First Korean Teacher Picked for Indonesia’s Jjia Jjia Tribe
By Cho Jae-hyon
Staff Reporter
An instructor at a multicultural center in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, has been selected as the first Korean to teach Korean language to the Jjia Jjia tribe in Indonesia.
The tribe has used hangeul (the Korean alphabet) as their writing system to document their spoken aboriginal language since July.
The Hunminjeongeum Society, a unit of Seoul National University, said it has selected Jung Dug-yung, 48, for the post from 27 contenders because of his zeal for studying and teaching hangeul.
"I'm really honored to serve as the first Korean teacher for the Jjia Jjia tribe," Jung told The Korea Times. "My main job is to teach students Korean language at a high school there."
He said he has been interested in studying and teaching Korean for decades and being selected for the job is "sort of a dream come true."
He will teach hangeul at a high school in Bau-Bau city, located on the island of Buton, southeast of Sulawesi.
"I can't speak Indonesian but it won't be any major obstacle to teaching Korean, given my teaching experiences," Jung said.
Jung taught Korean to multicultural families and immigrant workers at centers in Gyeonggi Province for about two years.
"I felt some fulfillment teaching them. I have thought that I want to do something for others and teaching Korean is what I can do well," he said.
He will travel to Indonesia by himself in early January and stay there for about a year. He will receive round-trip air fare and living expenses from the institute. But he won't receive a salary as he is effectively volunteering.
Jung didn't major in Korean, but he has studied it for a long time and is known as a "Korean-language maniac" among his colleagues. He won a Korean-language contest on a KBS TV program in 2006.
Jung majored in international trade at university and worked for a pharmaceutical firm for 20 years before restarting his career as a Korean-language instructor.
He finished a course for Korean-language teachers at Sogang University and received a certificate for attaining Level 3 on the Korean Language Teaching Proficiency Test.