SHORT TAKES : Korean Says Music Is Universal

SEOUL, South Korea — Chung Myung-whun, conductor of France’s National Paris Bastille Opera and Orchestra, returned home to perform today. He said that while he stumbles in speaking Korean and French, music is universal.

Chung will conduct the Bastille Orchestra in five performances in Seoul on July 18-21. The orchestra also will perform in Japan, Germany and Spain in 1990. The Korean-born Chung, who grew up in the United States, took over as head of the orchestra last year.

“When I held my first press conference in Paris, I couldn’t speak French . . . only a few words and phrases,” Chung told reporters.

To the amusement of the mostly Korean reporters, he also apologized for his Korean language skills, somewhat forgotten during his youth.

“My level of Korean is considerably worse than English,” he said in Korean.

“But as long as I can express feelings to music, that’s all I care about,” he said. “Music is not owned by a particular country. It’s shared by all people in the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re Korean or Japanese, or someone else.”