Your Korean Teacher is WRONG about Hanja!

[@KoreanPatch]

Thanks again to all my friends who did interviews for this video!! Sorry for putting you guys on the spot. A few of them have public Instagrams, so you can check out their profiles by clicking the links in the description.

[@CrixusHeart]

Where can I find past content for Motivate Korean?

[@KoreanPatch]

Unfortunately it was all deleted - that was the reason I ended up making all of this content again! Check out the first video on the channel, "quick update about the future of Motivate Korean" and its comments section. for more info.

[@LIFEWITHOUTPLANS]

재밋었어요~ 나 사투리 많이 안쓰는줄 알았는데 엄청쓰네요 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[@seoul_mate]

I am a self-taught Korean learner and I can't stress enough the importance of 한자. It will make your life easier when reading and you'll be able to guess the meaning of unknown words. There are some great resources around, so make the most of it.

[@fransmith3255]

Me too!! It's soooo much easier to learn and remember words to learn the 한자! Plus is absolutely fascinating! Learning the 한자 and the relationships between words is one of the funnest parts to learning Korean. I love 한자-surfing!

[@quach8quach907]

I'm Vietnamese and I'm learning "Kanji". 平安 = peace = bình an 平 that is a glyph of a balance scale. 安 that is a glyph of a woman inside a house. Vietnamese, like Korean, is 60% Chinese. You have to know the Chinese root of your language and culture.

[@drafeirha]

You really got me here. I also refused to learn Hanja for exactly the same reason that the people in your interview gave you at first: 굳이? But I often found myself asking my girlfriend about the meaning of certain Hanja that we came across in everyday life which kind of shifted my mindset. I now know about 10 Hanja more or less but I am open to learning more. It would be nice if you actually taught us the most common ones in future videos.

[@KoreanPatch]

That's the plan!!

[@TalaySeedam]

It's impossible to use Korean language without knowing something that is the most basic method of creating around 80% of all vocabulary.

[@erosnunez6238]

In fact, in the future I would like to learn korean and use chinese radicals, I learned that there is a mixed writing system where you combine chinese radicals and hangeul in sentences, like in japanese

[@jillvslangs]

How cute are your Korean interviewees 🙈

[@KoreanPatch]

Right? They're the best. I'm so grateful for our friends.

[@noahjohnston7575]

I’m so excited for this 한자 series!

[@desmondehoppie4758]

Very Informative. Thank You for taking the time to make this video

[@BaneslayerJoe]

Loved the Korean only section! Thanks for the great Korean-learning content!

[@N0xxNam3]

oh what a great new series! always tried to get into 한자, but whenever I did I would just cram like 30 한자 in one setting and then forget all about it the next day. So I would love if you would take your time with each 한자 so we can reeeally absorbe it to never forget it again^^ thank you for the great content as always Ian!

[@KoreanPatch]

No worries, I will! I love this stuff, so I'll make sure it's done with care.

[@lizy7147]

You're becoming my new favorite 한국어 배우는 방법 YT channel. Trying to make the difficult leap to full immersion is hard but your channel makes it impossible lol

[@KoreanPatch]

Thanks for watching! I know it's hard, but it's so worth it.

[@_filifjonkan4290]

You made your point! Looking forward to the next videos. (I was skipping the characters while learning Hanja, I won’t anymore…)

[@fransmith3255]

