STORIES BEHIND A KOREAN LANGUAGE

Have you ever watched a Korean drama series or just listened to Korean-language music? If you have, you will certainly realize that Korea has a fairly unique identity in both the pronunciation of the language, and the writing.

The language used by Korean people has a writing method called 'Hangeul'. But Hangeul just appeared in the 15th century. Before this Hangeul was created, the Korean people used the Chinese language called ‘Hanja’ as the everyday language of instruction. But, because the origin language spoken between Korean and Chinese is quite different, the Hanja character is considered quite difficult in its pronunciation, and its use is only dominated by certain groups such as the Nobles.

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Then finally, the first Hangeul script was made by King Sejong during the Joseon dynasty, or more precisely in 1443. The Hangeul script consists of 24 letters which divided into 14 consonant letters and 11 vowels. At the beginning of its distribution, the Hangeul script was spread through children's songs, so that it was easily absorbed by children and community groups who were not educated.

Uniquely, Korean has an honorific system, which is a more polite and refined form of statement, usually used to talk to people who are older, or respected. The Honorific system in Korea is indeed a little complicated, the difference in vocabulary depends on who the person is being communicated with. The word ending with "Nida" shows the most formal and polite respect, then the ending with "a / o / yo" shows polite with a little formal, while the word that does not end is usually used in casual conversation.

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Same as in Indonesia, each region in Korea has its regional dialect that is very different from the Korean national language. The Seoul area does use the Korean national language, but other regions such as Busan, Daegu, Jeju, and others use their respective regional languages. But, despite having different dialects in each region, Hangeul also has a national day that will be celebrated nationally every year on January 15 in North Korea, and October 9 in South Korea.

So, what do you think? Are you interested in learning more about Korean language? You don't have to just take a course or learn through a dictionary, you can also learn Korean through a Korean- language video or listen to KPOP, does that sound interesting? Let's improve our Korean language skills together!