Reflect on how knowing a language's history can help you learn the language.
A language’s history can help you understand why and how meanings and words and sentences are formed in a language. Knowing the history of the language can help one become a better language learner and speaker. After researching the history of Korean language, I feel as though I have a better grasp on why Korean was created they way it is. Korean language was created in the Yi Dynasty era, during a time in which only Korea’s upper class were taught to read and write in Chinese. King Sejong wanted to create a language that every Korean could learn. He asked the scholars of the Royal Academy to create a simple phonetic alphabet that all Koreans could easily learn. When King Sejong did this, he changed Korean society forever, as he broke down the barriers of writing and reading in the class-conscious Korean society. In the early 20th century when the Japanese occupied Korea they outlawed the use of Korean script. This move created a huge renewed interest in the national language, and scholars worked together to preserve the language. After their efforts, the Korean language remerged as “Han’gul”. Han’gul was used against the Japanese movement in Korea, and became a symbol of hope and Korean perseverance.
Knowing this about Korean language makes me have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the language, while this knowledge of the Korean Language history also helps me learn the language with more insight. I now understand how important the Korean language is as a symbol of hope and power of Koreans in the early 20th century. Furthermore, knowing that Hangeul was created specifically to help everyone learn the language makes me have more faith in becoming fluent in Korean.
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