Inventor seeks key to unifying Koreans

Stories by ERIC CARPENTER

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

  Matthew Ahn has always thought big in his desire to help the “little guy.”

Ahn, 67 is retired from a 33-year-career as an Episcopal priest.  But leisure time has only made him more active – and his goals more grand.

  His retirement project: Invent a better, faster Korean language keyboard to replace the two standards used by North and South Korea since the countries’ separation in the Korean War.

Ahn, who has never formally studied computer science, admits it’s a lofty goad.  But he’s determined.  And gaining acceptance.

Ahn has impressed Korean computer scientists with his knowledge, gleaned from decades spent printing pamphlets for Korean immigrants by rigging up American printing machines and keyboards.

  “When I first heard what he was doing, I said, ‘You must be crazy.  Your profession is the church.  Don’t waste your time,’” said Kay Cho, a Los Angeles social worker and friend of Ahn’s since 1964.  “But he has great persistence.  I’ve been amazed at what he has been able to do.”

  Ahn lives in the Riverside County town of Cherry Valley.  He and his wife, Grace, moved there from Fullerton two years ago to be closer to a golf course.  But he sees little of the links.

Most of his days are spent toiling in his workshop, a converted bedroom lined with cryptic charts that illustrated his thought process.

  Ahn sees his work in developing a common keyboard as a move toward reunifying the native land he reluctantly fled in the 1960s.

“We were divided by war, but all Koreans are of the same family,” Ahn said.  “It’s through small steps like this that we can realize again that we are one.”

  Growing up in Korea, Ahn was intrigued by questions of justice and purpose.  He dreamd of becoming a lawyer.  Then, at 21, he was assigned to a U.S. military troop during the Korean conflict.

  “It was an American chaplain that made me start to think about some serious question – Why the war?  Why the killing?”

  Those questions led Ahn to study theology.  And his principles led him to advocate for labor unions – a risky endeavor in 1960s Korea, when the government squashed union actions with military might.

Threatened with prison, Ahn brought his family to the United States in 1969.  He landed in Chicago, where he helped set up a Korean-American congregation.

  Then in 1975, he moved his family to Southern California when the Episcopal bishop requested a representative to work with the growing Korean immigrant community.

Ahn served as pastor to those immigrants, but he also helped them obtain English lesson, business loans and driver’s licenses.

  It was also during the 1970s that Ahn began working with keyboards.  He bought an old printing machine that required letters to be arranged by hand.

  “It used lead type and more than 1,000 characters.  That was extremely slow.”

  Ahn has been trying to perfect an efficient system ever since.

  In 1999, he developed the prototype for his latest model, a keyboard he named for himself - the AhnMaTae Phonetic Hangul Keyboard.  He’s spent four years refining it.

  “At first nobody would pay attention,” Ahn said.  “But the more I research, the more I know it can be done.”

  The keyboard is based on the Korean writing system, Hangul.  Characters are phonetic, applicable to any language, Ahn says.

Users type words by syllables rather than individual characters.  For instance, Fullerton is typed with three keystrokes – FUL/LER/TON – rather than nine.

  His friend, Cho, has had the most recent version of his keyboard installed on her computer.

  “I spent the weekend learning how it worked.  I’m already able to type at least three times faster,” said Cho, who writes Korean letters and pamphlets for her clients.

  Ahn’s invention began a trial run with North Korea in 2001.  Acceptance in South Korea has come more slowly, and he travels to South Korea and China at least twice a year to drum up support.

  Ahn has poured thousands of dollars into the effort, but money has never been his motivation.  The ideas of justice and purpose that intrigued him as a child drive him more than ever.

  “I’m committed,” Ahn said.  “Our life span is very short.  I want to be able to leave this as my mark, as my contribution to the peace of the world.

CONTACT THE WRITER:    714)704-3769  or ecarpenter@ocregister.com

The Orange County Register    1/25/2004