- Reflect on how knowing a language's history can help you learn the language. To what family does your language belong? What sounds, words, or structures exemplify periods of contact with other cultures?
I am not all that familiar with the history of Korea. However, I do know that Korea has a long history of involvement with its neighboring countries. Because of countries such as China and Japan, Korean language and culture sees a lot of similarity with Chinese and Korean. Korean actually has many root words in Hanja, which is a form of Chinese writing. This writing is still taught in Korean schools but I have not learned it. Learning these root words can help learn Korean better because most Korean words have root words with specific meaning behind them. Hanja and Korean is similar to Latin's relationship with English.
Before being in this class, I always believed that Korean, Chinese, and Japanese languages were all in the same family, However, I learned that Korean is in the Koreanic family and is fairly unique in terms of syntax and grammar.
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