Hehe, from my very humble experience, compared to western people, Korean people massively downplay what they "know" and what they're "good at". "Good at" to western people generally means "better than average", while "good at" for Korean people means, "exceptional" or "excellent" or "highly skilled". So when Korean people admit to "knowing" something, it means that they're a bit of an expert at it. If Korean people aren't at expert level, they generally say they aren't good at it. So if they only know a small amount, they say they don't know. I think we have differing opinions as to what "good at" and "know" are between our cultures. In English, "to know" is to "know at least something about" (and most honest western people would qualify that by saying that they know a LITTLE bit, or explain the extent of their knowledge). Whereas in Korean culture, "to know" is to be "highly knowledgeable about". And they only admit that they are "good at" something, or "know" something when they are very, very sure that they are considerably better than anyone who is listening to the answer to that question. Whereas we western people tend to qualify exactly how good we are or what we know or our exact experience. It's quite a definite cultural difference, I think. How arrogant we western people must seem to Korean people sometimes because of that difference of understanding. :-(( Sorry about the generalisations, btw. I realise I'm generalising, and that no trait or situation encapsulates ALL Korean or ALL western people. Thought I'd better confirm that. I generally abhor global generalisations like this, but I don't know another way to explain it. I don't know how many Korean people I've chatted to who say they aren't "good" at English, even though we can have a fairly passable conversation in English, which compared to my Korean, definitely means "good at" English to some extent, lol. Then with my measly amount of Korean, they say "Wow! You're good!", when I'm actually very, very bad, lol (by western standards! ). :-)))

[@KoreanPatch]

I don't think it's necessarily a "generalization" in the negative sense - these are cultural mores that you've picked up on. People don't talk about themselves in Korean the same way we do in English. I _do_ still stand by my assertion that people don't know how much they know about this subject, though! 😎

[@fransmith3255]

@@KoreanPatch Hehe, it's definitely not a generalisation that is meant to be negative. I have a lot of respect for Korean culture. And the more bad my Korean is the more I admire Korean people's English, lol! I would agree with your assertion too, of course. 😎 한자 is one of my favourite parts of learning Korean - the different approaches to attaining similar word meanings on both a word and a sentence level are fascinating! I can't imagine trying to learn Korean without 한자 any more than I can imagine learning Korean without 한글! Good video! :-))

[@xilencist]

My English level is somewhere between B2 and C1 but I NEVER say I'm good at English. I always say I know only a tiny bit. Well, (pretending) to be humble is a big part of East Asian culture

[@fransmith3255]

​@@xilencist Wow! If this is just a sample of your general written English, it looks pretty amazing to me! :-)) I really like that about Korean culture in many ways - I very much dislike western arrogance. However, I think sometimes it hinders English learning. I teach elementary and middle school English. My elementary kids are mostly fine - I teach at a small school, so I can teach them to read at their individual level, and I've had a couple who I've really had to drag through the curriculum and my reading system, but I don't let them give up. I tell them that the most important thing is to do your best. But at the middle schools (where I don't know their elementary background) I see a lot of kids who have just sadly given up. They know no English whatsoever, despite their elementary years. This is really strange to me, as Australian kids don't give up in the same way. Some are more academic than others, but the ones who aren't academic generally don't care about grades anyway - they get poorer grades, but they'll get jobs in trades and less academic areas, and there's nothing at all wrong with that. My brother was actually very smart (smarter than I am), but hated school, so didn't study (so, by default, I got the better grades) - he's a mining industry mechanic - literally laughs at how much money I make as a teacher, "I wouldn't bother getting out of bed for your pay packet" he tells me. :-)) But it saddens me that kids give up if they really want to achieve in something but don't believe they can, or just because other people are better. I love the Korean humbleness, and I love the kids I teach, but sadly I see some (related???) self-esteem issues in some kids too...

[@xilencist]

@Fran Smith that is true. You know there is this expression 엄친아/엄친딸 which means 엄마 친구 아들/딸 (mom's friend's son/daughter) because moms tend to compare their kids to someone else's kid who's good at something. So whenever my mom reads my report card, she would compare it to judge my grade why you've only got these scores while my friend's daughter's got A+ in everything, this kind of vibe. Sadly, it happens not only for students, in some degrees, everyone compares someone or themselves to the best. I think that's one of the reasons why people give up so easily. They focus on how much they are far from the top, instead of how much they've climbed from the bottom. They don't get enough encouragement.

[@veiking]

Great video. Just a quick reminder of a Hanja mistake 1:11 漢字 and 漢子 are two different words. 漢子 means guy.

[@KoreanPatch]

Oh jeez, I never caught that typo... Yikes...

[@veiking]

@@KoreanPatch No worries. Common typo even for Chinese🤣🤣

[@jen2332]

Where can I find this list of 200 commonly seen? Thanks!

