With their mouths Koreans speak the Korean language
and with their eyes and hands they read and write
Hangeul , the Korean alphabet. The first thing
that needs to be done to process Hangeul data
into the computer is to find a way to establish
computer characters in Korean. For Koreans to
use computers more easily, Hangeul needs to be
used more in computers and easier ways to input
and output Hangeul data need to be developed.
The keyboards of today have a key for “Korean/English”
and one added for “Chinese”, so that you have
only to hit the “Han/Young” key to input Korean
and English letters in turn and the “Hanja” key
to input Chinese characters. It seems quite simple,
although with earlier keyboards you had to know
different ways to change Korean to English or
English to Korean as defined by various programs.
Korean people use the Korean language, but it
cannot be denied that we have to use English letters
more than Hangeul in order to operate a computer,
for most computer commands are written in English.
These English computer commands should be expressed
in Hangeul in the near future. The constraint
that one must learn English instead of our Korean
language in order to use the computer has to disappear
sooner or later. The use of computers for processing
Hangeul data must no longer be monopolized by
those specialists who are used to English commands.
Instead, it should be available to everyone who
knows Hangeul.
Translating English commands into Hangeul commands
has to be supervised and checked by Korean linguists
for the proper selection of Korean terminology.
The status of Korean letters on the keyboard should
also be changed. With computers for Korean users,
Hangeul should have primacy over English letters,
not vice versa as with current computers. Hangeul
seems only to be attached to the current English
computer system. This makes us feel that the Korean
computer has no nationality.
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