Guess which language Japanese women in their 40s like the best?

Original article

Korean has been selected as the foreign language Japanese women in their 40s want to learn the most.

In response the question ‘In this international age, what foreign language besides English would you like to learn?’ on a survey by the Japanese entertainment company Oricon, the first place was French (32.2%), second was Chinese (27.2%), and Korean was third at 24.1%.

When it came to women, French was selected first by 39.8% of respondents for reasons such as its intellectual image and beautiful impression, and for men Chinese took first place with 28.4% because of the growing Chinese economy, and because they believed it could be the next international language after English.

Korean only took fourth place at 20.0% with men, but second place with women at 28.2%. For women in their twenties it was third at 21.0%, for those in their thirties it was second at 26.0%, and for those in their forties it was in first place at 32.5%, showing its popularity increasing with the age of the respondent.

Oricon pointed out that a large number of fans that wish to see Korean dramas and movies without subtitles are in their 30s and above.

The survey was carried out by Oricon’s survey research division on a total of 1,000 of its members from the 23rd to the 26th, divided into ten sections characterized by gender, and then by age group: first with high school students, then university students, and after that on others in their 20s, 30s, and then 40s; this made a total of 100 people surveyed per group.

Hangul for the world?

The Chosun Ilbo recently published a rather odd little editorial about foreigners learning Korean. A typical article like this just goes ra-ra, hangul is awesome and scientific, but this one is special, mixing it in an unappealing mix of anti-Americanism and racism towards Southeast Asians, and a strange call for a radical restructuring of the Korean language itself. Take a look.

The ranks of foreigners learning hangul are growing. Not to the same degree as us learning English, but still, many foreigners are coming in to learn our language. I heard that last year the number of international students from foreign countries passed 30,000 for the first time. Of course the greatest number of them is from Southeast Asia but it’s welcome news anyway. Of course they must study hangul, the native tongue. Not only that but we wonder how many people will learn hangul. Last year, while living in Hanoi, author Yeon Su-cha worked to check up on the “Hangul Wind” there. It’s the result of our economy’s growth and of the Korean Wave. At the three universities in Hanoi, there is stiff competition to enter the Korean courses and after graduation, the employment rate is 100%.

In today’s world, we can say the planet is becoming a global village. Last year the number of Koreans who traveled abroad reached 10 million while the number of foreign tourists who came to Korea was 6 million. Our daily lives are being globalized and American stock prices have an immediate effect on our markets. The war in Iraq is causing neighboring countries to experience war and suffering too. The destruction of oil refineries in the desert region is directly connected to our domestic existence. There is no more center. Anyplace can be a center or a fringe.

In any case, foreigners learning Korean all say that our hangul is just too difficult. You might ask why learning a foreign tongue is difficult. We learn English for 10 years or more and, though we cannot speak it perfectly, it’s enough to guess at the meaning of even difficult things while in our language, the special thing is high speech levels. High speech is divided into distinct parts, which causes grumbling among foreigners who study hangul in confusion. Among all the parts of our grammar this is the most difficult.

For the globalization of hangul, it would be best if these exceptions were reduced and basic rules elevated. In general though, doesn’t everything have to be developed into an easier form of use? In this age of globalization, I wonder if our hangul doesn’t need to evolve so more can use it.

Video games surfing the Korean Wave

Right into Vietnam, in fact, as one reporter from free daily The Focus discovered. A boatload of Korean stars, films, and soap operas have hitched their ride on the Korean Wave before, and some have recently said it to be running out of steam. Video games may not be so obviously Korean as films like The King and the Clown so perhaps they’re actually running on their own steam rather than just along for the ride.

You may be interested to know the astoundingly cheap hourly rate for internet cafes in Vietnam — just about 300 won an hour, while in Korea we pay over 1,000.

Since the late 1990s in Vietnam when the beginning of the broadcasting of Korean dramas pulled along the Korean Wave, Korean games are following right behind now, causing young Vietnamese to get hooked on them.

Right now at least 10 online Korean games are offering service in Vietnam including ‘Audition’, ‘Mu Online’, ‘Ragnarok’, ‘Granado Espada’, and ‘Silk Road Online’. Among them, the T3 Entertainment-developed and Yedang Online-serviced online dance game Audition has recorded 3.2 million members and 110,000 joiners as it leads the Wave.

In Ho Chi Minh City’s top internet cafe, 22-year old female college student Vu Thi Hue said, “My friends and I live our lives all wrapped up in the music and dance game Audition,” adding that the praise Korean games receive is far from frugal.

Together with Audition, Webgen’s massively multiplayer online game “Mu Online” has received the same tremendous reaction.

In another internet cafe 20-year old male college student Nguyen Phuc Nam said “There are 10 fun games with service in Ho Chi Minh City but to me the best is Mu Online”, adding “on the weekend I play Mu Online all day.”

In May of 2005 Webgen struck a deal with Vietnamese publisher FPT to offer ‘Mu Online’.

In September the same year, a rushed beta release of “Mu Online” attracted 500,000 subscribers.

Vietnam’s internet population is 7.5 million, and if its 800,000 online gamers are taken into account it makes for an astounding total.

Park Jae-woo, director of overseas operations for Yedang Online, said “If the 140,000 subscribers to Vietnam’s most popular online roleplaying game are considered, the upward trend in Audition’s popularity is amazing”, and that “Vietnamese gamers used to do just roleplaying games, but now they’re hunting for casual games.”

Following that he added, “As there is deep interest about Korea’s other casual games, from now on the commercial prospects for the market appear bright.”