Dongguk University Club Teaches Korean to Foreigners

By M. M. Lay

Contributing Writer

I am a retired professor from the International Theravada Buddhist University in Yangon, Myanmar. As I studied at the Sorbonne University of Paris IV, Louvre Museum School and an Oriental museum in Paris, I have a thorough knowledge of the French language.

As for English, it was a compulsory subject during school days in my country, which was colonized by the British from 1885 to 1948, and I had to learn its four skills ever since kindergarten.

In my country, I frequently watched the ``Arirang" television program which attracts many Myanmarese. I became interested in Korea, her people and the Korean language, but did not know any Korean words at that time.

After working for over 43 years in various capacities such as museum curator, director and professor, I retired from government service and came to Seoul to join my daughter who works at the embassy.

One Saturday morning, she took me to Dongguk University where a group known as the Haram Club was busy teaching the Korean language to foreigners. She introduced me to some young teachers of the club. That was last summer, a year ago. Since then, I have attended the Korean language class every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

My first teacher was Lee Sang-ah who studies at the university. She introduced me to ``hangeul (the Korean alphabet)," which is composed of 10 simple vowels and 14 consonants.

A group of scholars under the patronage of King Sejong the Great developed this rendition of spoken sound in 1443. It is widely acclaimed by linguists as an ingenious invention and is spoken by over 70 million people.

Every expat living in Seoul should know about the Haram Club which is a well-organized Korean youth association based at Dongguk University.

Right now, there are about 100 young members in the club, all of whom study at Dongguk. The president of the club is Ju Yong-hun. The club members teach Korean voluntarily to foreigners.

They also introduce participants to Korean culture and traditional food and celebrate special events with them such as ``Seollal (Lunar New Year's Day)" and ``Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day)."

They also conduct guided tours to the Hi-Seoul Festival, Fringe Festival and Yunjung-no Street lined with about 1,400 cherry trees ranging from 3 to 35 years in age. We took great pleasure enjoying a pleasant stroll to admire the cherry blossoms in spring.

The young teachers also demonstrated how to make ``songpyeon (crescent-shaped rice cakes)" on the occasion of Chuseok and explained how to prepare ``tteokguk (rice cake soup)" for the Lunar New Year's Day. They also told us about traditional Korean games. They teach us in turns.

Thanks to them, I can now speak, read and write Korean after attending their classes two hours a week for nearly a year. I have learnt a lot about Korean tradition and culture because of their kind contribution. I will now not feel lost as a stranger in Korea.

In my country, according to the Buddhist tradition, one should pay their respects to five categories of person, namely, the Buddha, the Dhamma (the teaching of the Buddha), the Samgha (Order of the Buddhist monks), one's parents and teachers and finally to oneself. Therefore, I pay my respect to them whenever I meet them.

I admire and appreciate their contribution to foreigners living in Seoul, irrespective of race, gender, age or religion.

The writer is a retired professor currently living in Seoul and can be contacted on mimosamg@gmail.com