You may find yourself at a loss while considering learning Korean yourself or being asked by someone else about your choice to learn the language. In the following article we will discuss some of the compelling reasons why learn Korean language is actually an excellent choice. Korean, known as Kugo in the language world, is the language of the Korean Peninsula in northeast Asia. In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – DPRK, or North Korea, there are approx 20 million native speakers and in the Republic of Korea – ROK, or South Korea, there are 42 million native speakers makes the language stand tall in the Asian community.
Not just limited to the Korean natives but it is also spoken by almost 2 million people in China – in the provinces bordering North Korea. There are approximately half a million speakers in Japan and Russia, as well as significant numbers in the United States which goes over 600,000 with large communities saturated on the west coast and in New York. There are other communities one can find in Singapore, Thailand, Guam, and Paraguay. Looking at the total number of speakers, it is 72 million by certain polls.
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Korean, as a foreign language has been listed as a critical language by the American State Department because of the planned strategic business and security interests in the Korean-speaking geography. Apart from linguistic importance it is considered as a heritage language due to the number of American citizens of Korean heritage. When North Korea tested nuclear weapons despite the disapproval of the United Nations, it was declared a potential threat in 2003 (for the world community, especially to the alliances of United Nations).
South Korea is one of the largest East Asian trading partners to the western world. According to some studies, in the year 2007 only, the United States exported $$ 34,644.8 million to South Korea, a trading amount that surpasses and is on par with some of the very powerful English-speaking trade partners. This amount has shown a growth of 582% since 1985, when it all started. As per reports, in the year 2007 the United States imported $47,562.3 million in goods and services from these countries which is an increase of 475% since 1985 when it was a miniscule percentage. The growth rate is inspiring for any exporter nation.
Though it is classified as a language isolate by many language enthusiasts and many theories have emerged over a period to explain the origin of Korean language. The majority of these prominent theories will link Korean to the Altaic languages of central Asia – a family of languages that has Turkish, Mongolian, and the Tungusic – for example, Manchu, the languages of Siberia. Many would argue for the inclusion of Uralic languages also, mainly the Hungarian and Finnish and then Japanese in this macro family.
Although it’s not definitively proven but this affiliation is accepted by most Korean linguists and deemed likely by Western linguists as well. These competing theories associates Korean with the Dravidian languages of southern-India, or sometimes to the Austronesian languages. Determining Korean’s linguistic affiliation is an interesting topic to explore and is complicated by a long history of contact with the Japanese and Chinese languages.
Not very surprisingly, Korean language and culture shares certain linguistic features and cultural aspects with each of these languages and it’s history. Talking about its official classification, there are two standard classes of Korean in Korea only : the Seoul dialect in South Korea and the Phyong’yang dialect in North Korea and these dialects are distinguished and regulated by each country’s national language policy which keeps evolving over a period.
Looking at its regional dialects which roughly corresponds to the province boundaries and thus, South Korean regional dialects are known commonly as Kyonsang, Chungchong, Cholla, and Cheju Island and the North Korean regional dialects are Hamkyong, Pyongan, Hwanghae and some of these dialects are not easily mutually intelligible.
Introducing the common public to the Korean language – it is part of a northern Asian language known as Altaic, that includes Turkish, Mongolian and Japanese, suggesting early Northern migrations and trade and clearly Korean was also then heavily influenced by Chinese, but it adopted its own writing system in the 16th century.
So why learning Korean is actually an excellent choice –
1. An opportunity to learn an interesting language
So starting with the Korean alphabet, Hangul, which did not really evolved like other alphabets. It was manufactured and crafted for use and was purposely made easy and communicable. Earlier Chinese characters were used to represent the Korean language which was hard and expensive to pursue. Only a handful of elites were able to express themselves in written form. It was not understood by the man on the street which pushed for the creation of Hangul.
Hangul only has just 24 letters, which is already less than the English 26 and the way the Korean letters are written is said to reflect how your mouth or tongue looks when you produce their sound. So if you’re looking for an easy second language to write, Korean should really be number one on your list.
2. Korean – an important player in the world affairs
It won’t be long before you find something reported or written about South Korea or the Korean Peninsula whether in papers or electronic media. The country has been flexing its muscles in the political arena and has taken its rightful seat in the community of nations. Apart from its other many allies, Korea is an important partner to the US and it’s neighbouring nations. Any sitting president has always found the time to personally meet with his South Korean counterpart.
The country is putting its economic strength to good use on the back of strong bilateral ties, Korea is investing not only in the United States but in a host of other nations. It’s gradual influence on the global agenda, it’s expected that Korean culture and language will only grow in importance in the coming years. Its important for both economic and political reasons and learning Korean will help one understand pressing issues in tomorrow’s world. It will also bring a nice bang for your buck, and investing your energies into it will pay dividends in the future.
3. Pop culture is increasingly Korean
In the future that’s arriving, many of the biggest movies, the biggest stars and the biggest boy and girl groups singing and dancing to the biggest hits could very well be Korean. K-pops that are breaking all possible YouTube records and becoming regular at hitting a billion views, is synonym of this Korean craze. Learning the language makes you part of this emerging Korean wave.
No doubt learning Korean has many benefits in both professional and personal lives. Attend Korean classes in Mumbai today or learn through Korean courses in Mumbai.