesitate to spend a lot of money on advertisements to spread rumors and confuse the public. In the context of serious political corruption, spending huge sums of money to launch a cultural movement is like a political movement, and it is unclear what its purpose is. They also gathered powerful people in an attempt to influence Korean cultural policy with money and power.
The Korean press gave both sides mixed praise and blame, making the debate between the two sides more intense.
The controversy spread to other fields
In today’s computer age, it is difficult for South Korea to avoid the issue of Chinese characters. The computer's Chinese character conversion function was invented, an epoch-making leap occurred, and complex writing problems were solved. The biggest drawback of Korean phonetic characters is the excessive number of characters. Under the guidance of the idea of ??specializing phonetic characters, South Korea's computer components are lagging behind in converting Chinese characters and do not have the function of directly converting Chinese words. In addition, the demand for components is small. If computers that mix phonetic characters and Chinese characters are popularized, it will take time to develop them.
Whether to resume Chinese character education is not only a matter for some scholars and educators, but also a matter of national plans and cultural foundation. In recent years, China has received hundreds of thousands of Korean tourists every year. The Chinese tour guide said with emotion, "Whenever Japanese tourists hear ancient poems, idioms and allusions introducing places of interest, they know their ancient cultural origins and sound very interested. But Koreans are dumbfounded."
South Korea has a strong Confucian tradition since ancient times. The younger generation knows nothing about the Analects, the most basic book of Confucianism. The Confucian tradition has become empty. Koreans who have learned "enough food and clothing, know etiquette" have enough food and clothing but do not know Chinese characters. There are even cases where history students go to the library and cannot even read ancient books from their own country’s Joseon and Goryeo Dynasties.
Those who advocate the resumption of the use of Chinese characters criticize those who use phonetic characters as suffering from cultural isolation. They feel that they are arrogant enough, and they insist on imposing the disease on the next generation, increasing the number of "disabled children who do not understand culture" ".
This cultural war continues, and it is unclear when it will end. The biggest victims are the generation who are receiving education.