105: Learning Journal #6

[Daniel Kwon]

Korean is one of the more unique languages in that its written language was created by a former King designed to be so simple that even the commoners could learn it. Today it is still hailed as a near perfect phonetic language.  However, its language originates in Chinese. Thus, when learning Chinese, I find many similarities in words between the two languages. For example, the words for exercise, library, museum, sound relatively the same. In addition, Japanese colonization of Korea in the early 20th century affected its language considerably. Vocabulary from Japanese carried into Korean, where many words now have Japanese origins as well. Thus, learning the language’s history when learning Korean, understanding that Korean has many roots in Chinese and in Japanese.