1949 Seoul, South Korea is still full of Chinese characters. (People's Daily/Photo)
1949 Seoul, South Korea is still full of Chinese characters. (People's Daily/Photo)
However, after World War II, the rise of nationalism made Koreans start to reject Chinese characters that have been popular for a long time on the Korean peninsula.
According to an article on the website of Japan's Diplomatic Scholar magazine, in 1970, the South Korean authorities ordered the implementation of Korean education and completely erased Chinese characters from educational institutions and official documents.
However, it is not easy to abolish Chinese characters. Until the 1980s, there were textbooks mainly in Chinese in Korea.
Until the 1980s, there were textbooks in Korea which were mainly Chinese characters. (People's Daily/Photo)
Since the new generation in Korea only received Korean education from the beginning, more and more people began to know Chinese characters. (People's Daily/Photo)
Since the new generation in Korea only received Korean education from the beginning, more and more people began to know Chinese characters. Not only do Korean textbooks for primary and secondary schools use fewer and fewer Chinese characters, but Korean newspapers and magazines have gradually reduced the adoption rate of Chinese characters since the late 1980s.
This has led to a phenomenon in Korea: the cognitive fault of Chinese characters is very serious.
Now, many Korean middle school students can't even write their own names correctly in Chinese characters; Twenty or thirty years ago, it was common for Korean college students to write papers in Chinese characters.
There are more and more troubles. Although Chinese characters seem to be withdrawing from the daily life of Koreans, their influence has not faded. 70% of the current Korean vocabulary comes from the original Chinese characters.
Korean, as phonography, has many homonyms, and people's names and place names are even more confusing.
An embarrassing thing happened in South Korea's parliament: the names of Kim Sung-tae and Kim Sung-tae, the 20th members of South Korea's parliament, are exactly the same in Korean, which makes people easily confused. Later, it was decided that the name of one of the members should be written in Chinese characters to show the difference.
It is for this reason that Koreans still keep the corresponding Chinese characters on their ID cards so as not to cause misunderstanding.
Some netizens described this. Korean's current name can only be regarded as a code name, which is not only easy to confuse, but also loses the beautiful meaning behind it.
Why is this Yan Yan? (People's Daily/Photo)
What's more, many ancient Korean history books are almost illegible because they are written in Chinese characters.
In the face of historical sites with Chinese characters written on them, many young Koreans just walk by with a cold face because they don't know their meaning.
Statue of Korean national hero Li Shunchen. (People's Daily/Photo)
There are even people who want to change the Chinese characters on the monuments into Korean, such as the sensational replacement of the "Gwanghwamun" plaque on 20 12. Although the Korean plaque was eventually replaced by Chinese characters, the process was very difficult.
There are even people who want to change the Chinese characters on the monuments into Korean, such as the sensational replacement of the "Gwanghwamun" plaque on 20 12. (People's Daily/Photo)
In some academic circles with strict requirements for writing, such as the legal profession, people still insist on using Chinese characters.
A foreigner who once lived in Korea said that during his 17 years in Korea, he watched the vocabulary of Koreans decrease, and some really good words were not often used in daily life, and then disappeared.
According to personal experience, some Korean netizens said that if they can know Chinese characters, they can understand the contents of sentences more easily. In fact, without the guidance of Chinese characters, the vocabulary of Koreans has dropped a lot, and the literacy rate has also decreased.
The Korean language used by Koreans now is a kind of phonography called "proverb". This script was invented by King Sejong of Korea in 1443. It is one of the younger characters in the world and can only be used for phonetic notation.
The Korean language used by Koreans now is a kind of phonography called "proverb". This script was invented by King Sejong of Korea in 1443. It is one of the younger characters in the world and can only be used for phonetic notation. (People's Daily/Photo)
Before that, the educated elite used Chinese characters as the written language. Until the 1970s, Korean newspapers and periodicals still used the mixed form of Korean and Chinese. With the gradual disappearance of Chinese characters, the voice of reviving Chinese characters in Korea is getting higher and higher.
Gallup 20 14 poll shows that more than half of Koreans think that it is inconvenient to live without knowing Chinese characters. In addition, 67% of Koreans are in favor of using parallel Chinese characters in school textbooks.
At the end of last year, the Korean Ministry of Education said that starting from 20 19, Chinese characters, their pronunciations and interpretations will be marked in textbooks for the fifth to sixth grades of Korean primary schools.
Some Korean parents are already teaching their children Chinese characters. Last summer, South Korean parliamentarian Zheng Renhua initiated a proposal to register the names of newborns in Chinese and Korean.
Earlier, the South Korean Grand Court ruled that it was forbidden to mix Chinese characters and Korean in names. However, because many Korean parents have not received Chinese character education, they can't tell the difference between Chinese characters and inherent characters in Han Wenzhong, and often give their children mixed names.
After World War II, Japan also tried to abolish Chinese characters, but they soon found that abolishing Chinese characters was not as simple as expected. Since Chinese characters were introduced into Japan from China, they have penetrated deeply into Japanese daily life. Denying Chinese characters in Japanese is tantamount to denying Chinese culture and history.