[imc-korea] [nousbases] [Jeju Update] Language, Island, colonial culture and the Jeju naval base

[Sung-Hee Choi]

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2011/02/jeju-update-language-island-colonial.html
Sunday,
February 27, 2011
 [Jeju Update] Language, Island, colonial culture and the Jeju naval
base<http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2011/02/jeju-update-language-island-colonial.html>

<http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Uq0Wijfv0-4/TWpKd8Mix2I/AAAAAAAAI8o/Bj0FZjbQgPo/s1600/One%2Bman%2Bprotest.jpg>
*
Image source: *Headline Jeju, Feb. 25, 2011
* <http://www.headlinejeju.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=109333>*The
sign reads: 'Allow and actively promote the use of the Jeju dialect in
schools!
'Critically endangered Jeju dialect' of the UNESCO-registered-and-promoted
It is the responsibility of the Jeju Provincial Office of Education that has
not allowed the use of the Jeju dialect for 40 years, who has alledged that
it is a 'rustic and impertinent' dialect. '
*____________________________________________________________
Thanks to the activists who are making effirts to decolonize the cultures of
their Islands, for example, Michael Lujan Bevacqua who runs the blog called
'No Rest for the Awake: Minagahet Chamorro <http://minagahet.blogspot.com/>,'
it has become clearer to more people that no base movement cannot be
separate with the decolonization movement.

Here in the Jeju Island, the faced situation could be similar to a lesser
degree if not the same with the examples in the other regions, especially in
those Islands who have been suffering under the imperial eyes and tongues.

The Headline Jeju article on Feb. 25
<http://www.headlinejeju.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=109333>reported
an interesting article ( by Yoon Chul-Soo) which was about one man protest
by Kim Young-Bo, a high school teacher teaching commerce, who demanded the
free use of the Jeju dialect in schools in front of the Jeju Special
Self-Governing Provincial Office of Education (The Jeju Provincial Office of
Education, afterwards) in the afternoon of Feb. 25, 2011.

According to the very article, the teacher protested against the Jeju
Provincial Office of Education which he criticized because it had not
allowed the free use of the Jeju dialect in schools by alleging that the
Jeju language was a 'rustic and impertinent dialect,' and to which he
demanded that it should allow students to freely speak the Jeju dialect in
schools.

Below is the translation of his words cited in the article:

*"The Jeju Provincial Office of Education who has not allowed the free use
of the Jeju dialect is very responsible for the Jeju language being
critically endangered. Even though the situation is very serious as to the
degree that it is registered as a critically endangered language by the
UNESCO, the Provincial Office of the Education is not trying to fix such
wrong education policy." *

It was poignant to hear that the Jeju dialect is critically endangered
itself while the UNESCO designated soft corals in the Gangjeong Sea is being
threatened with the naval base construction in the Gangjeong village, as
well. (* About the UNESCO registered Jeju language, see
HERE<http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/new_interactive_atlas_adds_two_more_endangered_languages/>and
HERE<http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/en/atlasmap/language-id-2724.html>
)

Here are further translations of his cited words, as well:

*"I am more infuriated by the fact that no one really seriously concerns
about that, except for short time whenever there were media reports on the
Jeju dialect being registered as a critically endangered language. Who would
succeed the Jeju language if the current halmang(s)(old women) and
harbang(s)(old men) die. The language might disappear*."

"*Our generation was not allowed to use the Jeju dialect for talks between
teachers and students not to mention for class hours. We had to hear
reproach that we were rustic and impertinent if we use the Jeju dialect and
we even got a whip. Didn't the students who had been getting punished get
one more whip if they unconsciously used the Jeju dialect, did they? It is
for the alleged reason that they look as rustic and impertinent from the
point of view of teachers.*"

According to the article, he pointed out that the Jeju Provincial Office of
Education was showing the duality by never allowing the Jeju dialect even
among the students within schools while it is also making an effort to
revitalize the Jeju language such as through hosting or sponsoring
competition events such as those on speaking with the Jeju dialect; those on
children song with the Jeju dialect, exhibitions on illustrated poems with
the Jeju Dialect; and festivals with the Jeju Dialect. It is told that the
authority of the Jeju Provincial Office of Education has issued that it has
guided that there should be an education course on the Jeju dialect beside
sponsoring such events. However, it is contradictorily prohibiting the very
use of the Jeju dialect [within schools].

According to the article, the duality is the very point that motivated him
toward his own one man protest.

What is interesting about the event and article is that those things very
remind the current situation of the Jeju Island whose native cultures are
being disappeared with corporate and militarism culture in South Korea,
especially with the law on the Jeju Special Self-Governing
Province<http://english.jeju.go.kr/>,
which was brought in 2006 with the concept of Jeju free international city
<http://freecity.jeju.go.kr/index.eng.php>and emphasis on the so-called'
'globalization.'

