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Korea's large southern island province has its own language or dialect which is not mutually comprehensible with standard Korean.

As a traveller who likes to learn languages as part of my travel I've become interested in whether there's any opportunities to learn Jeju-mal in Jeju.

Also the language is dying out, with all remaining speakers now in their 70s, so if there's no place to study it, another option might be to participate as a volunteer in any attempt at a language revival, if there is one.

Does anybody know how a traveller might participate in the Jeju language in Korea?

hippietrail
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1 Answers1

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I'm afraid you'll have to learn Korean first!

From Jeju's 'endangered' dialect article from The Jeju Weekly :

An after-school program for learning the dialect is offered in a couple of public schools.

This suggests that it should be possible. The article even mentions an iPhone app about the Jeju language, but I didn't find it.

The Jeju Special Self Governing Province site has a page on the Jeju language (original in Korean, or English via Google Translate). The most useful part for you might be the contact name and phone number at the end.

Pops
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mouviciel
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