SDLC 105 Journal #6

[Byambaa Khurelbaatar]

The Korean language is considered a part of the altaic language. It is unrelated to Chinese and is similar to but distinct from Japanese. Historically, Koreans used the Hanja which were characters borrowed from the Chinese alphabet. Unfortunately, only the people from a higher social status and the government were educated and were able to use this writing system. Because of this, there were too many people who were illiterate so they created a new simple alphabet system called Hangul which is widely used now. There are several different dialects depending on what region you live in but mainly every Korean speaks and writes using this system. It was such an easy writing system that illiteracy was reduced heavily in a short period of time. I think it's important to know the history behind a language and how it came about to be what it is now. It definitely helps the new language learner to understand the language better if they are informed about such details and facts. I read that this new language system back then was so simple that if one wanted, he or she could learn it overnight. This motivated me and pushed me to try to learn the language better and more time efficiently. So far, it's been fun learning new words and about the language's history and culture. I am looking forward to the rest of the semester to learn more.