Friday, June 20, 2003
From the Land of Morning Calm..
Imagine this..You are in The Land of Morning Calm. Though people are generally very warm, friendly, approachable, and peace-loving, any which way you turn, there are myriads of mysterious ‘characters’ in all hues and sizes staring and blinking at you. Over-awed by what seemed like arcane hieroglyphics from a bygone era, you were losing hope.. of even making an attempt at deciphering it. Suddenly you get a secret key.. and bingo !! you are able to read that out, though much of it still may not make sense to you.. How would you feel ???
It's about my experience with Han-geul, the Korean alphabet.
The seagull in me felt that it has finally 'arrived' the shores of the Far East ! It soared and somersaulted, swooped down and looped.. Wings felt lighter in the efflorescing air of the Spring.
Well.. I'd say, tis a nice feeling to have when roving on terra incognita.
Last week, learnt to read and write Korean. No kidding, it’s pretty easy !.. For me, it was easier than learning Tamil alphabets !!.. just 14 consonants (comparatively simple, than our South Indian languages).. and 8 basic vowels. some consonants have different accents depending on context, like Tamil. When writing, each unit (syllable) is a combination of 2,3 or 4 letters (so, might 'look' complex).
I guess the complexity is nowhere near Chinese or Japanese.
Circa 1443. Somewhere in the mountainous terrain east of the Yellow sea, The King proposed. His scholars disposed.. they churned their erudite brains.. and out came what the 20th century linguists hailed as "Ingenious Invention !".. encomium for the efforts of those 15th century scholars of Korea, who came up with the set of alphabets and rules for the Korean language. The fact that it's really invented, and not evolved in the strict sense, could be the reason why it is simple.
It's 'Sik Mok Il' on Saturday.. that is "Planting Trees on the Mountain", wrote my senior manager, in a piece of paper when I wanted to know about the National holiday- Arbour Day, the anglicised version. "Any place nearby, where I can go to watch some traditional tree-planting ceremony ?" I queried. Mr Shin nods in the negative- "you can watch TV !, otherwise, you'll have to go to the hills". Though hills are never too far away in this peninsula where 70% of the land is mountainous, I didn't have much hope of seeing any such ceremony (except for some symbolic stuff, nothing traditional) in this urbanscape where a quarter of the country's population live.
Saturday, I gathered info abt many destinations out here from Korea National Tourism Organization site and booklet. 7-8 of the 20 National Parks are within 5 hrs. Not bad a prospect (one is just an hr from city). And spring has just begun ! Gud thing is that they've also given the route o trails within and apporx time to traverse. most can b done in 5-7 hrs. and some in 1-2 days.
West coast is also nearby, within an hour's cycling, I guess.
In the afternoon went to this nearby 18th century Fort on a hill within city limits..
It's a UNESCO World Cultural and Heritage site. When I started, I's alone (though I checked with 3-4 guys, they were either heading to office or had other shopping plans. and I didn't want a Saturday to just slip away) but when I just hit the street, 3 gals (colleagues) were asking for info to get there.. and I joined ‘em and took a taxi. But after reaching there, I went my own way, as I didn't want to waste their time, since taking photos would mean waiting for a chance for people to move out of frame.
After sunset, I walked towards this Buddhist temple near to the fort.. when I entered its compound from the busy lane with flashy outlets and eateries, the scene changed completely to that of serenity and tradition. When I climbed the steps, an orthodox-looking couple in some traditional cloths were leaving the place.
Seemingly no one's around. I pulled the creaky wooden door and entered the small dark carpeted hall with elaborately carved wooden ceiling seen in the dim lights around the golden idols of Buddha. Air is filled with an exotic smell from burning incense sticks next to the old wall paintings depicting Buddha and 'Angulimal'. I felt strange that coming from the land of Buddha, I had never seen a Buddhist temple. Alone in that quietness, I soaked up the quaint ambience of the meeting point of cultures.
