some Xinhua blah-blah-blah on Chinese characters in Korea

There’s some useful information here scattered among the propaganda and party line. It’s also good to know what the other side is thinking.

韩国: 汉字命运新挑战
( 尽管韩国一直尝试用韩文取代汉文。但由于和中国日益密切的联系以及韩文本身的缺陷,汉字在韩国的影响将越来越大。)

预计最早从明年开始,韩国国内法律文本中很难看懂的汉字标记方式将全部被韩文取汽车生活方式大比拼特别关注银屑病鱼鳞病专治各种血管瘤! 免费与美女视频聊天代。

据《朝鲜日报》报道,韩国政府于12月21日在政府中央大厦召开由李海瓒总理主持的国务会议,会议决定“有关将法律韩文化的特别措施法案”。该法案的主要内容为,将现行759项法律文本中混用的汉字标记方式全部以韩文取代。

汉字为韩国所长期借用,但随着历史进程的演变,汉字在韩国的命运有所不同。概而言之,汉字先是备受推崇,之后又被弃而不用。伴随着这一过程,汉字在韩国的命运也经历了诸多变迁。

韩国汉字盛行

一下汉城的仁川机场,扑面而来的便是标识牌上的汉字,和到西方国家全是外文截然不同。2003年7月,我们一群中国访问者在汉城并没有太多身在异乡的感觉,同行的小梁乘地铁到汉城著名的南大门购物,竟然一点也没有问路——地铁站都有中文标识。

同属汉文化圈,汉字对韩国的影响今天还依稀可见,且有扩大之势。10月29日至11月12日,14名韩国书法家携带自己的作品来到北京进行展览,虽然以韩国文字写成,但也与中国书法相通,有类似隶书的版本体,有类似行书的宫体正字,也有类似草书的真草体。

书法、绘画、艺术等和文字难以截然分开。目前,韩国60%以上的词汇是汉字的发音或者汉字的意思,好多概念也是从汉语传过去,离开汉字,有些意思真的难以表达。

韩国的表音字由10个元音和14个子音组成。其优点是简单易学。即使外国人,只要掌握了拼写组合方法,也能正确诵读。不过,能够诵读是一回事,能否理解其中的意思却是另外的事。全部使用拼音文字的朝鲜表音字存在严重“盲点”。

仅以韩国的姓氏为例。郑和丁,姜和康,柳和俞,林和任等均同音。另外,单词中也存在不少同音异字。例如,故事、古寺、考查、古辞、告辞、枯死等22个单词同音;诈欺、士气、死期、社旗同音;电机,转机,前期,战记同音;输入、收入同音……报纸上也经常遇到,因使用表音字母令读者对其表达意思感到头疼,需要像猜谜一样猜想。

正因为如此,韩国政府决定,在法律文件中用韩文取代汉字后,如果存在难以正确表达原意或可以被解释为多种意思的术语,便在该词后面打上括号注明汉字。

韩国驻华使馆一位官员在和笔者聊天时说:“汉字在韩国的具体情况要问韩国的教育部门,但我们很重视汉字的教育。”

汉字兴衰和韩国民族主义情绪

就在“汉风”在韩国劲吹之际,韩国为什么取消法律文本中的汉字标记?按照《朝鲜日报》的报道,表面原因是韩国政府考虑到在学校没有学汉字的人群逐渐增加,为了解决上述人群在了解法律的过程中面临的难题而推进了该法案。但实际上,原因没有这么简单。《当代韩国》编辑部的资深编辑郑成宏女士认为,这说明韩国民族主义抬头。她介绍说,金大中总统执政时期,韩国在公务文件、交通标志等领域,恢复使用已经消失多年的汉字和汉字标志,并在中小学推行“1800个常用汉字必修教育”。

但现在由于中韩关系因为历史问题出现了一点摩擦,韩国主张均衡战略的一派抬头。郑成宏认为,民族主义可能是这次从法律文本中取消中文标记的原因之一。

其实,关于是否保留汉字、保留多少汉字的争端一直在进行中。有些机构主张保留汉字,有些机构主张不要汉字,有些主张增加或者减少汉字。

在韩国,既有170多个社会团体联合组成全国汉字教育推广总联合会,又有以韩国表音字学会为中心的表音字专用实践促进会。前者1998年提出“从小学接受汉字教育,摆脱文化危机”的口号,而后者为维护表音字专用法,曾经开展过轰轰烈烈的1000万人大签名活动。双方围绕着是否恢复使用汉字问题的争论不仅是理论之争,甚至扩展升华至民族感情层次。

