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20 years ago, I'd lived in Seoul for 6 months and never met a Korean who speak Chinese. Some Koreans could write some Chinese characters, such as their names and very basic ones though.
Do you know the reason why so many Korean people are studying Chinese in China? Because they can't read/write/speak/understand Chinese. After all, Chinese is a foreign language to Korean people.
All of the Japanese people I know can read/write Chinese characters, however, 99% of them can't understand almost anything written in Chinese language. After all, Chinese is a foreign language to Japanese people.
Do you understand what I'm talking?
Ask your Korean friends how to write "I went to Seoul yesterday" in Chinese. If all of them could, I'd believe all American can write it in Spanish
I worked in a Public Affairs office on a US military base with highly educated Koreans.
Believe what you like.
Due to growing Korean nationalism in the 19th century, Japan's attempt to sever Korea from China's sphere of influence, and the Gabo Reformists' push, Hangul was eventually adopted in official documents for the first time in 1894.
Korean people used to believe Chinese characters are the characters they should use. They even wrote official documents in Chinese, even though they couldn't speak Chinese
I don't know if Lee Myung-bak can read/write/speak/understand Chinese.
Why don't you ask your Korean friends to translate the sentence into Chinese?
[snipped]
Yes, however, almost no one used Hangul until Japan forced them to do it
That "almost no" Koreans used Hangul until Japanese educational reforms during the colonial period doesn't mean most Koreans were using Chinese characters instead. Most Koreans were illiterate, and education was for the aristocracy.
What the Japanese did in the early 20th century was to make education mandatory for all Koreans, and they published textbooks in Hangul. So Hangul did spread due to this, because the Japanese spread literacy through all social classes.
They weren't so generous after 1931, though - by then the Japanese started forcing Korean schoolchildren to start learning and using Japanese in class, and they made Japanese the official language in Korea.
As for literacy in Chinese script, I only know that Koreans can read Hanja, but I don't know if they could read a Chinese newspaper or write out a lot in Chinese. Koreans learn Hanja in school. Looks like its use is in decline, though, and newer generations not very literate in it.
(wikipedia) Opinion surveys show that the South Korean public do not consider hanja literacy essential, a situation attributed to the fact that formal hanja education in South Korea does not begin until the seventh year of schooling... In 1988, 80% of one sample of people without a college education "evinced no reading comprehension of any but the simplest, most common hanja" when reading mixed-script passages.
That "almost no" Koreans used Hangul until Japanese educational reforms during the colonial period doesn't mean most Koreans were using Chinese characters instead. Most Koreans were illiterate, and education was for the aristocracy.
Yup, I totally agree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by robbobobbo
As for literacy in Chinese script, I only know that Koreans can read Hanja, but I don't know if they could read a Chinese newspaper or write out a lot in Chinese. Koreans learn Hanja in school. Looks like its use is in decline, though, and newer generations not very literate in it.
I'm 100% sure only those Koreans who learned Chinese as a second language can read/write Chinese. Korean language is totally different from Chinese language, just like Turkish to English.
As for Hanja, you might know ?? The Hankyoreh, a daily newspaper known for the "no Hanja at all" policy. Even more popular one like 야후! 코리아, you only see one or two Hanja, if you are lucky
Compare it to Yahoo! JAPAN. There are a lot of Kanji almost in every sentence. Even so, Japanese people can't read/write Chinese.
BTW, Hanja(Korean) = Kanji(Japanese) = Hanzi(Mandarin Chinese) = Chinese characters(English)
Quote:
Originally Posted by camping!
Well, congratulations to Colonialist Japan. I guess that makes up for the enforced prostitution of Korean women, eh?
Well, forcing Koreans to use Hangul has nothing to do with that. Or you are saying using Hangul = prostitution? Be logical, please
)
Well, forcing Koreans to use Hangul has nothing to do with that. Or you are saying using Hangul = prostitution? Be logical, please
Of course not. I read your initial comments as being very patronizing towards Koreans. If that was not your intent, than I do most sincerely apologize.
I do take the subjegation of Koreans by the Japanese most personally especially in light of Japans refusal to own up to the atrocities that they committed.
And for the record, comfort women were not prostitutes - they were women and girls enslaved for the sexual pleasure of Japanese soldiers.
Even thought they remind you all the time of being foreign are they nice about it? Is it just their way of conversation or do they shy away from you because of it? I here a lot of Japanese don't like Americans, is this so for the Koreans?
Even thought they remind you all the time of being foreign are they nice about it? Is it just their way of conversation or do they shy away from you because of it? I here a lot of Japanese don't like Americans, is this so for the Koreans?
I've lived in Japan for 3 years, and Korea for a lot more.
I've never got the impression that Japanese don't like Americans. I haven't had even one problem yet in Japan because of my nationality.
In Korea, it's political. They resent having a large number of American military all over the place, right in the heart of Seoul and everywhere else.
In Japan, the american military isn't a large presense right in the middle of the city.
Basically, imagine if we have a large foreign military of Chinese all over the U.S. They create resentment.
That being said, Koreans and Japanese are both pretty forgiving and nice to individual Americans, even to the U.S. soldiers themselves. Always been nice to me. I've plenty of u.s. soldiers in both Japan and Korea (there are bases all over the place in both countries), and most seem to like both countries quite a bit.
You basically just have incidents that happen, that spark anti-americanism. Like when a local girl gets killed by a G.I. or whatever such things - seems to have issues like that that happen in both Korea and Japan, sadly enough.
But as an American living here, I've had zero issues of anti-americanism directed towards me. In Korea, occassionally, when political things get hot. Never towards me personally though. But you'll just hear a political demonstration with anti-american overtones, etc. Stuff like that, moreso in Korea.
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