Mr. Go Gwon-Il, a Gangjeong villager
think<http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2011/02/jeju-update-oppression-on-jeju-workers.html>the
Central and Island governments' current mobilizations for the Jeju to
be
one of the new seven wonders even being mobilized with many celebrities
along with excessive international propaganda is part of such extended move.

<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J--66weR-uk/TWpcu2aDh2I/AAAAAAAAI9A/2V2B9Kqknck/s1600/N7W%2Blogo.bmp>
According to him, the Jeju Island should NOT be one of the new seven wonders
because it would make worse the situation of the Jeju Island, the UNESCO
triple-crowned site<http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20101004000927>(Mount
Halla's Biosphere Reserve recognition in 2002; Natural Heritage Sites
designation of Mount Halla, Seongsan Sunrise Peak and Manjanggul cave in
2007; and the geopark designation in 2010) with increasing capitalism and
reckless tourism.

Otherwise, according to the Wiki on the Jeju
dialect<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju_dialect>
:

*One large difference between the Jeju dialect and those of mainland Korea
is the lack of formality and deference to elders. For example, while a
speaker of the Seoul dialect might say 안녕하세요 annyeonghaseyo ("Hello") to an
older person, a speaker of the Jeju dialect would say 반갑수다 ban-gapsuda
(lit., "Nice chatting" or "Nice talking"; roughly equivalent to "Howdy"). To
many mainlanders, a child saying this to an adult would be appalling, but on
the islands, a more "egalitarian" form of speech is used, perhaps a cultural
idiosyncrasy that has hung on after the incorporation of Jeju itself (under
the Tamna kingdom, which, though having subjugated itself to Korean states
since the 7th century, was not brought under the full centralized control of
a Korean state until 1404) into Korea.**

***

**<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--cO4FAAWUS8/TWpT3LVSqgI/AAAAAAAAI84/6QKz6o6cjmY/s1600/Jeju%2Bdialect.jpg>

* Image source:* **Jeju Weekly, Feb. 6,
2011*<http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1233>
* (Original source: 'Art by Choi Myung Sun. Photo courtesy Jejudo Hangeul
Calligraphy Society')* The calligraphy written with the Jeju dialect reads:
*'*<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--cO4FAAWUS8/TWpT3LVSqgI/AAAAAAAAI84/6QKz6o6cjmY/s1600/Jeju%2Bdialect.jpg>
* Moosangomassim(Why is it?)
**Umung-ee haejoon bab muk-eo-bob-seo (Why don't you have some rice mother
has cooked?) Chommallo Masi Jotsooda(It is really delicious.) Moosangomassim
(Why is it?) Geu-gun Umunim-eui Saranghaneun mosim-ee bab sogobe
godeukgodeuk deul-eo-i-si-nan anikkwa (Isn't it because mother's loving
heart wholly fills the rice bowl, is it?) -Jeju sokkdam gotnae (cited from
one of the Jeju proverbs Gotnae)
*

*
*There was also an interesting article in the Jeju Weekly. See
HERE<http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1233>.
According to it:

*Looking at the wider linguistic picture, the Korean language is also losing
ground on account of the dominance of English. *

*But looking at the problem more closely, one sees that much of the Jeju
dialect is disappearing fast, partly because the capitalistic logic of
"efficiency" has been an excuse for our indifferent attitude. During the
rapid economic development in Korea which started in the 1960's,
preservation of cultural diversity was considered "inefficient" since it
could deter fast decision making. This has since put the Jeju dialect on the
list of critically endangered languages.

*For reference, the 60's developmentalism was promoted by the Park Jung-Hee
military dictatorship who has eyed on the Jeju Island, a historically
strategic point by the imperial countries and dominating class, with the
turned-out-to-be a failed military base plan then.

The concern about the possibility of disappearing vernacular terms in the
Gangjeong village is being faced with the rapidly accelerated naval base
construction<http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2011/02/jeju-update-pain-of-gangjeong.html>:
Who would remember the names
<http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2011/01/jeju-update-construction-is-done-even.html>of
Goorumbee(*cloud-shaped rocks stuck under the earth*), Gaegurumbee
(*cloud-shaped
rocks on the earth*), Jinsokkak, (*hem-look in the place of deep and and
inwardly long water*), Neobeunnyo (*spacious rock protruded over water*),
Metboori( ** Of which the meaning is not exactly known but according to Mr.
Go Gwon-Il in the Gangjeong village, it could be 'a ritual place offered
with rice'*) in the Joongduk coast and Natgakk(*hem-look in the place of
stream*) in the downstream of the Gangjeong stream, once all the rocky
Joongduk coast in the Gangjeong badang(sea) is reclaimed with concrete by
the construction?

The naval base construction would not only bury the heaven-blessed nature of
the Gangjeong village but would also erase all the archaic history of it,
violently making scars into the memories of the Gangjeong villagers who
might not be able to say any more that their hometown Gangjeong used to be
the most water-abundant and the most water-fresh village in the Jeju Island.
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