1.
Hangul
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The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul in South Korea and as Chosŏngŭl/Chosŏn Muntcha in North Korea is the alphabet that has been used to write the Korean language since the 15th century. It was created during the Joseon Dynasty in 1443 by King Sejong the Great, in South Korea, Hangul is used primarily to write the Korean language as using Hanja in typical Korean writing had fallen out of common usage during the late 1990s. In its classical and modern forms, the alphabet has 19 consonant and 21 vowel letters, however, instead of being written sequentially like the letters of the Latin alphabet, Hangul letters are grouped into blocks, such as 한 han, each of which transcribes a syllable. That is, although the syllable 한 han may look like a single character, each syllabic block consists of two to six letters, including at least one consonant and one vowel. These blocks are arranged horizontally from left to right or vertically from top to bottom. Each Korean word consists of one or more syllables, hence one or more blocks, of the 11,172 possible Hangul syllables, the most frequent 256 have a cumulative frequency of 88. 2%, with the top 512, it reaches 99. 9%. The modern name Hangul was coined by Ju Sigyeong in 1912, han meant great in archaic Korean, and geul is the native Korean word for script. Taken together, then, the meaning is great script, as the word han had also become one way of indicating Korea as a whole the name could also potentially be interpreted as Korean script. Korean 한글 is pronounced, and in English as /ˈhɑːn. ɡʊl/ or /ˈhɑːŋɡʊl/, when used as an English word, it is often rendered without the diacritics, hangul, and it is often capitalized as Hangul, as it appears in many English dictionaries. Hankul in the Yale romanization, a system recommended for technical linguistic studies, North Koreans call it Chosŏngŭl, after Chosŏn, the North Korean name for Korea. Because of objections to the names Hangeul, Chosŏngŭl, and urigeul by Koreans in China, until the early 20th century, Hangul was denigrated as vulgar by the literate elite, who preferred the traditional hanja writing system. They gave it such names as these, Achimgeul, in the original Hanja, it is rendered as 故智者不終朝而會，愚者可浹旬而學。 Gugmun Eonmun Amgeul. Am is a prefix that signifies a noun is feminine Ahaetgeul or Ahaegeul Hangul was promulgated by Sejong the Great, the Hall of Worthies, a group of scholars who worked with Sejong to develop and refine the new alphabet, is often credited for the work. The project was completed in late December 1443 or January 1444, the publication date of the Hunmin Jeong-eum, October 9, became Hangul Day in South Korea. Its North Korean equivalent, Chosongul Day, is on January 15, various speculations about the creation process were put to rest by the discovery in 1940 of the 1446 Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye. This document explains the design of the consonant letters according to articulatory phonetics, to assuage this problem, King Sejong created the unique alphabet known as Hangul to promote literacy among the common people. However, it entered popular culture as Sejong had intended, being used especially by women, the late 16th century, however, saw a revival of Hangul, with gasa literature and later sijo flourishing. In the 17th century, Hangul novels became a major genre, by this point spelling had become quite irregular
2.
Hanja
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Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. Borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation, hanja-mal or hanja-eo refers to words that can be written with hanja, and hanmun refers to Classical Chinese writing, although hanja is sometimes used loosely to encompass these other concepts. Because hanja never underwent major reform, they are almost entirely identical to traditional Chinese, only a small number of hanja characters are modified or unique to Korean. By contrast, many of the Chinese characters currently in use in Japan and Mainland China have been simplified, and contain fewer strokes than the corresponding hanja characters. Today, a working knowledge of Chinese characters is still important for anyone who wishes to study older texts. Learning a certain number of hanja is very helpful for understanding the etymology of Sino-Korean words, hanja are not used to write native Korean words, which are always rendered in hangul, and even words of Chinese origin—hanja-eo —are written with the hangul alphabet most of the time. A major motivation for the introduction of Chinese characters into Korea was the spread of Buddhism, the major Chinese text that introduced hanja to Koreans, however, was not a religious text but the Chinese text, Cheonjamun. One way of adapting hanja to write Korean in such systems was to represent native Korean grammatical particles, for example, Gugyeol uses the characters 爲尼 to transcribe the Korean word hăni, in modern Korean, that means does, and so. However, in Chinese, the characters are read as the expression wéi ní. This is an example of Gugyeol words where the radical is read in Korean for its meaning. Hanja was the means of writing Korean until King Sejong the Great promoted the invention of hangul in the 15th century. However, even after the invention of hangul, most Korean scholars continued to write in hanmun and it was not until the 20th century that hangul truly replaced hanja. Officially, hanja has not been used in North Korea since June 1949, additionally, many words borrowed from Chinese have been replaced in the North with native Korean words. However, there are a number of Chinese-borrowed words in widespread usage in the North. The replacement has been less total in South Korea where, although usage has declined over time, some remains in common usage in some contexts. Each hanja is composed of one of 214 radicals plus in most cases one or more additional elements, the vast majority of hanja use the additional elements to indicate the sound of the character, but a few hanja are purely pictographic, and some were formed in other ways. This dual meaning-sound reading of a character is called eumhun, the word or words used to denote the meaning are often—though hardly always—words of native Korean origin, and are sometimes archaic words no longer commonly used. South Korean primary schools abandoned the teaching of hanja in 1971 and it is taught in separate courses in South Korean high schools, separately from the normal Korean-language curriculum
3.
