Korea Outreach Education: 2009

In South Korea, Nation Stops For Mega Exam

More than 650,000 high school seniors in South Korea on Thursday took the only national college placement exam that many believe will determine the rest of their lives. The government takes it so seriously that even those infected with the H1N1 virus took the exam under medical supervision. [Nat'l Public Radio 12 Nov 2009 story]

South Korean parents pray for high scores at Jogyesa, the largest Buddhist temple in Seoul.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Korea books online - Internet Archive &c

...quite a number of early books about Korea are available through the Internet

...a list of some of the most obviously interesting titles [is] at

http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/BooksKorea.htm but a search for "Korea" in the "texts" section of the Internet Archive http://www.archive.org/index.php will bring up many more.

[for Isabella Bird's 19c travels, see also] http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/Bird/KoreaandherNeighbors.htm a few additional photos taken by her that were not used in her book. Those of Kwanghwa-mun and the west gate to Pusan-jin are especially interesting.

[via KoreanStudies.ws] Brother Anthony at Sogang University, Seoul

Sunday, September 13, 2009

why the diacritics on romanized Korean writing?

a concise explanation for the question:

> WHY is there still, in 2009, no concerted move among the (very limited) number of people regularly using the McCune-Reischauer method of transciption to revise it and get rid of those impossible breves? What is the great advantage of retaining them? Do they have magic powers?

[R King writes] They do indeed have magical powers -- they render unambiguously and without resorting to clumsy digraphs vowels that the Korean sound system insists be distinguished and that otherwise would go undistinguished in roman script. They signal, through their unitary unigraphicity, that a single vowel is being represented -- something that Seong-su or Seung-mi from Incheon cannot do with the new system. ...there is a trade-off between the clumsiness of the special character and the clumsiness of a digraph...

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= in short, those who no longer need the romanized aids to pronunciation do not have a stake in the system of diacritics any more. Those new to the language do not have a stake in one system of transcription over another. But those who are neither beginners or intermediate students of Korean language do very much benefit from the diacritic cues to distinguish sounds.

Friday, September 4, 2009

online level 1-2 Korean textbooks

Monash Korean language textbooks 'My Korean 1 and 2' (by Young-A Cho, In-Jung Cho and Douglas Ling) are now available free of charge at
http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/korean/klec/ .

supported by the Korea Foundation with a 2008 grant
(Support for Instructional Materials Development).
-- Young-A Cho & In-Jung Cho, Korean Studies at Monash

Thursday, September 3, 2009

all about Isabella Bird's 1800s Korea visit

[online] ...devoted to Isabella Bishop and her book "Korea and Her Neighbors," http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/Bird/KoreaandherNeighbors.htm

Brother Anthony of Sogang University, Seoul, http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

sijo in North America

For those interested in the sijo form itself, or a story about Korean literature
making its way into English language circles, please do check the Boston Globe
story about it... [English submissions welcome]
--via D. McCann [koreanstudies.ws]

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/gallery/sijocontest/

Friday, August 7, 2009

reviews online - Korean Studies

Eventually Korean Studies Review (KSR) will migrate to a new server, but for the time being reviews from 1998-2007 will continue to be available at http://koreaweb.ws/ks/ksr/ ; reviews from 2008 will be at the new KSR website, http://hangul.snu.ac.kr/ksr/

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Indonesian tribe picks Korean alphabet as official writing system

via Korean Studies Discussion List <http://us.mc580.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws>

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2009/08/06/56/0302000000AEN20090806001200315F.HTML

[compare to] ...other instances in the past where other cultures attempted to adopt Han'gu(l / Choso(n'gu(l as their written language only to have it be rejected, no?
I don't recall as it has been a long time since I read Kim-Renaud, Y-K.
(ed) 1997. The Korean Alphabet: Its History and Structure.

Anyway, this is a very interesting language development that *gasp* for
once doesn't involve romanizations.

=-=-=-= follow up:
The case of using hangeul by one of Indonesian tribes as a practical systemof writing is funny. It is one more ?success? of local nationalists in theera of globalization, when the state sponsors such "experiments"! Koreanalphabet is excellent only for the Korean language, but is almost unsuitablefor the transmission of sounds, which are absent in the Korean language. Inthe Soviet Union in 1920-30?s attempts were made to create scripts fornationalities, which had no their own script on the basis of the Latinalphabet. This letter alphabet, as well as Cyrillic, is much more suitablethan Korean letter-syllabic alphabet, for transcription of all kinds ofsounds through a combination of letters or diacritics. But the grandioseexperiment failed. It is difficult to believe that the Korean experimentwill last for long.
---Lev Kontsevich [Moscow]

=-=-=-= more [Sept. 12, 2009]
reporting by Choe Sang-Hun in this morning's NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/world/asia/12script.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Korean%20alphabet%20/%20Indonesia&st=cse

Saturday, July 18, 2009

RESOURCE e-Asia Digital Library

"e-Asia [est. 2001 - ed.] is a library of downloadable full text
(currently over 4000 items -- primarily books -- are available.) Focus
is on China, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea (South and North). While most
items are in Western languages, there are many items in Chinese,
Japanese, and Korean. e-Asia also offers audio, video, and special
collections.

The e-Asia project is funded by the University of Oregon Library
through the generosity of Nissho Iwai.

While the e-Asia project is based largely on resources held at the University of Oregon Library, its purpose is neither to duplicate nor displace printed traditonal materials. Rather, by providing searchable full text, the digitalization efforts
of e-Asia represent a new tool aimed at facilitating the information-gathering process.

Friday, June 26, 2009

which romanization logic to use in Korea?

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/06/113_47389.html

[thanks to Brother Anthony at Sogang University, Seoul
http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/]

Sunday, June 21, 2009

mythology for Korea

from e-list of KoreanStudies, 21 June 2009.

sources to read about myths besides Tangun, Chumong and Hyokkose:

<> Dr Grayson's "Myths and Legends from Korea: An Annotated Compendium of Ancient and Modern Materials"
http://www.amazon.com/Myths-Legends-Korea-Annotated-Compendium/dp/0700712410/ref=sr_1_1
is a classic standard-setter;
<> limited preview of this book, including table of contents, is available on http://books.google.com/books?id=HZO49KfGLiMC&pg=PP1&dq=Myths+and+Legends+from+Korea
<> This book by Grayson has been reissued by Routledge.

<> source also by Dr. Kim Hwa-kyong, (Yeungnam Univ), www.jisik.co.kr

<> Zong In-sob, Folk tales from Korea, Elizabeth NJ and Seoul: Hollym 1970, often reprinted
<> Korean National Commission for UNESCO, Korean Folklore,? Seoul: Si-sa yong-o-sa and Arch Cape Oregon: Pace, 1983
<> Choi Won-oh, An Illustrated Guide to Korean Mythology, Folkestone Kent UK: Global Oriental 2008

Thursday, June 4, 2009

satellite images to read North Korea

DPRK on Google Earth VIA koreanstudies @koreaweb

http://gizmodo.com/5277184/north-korea-secrets-uncovered-in-google-earth-by-amateur-spies

Korea Outreach Education

Thursday, November 12, 2009

college entrance - one nation, one exam