InterviewHangeul unites people through culture, not imperial power, says scholar
Robert Fouser, an American polyglot and linguist / Courtesy of Robert Fouser
Cover image for Robert Fouser's book. titled "The Spread of Writing Systems" / Courtesy of Hyehwa1117
Robert Fouser, an American scholar and linguist, says the global spread of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, is an interesting phenomenon in an era of increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) that bonds people culturally without aggression, unlike other languages that have found inroads through religious or colonial imposition.
“It (Hangeul) has an interesting role, perhaps, as a kind of language that brings people together as with K-pop fans, and that's related to its history of not being an aggressive language in terms of dominating through religion or control through imperialism,” Robert Fouser, an independent scholar, said during a video interview with The Korea Times, Wednesday.
In June, he published his seventh Korean-language book, titled “The Spread of Writing Systems,” which traces the creation, evolution and spread of writing systems across human history.
In addition to his native English, Fouser speaks multiple Asian and European languages, including fluent Korean and Japanese. He has also studied Latin, Middle Korean and Esperanto. With a unique career path spanning English teaching in Japan and Korea to becoming the first-ever full-time foreign lecturer in the department of Korean language education at Seoul National University, the near-native Korean speaker has developed a deep mastery of the Korean language during his time living here and through writing Korean books. Since he returned to the U.S. in 2014, he has continued to engage with Korea through his writing, including several books written in Korean that mainly focus on languages and cities.
In his most recent book, he explores writing systems ranging from ancient Sumerian cuneiform to East Asian systems like Hangeul and Chinese characters to modern digital emojis, reinterpreting global civilization through the transformative journey of written language across time and space.
He observes that languages, especially writing systems, were historically spread by rulers seeking to control people in colonial territories or to assert dominance through religion.
“As empires and nation-states expanded, the ruling elite brought their language and writing system with them. When those empires fell, the ruling elite — the primary carriers of that language and script — were often replaced by a new elite with its own language and writing system,” he said.
Western mainstream scholars often overlook how imperial power and religious expansion drove script adoption, reflecting an underlying Eurocentric bias, he pointed out.
“It’s difficult to generalize, of course, but I think it stems from Eurocentric notions of cultural superiority that developed over centuries. These assumptions have been challenged since the late 20th century and even more so in the 21st century, but they persist — largely at a subconscious level.”
"Learn! KOREAN with BTS" is an educational package leveraging the boy band's global popularity to help people learn Korean. Courtesy of HYBE EDU
“If Korea invaded a country and became the government of that country, then the people who wanted to be close to the government would learn Korean. That's not the situation we're talking about. Korean is kind of an interesting case to watch.”
Unlike other languages, he sees the spread of Hangeul as unique and noncoercive, often being used by fans of Korean culture to build camaraderie in a way he views as similar to emojis.
“You could have some people writing 'oppa' (older brother), 'gamsahamnida' (thank you), 'saranghae' (I love you). You could have them using that Hangeul inside a sentence or in their own language,” he said.
“If Hangeul spreads, I think it'll be like an emoji … Hangeul might spread through K-pop as a kind of decoration or a kind of marking of solidarity among the fans.”
He observed that Hangeul is particularly favored among K-pop fans as a way to distinguish themselves from older generations.
“It is the same phenomenon as the K-pop language. It’s this idea of in-group membership camaraderie, a sense of belonging to a certain group.”
Although Fouser once believed that Koreans should learn Chinese characters as a way to better understand their own language and enhance communication, he changed his mind while writing his new book.
“Just as you don’t need to learn Latin to strengthen your English, you don’t need to learn Chinese characters to master Korean. I realized just how complex Chinese characters are and how burdensome they are to learn. I recalled my own experience learning Chinese characters when studying Japanese, as well as conversations with friends in Japan, who mentioned that they began forgetting how to write certain characters once computers became standard.
"Hangeul is remarkably easy to learn, leaving people with more time to focus on other vital knowledge,” he said, adding he was able to read out some words after being taught by a man during a long flight to Seoul in 1983.
Children take selfies in front of a Hangeul mural at Gyeonggi Children’s Museum in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Oct. 8, 2025. Yonhap
When asked whether Hangeul would survive and thrive in the AI era, he said it has potential due to its nature. Supported by its simplicity, he said it might well be one of the surviving writing systems in the future, even as AI is shaping language with unexpected speed.
“Hangeul is a good candidate for surviving. Russian, Greek, those kinds of languages — Arabic, too. But it's the Chinese character languages that are going to have a problem simply because they're hard to write.”
Looking ahead, Fouser expects AI to break traditional language barriers and that learning foreign languages will cease being a requirement for lots of careers. Instead, people will learn languages as a hobby.
“AI will really break the language barrier ... You're going to get to the point where the language itself is more of a superficial thing when dealing with AI.”
He stressed that humans should remain careful not to be manipulated by AI, which is the first entity that can use languages like humans.
“Humans have lost their unique characteristics as the only entity or the only species that can deal with language. So this is a huge change in the history of humans. It uses electricity and it's not really alive but it's this thing that can produce and create and understand language and we humans have never had that experience before.”
“Critical awareness is key. With an overwhelming volume of information available, people must know how to separate quality information from junk, as well as how to retrieve and use reliable information effectively. Furthermore, with the AI revolution, it is essential to learn how to leverage AI tools effectively while maintaining a sharp critical eye toward their output.”