Ask Me Absolutely Anything About Korean Speaking and Phonics

KangTsai

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With the amount of people training taekwondo and the like forced to learn at least a tiny bit of broken Korean from their instructors, please ask me to correct, define or refine anything.

Qualifications:
Am Korean
I translate Korean to English for written documents (essays, CVs).
 

Kinghercules

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Can you read old Korean?

I would like to know what this says especially the parts (besides the name and date) that were hand written in.
Thanks
 

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Kinghercules

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Oh one more.
But I think this is written in Chinese.
Correct?
 

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KangTsai

KangTsai

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Can you read old Korean?

I would like to know what this says especially the parts (besides the name and date) that were hand written in.
Thanks
Most of that's Chinese. The Korean script is actually very young, and up until the 1980's ish Chinese was used always in formal stuff. Like everyone, I can't read Chinese, it's like "This person has ____________________________________ therefore ___________________________________________ did ____________."
 

Kinghercules

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Most of that's Chinese. The Korean script is actually very young, and up until the 1980's ish Chinese was used always in formal stuff. Like everyone, I can't read Chinese, it's like "This person has ____________________________________ therefore ___________________________________________ did ____________."
Its the blank part I need to know tho.
LOL!

So did the Korean people migrated from China and did they speak Chinese or was it Chinese writing with Korean pronunciation and thats why they stopped using Chinese characters?
 
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KangTsai

KangTsai

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Its the blank part I need to know tho.
LOL!

So did the Korean people migrated from China and did they speak Chinese or was it Chinese writing with Korean pronunciation and thats why they stopped using Chinese characters?
The relationship between Chinese and Korean language is similar to the relationship between Latin and English. Chinese characters were used as written language in Korea up until King Sejong of the Joseon period established Korean Script. Chinese script became increasingly obsolete overtime.
 

Kinghercules

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The relationship between Chinese and Korean language is similar to the relationship between Latin and English. Chinese characters were used as written language in Korea up until King Sejong of the Joseon period established Korean Script. Chinese script became increasingly obsolete overtime.
Ohh....ok.
I never knew that.
Always wonder.
Thanks
 

Bill Mattocks

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I was able to spend some time in Masan, South Korea, back in 2001, doing some work for a telecommunications company. It was a great experience, and the people I met there were some of the friendliest, nicest, people I have ever met in my life. I really enjoyed my time there.
 

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oaktree

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Can you read old Korean?

I would like to know what this says especially the parts (besides the name and date) that were hand written in.
Thanks
Basically a degree from Kim ji Huang in tansudo which I think is taekwondo now if you need a certain hanzi character let me know which one
 

Kinghercules

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Basically a degree from Kim ji Huang in tansudo which I think is taekwondo now if you need a certain hanzi character let me know which one
Ok.
I do have an old pic of my teacher in Korea back in the 50's with some writing in the back ground but every time I ask a Korean to translate it they say its old Korean and they cant read it. :)
 

oaktree

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It is from Kim ji Huang again, 1982 for tang soo do. I can only read the Chinese if there is a certain part on it you want me to read let me know.
 

oftheherd1

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The relationship between Chinese and Korean language is similar to the relationship between Latin and English. Chinese characters were used as written language in Korea up until King Sejong of the Joseon period established Korean Script. Chinese script became increasingly obsolete overtime.

You apparently have family ties and no doubt spoke/speak Korean at home. I really don't speak Korean, but have spent time there, and long ago, studied the language and culture. But in that you have the advantage over me. However, I am somewhat familiar with English.

There isn't a direct line from Latin to English. English is a germanic language that picked up a lot from other germanic languages. The Latin influence comes from the Norman conquest and the attempt to force everyone to speak French, which is a Latin derivative. American English picked up more from the Spanish it encountered in the southwest.

From my limited study, Korean picked up some Chinese culture and language from their political and social contacts with different dynasties. They used Chinese in their contacts with China, adopting the Chinese writing. They were for much of their existence, under the suzerainty of China. The relationship was stronger or weaker over time.

