When I first started learning French, I was very surprised by the fact that there is a gender for every noun. To me it hardly made sense to call computer male and table female. Initially, I kept on asking the question, "why?" I tried to look for a reason for the assignment of gender to objects and concepts. However, all the teachers told me that there is no reason and to simply get used to it. That is when I realized that learning about the history of a language can be of great benefit to learning that language as it provides a justification for each rule that is encountered.
As a result, when learning Korean, I decided to learn about the history and origin of Korean language alongside learning the language itself. When I was familiarizing myself with the alphabet, I was intrigued by the use of lines and dots in vowels. However, researching the history led me to the explanation behind the shapes of vowels. I learned that the vertical line represented humans, the horizontal line represented the earth and the dot represented the sun. In fact, the sun, the earth and human beings are the three Confucian realms. Prior to that, I did not realize the presence Confucianism in Korean social infrastructure.
I learned that hierarchy is a big part of Confucianism as it exists in society, family, work etc. This also explained the several levels of formality used in speech and writing. This is also one of the first things that I learned from my language partner. Even something as simple as "Thank you" has several different forms according to the context. If we are thanking an elder/ parents/ boss/ teacher we use khamsahamnida/ komapseumnida. If we are thanking someone a few years older than us but who we know very well, we usually use kumowoyo/ khamsahaeyo. But when thanking someone of the same age/ close friends/ those who are younger than us we use kumawo. When I tried to learn the different forms without knowing the historical context, I often got frustrated over the complicated system and ended up memorizing the various forms. However, after learning the history, I can use my reasoning and judgement to decide which form to use.
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