[@MeowCockadoodledoo]

I learned Chinese Mandarin. Too bad my spoken Mandarin went down to drain, since I hardly speak any of it due to lack of peoples that I can speak Mandarin with. But I can still remember considerable amount of Chinese characters. I guess I kind of understand how Korean feel bout "I dunno Hanja" but when given a Hanja character, they knw what it means right away just by looking at it. 😅

[@calmontes651]

This was fun to watch! so much to study 📚

[@paulwalther5237]

That’s funny how they claimed they didn’t know any hanja but clearly they do. But compared to a Japanese or Chinese person their knowledge is pretty minimal you have to admit. I think when you ask a Korean about hanja they’re immediately thinking of knowing hanja on a Japanese or Chinese level. I remember in my in my Korean class in the US I thought it was a waste not to introduce a few hanja in the class (having studied Japanese I’m not afraid of them) and she panicked but it turns out she knew the hanja for the days of the week just fine. And the whole class was curious about them.

[@KoreanArah]

It's a really good video! I totally agree with this idea. If you learn some basic Hanja like 'big大 /middle中/small小' for the size of food at restaurant or 'to exist有 / to not exist無' etc.., they will be definitely useful when living in Korea. Also, if you are an advanced learner, you can expand your vocabulary with hanja. Too many hanja words will possibly demotivates lower beginners. However, you can consider 'learning hanja' as one of your options when studying Korean. 정말 좋은 영상이네요!!

[@KoreanPatch]

Thanks for the support!! I'll see you at your livestream tomorrow at 10pm KST!

[@KoreanArah]

@@KoreanPatch You remember my livestream! 감사합니다. 목요일에 봬요~

[@brenda8349]

OMGGG I love your videos! They are informative, hilarious and just a gem overall. I have been sharing them non-stop with my Korean-learning group. We feel very identified with what you say as a learner and also encouraged to speak more confidently. Also, to not be afraid to spend some time learning about 사투리, 한자 and 역사. 감사합니다!

[@KoreanPatch]

Thanks Brenda! That's so kind of you to say! I hope your study group is enjoying the content - that makes making it all worth it.

[@brenda8349]

@@KoreanPatch We sure are. One of the members said that this is truly an amazing channel. I couldn't agree more. Thanks!

[@piptune]

As a Japanese learner, who knows some basic Korean, this discussion looks funnily pointless: "Pff, of course 大 means big", "So in Korean they just need 200 _kanji_, while I'm mastering my 2000 Japanese kanji." To be honest, it feels that Korean would be even cooler if it were written like Japanese, with mixed scripts.

[@KoreanPatch]

We don't *need* them in Korean, they're just used. There has been quite a bit of resentment against (and disinterest in) their use since the Japanese colonizers were expelled from the peninsula and their attempt to erase Korean language and culture through force was ended. 한글 is more than enough, which is why the world prize for innovations in writing is named after the Korean king who is credited with its invention, 세종대왕. The point of these videos is to let learners know that Korean has its inconsistencies, its baggage, and history - and this is one thing that's stuck around that remains misunderstood by many learners.

[@piptune]

@@KoreanPatch Don't take me seriously though, I wrote my comment just making some educated fun from an outside perspective (of someone who's learning Nihongo before Hangugeo). I totally see the point of the video.

[@quach8quach907]

As a Vietnamese-American, Vietnamese is 60% Chinese, English is 60% French, the Japanese writing system with Kanji is the best, objectively.

[@kyonshi61]

@@quach8quach907 Hot take, but I mostly agree! As an English speaker who's fluent in Japanese and studied some basic Vietnamese and Korean, I found myself missing the Chinese characters and often looking them up when learning new Sino-Vietnamese or Sino-Korean words. Understanding the etymology of a word or compound is really valuable for memorization and comprehension. My caveat would be that I think Japanese makes things unnecessarily complicated by also applying kanji to native Japanese ("Yamato") words without a Chinese origin. So you have 中 (middle, inside) being read as "chū" or "jū" in Sino-Japanese borrowings, but elsewhere being used for "naka" or "uchi", the Yamato Japanese terms for "inside". It would make it so much easier if this Yamato vocabulary were written in hiragana, with the addition of spaces between words like hangul has.

