Jon Huer's Linguistic Jacobinism
Jon Huer, an American (of Korean descent, I believe) living in Korea, has published an article whose central thesis that "the most awful truth about the Korean language" is "[t]hat there are actually two Korean languages, one formal-written and the other colloquial-spoken," which, unknown to him it seems, happens to be true of all languages — Is Korean Language Scientific?
His conclusion: "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."
Robert Koehler reminds Mr. Huer that "Korea does have a language issue that separates social classes, one so bad that it has become one of the most contentious issues in Korean education," and "[t]hat language issue, Jon, is English" — A New Language? Really, Jon?
Cheun-Heui Lee's letter-to-the-editor in response rightly says that while "Huer's lack of understanding of the Korean culture and lifestyle could be dismissed as being awfully out-of-touch," with this piece "he has raised his level of absurdity to the point of where one can easily conclude that Huer has no idea what he is talking about with his latest piece" — Stream of Ridiculous Musing.
Hoija calls the article "thoroughly erroneous, ridiculous, and offensive to reason and to Korean culture, and even counter-productive to what he proposes," and rightly says that "John Huer hates differences, because they are in his estimate class-based" — Jon Huer Would Hate This Blog.
(I wrote an article on the subject Prof. Huer took up a few weeks back for my university's newspaper, of which I am the vice-editor-in-chief, aimed toward our foreign students — Learn the “Scientific Alphabet” While in Korea.)
His conclusion: "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."
Robert Koehler reminds Mr. Huer that "Korea does have a language issue that separates social classes, one so bad that it has become one of the most contentious issues in Korean education," and "[t]hat language issue, Jon, is English" — A New Language? Really, Jon?
Cheun-Heui Lee's letter-to-the-editor in response rightly says that while "Huer's lack of understanding of the Korean culture and lifestyle could be dismissed as being awfully out-of-touch," with this piece "he has raised his level of absurdity to the point of where one can easily conclude that Huer has no idea what he is talking about with his latest piece" — Stream of Ridiculous Musing.
Hoija calls the article "thoroughly erroneous, ridiculous, and offensive to reason and to Korean culture, and even counter-productive to what he proposes," and rightly says that "John Huer hates differences, because they are in his estimate class-based" — Jon Huer Would Hate This Blog.
(I wrote an article on the subject Prof. Huer took up a few weeks back for my university's newspaper, of which I am the vice-editor-in-chief, aimed toward our foreign students — Learn the “Scientific Alphabet” While in Korea.)
Labels: Corea, Leftism, Linguistics
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