Perhaps you are reading this to improve your English, or maybe you simply enjoy the English language for aesthetic reasons, and just maybe a few of you are earnestly interested in this editorial. Regardless of your reasons, it is an admirable thing to practice or to enjoy another language, and to much lesser extent, read what any editorial out there has to say. And so, for our first editorial, we would like to praise you: the readers. Thank you for your time in reading this. For many of you, Dong-A’s English newspaper will be challenge you to step out of your comfort zones of your native language where true growth happens, and to take a little more serious interest in English. This editorial will ask the reader to imagine and think in English, and to attempt to be more proficient in understanding issues in English.
“Why should I?” you may ask yourself. Well, there is no one answer to this. However, one thing is for certain. Many if not most of the international decisions being made in S. Korea, Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, the world, space, etc., that are directly effecting your life and those of the people you love and respect, as well as countless others, are being made in English. Decisions on international finance and oceanic discovery, space exploration to international relations are all being done in English. International justice issues, free trade agreements, trade unions, food laws, and animal testing, are largely being discussed in English. International environmental conferences, WTO meetings, occupy movements, travel, etc., all primarily use English to communicate, just to name a very small fraction of influential organizations. To put it plainly, if you don’t know what is being discussed, you are powerless to participate in it, much less question or even influence the conversation. The mission of our great university is ultimately to help students help themselves. It just so happens that our time in history is one where English is the global lingua franca. With that, we must not fight this fact, but acknowledge and befriend it with courage, confidence, and an understanding that although you may not be a native speaker that does not mean you don’t have equal rights in using the language. So this editorial wants to also present a challenge to the readers, to step outside your comfort zone, to influence the global conversation, and to use (instead of lose) your Korean identity in the process.
