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The Korean Language
Korean is the mothertoungue of more than 72 million people who live in the two Koreas and counts with numerous speakers also in United States, Japan, Russia and China."Hangul", or Korean alphabet, is not an ideographic system as it is for Chinese. Blocks of minimum two characters join together to form a word and a syllabic unit is made up of up to five letters. Hangul's letters were designed following the physical morphology of the palate, teeth and tounge.
Dialects- "Saturi"
There are six major dialects ("bang-eon" or "saturi") of Korean language, five of which are found in the South part of the country and one in the North. Of course, there are differences between these dialects as for geography and socio-politics, but generally speaking Koreans living in different areas of the country can communicate between them also using their own dialect.Korean varieties differ one with the other especially as for intonation. The Standard South Korean, which is based on the Seoul dialect, is quite flat in intonation, while the Standard language of the North, based on the dialect of Pyojunmal, is rich in stress and its intonation is similar to that of an European language.
History
Korean originated in Northern Asia from the Altaic family of languages, which also includes the Torkic, Finnish, Hungarian, Tungusic and Mongol languages. On the contrary, Korean's common origins with Chinese haven't be proved yet, even if the two languages share some grammatical structures.The influence which United States had worldwide after World War II also reached Korea and for this reason the language includes words of English origin. In addition to this, more than half of Korean vocabulary derives from Chinese and this is a direct consequence of the domination of China over Korea. After years of incorporation of Chinese loanwords, nowadays the reverse process is going on: the Government is trying to substitute words of Chinese origin with Korean ones, a policy which is being applicated also to foreign terms, especially Western ones.
Literature
The creation of the Korean alphabet with the Choson Dinasty (1392-1910) is the turning point which divides the two main periods of Korean Literature. The first moment is the Classical period and includes works written in Chinese, while later, in the Modern period, literature was written in Korean.The Modern period begins with "ackhang", that are musical scores written to celebrate the foundation of the Choson Dynasty. Later, contacts with Western society brought to the East new artistic trends together with the diffusion of the Christian doctrine. Due to this wave of modernity, the Chinese writing system, which was the symbol of the dominant class, saw a decline in its sociocultural function. From now on every work, as the new form of novel called Shinsosol, was written in Korean.
Another change with respect to the past concerned music and classical poetry, which up to then had been two things in one and from now one became two separated identities. Generally speaking, there had been a real flourishment of new forms of literature, but despite this new-trend, poetry expression was not as free as it was in the classical period, as it went through a certain form of political control.
Proverbs
If you go to Korea and you want to be fully-integrated with its culture, knowing some proverbs will be quite useful.Morunun ke yakida = Ignorance is a medicine (Ignorance is a bliss).
Songkoto kutputo turokanda = Even a drill goes in from the tip (You have to start at the bottom to climb a ladder)
Kanun mari kooaya onun mari kopta = Say kind words to hear kind words (Nice words for nice words).