Where is your hometown? If you are not from Seoul, do the people in your hometown use their own local dialect? University students come from many different provinces, and as a result, we hear various local dialects being spoken on campus. Sometimes, we even get to hear strange new versions of our language stemming from the mixture of a local dialect with a standardized
accent. These come about because people try to correct their local dialect, which they have used for many years, by including a more standard version of the language. Why do people try to lose their accent, a feature that makes them unique and arguably lends to their own sense of character?

When you watch TV shows, celebrities from different provinces often use their local dialect for fun. When the videos are posted on SNSs, public reaction is mostly positive and often times the accent is referred to as ‘cute’. It is weird that we would think local dialects spoken by celebrities are cute or attractive, while those same ones used by normal people are somehow crude and countrified. Normally, Seoulites prefer refined, urban accents much the same way one would prefer British over American accents or Californian pronunciation over a New York style when people learn English. Moreover, people raised with local dialects spend a great deal of time repeating after recorded voice files or watching video clips in order to become more familiar with their target pronunciation and accent. So the question is, why are urban things always trendy and cool, while local things considered simple and countrified?

Chungcheong-do held a local dialect contest in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do last month. The purpose of this contest was to try to recover and preserve the Chungcheong-do dialect. The winner of the competition was a 6th grade elementary school student. She said she thought her dialect was something to be
ashamed of before, but this contest was an opportunity for her to rethink her position on her local dialect and instead became an advocate for its resurgence.

Is it really shameful to use a local dialect? An acquaintance from Busan shared a surprising story with me. When she was at the subway station in Seoul, someone asked her for directions. She couldn’t answer properly because of her local dialect even though she knew where it was. In the case of the Jeju-do dialect, communication can be difficult because the words and accents are very different. However, there are no communication problems with Gyeongsang-do, Jeolla-do, and Chungcheong-do dialects because the accent differences are simple.

Lately, there are many familiar main characters using local dialects in TV dramas or movies, so more and more people want to learn local dialects. After the series ‘Reply 1994’ broadcasted, the dialects of Gyeongsang-do, and Jeolla-do gained huge popularity. Every actor and actress performed using their own hometown’s dialect, so it was possible to concentrate on their more realistic acting. Moreover, the main character’s accent and their way of speaking represented their personality and was one of the main attractions to the production.

When you search ‘dialect’ on the internet, some auto complete search words come up such as ‘correct dialect’, or even ‘dialect correction academy.’ On the other hand, you can also easily find the words ‘Learning the Gyeongsang-do dialect’, or even ‘Learning the Jeolla-do dialect.’ People of Seoul think local dialects are cute and fun, so they want to learn them, but local people continue to consider them shameful and try to correct themselves even when it is a part of the culture of their birthplace.

Is it necessary to correct one’s local dialect? Is there a reason to do so for anyone except for those who must use standard words such as anchors or reporters? Preserving local dialects, which have been spoken through the breath of our ancestor, would be better than considering them shameful. Speaking in your local dialect could be one of your attractive traits, so why not accept it as a merit?