[@quach8quach907]

@@kyonshi61 English has that duality too. Get used to it. penny cent 100 cents make a dollar 100 years make a century and so on and so on. 60% of English is French or Latin.

[@NUSORCA]

Not a single English speaker or student could ever develop more hatred for words of latin and French origin than any Korean have for 漢字. The very thing that makes their neighboring cultures shine

[@한밤의드라이브]

세종대왕님이 600여년전이 아니라 2,000여년전에 태어나셨다면... 고구려, 신라, 백제의 왕이 셨다면... 한국어에서 한자가 지금보단 많이 안 쓰였을 거란 생각이 듭니다. 한국어의 상당수가 한자어가 많은데 국어국문학, 역사, 철학 같은 인문학 전공자가 아니면 대부분은 한자를 재대로 배우지 못 한 상태에서 단어의 뜻도 정확하게 모르고 대충 무슨 뜻이다... 이정도만 알고 쓰는게 많다는 생각이 듭니다. 좋은영상 잘 봤습니다.

[@KoreanPatch]

한글은 세종대왕님이 한자를 어려워하는 백성들을 생각하셔서 만드셨으니 2000년 전에 태어나셨더라면 아마 다른 한글이 생겼을 수도 있겠죠?? ㅎㅎ 저는 지금 한글이 너무 좋아서 저한테는 세종대왕님이 딱 맞는 순간에 태어나신 게 아닐까요?? 😄

[@한밤의드라이브]

@@KoreanPatch 전 법학, 경제학 전공이라 인문학은 잘 모릅니다. 제가 이런 이야기하면 번데기 앞에서 주름잡는 거겠지만요... 제 짧은 지식을 이야기하면 고대, 중세 한국어는 한자어보단 순우리말이 많았다고 합니다. 문명, 문화가 발전을 하고 부족사회에서 국가로 발전해 나갈수록 글을 쓰고 글로 기록해야 할 필요가 생긴걸로 압니다. 그 과정에서 한국어와는 어순도 틀린 중국글자 한자를 차용해서 쓰게 되었고... 한자를 쓰다보니 점점 순우리말은 없어지고 그 자리를 한자어가 대신 쓰이게 된 걸로 압니다. 첫째는 한국어에 순우리말이 많이 남아있었다면 어떠했을까... 그런 아쉬움도 들고요. 둘째는 순우리말이 사라지고 한자어로 대체가 된 상황, 즉 되돌리기엔 너무 멀리와버린 상황이 되었는데... 의도적으로 한자를 못 쓰게 하고 한글만 쓰게 하는게 과연 좋은것인지 잘 모르겠습니다. 구한말이나 해방후 신문이나 책들을 보면 한글과 한자가 같이 쓰였습니다. 박정희가 대통령이 되고부터 바뀐거죠. 일본인들은 지금도 한자를 같이 씁니다. 한자와 한글을 병행한다면 교육비용이 상승하고 인터넷사용시 애로사항이 생기겠지만 조금을 더 정확한 의미를 알고 쓰는 국어생활이 되었을 것입니다. 그런 뜻에서 남긴 댓글입니다. 법 law 法 법의 부수는 물수변입니다. 물은 끓이면 증발되고 기온이 0도이하면 얼듯이 자연에 이치에 맞는 순리적인 법을 만들라는 철학이 담긴 글자로 압니다. 帝 임금 제 제자의 부수는 수건건 입니다. empire 를 유지하기 위해선 언론과 자본을 확실하게 컨트롤 하란 뜻입니다. 수건으로 입을 막는다는 뜻과 화폐경제가 발달하지 않은 시기 면포가 돈 대용으로 쓰였으니까요. 요즘 사람들이 재대로 된 한자교육을 못 받은 상태에서 한자어를 쓰니까... 전 한국인으로써 아쉽다는 생각이 듭니다. 좋은하루 되세요.

