Greetings, I Am From Foreign.

I had my first informal Korean lesson today! It was tiring as learning new languages can be. There is something about attempting to process so many things at once. Learning the written language actually requires a few skills, especially when learning in context (as in just from translation and the basics of how to function as opposed to the luxury of learning mechanics and not having to use the language to operate efficiently in your environment). A Korean coworker from the upstairs part of our offices is interested in practicing his English. The best part is that he has studied Japanese!

The Japanese is extraordinarily helpful for two reasons. First, there are a set of sounds more common to Japanese than to English that are far easier for me to express (and which, by default, I tend to write down in Japanese) when transliterating the same sounds in Korean. Second, the Korean written language used to use Chinese characters. In Asia Chinese was something like Latin was in Europe before writing and speaking in the vernacular came (with the Renaissance, right?) to be popular. So I have several ways to confirm origins and sounds with my new teacher and that is incredibly helpful.

Language is, in its own way, a sort of historical encryption. The subtleties of the origin and frequency of certain words can help you put together a picture of the progression of the regions where the language is spoken or used. Much like you could trace colonialism by following English, French, Dutch, or Spanish from their originating points in Europe (though, clearly, I do not mean to imply that those are the absolute origins of the languages). Learning another language allows you to see how thoughts are formed and ordered as well. My students have a number of prevalent habits and patterns in their work and it is clear, once you become familiar with the culture and native Korean linguistic habits, how those come about. It is a big puzzle and it is very exciting to put together.