Japanese ⇔ Korean

日本語⇔한국어

1) I studied Japanese what language do I study next?

2) I learned Korean, do I do Chinese or Japanese?

3) I am planning to study double-major in university, what's the best 'combo'?

First, try to answer these questions yourself.

Done?

Well check out the following answers:

1) I studied Japanese what do I study next? ⇒ Arabic.

2) I learned Korean, do I learn Chinese or Japanese? ⇒ Neither, do French.

3) I am planning to study double-major in university, what's the best 'combo'? ⇒ Linguistics and Spanish.

Those might not be your ideal answers, nor the answers you'd expect from me (as I am well known for going around like Arigatou!! Annyeong haseyo~).

However, one thing I am sure of, is that they don't have 'one right answer', because it’s simply a matter of personal preference.

Actually those answers were inspired by people around me, I got that one friend who just loves French as much as Japanese and studies both languages simultaneously.

Another started off by English Language and Literature as a university major, French language courses since she did some back in school, and lastly Korean because of “K-Pop & K-Drama”.

An intern I met was studying a double-major programme in the UK which was Linguistics and Japanese.

Everyone has their own views about this matter, it’s like one preferring vanilla for chocolate, or simply likes both together.

In fact I am interested in all languages, but interest isn’t enough because the effort of actual studying is required.

So in this post I will be writing about Japanese and Korean languages as choices that made me, and might, make you pick them as a package.

Here are the two main reasons that have made this 'combo' perfect for me:

①  Kanji/Hanja: China has given Japan and Korea the Chinese characters for them to use back in the time, but what happened to those characters?

Japan: They received Kanji, but gave each character two readings; Kun-yomi, the Japanese reading, and On-yomi, the Chinese reading (I will write in more detail about those readings in a separate post). After some time the Japanese had derived their own writing systems, Hiragana and Katakana from Kanji. Now the normal Japanese sentence contains all three which requires the learner to know all, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

Korea: What happened in Korean was that the Koreans used Hanja for some time until they made up their own alphabet 'Hangul', which only requires the learner to know Hangul to read Korean text. And now Hanja is only something to know for cases like names, and linguistics for better understanding of Korean.

Many words in both languages resemble each other in their readings and when going back to the Kanji/Hanja origin it explains the resemblance.

Kanji/Hanja	Japanese Reading	Korean Reading	Meaning
約束	やくそく yakusoku	약속 yagsog	Promise
到着	とうちゃく touchaku	도착 dochag	Arrive
運動	うんどう undou	운동 undong	Exercise

②  Language syntax and grammar rules: Japanese and Korean work much like each other which makes an advantage because if you knew one language before the other your way of thinking and processing the language is ready to receive the other. One example is the 'syntax' or sentence order: "Subject – Object – Verb".

In addition to the particles that are grouped and work the same (I will write about the particles in a separate post).

	Japanese		Korean
Example Sentence	I have a cat.
	私は猫を飼っています。	저는 고양이를 기르고 있어요.
Reading	watashi wa neko o katteimasu.	Jeo neun goyangi reul gireugo isseoyo.
Word Order	Pronoun "watashi" + Topic Particle "wa"	Pronoun "jeo" + Topic Particle "neun"
	Object "neko" + Object Particle "o"	Object "goyangi" + Object Particle "reul"
	Verb "katteimasu" (conjugated to the formal present continuous)	Verb "gireugo isseoyo" (conjugated to the formal present continuous)

One more grammar example is the noun maker in Japanese こと/koto and in Korean 것/geot.

	Example Verb 1	Noun (Gerund)
Japanese	行く　"ik-u"	行くこと "ik-u koto"
Korean	가다  "ga-da"	가는 것 "ga-neun geot"
Meaning	To go	Going
	Example Verb 2	Noun (Gerund)
Japanese	食べる　"tabe-ru"	食べること "tabe-ru koto"
Korean	먹다  "meog-da"	먹는 것 "meog-neun geot"
Meaning	To eat	Eating

           

This post is to make you think and do your own research on these two languages, and see if you want to learn them simultaneously or master one followed by the other. Not only Japanese and Korean, but also any other language of your own choice.

In Appreciation of a Teacher

In Appreciation of a Teacher

 

In this post I will be writing about my own view and opinion based on my personal experience as both, a student and a teacher. Again, I am not trying to teach something new, but rather raise a question to stimulate thinking and discussion.

Since I have started learning Korean language I have been on and off which is slowing my pace in such an annoying manner. But again my Japanese and Kanji (Hanja) study have done me great in creating a firm basis to refer to whenever I proceed with my Korean. (I will write in a different post about the relation between Korean and Japanese, and the convenience of learning one and proceeding to the other.)

One great step I think I have taken in my Korean study was that I decided to take online classes, and yes it was awesome and very convenient. But I have to admit that it's never like a traditional class in terms of commitment.
The site I am using is 'italki' (Link: https://www.italki.com), and there you can find both professional teachers and community tutors. Both have their own good and bad points that vary depending on your needs. You can still filter your specifications in terms of the tutor's availability, hourly rate, native or not, etc.

