EDUCATION News
-- https://rumble.com/v4w0gex-new-smartphone-dictionary-app-to-help-n.-korean-defectors.html --
-- https://borgenproject.org/univoca/ --
-- https://www.nknews.org/2015/03/bridging-the-app-south-north-korean-translator-launched/ --
The South Korean advertising company Cheil, the non-profit education organization DreamTouchForAll
and Community Chest of Korea have launched a North Korean-to-South Korean translation application.
The application, called Univoca: South Korean-North Korean Translator, contains about 3,600 South Korean terms chosen from three different South Korean high school textbooks.
“A hundred or more people took part in the launching of this application,” Jae-young Choi, chief of Cheil’s Good Company Solution Center, told NK News.
“Our company crews, NGOs and other individuals dedicated their efforts and time to this platform. Our first plan is to add more terms used in science and sociology school textbooks alongside newspapers and broadcasting.”
The app, which is currently available only on Google but which Cheil said will be on Apple next month,
uses a mobile device’s camera to scan Korean text from both books and screens.
If the word is not among the list of 3,600, the app includes a feature to send new words to the developers for addition.
“There are many terms that North Koreans are not used to in South Korea … I participated by cross-checking the North Korean terms and South Korean ones to make sure it has the correct data,” a North Korean student who helped with the app’s development told NK News on the condition of anonymity.
Even though South and North Koreans speak the same language and use the same writing system (hangeul), more than 60 years of separation have altered how the language is spoken and used.
South Korean, for example, uses numerous loanwords from other languages. North Koreans, however, tend to avoid borrowing words and place a greater emphasis on inventing new Korean terms.
The English word “ice cream,” for example, is pronounced aiseu keurim in South Korea. In North Korea, though, the word “ice cream” is translated as eoleum-bosungi, as eoleum means “ice” and bosungi means “paste.”
But loanword use is just one reason why the two Korean languages have become differentiated over time.
Different stances on communism, capitalism, the U.S. and Russia and even the history of Korea before the Korean War have led to a total conversion of many cultural and linguistic features.
The effort of publishing a dictionary that translates one Korean to the other goes back to 1989, when South Korean pastor Moon Ik-hwan visited Pyongyang and requested the joint publication of a Unified Korean Dictionary.
No progress was made until 2005, when the 6.15 Joint Declarations of the Korean language scholars from both South and North started the publication of Gyeoremal Grand Dictionary.
The finished dictionary was to contain a total of 300,000 terms that both North and South Koreans could refer to, but the project stalled in 2010 as relations between the two Koreas soured.
Even though there have been minor meetings between the two to continue the initiative, the publication date for the project has been postponed to 2019, according to the Gyeoremal Grand Dictionary’s official website.
There is no direct link between the Gyeoremal Grand Dictionary and the Univoca application. However, in the long run this application’s manufacturers seem certain that it will contribute to decreasing the gap between South Koreans and North Koreans.
“Soon with the users’ participations, hopefully we would be able to increase number of words that can be translated,” Choi said.
Picture: NK News
-- https://www.northkoreatech.org/the-north-korean-website-list/ --
This is a list of all North Korean websites available on the public Internet.
All sites hosted in Pyongyang are included and I have attempted to
list most major North Korean sites that are listed overseas.
I’ve also included a few non-North Korean sites that will be of interest
to people researching North Korea and its politics.
The list is divided into several major sections:
North Korean company and business websites
North Korean cultural websites
North Korean government and NGO websites
North Korean news and media websites
North Korean travel and tourism websites
North Korean university websites
Defunct websites are no longer listed.
If you spot a new site, please get in touch: martyn@northkoreatech.org
-- https://borgenproject.org/univoca/ --
North Korean defectors are Koreans who have fled North Korea seeking asylum in South Korea or other nations, mainly due to “political, ideological and economic reasons.” When North Korean defectors flee to South Korea, one particular challenge they endure is the language barrier. The two Koreas once shared a common language, but after years of conflict, the languages today are much different. The Univoca app, designed in South Korea’s capital city of Seoul, is a South Korean-North Korean translator app that has proven useful for learning new vocabulary to helps bridge the linguistic divide. Bridging the linguistic divide helps North Korean defectors better transition to living in South Korea.
Korean Dialects
The North Korean language has always remained the same. It is known as Chosŏnŏ, whereas Hangugeo is the language of South Korea. The alphabet is the same but there are visual variations in terms of spacing, connection and appearance. Some words look completely different but most of the difference is in the dialect and pronunciation.
The developing democratic nation of South Korea frequently pokes fun at the northern dialect in comedy acts for seeming “quaint or old-fashioned. The government of the north, is of a hereditary nature as it is a family dictatorship that some often call a “hereditary dictatorship.” North Korea does not allow anything to stray from its traditional and conservative history. Defectors that have fled to South Korea often flee in a desperate attempt to leave their pasts behind them and begin a new life that does not involve dictatorship. Univoca, short for unification vocabulary, helps bridge linguistic barriers.
After the arduous journey to South Korea, many defectors describe the struggle with the language to be one of the biggest hardships. North Koreans can only understand about half of the language in South Korea. Defectors compare the transition to learning an entirely new language. Although they are eager to start a new life, the language barrier makes transitioning difficult.
The Univoca Translation App
South Korean teachers are hopeful that the Univoca app will help new defector students better understand their learning material. This, in turn, should help them progress in their educational endeavors. Univoca offers some independence from constantly relying on others to teach and translate the language.
The developers of Univoca’s dictionary deliberately and considerably chose the first 3,600 words of Univoca’s dictionary. Co-developer, Jang Jong-chul said, “We first showed this typical South Korean grammar textbook to a class of teenage defectors who picked out the unfamiliar words.” The creators also consulted older North Korean people to help with producing accurate translations.
Univoca users are able to type in the unknown word or scan a photo of it with a cellphone camera. The app then produces the appropriate translation. Univoca also offers commonly used phrases to guide users through basic activities such as ordering food off of a menu or asking for directions. Subscribers are able to add suggestions of words that they would like Univoca to add to the dictionary. This leaves room for a continually growing translation app.
The Univoca translation app is a simple solution with a tremendous impact. Univoca helps North Koreans transition to life in South Korea by offering assistance with the linguistic barriers that present themselves.
– Sarah Ottosen
Photo: Flickr
-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kGF1jsC28U -- 18 mrt 2015 #2424 --
-- 탈북 학생 위한 '남한말 사전 앱' 개발 / YTN --
-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q927x5jlzFs -- 19 mrt 2015 --
-- 탈북 학생 위한 '남한말 사전 앱' 개발 / YTN 사이언스 --
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