Essential Korean 4-Character Idioms: 사자성어 with Tyler Rasch

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감사합니다! 🙂

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Hello Natalie, I love your enthusiasm, but I do not believe it is correct to say that the Chinese language has influenced “MOST of the aspects of Korean culture and language”. Yes, there has been ample influence, but Chinese culture is Chinese culture, and Korean culture is Korean culture. Though Chinese characters were used by the Yangban (elite) male aristocratic class to communicate in writing, Chinese characters did not do a great job to capture the “sounds” of the beautiful Korean language. If you listen to the dialects of Chinese spoken throughout China and compare those dialects to the very different beautiful sounds of the distinct Korean language, you can easily tell that in terms of “sound” and pronunciation there is far less in common between the two countries’ languages than “most” (e.g which equals more than 50%, right?). Also, Korea developed its own alphabet, Hanguel, which has an easy-to-learn vowel and consonant system that is much easier to learn than Chinese characters, which are difficult to memorize, despite the radicals. In terms of culture, Korea again has its own rich history, quite distinct from China, which also has its own distinct interesting history. These days there are many false stories (sometimes being injected into Korean movies and dramas at least partially-financed by non-Korean Asian countries) that inaccurately visually and/or narratively portray/misrespresent very Korean-only cultural elements and products like kimchi, Hanbok clothing, galbi, and so on, as having originated in other countries (e.g. China and Japan), but those narratives are incorrect (a nice way to say, false, if/when intentionally incorrect). China has its own rich culture, and so does Korea. There is an overlap linguistically, and some cultural influence, but today, Korea is in fact leading Asia in terms of culture, along with Japan, and then perhaps China as a distant third (except for the food: everyone loves Chinese food). I am not talking about militarily-politically, I am talking in terms of fashion, music, movies, drama, and nowadays, “street dancing” and variety shows. And in fact, the term “Hallyu” (wave) was coined by a Chinese broadcaster for the tidal wave of culture influencing China from Korea, not the other way around. Now Hallyu is used universally around the world. Korean, not Chinese, has “caught on” globally in not just one cultural and linguistic wave, but in many back-to-back constant waves: drama, movies, street dancing, clothing fashion, makeup, variety shows, etc. etc. The exception, I think is food, where Korea has made great strides globally, but is still outpaced a bit by the equally-yummy cuisines of China. Just wished to place an important caveat on your use of “most”. Yes, there have been SOME influence on aspects of Korean culture and language, but NOT “MOST”. In terms of vocabulary, yes, very ample influence, but the words are written and pronounced very differently in Korean. Just like English is made up of one-third Latin words England acquired when William of Normandy (of France) invaded England, but nobody focuses on how French English is; they sound and are very very different languages. English is English; French is French. Similarly, Chinese is Chinese, and Korean is Korean. That’s my historical takeaway from what I’ve read and learned from books and my Korean friends, respectively. Glad you also love TTMIK. They truly lead the way in the global craze for learning the beautiful Korean language. Besides people’s fondness for the also-beautiful-sounding Japanese language, clearly no other Asian language has caught on as much as Korean among Westerners, though all Asian languages have their own beauty. In fact, Parasite was the only non-Western movie to win the American Oscars, and other Korean movies have done wonderfully in Hollywood, Cannes, etc. Certainly written Chinese characters and Japanese characters are very beautiful. The other Asian country languages and cultures, also unique, like Korea’s culture and language, are also very wonderful. I wish I could learn all of these languages, including Chinese, but alas, I can only choose one, and Korean it is!