I just got shipped six copies of the Korean edition of my book. Man, it's weird; I wish I had a jpeg to throw up here so that I could show you. The cover says "Science War" and there are pictures of belching power plants and what looks like stem cells. Plus lots of characters (presumably Korean) that I totally don't understand. My name is on the cover too--in translation. I wish I could write it here but none of the symbols are to be found on my computer keyboard, although the first one looks like a backwards capitalized "E" and another looks like a "4". This whole experience has made me realize just how woefully inadequate my understanding of other cultures often is. Time for some travel...
Oh, wait, I don't have any time. Indeed, I am fully aware--and now seems a good time to mention it--that for the past few months or so, my blogging habits have changed dramatically. I.e., they have decreased. It's a function of tons of travel to give various talks and conduct research, combined with massive amounts of work, either on the new book or editing the paperback edition of the last one. Blogging has just slipped through the cracks because I haven't had the time. For that matter, responding to email has become equally spotty. Some of you may have noticed.
I am hoping that life will normalize a bit and I will have more blogging time; I am not throwing in the towel. But given that I have an entire book to write this year--198 days to go, actually, according to my last estimate--I don't know how much patterns will change. Here's hoping....
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Actually, the story of the Korean alphabet is pretty interesting. Korean spelling is completely phonetic--far more phonetic than English spelling, where you could spell fish "g-h-o-t-i", as the old joke goes.
Hangul, as it's called, was developed by someone who was something of a renaissance man, a 15th century Korean king named Sejong the Great. In addition to the Korean alphabet, he's famous for inventing a rain gauge, some water clocks, and a sundial. And did a number of other things like reform the Korean justice system. And apparently he wrote classic works of Korean poetry while he was at it.
Anyway, the intention of the Korean alphabet was to democratize writing. Before that, everything had to be done using Chinese characters, which imposed a high hurdle for literacy. As you could guess, he faced some resistance from his country's existing literate population, so part of the challenge of introducing Hangul was the political pressures involved.
So anyway, just in case you were wondering...
By the way, it's not surprising that the cover of the book would show something about air pollution. If you've ever been to Seoul, they have yet to solve their pollution problems there...
Jon Winsor said most of what I was going to, but allow me to add a couple of things:
There are only 20-odd letters in the Korean alphabet, and you can learn to read it in an afternoon.
A backwards E might be a "k" on the top (looks like a backwards F) with a vowel that sounds a little like "err" written under it, as a horizontal stroke.
The 4 is probably "nee", that is, an L-shaped n-consonant followed by the vertical stroke that makes the "ee" sound.
I am guessing that these are the last syllable of the word "Republican", plus an adjective suffix: kerr-nee.
A good telling of the story of King Sejong and Hangul is here.
incidentally, what compelled folks to decide on a Korean translation of the book, over other languages? What is the interest that Koreans have in the science-politics issues of the United States? And why would they be more interested in it than people in other countries? I'll admit I'm fascinated.
-m
Ahhh! More staying at home, more blogging, more writing, less travel AND therefore less aircraft and other CO2 emissions! Good! I like less AGW/CC!
Douglas Coker
What is the interest that Koreans have in the science-politics issues of the United States?
Korea is a huge innovator in technology and biotech; in the tech-business reporting world we often look towards the products and services they're selling to try and figure out where the U.S. might be in a year or two or five. They're also big on biotech research and until recently were famed for their stem-cell and cloning research, some of which has had doubts cast upon it. But the point is when we say "we need to be able to compete," Korea is one of the main countries we need to be able to compete with. They're also, of course, particularly interested in nuclear proliferation and how, exactly, American policy culture assesses evidence about that.