SNU to Introduce Chinese Exam for Freshmen Beginning Next Year

‘Study Chinese Characters, the Common Characters of East Asia.’

Seoul National University (SNU) decided to start a special education on Chinese Characters for freshman from next year.

Seoul National University announced on Sep. 14 that it would make studying Chinese Characters a mandatory for freshman, by conducting a special Chinese Characters exam for the students who are admitted for the year 2004 before they start the school and to reflect the result to their grades.

SNU also decided to intensify its Chinese Characters education by re-editing its `University Korean` course textbook which is currently written only in Korean alphabets to include Chinese Characters as well and developing its own Chinese Characters studying books.

One official from Seoul National University explained ˝The Special Exam aims to allow students recognize the importance of studying Chinese Characters and to equip them with basic abilities to use Chinese Characters.˝ He added, ˝It is essential to have an understanding of Chinese Characters using cultures, if one is to do business in East Asia.˝

Under the new plan, SNU will make those who failed to reach certain levels take retests, and reflect the result in student`s grades for `University Korean` course, which is a compulsory course. Yet, freshmen, who have passed certain levels in existing Chinese Characters Usage Certification Exams, are exempt from the university exam.

˝Teaching Chinese Characters is to improve students` abilities to form words and to conduct more in-depth research and academic exchanges,˝ and ˝we will work to enable all the Seoul National University graduates to have full knowledge of 1800 commonly used Chinese Characters,˝ an official from Seoul National University said.

podragon@donga.com