My understanding of freedom is inextricably tied up with my understanding of language. My great-grandfather, in 1940s Korea, was arrested for putting together the first Korean dictionary, when the language had been banned by the Japanese government. My great-grandfather believed that words, the medium by which we formulate and share ideas, can bind and break the very ideas they express if the language is that of an oppressor. He fought for the freedom of his people to express ideas in their own words; in so doing, he defended their very right to have ideas.
As I prepare for all the freedoms and responsibilities of adulthood, I remember these definitions of freedom I have inherited, and strive to make ones of my own― not only as the first generation of my family born in a new country, but also as an American youth at the birth of a new century. Sitting in the hall between classes, my friends and I discuss the faults of our school's administration, the right to same-sex marriage, the justification for the Iraq War. We feel it is our right to know and evaluate our surroundings, to speak and have our ideas responded to.
I believe that freedom in the 21st century means the liberty of individuals, regardless of age, race, gender, or class, to express themselves in their own words, and to use those words to shape history. We celebrate it, and yet we never stop fighting for it. I am Korean-American, I am young, and I am free. I speak―not always articulate, not often right, but always in my own words. I speak, and I listen.
祖父さんに関する個所抜粋: The great-granddaughter of the Korean language scholar Jung In-seung, who was jailed under the Japanese occupation for resisting its attempt to marginalize the Korean language, garnered praise from U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday for an essay discussing her great-grandfather.
Jung, a graduate of what would later become Yonsei University, supervised the Korean Language Society’s work on a Korean dictionary and was imprisoned along with fellow language scholars Lee Hee-seung and Choi Hyeon-bae. He was a director at the Korean Language Society for over 50 years until his death in 1986, and was given a number of awards by the state for his contribution to the nation.
Jung contributed five pieces to the Chosun Ilbo, including an outline of the history of the Korean alphabet. In the Dec. 20, 1938 edition of the paper, he introduced a number of word games developed to preserve the Korean alphabet during Japanese colonial rule.
Her great-grandfather Jung In Seung was a historical figure in Korea because he put together the first Korean dictionary at a time when the language was banned under Japanese rule, Mihan said. He was arrested and interred in a prison camp until the liberation of Korea in 1945, she said.