Topic: 2024-Indigenous Languages
Country: Republic of Korea
Delegate Name: Lydia Harlan
A study showed one indigenous language disappears every two weeks, there are so many indigenous languages all over the world, but one thing they have in common is a slow extinction. While the world houses about 6,700 languages 96% of them are only known by 3% of the population. Some conservatives estimate that more than half of the world’s languages will be gone by 2100, close to only 80 years from now. The root cause of this problem is colonization, this practice strips the colonized territory’s culture, practices, religion, and language. One instance of this was the discovery of the New World when Spanish conquistadors sought gold, god, and glory. They did this by putting in place Spanish Missionaries where they forced cultures into a new religion, way of life, language, and overall everything. This greatly affected them and brought upon them forced assimilation, stripping them of their culture, and way of life. This continues to happen but even greater are the effects. The lost ways of life are even more buried as the rapid growth of the world continues. While school becoming more required around the world may seem all good, Indigenous peoples’ languages are being passed less easily, in multiple cases as well they take children away and send them to school. These both prevent the continuation of indigenous languages.
The Republic of Korea has done many things to prevent the loss of Indigenous languages as well as culture. They have established the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation, which is government-established and was created 40 years ago. Although, it was originally called the Association for the Preservation of Korea Cultural Properties. The Korean Republic also has The Jeju Language Preservation Society, Jeju is an Island off the Coast of the Republic of Korea. There are about a few less than 600 thousand inhabitants and the Island of Jeju has its own language, a mix of multiple Asian languages. Although Japan also has Jeju speakers as they immigrated as a result of the Korean War, the language is still suffering. The Jeju Language Preservation Society is doing everything it can, the UNESCO is helping too, holding a contest and the speech and putting other investments into it. They have also signed the declaration on rights for Indigenous people.
In the future, the Republic of Korea would like to continue supporting bills passed by the UN to help prevent the loss of indigenous languages. Additionally, continuing and furthering their bill and other actions will continue to prevent the loss of indigenous languages like Jeju. The Republic of Korea would also like to keep and grow support for the National Museum of Korea and the National Folk Museum of Korea. The Republic of Korea would also like to fund other things That would help partially fund other countries struggling with the loss of Indigenous languages. The Republic of Korea proposes that other countries encourage the use of Indigenous languages by putting together museums, poem contests in the native language, and other actions similar to ours. The Republic of Korea wants to preserve languages, and the loss of many continues to cause us deep sorrow. Our republic would like to lend our signatory and assist any of us in the legislative documents. The Republic of Korea does not want the disappearance of Indigenous languages to continue and wants to help save them.
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https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/04/Indigenous-Languages.pdf
