As competition grows over who can cover up their insecurity with Chinese words better, and much of it unnecessarily, the gap between two languages in Korea widens. Into this gap between the two languages in Korea enters, to complicate the matters, a third variation: The English words and phrases that are neither truly English nor linguistically Korean. In the media and in daily conversational Korean, tons of new words from English creep into usage.
Words like "out," "cool," "pick-up," and "happy" get mixed with colloquial Korean to muddle up the issue further. The educated class, especially, is prone to mixing up their language with these English-originated words that make Korean-savvy foreigners cringe at their strangeness and doubt Korea's claim to possess the most scientifically-superior linguistic system in the world.
By its very nature, science opens itself to anyone who is willing to follow its logical steps and procedures. In essence, there is no secret in science that is understood only by the inner circle. In truly scientific systems, there are no inner and outer circles.
But the Korean language is generally considered the most secretly-guarded code system among the world's major languages. There is no way an "outsider," who is not born into this circle, can crack the code of the Korean language, no matter how long one devotes oneself to its mastery. Its grammar and syntax are capable of so much situational variation and impromptu adaptation that only the native can get the feel of the language.
Anyone who is encouraged by the scientific claim and tries to learn the language soon finds that he is merely scratching the surface after years of devoted study.
If Korea is serious about its ambition to be an advanced nation characterized and united by a middle-class medium of communication, it must seriously consider developing a national language that would be functional, rational, and democratic for the middle masses of Korea. As Korea's middle-class expands, it will be imperative that its communicative system be something that all middle-level Koreans can understand and use, in writing and speech. As it stands, Korean society is divided between two languages that are almost as impossible to bridge as the two languages in China.
Korea is already a rigidly divided society: Some go to college and work for companies and some don't go to college and work as laborers. The new government seems to be determined to narrow the economic gap between the two classes. But it would behoove Koreans to seriously consider the language divide as well.
The writer can be reached at jonhuer hotmail. Does serving spicy food to young children violate human rights? The writing system is known as Hangul in South Korea, and this is also the word that has been adopted into English. These are known as reinforced consonants.
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