Searching for the Perfect Writing System: Hangeul Reform Proposals in the 20th Century

SPEKAER: Robert J. Fouser

DATE: Tuesday. May 14, 2024. 7:30PM (Seoul)

VENUE: Fifth floor (Conference Room) of FAST FIVE Tower (Namdaemun-ro 9-gil 24, Jung-gu, Seoul)

ADMISSION (Online & In-person): Free for Members; W10,000 for Non-members; W5,000 for Non-member students (Student ID requested)

• If you would like to attend online Zoom, RSVP by May 13 (Monday). We will email you the link on Tuesday.
• To attend in-person, RSVP is not required.

SUMMARY:

In this lecture, I examine various attempts to reform Hangeul that were attempted during the 20th century. Reforms focused on three aspects: linear writing, revised graphemes, and new typography design. During the first half of the 20th century, advocates of linear writing proposals argued that they fit the “modern standard” set by dominant alphabetic Western languages. Noted advocates included Ju Si-gyeong (1876-1914), the founder of the pro-Hangeul movement and his student Choi Hyeon-bae (1894-1970), who became a leader in South Korean orthographic policy after liberation from Japan in 1945. Advocates of revised graphemes argued that changes in shape would make Hangeul more scientific, more readable, more attractive, and more adaptable to typewriters. Choi Hyeon-bae drew on Ju’s linear writing to develop his own system that included revised graphemes to make Hangeul look more like the Roman alphabet. Kim Tu-bong (1889–c. 1958), another student of Ju’s who went to North Korea after liberation, added six new graphemes to make Hangeul more consistent with Korean morphology. This revision was adopted as official orthography from 1948 to 1954. Interest in linear writing largely faded by the 1960s, but the spread of computers beginning in the 1980s simulated the development of new typography design and fonts, such as those developed by Ahn Sang-soo beginning in the 1980s. I conclude by discussing how the reform proposals, in their search for perfection, drew heavily on various, often conflicting, perceptions of Hangeul’s position among writing systems of the world.

BIO:

Robert J. Fouser holds a B.A. in Japanese language and literature, and M.A. in applied linguistics, both from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from Trinity College Dublin. He studied Korean language at Seoul National University in the 1980s. He lived in Japan from 1995 to 2008 where he taught foreign language education at Kyoto University and developed the Korean language program in Kagoshima University. From 2008 to 2014, he taught Korean as a second/foreign language education at Seoul National University. He is currently an independent scholar based in Providence, Rhode Island.

He is the author of six books in Korean, including Oegugeo jeonpadam [The Spread of Foreign Languages] (2018, revised 2021), Robeoteu paujeo ui dosi tamgugi [Exploring Cities with Robert Fouser] (2019, revised and expanded as Tosi dokbeop [How to Read Cities] 2024), Oegugeo hakseupdam [Thoughts on Learning Foreign Languages] (2021), and Tosi neun wae yeoksa reul bojonhaneunga [Why Do Cities Preserve History?] (2024). He also is the translator of Understanding Korean Literature (1997) by Kim Heunggyu and a co-author of Hanok: The Korean House (2015, revised 2024). He writes regular columns for various media outlets in Korea and serves as deputy editor of Koreana.

VENUE: Online Zoom & In-person