[@KoreanPatch]

번데기 앞에서 주름 잡다니요~ 제가 할 말입니다! 일리가 있는 말씀이십니다. 제가 많이 배우고 갑니다! 앞으로도 많은 관심 부탁드립니다!! 😊

[@quach8quach907]

Wrong. Time has nothing to do with it. Generational amnesia can happen very fast. Vietnamese came later than Korean. Like Korean, Vietnamese is 60% Chinese. The average person in Vietnam knows nothing of Chinese characters. Only scholars know. Example: Ebonics. A lady was sayng "boo" talking on the phone. After she finished talking she explained to me that "boo" means "boyfriend'. I said, "I know. It is from the French "beau" as in "beauty". It is French because of the Louisiana Purchase. And no "African-American" knows that "poontang", "pootytang" came from the French "putain". I know because I am a scholar.

[@PatHighwayEncounter]

When Koreans learn Hanja in school, they are too young to see how cool Hanja is, like everything else in school. So it is the job of us non-Koreans to tell them how cool their own culture is, that they must learn more Hanja, go to 판소리 concerts, stop listening to K-Pop and stop wasting their youth on this pointless learning competition😊

[@fitzhugh2542]

I think the analogy that Hanja is kinda like learning latin (i.e., a dead language) is not entirely off base. I had to learn latin in high school and personally I loved it, not only because it gave you a richer and deeper understanding of words (whether in English or in any Romance language), but it made learning other (Western European) languages easier. I think the Korean perception of Hanja is probably similar. It's a dead language, it's maybe snooty and elitist, not necessary, not useful and it probably doesn't help that you want to distance yourself from the North Korea/Japanese/Chinese who use Hanja. But boy are people missing out if they don't know the etymology of their own words!

[@Cherodar]

I thought North Korea didn't use hanja at all, and that if the South used them it would distance them more!

[@fitzhugh2542]

@@Cherodar They don't use them, but it's still in the education system whereas the South has removed it from the system, unless if you go to certain schools.

[@Cherodar]

@@fitzhugh2542Ohh I see I see, so the North has to learn them but has to not use them, wheras the South doesn't have to learn them but is allowed to use them? Such an odd cross!

[@fitzhugh2542]

@@Cherodar You can read the Wikipedia article on Hanja (specifically South vs. North sections). It has some historical reasons due to Kim Il Sung's policy, whereas in South Korea, it's a fairly recent thing due to "script nationalism" starting in the 90s. I suspect it's all part of the "exclusionary nationalism" movement in South Korea.

[@bes03c]

生 is one I see all the time in Korea.

[@learnkoreanwithKorean]

와 완전히 한국사람 억양 입니다. 놀랍습니다. 한자는 한국어의 50 % 이상의 단어에 영향을 준 것은 사실 입니다. 다만, 한자를 완벽히 이해하는 것은 중국인들도 조금 힘들어 합니다.

[@KoreanPatch]

아이고... 별말씀을요... 아직도 제 한국어는 많이 부족합니다... 한자를 완벽하게 이해하는 것은 분명히 어려운일입니다. 하지만 이 채널의 목적은 가능한만큼 원어민처럼 한국어를 구사하는 것입니다. 그래서 기초적인 한자라도 배우는 것은 도움이 될거라고 생각합니다!! 😊 제 한국말 칭찬해주셔서 감사합니다!!

[@NUSORCA]

로마 教皇조차 라틴어를 自由自在로 驅使하지 못하듯이 그렇지만 漢字와 漢文은 그만큼 바람직한 古典語가 아닐까요

[@LeonardoCaida]

Hanja is actually 漢字, not 漢子，漢子 means men/male...

[@林虤]

I wonder if those two hundred characters could cover over half of the daily Chinese use

[@AlvinYap510]

You need around 2000-3000 characters for passable Chinese comprehension

[@林虤]

@@AlvinYap510 Wow do we really need that many?? As a native speaker I have not realized this before.

