ANSWER: Of course, some Koreans can still read Hanja, but it seems to be mainly the older Koreans. In the video below, many of the younger Koreans seemed to have a hard time recognizing even simple Chinese characters. Many of them, for example, couldn't even read the characters 未安 (미안), which means "sorry."
What happened to the 1,800-character standard for Korean high school graduates? Is that no longer a standard or a goal in Korea? Is learning Chinese characters in Korea now as unpopular as learning Latin is in the United States?
나이가 적은 한국인의 상당수는 한자에 관심이 없습니다.
ReplyDelete공교육 과정에서도 한문 교과의 채택률이 감소하고 있으며,
제 주변 친구들(10대 후반-20대 초반) 또한 대부분은 한자를 읽지 못하고
그것을 배워야 한다는 인식마저 갖고 있지 않습니다.
상용한자 1,800자는 자격증을 따기 위한 기준이며
학교에서 가르치는 교과와도 관계없는 민간 자격증일 뿐입니다.
'내가 이 정도의 상식은 있다.'고 우쭐댈 수는 있겠습니다만,
현재 젊은 층에서는 이에도 관심 없는 사람들이 다수입니다.
라틴어는 서양에서도 옛날부터 소수의 지식인들만 공부한 걸로 알고 있습니다.
한국에서도 한문이 그런 라틴어의 위치와 같다고 볼 수 있습니다.
Thank you for that detailed explanation, Weathereed. You seem to have described the current situation in Korea quite well. If that is the real situation in Korea, then it is shocking how quickly Koreans gave up on learning "Hanja," given that Chinese characters were commonly used in Korean books and newspapers just a few decades ago.
DeleteOne of the differences between Latin and Chinese characters is that not many people these days are using Latin to communicate, but Korea is surrounded by countries where Chinese characters are still quite popular, so it would seem that Koreans who know Chinese characters would have a big competitive advantage over those who don't.
Maybe you shouldn't be too concerned whether or not Koreans learn Hanja especially if you aren't Korean I suppose. I think they will always know the basic ones that are in common use. Koreans still use Hanja slightly in their yearly 4-character idioms, so if this blog is still worth visiting even, if you want to discuss Hanja, be light on the topic. Why not write an article about last year's 4-character idiom and how it relates to Korean culture and society? You don't need to emphasize the Hanja, just the meaning of each syllable is enough for many cases.
ReplyDelete2023년 사자성어로 견리망의(見利忘義)가 선정됐다.
This blog has been GARBAGE all of a sudden. I thought this blog was about studying Korean but you've been complaining a lot about misuse of Chinese characters in China to politics that many readers will find annoying. You complain a lot about others. Why don't you complain first about yourself?
Mr. Kim, so only Koreans, like the ones who made the above video, should be concerned about whether or not Koreans learn "Hanja"? Non-Koreans, instead, should just explain things like why the 4-character Chinese idiom you mentioned above was selected as Korea's 2023 "Idiom of the Year"?
DeleteThe problem with that suggestion, Mr. Kim, is that I only write about things that I notice and am interested in, and I am not interested in writing about why the Chinese idiom 見利忘義 (견리망의) was selected by a group of Korean professors to be Korea's 2023 "Idiom of the Year."
I have already mentioned it on his blog, but one of the reasons this blog is "GARBAGE all of the sudden" is that I have not been interested in writing about the Korean language ever since Russia invaded Ukraine. That is my way of protesting that invasion. Another reason is that these days I am more interested in studying written Chinese than Korean, and the Chinese just happen to use a lot of Chinese characters to write Chinese.
This blog is entitled "Korean Language Notes: Things I notice while studying the Korean language," but maybe now I should change it to "Things I notice while studying the Korean and Chinese languages." Anyway, this blog is not entitled "Things other people notice while studying the Korean language."
Anyway, Mr. Kim, I appreciate your complaining about my complaining.
surely Koreans should be the most concerned. I haven't heard of non-Koreans voting for their president just as the same thing as that I haven't heard of non-Americans voting for who they want to be the next American president. There is an old Chinese saying that translates to "mind your own soup". Just tell me in your next comment if a non-American can vote in your politics before you meddle with other countries' politics.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand, Mr. Kim. Why have you switched the conversation to voting rights? Anyway, only U.S. citizens can vote in state and federal elections in the United States, but what does that have to do with the price of soup in Korea? Or with a conversation on "Hanja"?
DeleteI'm not so sure about this but I thought there was a saying in Korean similar to "mind your own soup" meaning "mind your own business". What I was trying to get through is that especially if you're not Korean, why not let them decide if they study Hanja or not. I really don't care about the Korean language anymore, much less this Hanja topic.
ReplyDeleteJapanese use their own version called Kanji. Maybe you should try passing the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) instead. I think the Japanese have representative offices almost all over the world. Many are always taking this exam, which I think is offered twice a year. I don't care about this exam also since I don't need to right now. Think about this. Life is great. You're alive. You're still blogging on your 20th year. Who cares about whether or not Koreans or non-Koreans should study Hanja at all?