But it provided the vehicle for the adoption of many Chinese borrow words in the language. The words for airplane, airport, and bank are ones I remember being assimilated. However, they generally did not bring over the tones used Chinese. I don't recall the word now, but one word I learned in Korean had a tone when I heard it, the same one I had learned in Vietnamese. It was the only 'Korean' word I ever heard with tone.

EDIT: The example depicted by Kinghercules is an example of how the Koreans used to write, with a mixture of Chinese and Korean characters. I never learned how they knew when to use the Chinese characters and when not. I know it was often used in writing when it was important to differentiate between clans. Where Korean might pronounce several clan names the same, and they would be written the same, using the Chinese characters allowed the differentiation.
 
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KangTsai

KangTsai

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You apparently have family ties and no doubt spoke/speak Korean at home. I really don't speak Korean, but have spent time there, and long ago, studied the language and culture. But in that you have the advantage over me. However, I am somewhat familiar with English.

There isn't a direct line from Latin to English. English is a germanic language that picked up a lot from other germanic languages. The Latin influence comes from the Norman conquest and the attempt to force everyone to speak French, which is a Latin derivative. American English picked up more from the Spanish it encountered in the southwest.

From my limited study, Korean picked up some Chinese culture and language from their political and social contacts with different dynasties. They used Chinese in their contacts with China, adopting the Chinese writing. They were for much of their existence, under the suzerainty of China. The relationship was stronger or weaker over time.

But it provided the vehicle for the adoption of many Chinese borrow words in the language. The words for airplane, airport, and bank are ones I remember being assimilated. However, they generally did not bring over the tones used Chinese. I don't recall the word now, but one word I learned in Korean had a tone when I heard it, the same one I had learned in Vietnamese. It was the only 'Korean' word I ever heard with tone.

EDIT: The example depicted by Kinghercules is an example of how the Koreans used to write, with a mixture of Chinese and Korean characters. I never learned how they knew when to use the Chinese characters and when not. I know it was often used in writing when it was important to differentiate between clans. Where Korean might pronounce several clan names the same, and they would be written the same, using the Chinese characters allowed the differentiation.
Think of Chinese characters in Korean like this: 'asleep' is a purely Anglo-Saxon, therefore English word, which derives nothing from any other language. However, 'telescope' is not: it comes from Latin 'telescopium' and Greek 'teleskopos.'
Korean pronunciations of Chinese characters e.g. 火 is read 화 with the meaning of 불(fire), is generally used in compound words in speaking. However in that old formal method of writing both Korean and Chinese at the same time, Chinese characters may be used to also be read as the meaning rather than the character. So instead of 米가 없다 being read as 미가없다, it would be interpreted as 쌀이없다. It's formal because it's inefficient I would say.
 

oftheherd1

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Think of Chinese characters in Korean like this: 'asleep' is a purely Anglo-Saxon, therefore English word, which derives nothing from any other language. However, 'telescope' is not: it comes from Latin 'telescopium' and Greek 'teleskopos.'
Korean pronunciations of Chinese characters e.g. 火 is read 화 with the meaning of 불(fire), is generally used in compound words in speaking. However in that old formal method of writing both Korean and Chinese at the same time, Chinese characters may be used to also be read as the meaning rather than the character. So instead of 米가 없다 being read as 미가없다, it would be interpreted as 쌀이없다. It's formal because it's inefficient I would say.

I not sure I get that all. But then as I said I am not a Korean speaker nor writer. I can read the characters, but I may not know where one word ends and another begins, and even then, probably won't know more than one word of many. I am aware that some Chinese words are used for instance, to denote a day of the week, Tuesday in your example of fire-day. In restaurants Chinese characters are, or at least used to be used for amounts of money.

But none of that really relates to the fact that Chinese words entered the Korean language due to spending so much time under the suzerainty of China. It only gives examples of what some of the words were. My point above was about how the adoption occurred. That was my bad as it really didn't relate to the OP's question about translating a document, other than your statement that English is derived from Latin. That myth has been around for a long time. I can remember a teacher telling me that in the 50s.
 

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