KBS Announcers Oppose the Use of English as Korea's Official Language

The announcers of KBS and linguists plan to make a public statement in opposition to continuous suggestions to use English as the official language of Korea.

The department of Korean language research association of KBS announcers plans to make their statement with three main topics at the advisory committee meeting of 2000. The meeting will be held at 10:30 A.M. on April 27 in the conference room of KBS's main building. Eleven members of the advisory committee, including Lee Hyun-bok, Seoul National University professor of Linguistics and Hong Yun-soo, Hanyang University professor of English, will participate in the advisory meeting.

The advisory committee insisted that, "Using English as the official language of Korea will degrade the status of the Korean language and prevent the linguistic unification of South and North Korea. It will also threaten the sense of national homogeneity."

The announcers and linguists plans to urge the government to establish a policy to develop the Korean language in step with the informatization era. Moreover, the advisory committee urges the government to develop and provide practical English language training for Koreans. The government plans to establish an international organization for simultaneous foreign language translation and interpretation. Furthermore, the committee urges the media to stop inflammatory reports on the use of English as the official language of Korea.

The department of Korean language research association of KBS announcers was established in 1983, and the all 69 members of the KBS announcers department are currently participating in the activities.

by Lee Hoo-nam