Guide To Korean Characters
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- Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
- Create Date：2021-07-26 11:15:56
- Update Date：2025-09-23
- Status：finish
- Author：Bruce K. Grant
- ISBN：0930878132
- Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle
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Reviews
John Armstrong
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A Guide to Korean Characters is a simple Korean-oriented Chinese character （hanja） dictionary for English-speaking Korean learners。 Koreans themselves use similar dictionaries， called jajeon ‘character dictionary’ or more colorfully okpyeon literally ‘jewel treasury’ （a traditional Chinese term）。 In fact learners who reach a level of language proficiency where they can read Korean dictionaries and want to pursue their study of hanja will probably want to obtain to a Korean character dictionary， A Guide to Korean Characters is a simple Korean-oriented Chinese character （hanja） dictionary for English-speaking Korean learners。 Koreans themselves use similar dictionaries， called jajeon ‘character dictionary’ or more colorfully okpyeon literally ‘jewel treasury’ （a traditional Chinese term）。 In fact learners who reach a level of language proficiency where they can read Korean dictionaries and want to pursue their study of hanja will probably want to obtain to a Korean character dictionary， particularly one which covers the full range of characters they may encounter in their reading。The title of the book is slightly misleading in that the characters per se are not Korean but Chinese。 However they have been in use in Korea since the mid-first millennium CE， where their main purpose was always almost exclusively – and this remained true to the end of the 19th century – for reading and writing Classical Chinese （Korean hanmun）， including both literary and administrative texts。 With isolated exceptions， most of them very early， Chinese characters were never used to write the Korean language。 The closest thing to that was the practice， which became common only towards the end of the Joseon dynasty， of “mixed” writing， that is， writing Sino-Korean words （Korean words of clear Chinese origin， which make up 70% of the vocabulary） with Chinese characters while writing native Korean words （which includes particles and endings） in hangul。 Today Chinese characters are hardly used at all in North Korea， and their usage in South Korea is very limited outside specialist works。 Chinese characters are still sometimes used to write Sino-Korean words， but are generally accompanied by hangul representations – exceptions are some signs， titles and newspaper headlines as well as names in some contexts – and the normal format is for the hangul form to appear first as part of the main text and the Chinese character form to follow it in parentheses。 In terms of coverage the Guide aims to match what you would find in a modern character dictionary for Korean high school students。 These follow a government standard set at the end of 2000， which mandates 1800 basic characters （gicho hanja）， 900 to be learned in junior high school （chunghakkyo， such characters being often marked chung） and another 900 to be learned in senior high school （godeunghakkyo， marked go）。 （I believe the book was published a bit before the list was finalized and that its list is slightly different from the official one， but this is not something to worry about。） It also matches a typical high school character dictionary in the basic information it provides for each character， which includes: （1） the character itself， （2） the radical and number of residual （non-radical） strokes， （3） the conventional Korean gloss or basic meaning （hun）， （4） the main Korean pronunciation or reading （eum; there is almost always just one but a few characters have two）， （5） some examples of words that have the character in their hanja representation， and finally （6） illustration of how to hand-write the character stroke by stroke in up to nine separate stages。 （I’m actually not sure how common a feature this last is in Korean school character dictionaries; writing and stroke order may be taught via separate workbooks。）Also like Korean character dictionaries， this book provides multiple ways of looking up a character， including by radical， by total stroke count and by reading。 The list is ordered by total stroke count while indices by radical and reading are included at the end。 This is different from Korean character dictionaries， which are normally ordered by radical and residual stroke count and supplemented by total stroke and reading indices。 I actually think the book would have been better to follow the Korean practice。 The Korean character forms are very traditional – and actually， very similar to the character forms that are used in Taiwan and that are actually called “traditional” – and show almost none of the kinds of simplifications that are common in Japan and modern mainland China and which lead to so-called “lost radicals” i。e。 character forms in which the traditional radical portion is greatly obscured or even eliminated altogether。 The classification of characters into 214 radicals， which was instituted 300 years ago in the reign of the Qing dynasty Kangxi emperor， and subsequently became named for him （the “Kangxi radicals”）， still works reasonably well for the Korean （as well as Taiwanese） character forms， and I believe the book would have done its readers a service by presenting this system as the primary way to organize and find characters and relegating total stroke count to a lookup strategy of last resort。But this is a small point。 The book is still a true， entirely usable， character dictionary。 The one thing I would say is that anyone who is still at the stage where they want/need to use a character dictionary with English translations of meanings and example words should consider why they are delving into hanja at that point and how much it will help them learn the language vs。 distract them from it。 The role of hanja in 21st century daily Korean life is very limited。 In fact ordinary educated people don’t really need to know it at all， beyond maybe a few dozen characters that appear in dates and other formulaic expressions。 Schools used to require it （the 1800 characters） but it is said that students forgot it soon after they passed their final tests; and today it is not required at all。 It may be very helpful for those who can already read Chinese or Japanese， but they will be rare among people studying Korean via English。 However， one area where it may be genuinely helpful is in learning Sino-Korean vocabulary。 Korean educators in the pro-hanja camp bring this forward as a primary reason for students to study hanja （and， more politically， for the government to bring it back into the schools）。 If this is your purpose， think about how to pursue it effectively。 You will definitely need more than a character dictionary， whether it is a book that focuses on vocabulary such as Miho Choo and William O'Grady， Handbook of Korean Vocabulary （1996）， or， maybe better， a website or phone app through which you can explore hanja interactively taking advantage of such features as searching， following links （or just hovering over them）， word-list building and self-testing。 。。。more
Rana
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Bro hanja is wild
James
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