-*-
Imagine this..You are in The Land of Morning Calm. Though people are generally very warm, friendly, approachable, and peace-loving, any which way you turn, there are myriads of mysterious ‘characters’ in all hues and sizes staring and blinking at you. Over-awed by what seemed like arcane hieroglyphics from a bygone era, you were losing hope.. of even making an attempt at deciphering it. Suddenly you get a secret key.. and bingo !! you are able to read that out, though much of it still may not make sense to you.. How would you feel ???
It's about my experience with Han-geul, the Korean alphabet.
The seagull in me felt that it has finally 'arrived' the shores of the Far East ! It soared and somersaulted, swooped down and looped.. Wings felt lighter in the efflorescing air of the Spring.
Well.. I'd say, tis a nice feeling to have when roving on terra incognita.
Last week, learnt to read and write Korean. No kidding, it’s pretty easy !.. For me, it was easier than learning Tamil alphabets !!.. just 14 consonants (comparatively simple, than our South Indian languages).. and 8 basic vowels. some consonants have different accents depending on context, like Tamil. When writing, each unit (syllable) is a combination of 2,3 or 4 letters (so, might 'look' complex).
I guess the complexity is nowhere near Chinese or Japanese.
Circa 1443. Somewhere in the mountainous terrain east of the Yellow sea, The King proposed. His scholars disposed.. they churned their erudite brains.. and out came what the 20th century linguists hailed as "Ingenious Invention !".. encomium for the efforts of those 15th century scholars of Korea, who came up with the set of alphabets and rules for the Korean language. The fact that it's really invented, and not evolved in the strict sense, could be the reason why it is simple.
It's 'Sik Mok Il' on Saturday.. that is "Planting Trees on the Mountain", wrote my senior manager, in a piece of paper when I wanted to know about the National holiday- Arbour Day, the anglicised version. "Any place nearby, where I can go to watch some traditional tree-planting ceremony ?" I queried. Mr Shin nods in the negative- "you can watch TV !, otherwise, you'll have to go to the hills". Though hills are never too far away in this peninsula where 70% of the land is mountainous, I didn't have much hope of seeing any such ceremony (except for some symbolic stuff, nothing traditional) in this urbanscape where a quarter of the country's population live.
Saturday, I gathered info abt many destinations out here from Korea National Tourism Organization site and booklet. 7-8 of the 20 National Parks are within 5 hrs. Not bad a prospect (one is just an hr from city). And spring has just begun ! Gud thing is that they've also given the route o trails within and apporx time to traverse. most can b done in 5-7 hrs. and some in 1-2 days.
West coast is also nearby, within an hour's cycling, I guess.
In the afternoon went to this nearby 18th century Fort on a hill within city limits..
It's a UNESCO World Cultural and Heritage site. When I started, I's alone (though I checked with 3-4 guys, they were either heading to office or had other shopping plans. and I didn't want a Saturday to just slip away) but when I just hit the street, 3 gals (colleagues) were asking for info to get there.. and I joined ‘em and took a taxi. But after reaching there, I went my own way, as I didn't want to waste their time, since taking photos would mean waiting for a chance for people to move out of frame.
After sunset, I walked towards this Buddhist temple near to the fort.. when I entered its compound from the busy lane with flashy outlets and eateries, the scene changed completely to that of serenity and tradition. When I climbed the steps, an orthodox-looking couple in some traditional cloths were leaving the place.
Seemingly no one's around. I pulled the creaky wooden door and entered the small dark carpeted hall with elaborately carved wooden ceiling seen in the dim lights around the golden idols of Buddha. Air is filled with an exotic smell from burning incense sticks next to the old wall paintings depicting Buddha and 'Angulimal'. I felt strange that coming from the land of Buddha, I had never seen a Buddhist temple. Alone in that quietness, I soaked up the quaint ambience of the meeting point of cultures.
-*-