[@AlvinYap510]

​@@林虤 You already mastered 2500-3000 characters when you finish your elementary school. It's not as scary as it sounds. I am a Malaysian Chinese btw, but our standard is more or less the same - upon finishing elementary school, a student needs to master approximately 2768 characters Malaysian Version : 《华文课纲》中识字教学部分是最具马来西亚特色的。从 1983 年 KBSR 开 始，《华文课纲》设订一定字数的字汇表以作编写教材之用。教材内容必须涵 盖字汇表规定的全部生字，同时不能使用字汇表以外的生字。1983 年《华文课 纲》的字汇表共 2757 字，1997 年《华文课纲》的字汇表共 2766 字，2003《华 文课纲》的字汇表有 2768 字。这三个表几乎是一样的，二十年间只增加 10 个 左右的生字。 China's Standard: 据《义务教育语文课程标准》（2019版）规定，小学低中高段，孩子的识字量的标准如下： 小学1-2年级，认识常用汉字1600个左右，其中800个左右会写；小学3-4年级，累计认识常用汉字2500个左右，其中1600个左右会写；小学5-6年级，累计认识常用汉字3000个左右，其中2500个左右会写。 常用字是指中文中经常用到的汉字，通常有数千字。中国大陆、台湾和香港都有自己的常用字标准。 中国大陆：通用规范汉字表常用字集：3500字 台湾：常用国字标准字体表：4808字 香港：常用字字形表：4759字 另外，日本政府亦公布有用于日文中使用的常用汉字表。目前日本共有2136个常用汉字，4388个音训。

[@NO1xANIMExFAN]

@@林虤 lmao you'd need at minimum 3000-4000 minimum to comprehend almost everything in chinese. 200 is really not a lot at all if you think about it. even japanese, which doesn't use as many characters since they can just use kana (unlike chinese), learn more than 2000 characters

[@텔레토비-h8p]

한글이 좀 더 일찍 발명 되었다면 우리 고유의 말이 더 많았을텐데 아쉽네요. 늦은 감은 있지만 그래도 한글이 생겨서 지금 우리는 편하게 살고 있습니다. 아직도 한자 힘들게 그리고 있는 일본인들 보면 참 불쌍합니다 ㅎㅎㅎ

[@한밤의드라이브]

대한제국이 멸망한 이후까지도 양반님, 지식인들이 한자를 고집한 건 사대주의에 물든 그들이 한글을 천시하고 한자를 쓴다는 자부심도 있지만 한자가 시인성 (視認性) visiblility 이 좋기 때문입니다. 저도 님 생각처럼 한글이 삼국시대 나왔으면 그 당시에 대중화되고 지금까지 이어졌으면 순우리말이 많이 살았을텐데 하는 생각은 합니다. 임진왜란에 참전했던 일부 일본군출신들이 자기나라로 돌아가 일본말을 한글을 썼던 기록이 있습니다. 히라가나, 가타가나가 한글에 비해서 완벽하지 못한 건 사실이고 글을 아예 모르는 상태에선 한자, 히라가나 가타가나를 다 배워야 하는게 번거로운건 맞습니다만 한자와 일본어를 완벽하게 익힌 입장에선 히라가나, 가타가나로만 쓰는 것보단 한자를 섞어 쓰면 시인성이 더 좋아집니다. 지금은 교육의 기회가 상위 엘리트에게만 국한 된 것이 아니라... 비교적 공평하게 제공되는 시대 아닙니까... 전 지금의 일본인을 불쌍하다 볼 건 아니라고 봅니다. 새해 복 많이 받으세요.

[@quach8quach907]

I admire the Japanese for their genius. I'm Vietnamese, and I'm learning Chinese characters to emulate the Japanese.

[@quach8quach907]

I don't know anything about the Korean language. But I can make an educated guess. Every Chinese word has a Korean word counterpart, just like in Vietnamese and English. English - French car - automobile lift - elevator merry-go-round - carousel dog - canine brightness - luminance movie - film penny - cent etc. It's there in Korean, a native counterpart, just as in English and Vietnamese. In Japanese it's called the On reading and Kun reading.

[@贾继中]

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