king sejong, Korean language and korean language history
The English word “Korean” is derived from Goryeo, the first Korean dynasty known to the Western nations.
The origin of the Korean language has happened in the Korean peninsula that means in united Korea (Both north and south Korea was a single country at that time). In this post, we will study more about the Origin of the Korean language.
Whenever people want to learn Korean the first thing that comes to mind is that Is it easy to learn Korean? Learning Korean is not actually that much difficult but it is a lot easier than you think. Although foreigners say it is quite difficult to learn Korean, it is not impossible at all. The Korean language is the most modern language so it is a lot easier to learn compared to the Chinese and Japanese languages.
If you found a good tutor then learning Korean is a piece of cake for you. Even if you don’t found any tutor you can learn Korean online, In this website, we will try to teach a lot of basic and intermediate Korean words, Korean phrases and Korean grammar.
Korean language history
king sejong
The Korean language is spoken by more than 80 million people worldwide. Basically, Korean speakers live in South Korea North Korea japan china Uzbekistan Russia Kazakhstan and more than 2 million lives in the USA. Korean is an official and national language of both Koreas: North Korea and South Korea. In North Korea it is referred to as 조선말 / 조선글 (Joseon-mal /Joseon -gul) while in South Korea it is known as 한국어(Hanguk eo), 한국 말 (Hanguk-mal = Korean speech) and 우리 말 Uri-mal (our language).
King Sejong (reign.1418-1450, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty) invented the Korean alphabet in 1444 and promulgated it in 1446.
A mixed writing system combining Chinese characters (Hanja) and Hangul became increasingly popular during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Korean language is written using a mixture of Chinese ‘hanja’ and hangul or hangul alone.
Before 1980s Korean character was usually written from right to left in a vertical column and after 1980 Koreans started writing from left to right in horizontal lines. Now, Korean is written horizontally.
Koreans use special nouns and verb endings depending upon the person with whom they are talking. Korean has a hierarchy of verb endings depending upon the superiority of persons. The speaker should select specific nouns and verb endings depending on the second Person’s age, post and social status.
You can learn more about the Korean language in this post also. Click here to learn more
Who invented Hangul?
King Sejong (reign.1418-1450, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty) invented the Korean alphabet in 1444 and promulgated it in 1446.
Even after the invention of the Korean alphabet, literate Koreans continued to write either in Classical Chinese or Idu system.
King Sejong first invented 28 letters (17 consonants and 11 vowels) for the Korean alphabet. Later revisions were made and currently, 24 characters are in use (14 consonants and 10 vowel letters). But in North Korea total alphabet is 40 (19 consonants and 21 vowels)
Where did the Korean language originate?
In the 15th century, the Korean language appeared as a formal language. King Sejong was a wise and benevolent ruler who invented the Korean language in Korea.
How to learn the Korean language easily?
– The first step to learn the Korean language is to know about hangul or hangeul which means the Korean alphabet. you have to learn Korean alphabet structure, pronunciation and you should know how to make words using the hangul alphabet.
– start writing Korean alphabets and start to make words using these alphabets. You can start writing them on paper or you can start it from a mobile application.– After learning basic Korean alphabet you should start to learn to count numbers in Korean.
– After learning numbers in Korean, you should start to learn about Dates and times in Korean.
– The next step must be learning about weather and seasons in Korean.
– Next step is learning about family, relatives and society.
Now you should learn to introduce yourself in Korean. (How To introduce yourself in Korean)This is the first and most important part to show your Korean ability.– You should memorize Korean words and you must have to make a plan or schedule to study the Korean language on a daily basis. There are some mobile applications that provide daily vocabulary throughout the year.
– You can start watching K-Dramas. There are a lot of k-dramas which provides English subtitles which is very good for new learners. But when you learned a bit of the Korean language you should start avoiding English subtitles.
– Another option to learn Korean is watching Korean Tv shows and k-pop music. This is also a very nice step to learn Koeran language. The more you listen to Korean The better you understand Korean. Korean reality tv shows are also a great resource to learn Korean.
– If you want to increase your Korean listening and speaking skills you should start talking with a native speaker. You can meet them directly or you can talk to them online also. There are some mobile applications that provide the opportunity to talk to native speakers.
Korean vs Japanese language
Korean and Japanese vocabularies are very different. These days Korean use the Hangul script (phonetic) and hanja (Chinese characters) are no longer found in most writings and hanja is about to disappear from Korea. Modern Korean cant read and write hanja characters. Modern Japanese use kanji (Chinese characters) or kanji is a lot similar to hanja characters. For Korean people, the Japanese language is the easiest language because of grammar structure and sentence order.
Korean vs Chinese language
Japanese and Korean languages are much more similar grammatically and around 70 per cent of Korean vocabulary is similar to Chinese though Chinese and Korean are not grammatically the same. The Koreans borrowed a big number of Chinese words and gave Korean meanings.
Can Korean speak Japanese?
Many Koreans go to universities and institutes to learn Japanese. There are so many differentiations between these two languages. That means only those Koreans who have learned Japanese can speak Japanese. Normal Korean neither speak nor read/write Japanese.
Can Korean speak English?
Yes, Korean do speak English but the proportion of Korean citizens who speak is very low. The new generation starts to speak English but if you meet people over the age of 30 in 2019 who don’t speak English. Some Korean speak English but they use only some words. They cant speak fluently and they cannot connect words to make a sentence. They have made their own pronunciation and it’s hard to understand what they speak. There are many English words that are being used as Konglish words.
Can Korean speak English?
In general, most of them don’t speak English and English is not needed in their daily life also. Maybe that is the reason they don’t want to learn English. But the new generation Koreans do really speak very good English because they are being taught by native English teachers. Korean parents are investing a huge amount of money to teach English to their children. We can see a lot of English teaching institutes (영어 학원) in most cities in South Korea.
