A Hangul School in a Cia-Cia Village, by Jeong Deok-yeong

King Sejong developed Hangul in the 1440s. Its letters represent sounds and are arranged in blocks by syllable, a design that made written Korean more accessible to people who had not learned Chinese characters.

The same design still matters in the digital age. The letter keys on a Korean keyboard can be combined to compose a syllable as you type.

When Hangul is used to write another language

People around the world encounter Hangul through Korean popular culture. In a different kind of exchange, communities outside Korea have also explored using the alphabet to write a language of their own.

In Baubau, Indonesia, educators and linguists adapted Hangul for the Cia-Cia language. Jeong Deok-yeong, one of the Korean teachers involved, wrote about his experience.

A Hangul School in a Cia-Cia Village

Jeong tells the story through episodes from his time teaching and getting to know the people around him.

Teaching was not his original career. He had studied trade and worked for a pharmaceutical company. After winning a Korean-language quiz show on KBS in 2006, he left his job and began teaching Korean to immigrants who had moved to Korea through marriage.

In 2009 he was selected to teach Hangul in a Cia-Cia community in Indonesia.

I was curious what would happen when a script designed for one language was adapted for the sounds of another. The project depended as much on local teachers and students as on the alphabet they were working with.

Where the name Cia-Cia comes from

The book recounts a story about the name involving a first encounter with Dutch soldiers.

According to that account, the soldiers asked a question and heard “cia,” a word for “no,” repeated in reply. It is presented as a story about the name’s origin.

Jeong is especially good on details he saw for himself, such as the ways people greeted one another and the path he took when he had time to clear his head. Photographs give those moments a setting.

Ways of greeting

Jeong noticed that people he met used the right hand for eating and greetings, while certain everyday tasks were reserved for the left hand.

He also describes people bringing the right hand to the chest after a handshake, a gesture he understood as a sign of warmth and respect.

The work of a teacher

The book recalls a comparison between teaching and shaping a soul. It treats education as work that can have an effect long after a lesson is over.

What moved me was the energy Jeong brought to teaching so far from home. The account also made me think about what learners bring to a classroom when the script they are studying can record the language they already speak.

It is difficult to know from a book what those students took from the experience. Jeong makes it easy to imagine how much of himself he put into it.

I came away thinking about what a writing system can make possible when the people using it can shape it around their own language.

Book details

A Hangul School in a Cia-Cia Village

Author

Jeong Deok-yeong

Published

October 1, 2011

ISBN13

9788974834913

View the book on YES24

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