Knowing a language's history can help you learn the language. In fact, knowing the Korean language history, I feel, is almost required. Korea's language is divided into three parts: 1) Romanized Western words, 2) Hanja (the Chinese-influenced Sino-Korean), and 3) Hangeul (native Korean words). Knowing the Korean language history will tell of how the language evolved from Hanja and progressed to Hangeul.
In addition, some words use different parts of the Korean language. Telling time, for example, uses Hangeul for the hour and Hanja for the minute. I found this website helpful: http://www.omniglot.com/language/numbers/korean.htm
Even though I do not remember how to write Chinese as well as I used to, knowing that Korean language has Chinese influence has helped me learn the language. Many words in Korean sound similar to Chinese, but have been modified for independence purposes. However, because of this, I am able to learn words easier.
I also learned that the Korean language has some Confucianism roots. Confucianism emphasizes hierarchy, which explains the reasoning for why honor, pride, and respect are emphasized so much in the Korean language. There are multiple ways to say different phrases. You can say "komawo," or "komawoyo," "kahmsahamnida," and many other words, just to say "thank you." The difference is that each variation has a higher or lower level of respect. With this knowledge in mind, it is not unusual to tell your age when first meeting someone in Korea. Koreans "like" to know your age so that they know how to address you. Learning why you say different things in Korean will help you "reason" and know when to use certain phrases.
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