ADOPTION OF HANGEUL

[Anchor Lead]

Ten years have passed since the Cia-Cia tribe in Indonesia adopted the Korean alphabet “Hangeul” to preserve their spoken-only language. Even to this day, the ethnic group's effort to learn the Korean alphabet continues. We bring you the details.

[Pkg]

A group of students performs a Korean children's song. Their pronunciation is quite good. The students from the Cia-Cia tribe in Indonesia are taught Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, at school. On a blackboard are Cia-Cia words written in Korean. Name tags written in Korean are attached to desks. Chung Deok-young is the sole Korean teacher to the tribe. He's been here since 2010. In a city with a population of 60,000, more than a thousand students have learned hangeul from Chung over the past ten years.

[Soundbite] CHUNG DEOK-YOUNG(KOREAN TEACHER) : "These students could have landed jobs in big cities but instead chose to teach Hangeul here with me. They give me great joy and pride."

These are the photos Chung has taken while teaching Cia-Cia students. A signboard inscribed with Korean translations of Cia-Cia words hangs at the entrance of a market. A bus stop signboard is also written in Hangeul. Even this village is called Hankook Mauel meaning Korean village. The Korean education program faced difficulties due to dwindled attention and financial assistance. However, a civic group collected donations to provide needed support.

[Soundbite] KIM HAN-RAN(KOREA/CIA-CIA CULTURAL EXCHANGE ASSOCIATION) : "We introduced a program to train local teachers four years ago, since Mr.Chung could no longer do it alone over there."

Around a decade has passed since the tribe adopted the alphabetical system of a foreign country. Hangeul has now become a convenient tool for Cia-Cia people that helps them read and write.