Article index | Korean Language and Martial Arts - What’s he saying?
In Martial Arts such as Hapkido or Taekwondo many Korean words are used, however does anyone really know what they mean? Or do you just want to learn a bit about the Korean language? Korean is the official language of both South and North Korea. There is estimated to be approximately 78 million people in the world who know Korean fluently. The modern Korean language is descended from the language of the Silla Kingdom, which unified the peninsula in the seventh century (see map where Silla Kingdom was located). The origins of the Korean language are still being disputed, however the most widely accepted theory is that it was established in the nineteenth century of an Altaic family of languages supposed to include Korean, Japanese, and Mongolian (among others).  The ancient Korean Kingdoms There are many similarities between the Korean and the Japanese language. One of these similarities is that they both possess what is called “polite” or “honorific” language (the use of different levels of dialect in addressing persons of superior, inferior, or equal rank). These distinctions depend on both the use of different vocabulary and basic structure of the words used. For example, in Korean the imperative “go” can be rendered kara when speaking to an inferor or child, Kage when speaking to an adult inferior, kaseyo when speaking to a superior, and kasipsio when speaking to a person of still higher rank. The use of polite language can be extremely complex and if not used correctly could offend a Korean or Japanese nationalist. If you are meeting someone for the first time then a more distant or formal term should be used moving to more informal terms if you become friends. If you are younger than the person you are talking to then a formal language is necessary or if older then more informal or “inferior” terms may be used. The written Korean language can be a mix of Chinese ideograms (hancha) and the native Korean alphabet hun’gul or han’gul alone. Hun’gul was founded by the scholars of the court of King Sejong (1418 – 50), not only to promote literacy among the common people but also to assist in studies of Chinese historical phonology (the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages). An ancient saying was devised of the time the written language was formed that “an intelligent man could learn han’gul in a morning’s time, while even a fool could master it in ten days”. As a result it was scorned by scholars and relegated to women and merchants. The script contains forty symbols in its modern form. It is considered by linguists to be one of the most scientific written languages ever devised as it reflects quite consistently the phonemes (sounds) of the spoken Korean language. Korean and Chinese languages are not related in terms of grammatical structure; however there is evidence of the cultural dominance from China over 2 millennia ago on Korean language in that there is more than 50% of Korean vocabulary devised from Chinese loanwords. In many cases there is a Chinese loan word and an hun’gul word meaning the same thing. The Chinese-based loanword is more formal and Koreans select one or the other to achieve the proper register in speech or in writing, and to make subtle distinctions of meaning in accordance with established usage. The written language has been criticized as to whether the Chinese loanwords are still relevant in modern society and whether hun’gul alone should be adopted, however the Chinese loanwords represent the nation’s history. Since the official language of Taekwondo and Hapkido is Korean, no matter which country you are in you will need to learn and use the Korean language for learning Taekwondo. Even in Taekwondo events in the Olympics the Korean language is always used for official terminology. Generally you need to learn commands, such as “Choon bee” meaning ready position, “Cha Ryut” meaning attention and “go mon” meaning stop; salutations, for example “kahm sa ham nee da” meaning thank you and “Mee An Ham Nee Da” meaning I’m sorry; body parts, terminologies of techniques and be able to count to 10, know directions and some miscellaneous phases. Students who learn Taekwondo or Hapkido generally have a positive attitude towards Korea, Korean culture and language. Students obtain good personal skills including high self-esteem that is a very important element of learning a language. Students will learn Korean language unconsciously while they are learning Taekwondo. They do not need to focus on learning Korean language but on Taekwondo. Below are common words and phases that are learned during training of a Korean martial art. Command Terminologies of Taekwondo in Korean
Salutations in Korean
Names and Titles of Taekwondo
Hands Parts
Stances and Techniques of Taekwondo
Counting in Korean with Pure Korean Words
Counting in Korean with Chinese Origin Numbers
Disciplines of Taekwondo
Directions in Korean
Miscellaneous Terms of Taekwondo
Many weapons are used in Korean Martial arts and each one is used for different purposes. The following list provides a brief overview of some of the weapons and their Korean names:
The words or expressions that are used in Taekwondo & Hapkido are usually enough to develop students with a basic knowledge of the Korean language. If the student learns all the expressions that are used in Korean martial arts then they could be placed in the intermediate or advanced level language classes at school or other tertiary education institutions. For the further study, it is recommended that teachers actually use Taekwondo for teaching Korean and find out the effectiveness of using Taekwondo. For those wishing to learn Korean there are many resources. These vary from website and books to TAFE and community colleges. Our advice would be first to ask your instructor to see if they know of any good resources to teach you. The following websites can help introduce you to Korean. http://learnkorean.elanguageschool.net/ http://rki.kbs.co.kr/learn_korean/lessons/e_index.htm http://www.learn-korean.net/ The following links were used while writing this article: http://www.talesofasia.com/rs-162-korean.htm http://www.learnkoreanlanguage.com/taekwondo-terms.html http://arts.monash.edu.au/korean/ksaa/conference/17eunheekoo.pdf http://www.martialartsresource.com/anonftp/pub/the_dojang/digests/koreanma.htm Comments
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