A group of older men have joined together to form the National Hanja Education Promotion League (NHEPL) in an effort to strengthen the teaching of hanja in Korea's schools. 'Hanja' is the name given to Chinese characters that many Korean words are derived from, though they are written in common usage with increasing rarity, unlike 'kanji' characters in Japan. BHEPL members are 7,035 scholars, legal experts, clergymen, politicians, and economists.

Among other things they propose: the teaching of 1,000 characters at elementary school level; the mixed usage of hangul and hanja in textbooks of all grade levels in secondary education; mixed usage of both writing systems on governments, road signs, and other public notices; encouragement of mixed usage in the press; and the passing of the 'Hangul Usage Only Law Reversal Act' during the current session of the National Assembly.

A recent survey by BHEPL of university and graduate students between the ages of 18 and 26 showed that 96.6% would want to send their children to elementary schools that teach hanja. Of those surveyed who responded that they considered the learning of hanja important, 57.6% said that they considered it important because hanja is "necessary to understand Korean culture." Currently hanja is not permitted on official government documents, and hanja education begins at the first year of middle school.

(Lee Son-min, smlee@chosun.com )