earticle

영어

Over 60 years after division of South and North Korea, the two Koreas have wasted time showing enmity toward each other rather than trying to understand each other. Thus, even though it could be thought of as being a little late, South and North Korea should actively participate in preparation for reunification with respect to socio-cultural aspects as well as politico-economic aspects. Especially, teaching subjects related to North Korean in middle and high schools will make an enormous contributions in helping the next generation build a homogeneous cultural community after reunification by reducing cultural and emotional conflict between the two Koreas.
Although previous Korean textbooks for secondary school contain the subjects related to North Korean, more enthusiastic, comprehensive and reunification-oriented education for the North Korean language is needed in these days. We need to go beyond the elementary step simply teaching the list of differences between South and North Korean, in order to come up with the curriculum helping students understand North Korean society and lifestyle including language
culture. Comparing to the Korean textbook of the 6th curriculum, the contents relevant to North Korean were lessened in that of the 7th curriculum. Thus, we need to reinforce the education for
reunification including North Korean education, and also to lead North Korea to teach more of language and language culture of South Korea.
Right after the national liberation, there was a dialectal bifurcation between South and North Korea. Even though the difference between them is not serious yet, the differentiation will be accelerated through continuous severance. It can be said that the language change which took place independently in South and North Korea has provided enrichment and diversity to the Korean language. Now, the South and North Korea need to cooperate to combine the both
Koreans for the bright future of our national language. In order to achieve this, the two Koreas have to study and teach each other’s Korean.