About Korean

1. Definition of Korean

Korean is a language that is mostly used in the Korean Peninsula. In Korea, Korean is called as Hanguk-eo or Hanguk-mal. Korean is also called as Joseon-eo or Joseon-mal in North Korea and China(especially among Korean ethnic groups in China), and called as Goryeo-mal among Korean ethnic groups in Central Asia including .

Since 19CE, Korean has been being spoken among Korean ethnic groups in such as China(specially in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture), Japan, Russia(specially Primorsky Krai and Sakhalin), Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, USA, and Canada with the political and social changes between Korea and surrounding countries. During the Japanese colonial period of Korea, the Japanese Empire persecuted to eliminate Korean. Korean is spoken by about 78 million people and it is 13th largest number of speakers in the world. Recently, since the global statue of Korea became higher, the number of learners of Korean is increasing.

2. History of Korean

It is not clear the root of Korean yet. The most widely known view about root of Korean is that Korean belongs to the Altaic languages like Turkish, Mongolian, and Tungus. However, there is a different view that although it is true that Korean belongs to the Altaic languages but, it was differentiated for the first.

Ancient Korean can be classified as Buyeo language and Han language. But after the reunification by Shilla, the reunification of language was made as well. Korean can be divided into ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary Korean. Among these eras, the ancient Korean has very few documents, so it is very hard to understand how the ancient Korean was. Only we can understand that between the two ancient Koreans, Buyeo language and Han language, the direct ancient of the contemporary Korean is the language of Shilla, which reunified three kingdoms in Korea, through the few documents.

3. Hangeul, the writing system of Korean

Korean has its own writing system, which is 'Hangeul', which was invented by the Great King Sejong. The Great King Sejong created Hangeul, because he felt pity for illiterate people who were often victimized unfairly. The fundamental principle of Hangeul is very unique and scientific. Due to the creation of Hangeul, more people could read and write, so the society of Korea in that era(which is Joseon) could be developed further. UNESCO is presenting a person or an organization who has contributed to lower the illiterates with King Sejong Literacy Prize.

Consonants and Vowels of Hangeul was created after the shapes of articulatory organs, the sky, the earth, and the human. And based on these basic letters, an either horizontal or vertical stroke is added to create a new letter.

1) Consonants

ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅎ, ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ (19 characters total)

2) Vowels

ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅡ, ㅣ ,ㅔ,ㅐ, ㅚ, ㅟ, ㅘ, ㅝ, ㅢ, ㅖ, ㅒ, ㅙ, ㅞ (21 characters total)

Korean has alphabets as English does. However, unlike English, Korean alphabets are gathered in an unit of syllables for writing. For example, in English, each alphabet come after the preceding one like 'winter', and 'telephone', but in Korean, alphabets are collected toghether in an unit of syllables, In other words, in Korean, alphabets are written as '겨울‘, and '전화’ rather than 'ㄱㅕㅇㅜㄹ’, ‘ㅈㅓㄴㅎㅗㅏ’.

4. Characters of Korean

1) Korean is an affixing language(or an agglutinative language). In contrast to English is an inflected language, which changes the form of a word itself, derivational affixes or inflectional affixes are attached to a root and this makes a word.

2) The word order of Korean is subject- object- predicate. And the word of Korean is relatively flexible.

examples) 나는 너를 사랑한다. / 너를 나는 사랑한다. / 사랑한다, 나는 너를.

(all means 'I love you'. this example shows that changes in word order does not make changes in meaning in Korean.)

3) Korean has very highly developed honorific. The use of honorific depends on age, closeness, and statue. The honorific of Korean is mostly executed with use of post positions and endings.

4) In Korean, subjects and objects are often omitted. When both a speaker and a listener know what the subject is or what the object is, then the subject or the object os omitted.

example) “어디 가니?” “종로 가요.” “무슨 일로 가는 데?” “친구와 약속이 있어요.”("Where are you going?" "I'm going to Jongno." "Why are you going there?" "I have an appointment with my friend." Subjects are omitted in these sentences.)

“너는 앞으로 무엇을 할래?” “운동할래.” “무슨 운동?” “테니스” “와! 재미있겠다.”("What are you going to do next?" "I'll take an exercise." "What kind of exercise?" "Tennis." "Wow! it sounds interesting." Objects are omitted in these sentences.)

5) Korean has highly developed post positions and endings. They express grammatical relations and create various vocabularies. Highly developed post positions and endings are the biggest characteristic of Korean.

6) In Korean, a modifier always come earlier. And constituents of a sentence can shift position. However, not always a constituent can change its position. Adverbs that modify the sentence can shift the positions, but adverbs that modifies a particular constituent(mostly predicates) can not shift their positions.

7) Onomatopoeic words and mimetic words are highly developed in Korean.

examples) 엉금엉금, 아장아장, 살금살금, 졸졸졸, 드르렁드르렁

(all examples above describe figure and sound. The first one describes the figure of crawling, the second one is figure of a toddler's steps, the third one is figure of walking on tiptoes, the forth one is sound of flowing water, and the last one is sound of snoring.)

And Korean has many other characteristics.

5. Why Korean?

Only Koreans and few overseas Koreans could speak Korean about 10 years ago. However, more and more Koreans go abroad and more and more foreigners are coming to Korea. Now, Korea is becoming a multicultural society. In other words, various people are studying Korean now.

The reasons that studying Korean are various as well. Some are studying Korean to learn their Korean spouses' background culture. And some are studying Korean to find job in Korea. Most of them are living in Korea. Because the official language of Korea is Korean, it is very inconvenient not to speak Korean in Korea.

On the other hand, some people are studying Korean, although they are not living in Korea for learning the language of people who they love a lot. In other words, Korean, the Koreans' language is turning to various people's language.

The problem is that there are only few places to learn Korean. And although some centers and universities are providing Korean courses, most courses are limited for international students, immigration women, and migrant workers. A Korean class for only yourself. We, SMLC want to start the class through a telelecture. An 1:1 telelecture is available wherever and whenever you want as long as the internet is connected. Moreover, since it is an 1:1 class, the class level will be neither too difficult nor too easy but right for you. Korean is not easy to learn. But now, you have a chance to begin.