The modern Korean writing system, han'gul, was devised in during the reign of King Sejong, perhaps the greatest monarch of the Yi Dynasty Before han'gul, other Korean scripts used a complex system of Chinese characters to represent the sounds of Korean. But because of the differences between Chinese and Korean, Chinese characters could not adequately denote Korean speech. Further, only the elite could afford the time necessary to study Chinese, so King Sejong commissioned the invention of a phonetic script both more efficient and more accessible to the common people.
Described as one of the most scientific alphabets ever devised, han'gul consists of 24 letters: 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Combinations of these letters represent 5 double consonants and 11 dipthongs. The letters, grouped in clusters of 2, 3, or 4, form syllables and words.
The invention of han'gul marks a major achievement in the history of Korean culture because it has contributed to one of the highest literacy rates in the world. A variety of grammatical forms reveal the high value Koreans traditionally placed on expressing and receiving respect. Korean verbs have several forms to indicate the inferior, equal, or superior status of one speaker to another. Koreans now use only a few respectful styles, a change reflecting growth of the middle class and greater social equality.
Modern Korean still reflects China's deep influence over centuries. Roughly half the Korean vocabulary consists of words derived from Chinese, mainly through the Confucian classics. Today South Koreans generally use a hybrid writing system in which words derived from Chinese are written with Chinese characters, while Korean words are written in han'gul.
North Koreans totally eliminated Chinese characters and write even Chinese words in han'gul. Despite word borrowing, Korean is completely distinct from Chinese, in sound and in sentence structure.
Unsupported Browser Detected. Korean Language. History Korean is among the world's most misunderstood and misrepresented languages because its origins are obscure and the subject of ongoing scholarly debate.
They use the year you were born plus your birth month and day to look you up in their systems. There are three words that can be used for age. Somewhat ironically, to ask somebody their age in Korean, you have to guess how old they are to allow you to use the correct level of politeness.
There is a big chance of confusion when non-Koreans talk about age with Koreans. You may notice them if you live in Korea and know how to read Hangeul. You may also hear these terms when people are talking about the international age.
If you are in a formal situation such as a presentation or interview, then you can use the above expression to ask how old somebody is. If you ask somebody their age, you are probably not close enough to them to get away with using informal language. Generally, the Korean age is used for social interactions with people, whereas international age is used for more official things. For example, the age limits written on alcohol, cigarettes, movie posters , and so on are based on the international age.
The legal drinking age in Korea is 20 years old Korean age. This means you must have an international age of at least 19 years old to legally drink alcoholic beverages in Korea. Underage drinking is controlled in South Korea by establishments doing ID checks. This prevents the selling of alcoholic beverages to people below the legal drinking age.
The laws in South Korea on underage drinking are not as strictly enforced as they are in some other countries. One of the duties of male Koreans is to render service in the military for about 2 years. According to Korean law, all men at the age of 19 years old to 28 years old must perform military service. Everybody has their own birthday, complete with cake and candles. Koreans celebrate their birthday on the day they were born.
But on your birthday in Korea, you are not considered one year older than the day before. A baby is said to be in its first year, or han sal, at birth, and on December 31 it enters its second year, du sal. When expressed in English han sal becomes "one-year-old," creating confusion.
While in China the traditional system has fallen out of use , people still linguistically distinguish between someone's nominal age xusui , based on the traditional system, and real age shisui , even if most will give the latter -- which also counts legally -- when asked. The fundamental difference is that this system begins the count at one, rather than zero. While this may seem confusing, we do this in English as well; think of the s vs the 21st century -- in the first, we count years from 0AD, while the second regards AD as the first century, not century zero.
In Japan, a traditional system in which people's age went forward by a year on New Year's Day was abandoned at the start of the 20th century, though it remained in partial use until the s when a law was passed to adopt the international system. Laws in South Korea are currently a hodgepodge of different systems. When you meet someone for the first time in Korea, one of the first questions you hear will probably be " How old are you?
This applies even in totally informal situations and close relationships. To avoid confusion, when talking with people from other countries, many Koreans ask for their "international age" and make the calculations themselves. Interestingly, while Korean age is the one Koreans usually refer to in conversations, the legal age limits for such things as drinking, smoking , driving, etc.
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Don't worry - just read these short instructions. How to calculate Korean age? There are two main differences between the Korean age system and the Western age system: In Korea, you are already one year old when you are born. The prenatal period is rounded up to a year and counted as a year of life, as opposed to the West, where you, so to speak, start from zero.
In Korea, you "age" a year every New Year rather than on your birthday. That's why, before your birthday in a given year, you add two years to your Western-system age.
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