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Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - Printable Version

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Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - warakawa - 2012-09-10

Just wondering of I write Sino-Japanese vocabulary written in kyujitai Kanji, can S. Korean be able to read them?

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - JimmySeal - 2012-09-10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanja

First paragraph:

"Because hanja never underwent major reform, they are almost entirely identical to traditional Chinese and kyūjitai characters. Only a small number of hanja characters are modified or unique to Korean."

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - kitakitsune - 2012-09-10

warakawa Wrote:Just wondering of I write Sino-Japanese vocabulary written in kyujitai Kanji, can S. Korean be able to read them?
Yes, if the word exists in Korean.

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - warakawa - 2012-09-10

JimmySeal Wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanja

First paragraph:

"Because hanja never underwent major reform, they are almost entirely identical to traditional Chinese and kyūjitai characters. Only a small number of hanja characters are modified or unique to Korean."
So can S. Korean people read Hanja?

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - JimmySeal - 2012-09-10

Same article:

Formal hanja education begins in grade 7 (junior high school) and continues until graduation from senior high school in grade 12. A total of 1,800 hanja are taught: 900 for junior high, and 900 for senior high (starting in grade 10).

Second match on Google search for "can Koreans read hanja":

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/27863-can-average-koreans-still-read-chinese-today/

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - warakawa - 2012-09-10

but they never use no chinese characters there forgettin curve long gone

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - yudantaiteki - 2012-09-10

warakawa Wrote:but they never use no chinese characters there forgettin curve long gone
I have no idea what that means.

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - Inny Jan - 2012-09-10

yudantaiteki Wrote:
warakawa Wrote:but they never use no chinese characters there forgettin curve long gone
I have no idea what that means.
For a moment I thought that I didn't get it because English is not my mother tongue - I'm glad to find out that a native speaker has the same problem. Smile

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - warakawa - 2012-09-10

Inny Jan Wrote:
yudantaiteki Wrote:
warakawa Wrote:but they never use no chinese characters there forgettin curve long gone
I have no idea what that means.
For a moment I thought that I didn't get it because English is not my mother tongue - I'm glad to find out that a native speaker has the same problem. Smile
but yudantaiteki no native speaker hez a jappon jin thus he no understood my domestic engrish

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - undead_saif - 2012-09-10

warakawa Wrote:
Inny Jan Wrote:
yudantaiteki Wrote:I have no idea what that means.
For a moment I thought that I didn't get it because English is not my mother tongue - I'm glad to find out that a native speaker has the same problem. Smile
but yudantaiteki no native speaker hez a jappon jin thus he no understood my domestic engrish
LOL You're killing me xD

On the topic, I'm not that exposed to Korean, but I've never seen Chinese characters in Korean texts, for example on products or Youtube.
*Checking the links*

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - warakawa - 2012-09-10

Thank you. This is exactly my point, quoting from Wikipedia that Korean high school students learn Chinese characters means nothing.

We all know the principle behind SRS, if average Korean people never use Hanja after High school, are they still able to read and write all the 2000 or so Hanjas they were taught back in high school??

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - howtwosavealif3 - 2012-09-10

They can't write it.come Japanese newspaper asked 100 or so Korean college students to write Republic of Korea ( Dae han minguk) and most people could not do it. For example people could not remember the kanji for han which is Korea like one person wrote the kanji for car since they couldn't remember and just wanted to write what looks like han.

They keep changing around the hanja education so it depends on who you're asking about too like some generations get thorough education or shall I say drilling.

I don't know about reading but you can imagine since the never use hanja nowadays and from want other people said. And it's easier to read/ recognize the meaning then write so who knows

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - warakawa - 2012-09-10

look what I found, Korean equivalent of KanKen

http://wiki.galbijim.com/Hanja_Proficiency_Test

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - JimmySeal - 2012-09-10

warakawa Wrote:Thank you. This is exactly my point, quoting from Wikipedia that Korean high school students learn Chinese characters means nothing.
It doesn't mean nothing. Are you trying to say you remember nothing you learned in high school that you haven't used since? I think if they take the time to learn 1800 characters, they're going to retain a lot of knowledge of them, even if they don't use them much afterward.

Were these replies in the forum thread I referred you to unsatisfactory, or did you not even bother to look at it?
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/27863-can-average-koreans-still-read-chinese-today/page__st__15#entry4954769
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/27863-can-average-koreans-still-read-chinese-today/page__st__45#entry4956307

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - theadamie - 2012-09-20

I've lived in korea for about 3 years and now ilive and go to school in kyoto. What i can say is, yes, most seoulites study hanja in school but VERY few retain any working knowledge of it. Basically the answer is yes IF they can read hanja and IF the word exists in korean. These days i sometimes change a korean word to a japanese sino-reading when i don't know a word and it's often correct.

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - frony0 - 2012-09-21

From my experience, not in the slightest, bar some basic few like numbers.

Can S. Korean people read traditional Kanji? - monitor - 2012-10-04

The older Koreans can read hanja (the Korean name for Chinese characters), as it was used in newspapers and books (although with much less frequency than in Japanese even now) until around 1990. Remember that whereas native Japanese vocabulary is written with kanji (which is why there are kun'yomi), native Korean words are never written in hanja - only Sino-Korean words.

But the younger Koreans (probably those under 30) cannot read hanja. For an example of this, watch this video from a variety show: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xey0dt_yyy-yyy-d-yy-c-yy-y-ep-13-2-3_fun

Forward to the 3 minute mark to see two people (both in their early- to mid-20s) try to read hanja and fail for the most part. They're able to read 「新年」, but that's about it. In the end, they end up drawing them on a site like http://kanji.sljfaq.org/ to figure it out (starting at the 5 minute mark).

But note how the older hosts of the show (probably around 30-40 years old) are able to read the hanja.