Former Tsinghua Professor Jung Ingap: "Master Chinese in Three Months"

Publication of "Casual Chinese for People in Their 50s to 70s"

Jung Ingap (80), a former professor at Tsinghua University who has served as a bridge between Korea and China, has recently drawn attention by publishing a groundbreaking Chinese language textbook for middle-aged and older adults titled "Casual Chinese for People in Their 50s to 70s" (Kyeongjin Publishing).

Professor Jung is a distinguished linguist who studied Chinese literature and classical linguistics at Peking University and later served as a professor at Tsinghua University.

Based on his lifelong experience teaching Chinese to Koreans and Korean to Chinese, he has distilled seven key strategies for Koreans to learn Chinese quickly and easily into this new book.

Cover of the Chinese language workbook "Easygoing Chinese for Ages 50 to 70." Provided by the author.

Through this book, Professor Jung emphasizes that "Koreans have a powerful weapon: more than 60% of their vocabulary comes from Chinese characters," and adds, "If you properly understand the principle of correspondence, you can acquire more than 1,600 words in a short period of time."

Instead of focusing on complex grammar, he organizes the core structures of Chinese into three basic sentence types: 'judgment sentences,' 'descriptive sentences,' and 'action sentences,' asserting that with three months of part-time study, learners can reach a level sufficient for daily conversation.

This textbook is especially designed for people in their 50s and older who may feel they have missed the optimal period for learning a foreign language.

Professor Jung advises that as people age, they should move away from rote memorization and instead adopt 'Method B,' which builds a grammatical framework based on linguistic principles.

'Method B' is explained in detail in the book.

One notable aspect of Professor Jung's career is his role in the late 1980s in facilitating the marriage between Ahn Jaehyung, a Korean athlete, and Jiao Zhimin, a Chinese athlete, who were considered a legendary couple at the time.

Jeong In-gap (80), former professor at Tsinghua University.
Photo by Choi Dae-eok

Before the two countries established diplomatic relations, Professor Jung acted as a matchmaker, personally translating the couple's love letters when they struggled to communicate due to the language barrier.

His perseverance in clarifying Jiao Zhimin's misunderstandings about Korea and explaining her questions about Ahn Jaehyung helped sustain their relationship and is remembered as a beautiful anecdote in the history of Korea-China exchanges.

In a recent interview with a media outlet, Professor Jung clearly defined himself not as a 'Chinese compatriot' or an 'overseas Korean,' but as a 'Joseonjok' (ethnic Korean in China), dedicating his life to correcting mistranslations in old texts and bridging cultural gaps between Korea and China based on his academic background.

He has also been at the center of cultural exchanges between the two countries, such as translating the biography "My Father Deng Xiaoping" written by Deng Xiaoping's daughter, Deng Rong, into Korean.

Professor Jung stated, "I wrote this book because it was unfortunate that there are still no suitable Chinese textbooks in Korea that are easy and enjoyable for the middle-aged and senior population to use," adding, "I hope this book will become the key that opens up a new world in China for the 50s and 70s generation preparing for their second act in life."

Inquiries about this new publication can be made through Kyeongjin Publishing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.