韩国法律规定,以表音字为专用文字。1948年独立之后,为了弘扬民族精神,政府制定了朝鲜拼音文字专用法,规定公文只能用表音字书写。但是鉴于历史的缘故,暂时允许兼用汉字。从1970年起,韩国小学、中学教科书中的汉字被取消,完全使用朝鲜表音字。在其后的30年当中,小学完全取消了汉字,初中高中仅向学生教授1800个汉字。这一原因造成韩国20~40岁的人几乎完全不懂汉字。他们被称为“表音字的一代”。

带给这代人的后果,是古典文化修养欠缺,与传统脱离,完全脱离了东亚文化圈,深陷孤立与凄楚之中。韩国青年一代连汉字读法都不清楚,书写汉字就更困难了。很多人用汉字写不出自己的名字,父母的名字也写不出,走出学校进入社会之后还要自学汉字。

但是,社会必须面对汉字的存在,因而韩国面向成人的汉字函授机构遍布各地。随着“中国热”的兴起,到中国学汉语更是成了一股热潮。

Hangeul to replace Chinese characters in laws

The Chinese characters that are mixed in with the present 759 laws will be revised into Hangeul from the Hangeul Day (Korean Alphabet Day) of next year at the earliest.

The government held a state council under the supervision of Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan at the Central Government Complex in Sejongro on December 21 and passed the “Special Measure Bill For Revising Law into Hangeul” that enforces the Chinese characters that are used in present laws to be replaced with Hangeul as a rule.

This reflects the reality of the difficulty in understanding the law due to the increase in the number of generations who did not learn Chinese characters during school education.

The government is planning to carry out this plan from the 559th anniversary Hangeul Day of 2005, after revising the Chinese characters into Hangeul collectively through this special measure.

condoms: the name game

SOUTH Korea has shelved a plan to replace the English word for condom with a Korean word after a string of complaints from people with identical or similar sounding names.

The Korean Anti-AIDS Federation said it would drop the use of a suggested new word for condom, “ae-pil”, which was derived from the Chinese characters for love and necessity.

The name, picked from 19,000 suggestions sent in by the public, had prompted complaints from many South Koreans with similar-sounding characters in their names, federation official Kim Hoon-soo said.

“An old lady called to complain, saying she was worried about her grandson being teased due to her name being ‘condom’,” Kim said, adding the federation had dropped its push for a new name.

The federation promotes condom use in South Korea, where only 10 per cent of people use condoms when having sex.

Chinese characters for Seoul

Hmm. This is a strange one.

Seoul to Have New Chinese Name
The new Chinese name of Seoul, the capital of Korea, will be decided on Dec. 3, Seoul City said Sunday.

Seoul City received proposals for a new Chinese name for the metropolitan city from both Chinese language experts and citizens in May as the current Chinese characters, 漢城 (Hansong), have a different pronunciation.

The city has picked two of the most suitable names with close pronunciations: “首爾 (seoual),” which means “city full of flowers,” and “首午爾 (seowooal),” which means “bright city in broad daylight.”

The city initially planned to choose one of the names on Aug. 24 in order to celebrate the 12th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between South Korea and China. However, it had to postpone its plan due mainly to the lack of positive response from the Chinese government.

The city plans to choose an official Chinese name and will strongly urge China to use it. The new name will be used for maps, street directions, airports and public transit systems to help the increasing number of Chinese travelers to the city.

“It will be of no use to have a new Chinese name for the capital city if the Chinese government and people do not accept it,” a city official said.

The municipal government will continue to request the Chinese government to use the same Chinese characters through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

source

Korean university to require passage of character test

November 24, 2004 ? Korea University said yesterday that a test on Chinese characters will become a graduation requirement for students entering this year. The students can take the test at any time during their stay at the school.
“China has become an economic giant, but our students are less and less competent in the language,” Kim Chang-bae, education support manager of Korea University, said. “Proficiency in Chinese characters is essential for understanding the Korean language.” He said large business groups, such as Samsung and SK, have recently begun looking at Chinese character proficiency in their employment criteria.
The first test, on which students must score a minimum of 60 percent, is scheduled to take place Saturday, and the university is now taking applications. Four tests are planned next year.

Tripitaka Koreana

A story about the digitalization of important Buddhist scriptures in South Korea led me to the website of the Tripitaka Koreana.

Something on that site struck me:

By locating and compiling the variant Chinese characters used in the Taejangkyong and then distinguishing the standard characters from the variants, we have been able to identify approximately 50,000 variant Chinese characters. By 2001, we hope to publish an electronic Chinese character dictionary that would include 40,000 or so of the variants that are commonly used in the Taejangkyong.

(emphasis added)
A lot of sources say (incorrectly) that there are some 50,000 Chinese characters. But here’s a text with that many variant characters alone!

Also, the search page features a download link to the all-important Arial Unicode font. If you don’t have this font, you need it.