Korea: A journey of culture
Posted on May 26, 2008
Filed Under Guest Columnist | 1 Comment
Submitted on www.indiantvtoday.com by Wendy Loh
Korean Language
It is bitter sweet.
Korean language is an agglutinative language and it belongs to the Altaic family, which consists of unique grammar structure. For a person who learns Chinese and English as first language like me, it is a complex yet appealing and challenging journey. A few attention grabbing features are especially perceptible to me. For example, the word order of Korean sentence is in the form of Subject-Object-Verb, and the word order does not change in interrogative sentences. Therefore hilarious mistakes bound to happen that making everyone laughs to the floor.
At a personal level, pronunciation is the most difficult part. Korean language is monotonous when you speak it; it is in particular hard for me due to the influence of Chinese language with rich intonations. The professor in Korean Language Level I always reminds me that I have a Chinese accent whenever I speak. First, we learn how to write Korean letter- Hangul, by introduction of Korean 10 vowels and 19 consonants. As far as I remember, all Korean alphabets are a combination of at least one vowel and one consonant. Although it has no intonations, there is a vivid contrast between consonants where one have to distinguish plain, tense, aspirated, nasal or lateral sound. These are the fundamental and basic in learning Korean language. Seeing that the foundation is of high significance, I spent approximately a month in class just to have a good and correct pronunciation. Apart from speaking, writing and reading Korean letter is a time consuming and cathartic effort. It is similar to English language that having vowel and consonants, but it is in one character to have only one sound, and the character itself does have any inherent image; which is different from Chinese language. We cannot know the meaning just by looking at the character. Therefore, to perk up on Korean vocabulary, it takes not only time but also fine memory.
Another interesting aspect of Korean language to foreigners would be the honorific system, especially in the speech. One tends to offence another if using a wrong honorific form in their speech. Therefore, it reflects the Korean culture in the society, it is imperative to know the age, status, rank of the person whom you are speaking to. For example, you always have to greet someone who is older than you no matter it is only a year difference or even one month. In addition, occupation always reflects a sense of social status. For example, being a teacher or professor is a highly respectable job in Korea, as it is honourable to be in the field of education. Therefore, it is a code of conduct to always bow when you meet someone who has a respectable social rank like teacher, and to someone who is elder than you, such as a senior in school.
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