Indonesian Tribe Chooses Hangeul as Official Writing System

A minority tribe in Indonesia has chosen to use Korea’s “Hangeul” as its official writing system. It is the first case of the Korean alphabet being used by a foreign society.

The Hunminjeongeum Research Institute said Thursday that a tribe in the city of Bauer and Bauer, located in Buton, Southeast Sulawesi, has recently designated Hangeul as the official alphabet to transcribe its aboriginal language.

The city began teaching the Korean writing system to elementary students last month using a textbook written in Hangeul. The students are now learning Hangeul for about four hours per week.

The Indonesian ethnic minority, with a population of 60-thousand, was on the verge of losing its native language as it lacked a proper writing system.

Seoul National University professor Lee Ho-young, who helped create the Korean textbook for the Indonesian tribe, said he is pleased to see Hangeul help the tribe preserve its aboriginal language.



The globalization of the Korean Alphabet system, Hangeul

The announcement this week that a minority tribe in Indonesia has chosen to use Hangeul as its official writing system signals that much progress has been made in efforts to globalize the Korean Alphabet system. It is the first case of the Korean alphabet becoming an official tool for communications outside Korean territory. The Indonesian ethnic minority in the city of Bauer and Bauer in Sulawesi has selected Hangeul as the official alphabet to transcribe its native language. Prior to adopting Hangeul, the 60-thousand member tribe was on the verge of losing its native language because it lacked a proper writing system. The recent development is quite significant, as it demonstrates the potential for Korean to become an international language.

This is not the first time the merits of Hangeul have been globally recognized. In 1997, UNESCO included Hangeul in its Memory of the World register. Britain’s Oxford University has ranked Hangeul the best writing system in the world. Hangeul can be entered into a computer seven times faster than Chinese or Japanese characters, and is also recognized for its calligraphic beauty. Many consider Hangeul the most efficient and appropriate alphabet system for the “information era.”

Local academic organizations have played a great role in the Indonesian tribe’s adoption of Hangeul. The Hunminjeongeum Research Institute and other related academic societies recommended Hangeul as the writing system with which to record the tribe’s aboriginal language. In July 2008, the institute signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian tribe for the use of Hangeul as an official communications tool. As a follow-up measure, the institute published a textbook for the tribe to learn Korean.

This case proves that Hangul can be an appropriate writing system to record languages and preserve culture of other ethnic groups that lack their own writing system. Experts say that a language will perish in less than a century if it has no associated writing system. In this sense, it’s likely that Hangeul, which was designed to accommodate learners of all social classes, will increasingly be adopted as a writing tool.

In fact, the Korean government, scholars and related organizations have made great efforts to globalize Hangeul. As part of the efforts to promote Hangeul as a national brand, the government has sought to integrate all the Korean language-related institutes as “Sejong Academies,” honoring the fourth monarch of the Joseon Dynasty, who invented Hangeul. The government has also made efforts to have Korean adopted as a second language in foreign schools.

KBS World Radio, the nation’s sole foreign language promotional broadcaster, has published a Korean conversation book. The book, written in English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and six other languages, is designed to help foreigners improve their communications in Korea and contribute toward globalizing Korean and broadening the basis of “Hallyu,” or the Korean wave, worldwide.

The adoption of Hangeul by the Indonesian tribe should stimulate efforts to globalize the Korean alphabet system in a more systematic way. It is also hoped that it will give Koreans a renewed pride in their unique writing system.




:) From my Fb Notes/KBS World
08 Agustus 2009