外國人을 위한 韓國語 敎育에 있어서의 漢字 敎育

Abstract

With Korean economic growth, Korean language education is gradually attracted by the world. Now, the necessity of Chinese characters education in Korean language education becomes a problem at hand for not only Korean people but also Korean language education for foreigners It seems that. among many difficulties foreigners feel and face in learning Korean, the most difficulty problem would be a problem of vocabulary, that is, a problem related to Chinese characters and Sino-Korean words. For example, if a foreign can read Korean but can't read Chinese characters, he/she could not understand Korean sentences in which Korean and Chinese characters are mixed. Even if a foreign knows Chinese characters, if he/she reads Chinese characters in Chinese or Japanese pronunciation, it couldn't be said he/she properly reads Korean. Also, in case there are words composed of the same Chinese characters, if a foreigner differently understands the meaning of the words, it also couldn't be said that he/she properly understands Korean. Needless to say, it is easily expected that a foreigner belonging to cultural circle of Chinese characters can learn Chinese characters used in Korea more easily. Because there are many Chinese characters vocabularies together shared within the same cultural circle of Chinese characters. In view of this point, it would be necessary that teaching Chinese characters in Korean language education should be divided into two to some extent - 1) an education for foreigners belonging to cultural circle of Chinese characters and 2) an education for foreigners not belonging to cultural circle of Chinese characters. But, in respect of teaching foreigners Chinese characters in Korean language education, top priority should be given to Chinese characters education for foreigners not belonging to cultural circle of Chinese characters. Because, after this basic education is given, it is possible to take deep consideration of Chinese characters education for foreigners not belonging to cultural circle of Chinese characters, compared with the basic education. In this case, Chinese characters education for Korean could be utilized as a good exemplary example. Because, even in case of Koreans, there are so many Koreans who do not know Chinese characters vocabularies as well as Chinese characters in the same degree as the foreigners and the foreigners not belonging to cultural circle of Chinese characters. With regard to Korean words used as native language though they originated from Chinese characters, it would be no problem if we do not know the Chinese characters of such words. However, vocabularies that compose most of Korean words are Sino-Korean words that couldn't be easily understood unless we don't know Chinese characters. Of course, even if we know the meaning and pronunciation of Chinese characters, that does not mean we can automatically understand all words. This applies still more in words indicating abstract concepts, especially academic words. This is the very reason that an education in Chinese characters should be given for both Korean and foreigners. Similarly with Chinese characters education for Koreans, it is more required to give Chinese characters education in Korean language education for foreigners for the purpose of not only ordinary Korean words but teaching them Korean high-ranking culture and academic language.