Here I will be reviewing the one teacher who is teaching me Korean. I would mark her as 'the passionate teacher', who really surprised me for the kind of care and passion she pours into her class. My time with her usually exceeds the scheduled lesson by about 10 minutes, which I find really great about her, not because I ask for free few minutes, but because she is keen on delivering the full message of her lesson regardless of the time spent. She might not be the best teacher you’d ask for, but she has her own materials and style of tutoring, and when she finishes she asks me if I have questions regarding ‘her lesson’, then questions I have from my studies of Hanja and my own Korean textbook, which actually takes quite a time that is unofficial to the site and uncalculated to be paid for.

In business context, it’s called ‘Customer Retention’, in this case I am the customer.

I feel special about this kind of act because I do it as well with my students, as in one course my students had to give in for the 30 minutes extra after each class. Some would see it as the teacher's passion or generosity, but others would see it as inconvenient unscheduled extra time. Note that I am not trying to categorize who's good or bad among teachers or students, but this is merely my own point of view which you can simply take in and think about, or just read through and go on with your life.

I would love to hear from you what you like about a teacher, and what you appreciate and do not appreciate in the teacher's way of teaching.

 

漢字 Kanji

漢字(kanji)

 

This is my first post in my blog so it has to be special, and for me the topic Kanji does the job very well.

I think my friends already know how much I love Kanji, so it’s not a very surprising topic for me to address.

 

Currently I am studying Japanese language, and of course Kanji is a very basic requirement to master the language. I first used Basic Kanji Book, which is a series of four textbooks; Basic Kanji Book volumes 1 & 2 each has 500 kanji characters. And Intermediate Kanji Book volumes 1 & 2 each has 1000 kanji characters. (Links to the books will be listed at the end of the post.)

I recommend this series because, as I mentioned, it’s a series so when you finish a book you’ll know immediately where to go next.

 

The previously mentioned series has it, from the basics of writing to the combination rules supported by review tests, but I think that is not enough. At least as I have experienced, knowing the history, science, and logic behind kanji gives a deeper and more comprehensive view of those characters. The book is by Prof. Shirakawa, named 「白川静博士(shirakawa shizuka hakase) の(no) 漢字(kanji) の(no) 世界(sekai) へ(e)」, which introduces kanji briefly right before going into the kanji lists according to their school-year order used in Japanese education system.  I will be reviewing the book in more detail in a future post. This book is actually not a textbook for foreigners to learn Japanese, it’s a book to study about kanji rather study how to read and write kanji.

 

The third book I am currently using is Useful Chinese Characters for Learners of Korean, because I am learning Korean as well, but after having a quite big amount of kanji in my head a character just pops out whenever I learn new vocabulary in Korean feeling that somehow it has something to with Japanese, but more accurately it’s the Kanji (or Hanja, as it’s called in Korean) that is making some vocabulary sound very similar. (Not to mention how much the grammar is similar between the two languages which is supporting me greatly to proceed with my Korean study now.) Back to the textbook, I am really enjoying it as it’s giving so many answers to questions I had, and I’d probably have in the future, about Korean vocabulary. But this book isn’t only to satisfy your curiosity about the similarities between Korean and Japanese, but also to teach you the linguistics of Korean and the logic it was built on.

I would also suggest to use the online ‘Naver Hanja Dictionary’, (link: http://hanja.naver.com/), for nice and quick search.

 

That’s it for this post, thank you for reading. The real purpose of this was raise questions and stimulate thinking rather than teach something new.

If you have any question please ask, and I would be glad to answer.

 

 

 

 

List of books mentioned, links to amazon:

1.    BASIC KANJI BOOK VOL.1 基本漢字500: https://www.amazon.co.jp/BASIC-KANJI-BOOK-VOL-1-%E5%9F%BA%E6%9C%AC%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97500/dp/4893580914)

2.    BASIC KANJI BOOK VOL.2 基本漢字500: https://www.amazon.co.jp/BASIC-KANJI-BOOK-%E5%9F%BA%E6%9C%AC%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97500-VOL-2/dp/4893588834/ref=pd_cp_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=ZZRZ2J66RANZ42BEC8RT

3.    INTERMEDIATE KANJI BOOK VOL.1: https://www.amazon.co.jp/INTERMEDIATE-KANJI-BOOK-VOL-1-%E6%94%B9%E8%A8%82%E7%AC%AC3%E7%89%88/dp/4893588109/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507796918&sr=1-1&keywords=intermediate+kanji+book

4.    INTERMEDIATE KANJI BOOK vol.2―漢字1000PLUS: https://www.amazon.co.jp/INTERMEDIATE-KANJI-BOOK-vol-2%E2%80%95%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%971000PLUS-%E6%B8%85%E6%B0%B4%E7%99%BE%E5%90%88/dp/489358877X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=KVYN4WGAP0HCHRMBBB29

5.    白川静博士の漢字の世界へ (日本語) 単行本: https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E7%99%BD%E5%B7%9D%E9%9D%99%E5%8D%9A%E5%A3%AB%E3%81%AE%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E3%81%B8-%E7%A6%8F%E4%BA%95%E7%9C%8C%E6%95%99%E8%82%B2%E5%A7%94%E5%93%A1%E4%BC%9A-%E7%B7%A8%E3%83%BB%E7%99%BA%E8%A1%8C/dp/4582403344/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507801285&sr=1-1&keywords=%E7%99%BD%E5%B7%9D%E9%9D%99%E5%8D%9A%E5%A3%AB

6.    Useful Chinese Characters for Learners of Korean: https://www.amazon.com/Useful-Chinese-Characters-Learners-Korean/dp/895995764X