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영어

Nobody doesn't know the folk song, 'Arirang in Korea. 'Arirang' has been handed down from generation to generaton with the spirit of Koreans embodied in the 'Shadwo' and 'Image' of it.
Our ancestors expressed fully their feelings of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure as well as their passions of love, hatred, and desire through the song, 'Arirang'. They even tried to relieve everything of life in it. Thus, 'Arirang' might be said to have been another national anthem.
However, 'Arirang' is losing its melody and words nowadays and our folk songs and children's songs are being alienated from our people altogether. In other words, these songs are being changed and deteriorated by the flood of so called modern western popular songs which have been accepted without careful consideration.
Although we call 'Arirang' the song of our nation and of our people, we had not tried enough eforts to keep it unchanged. In this respect, we are not free from the fault of leaving it to change and deterioration and so are we responsible for its keeping hereafter.
Therefore, this paper is purposed to survey 'the Arirangs in Kangwondo' which have been either transmitted orally from district to district or scattered all over the province even if written down, to rediscover and suggest the true characters of the songs (272 verses out of 19 types) by the study of their contents, religions included, and intentions in the aspects of literature, folklore, and its social function.