Reflect on how knowing a language’s history can help you learn the language.
I think to be aware of the history of the language is very helpful and interesting to study a second language. Koreans initially write in Chinese. Long time ago, the way how they write is the same as the Chinese. In another word, Koreans write Chinese! After that, Koreans change the way how they write things, and transfer in their unique style. Before 1st century, it was proto-Korean, it was not well-formed. 1st-10th century, it was old Korean, and it was the time they use arrangements of Chinese character to represent phonetically. Then, it came the middle korean, it becomes easily read and write. Later was modern korean, which have developed including variances in pronunciation, vocabulary.
It helps me to learn Korean because there are two levels in Korean, first is formal way and then is the informal way. People speak informal way to the people who are same age as you, and use formal way when speak to elders or people who you first meet. This attribute to its history because Korea has history of dynasty, so it includes some moral standard in the history. I would more like to learn to speak the informal way because it is more casual and widely used nowadays.
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