I didn't get many responses about a Korean study forum, and haven't been able to find anything like this site, so I'm just going to ask another Korean question here. I hope that's OK.

I'm interested in studying Korean vocabulary through hanja. I know I learn Japanese vocabulary much faster by paying attention to kanji and remembering common readings, and I want to apply this to Korean, even though hanja aren't used very much nowadays.

There are two things that would be really useful for this:

1) A list of the main hanja (I've heard there are 1,800 that students learn), so I can go over it and learn the ones that are different from kanji. It would be great if this list included pronunciation in hangul and an English meaning, since I don't speak any Korean yet.

2) A vocabulary resource that includes hanja. I'm not sure what's out there, but this would be awesome. Do you know of any vocab books, word lists, etc. that use hanja? I don't need the hanja explained or anything, just being listed along with the hangul spelling would be helpful.

I guess if #2 doesn't exist, I could use a hangul only vocabulary resource and look up words in a dictionary with hanja. If that's the case, any general Korean vocabulary recommendations? Is there anything like the Core 6000 list? Of course having example sentences and audio would be amazing.

Thanks for any ideas!

Sorry for not having responded to your other thread - I had forgotten that I had some Korean resources bookmarked in case I ever decide to start learning it. Anyway, both Talk To Me In Korean and Korean Class 101 have forums, although I don't know if they are as awesome as this one

As for Hanja, I had this link for the hanja in the Hanja Proficiency Test. If the 1800 number is correct, then it looks like the school hanja would be everything except for levels 2 and 1. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology website should also have the list of school hanja, but apparently it's missing from the English version of the site, so you'd have to look for it in Korean. I also had a link to this hanja dictionary. Also, most Korean words on Wiktionary have the hanja version included.

Hi,

I don't know if my answer will be helpful, but...


#2: This certainly does exist. Here is an example:

http://endic.naver.com/search.nhn?&searc...5%EC%A4%91 (usually they show hanja as well)

There is also daum.kr....

and if I remember correctly this app should have a deck-building ability...

http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/id346006598?mt=8

Why do you need Hanja? I thought it's almost never used nowadays.

Why, in newspapers and especially in scientific writings you will find them a lot...

prettyfunbird Wrote:I didn't get many responses about a Korean study forum, and haven't been able to find anything like this site, so I'm just going to ask another Korean question here.

'scuse me if you've already seen it, but this made me think you haven't read Nukemarine's Korean resources thread http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=6969 There's a hanja dictionary link in there, too.

Here's a thread discussing whether Hanja are worth the (considerably large) effort that they require, or if study time is spent better focusing on more 'core' aspects of the language http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/for...PN=0&TPN=1

Edit: Uh, just read the first 2 1/2 pages or so of that last link, the rest is mostly just some guy who goes bonkers with Korean copy-pasta for some reason.

@prettyfunbird:

1. If you have done RTK, then hanja are "free" and can be used to learn Sino-Korean vocabulary quickly. It would be an excellent learning strategy to do hanja wordlists, even if you won't see hanja in common publications.

2. A list that I use and that I find awesome is: http://hanjadic.bravender.us/%EC%9E%90 Unfortunately it is limited, but a good start.

For a strange reason, language learning forums attracts people who talk about things they don't know and will try to discourage you and say that what you do is stupid, useless, a loss of time etc.

Simply ignore these people.

Hanja are extremely useful if you know kanji already.

Yeah, like louischa said, it's not about hanja being used nowadays. They're extremely useful in learning large amounts of vocabulary fast. Especially if you've already finished RTK.

Thanks for the links and ideas everyone! Much appreciated.

http://korean.nomaki.jp/site_j/kanji.html
here's a thing this site has on how readings in japanese are convertible to korean. Obviously there are excepts like the ones that could be ㅂ/ ㄹ 바침 but I found it really helpful since for the most part it is what it says. figuring out patterns is very helpful!

I absolutely love Korean. Thanks for the link. It's very interesting.

Many Korean words are derived from hanja, which is definitely helpful when learning advanced vocabulary, but a great number of Korean words used in daily life (the ones you'll learn first when starting Korean) have no relation to hanja. In fact, Koreans do not necessarily learn hanja (like me) although it is encouraged.

A common use for hanja in modern korean is 사자성어 (sa-ja-sung-uh), which are idiomatic expressions each composed of four hanja characters. It's easy to remember them with simple stories, and it's easier with knowledge of hanzi/kanji. Here are some examples:

구사일생 (九死一生): you have almost died nine times before surviving with one life, meaning that you have narrowly overcome multiple risks/difficulties to survive

동문서답 (東問西答): a question comes from the east but you reply to the west, meaning that the answer is irrelevant to the question

대기만성(大器晩成): it takes a long time to make a large plate, meaning that a lot of time and effort are needed to become a big/successful person

독서망양(讀書亡羊): you lose the sheep while reading a book, meaning that you have been distracted from matters of real importance

You may want to buy the Old Red and Blue Book. By Miho Choo. The Handbook of Korean Vocabulary. The Chinese Characters are difficult to find but you can guess well, provided that you're studied well past 1,000 characters or so. I believe they're also pdf s online.