South Korea
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South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, is a sovereign state in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The earliest Korean pottery dates to 8000 BC, with three kingdoms flourishing in the 1st century BC and its rich and vibrant culture left 19 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity, the third largest in the world, along with 12 World Heritage Sites. Annexed into Imperial Japan in 1910, Korea was divided after its surrender in 1945, peace has since mostly continued with the two agreeing to work peacefully for reunification and the South solidifying peace as a regional power with the worlds 10th largest defence budget. South Koreas tiger economy soared at an average of 10% for over 30 years in a period of rapid transformation called the Miracle on the Han River. A long legacy of openness and focus on innovation made it successful, today, it is the worlds fifth largest exporter with the G20s largest budget surplus and highest credit rating of any country in East Asia. It has free trade agreements with 75% of the economy and is the only G20 nation trading freely with China, the US. Since 1988, its constitution guarantees a liberal democracy with high government transparency, high personal freedoms led to the rise of a globally influential pop culture such as K-pop and K-drama, a phenomenon called the Korean Wave, known for its distinctive fashionable and trendy style. Home of the UN Green Climate Fund and GGGI, South Korea is a leader in low carbon growth, committed to helping developing countries as a major DAC. It is the third least ignorant country in the Index of Ignorance, ranking eighth highest for peaceful tolerance. It is the worlds largest spender on R&D per GDP, leading the OECD in graduates in science, the name Korea derives from the name Goryeo. The name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After Goryeo was replaced by Joseon in 1392, Joseon became the name for the entire territory. The new official name has its origin in the ancient country of Gojoseon, in 1897, the Joseon dynasty changed the official name of the country from Joseon to Daehan Jeguk. The name Daehan, which means great Han literally, derives from Samhan, however, the name Joseon was still widely used by Koreans to refer to their country, though it was no longer the official name. Under Japanese rule, the two names Han and Joseon coexisted, there were several groups who fought for independence, the most notable being the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Following the surrender of Japan, in 1945, the Republic of Korea was adopted as the name for the new country. Since the government only controlled the part of the Korean Peninsula
4.
Seoul Capital Area
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The Seoul Capital Area is the metropolitan area centered on Seoul located in the north-west of South Korea. It is referred to as Sudogwon or Gyeonggi region in Korean, the Seoul Capital Area has a population of 24 million and is ranked as the fourth largest metropolitan area in the world. Its area is about 11,704 km2 and it forms the cultural, commercial, financial, industrial, and residential center of South Korea. The largest city is Seoul, with a population of approximately 10 million people, followed by Incheon, the Capital Area occupies a plain in the Han River valley. It contains some of the most fertile land on the Korean peninsula, the Gimpo Plain, one of the countrys larger expanses of level arable land, covers much of the area of the cities of Gimpo and Bucheon. The Capital Area has been home to a Korean capital for around 2,000 years and its central location and relatively gentle landscape have given it a central role in the countrys affairs. The first capital to be constructed in the region was that of Baekje, the countrys first capital was built in 19 BC and was named Wiryeseong. This is believed to have been constructed near the boundary of Seoul. However, Baekje was unable to hold territory, and surrendered the Han River valley to Goguryeo in the 5th century. The land was taken over by Silla in the 6th century. After the fall of Silla, Taejo of Goryeo established the capital of his kingdom in Kaesŏng, after the fall of Goryeo Dynasty in 1392, the newly founded Joeson Dynasty had its capital, less than 100 km south of the old dynastys capital, Kaesŏng. During the new rule, extensive road systems, administrative buildings, royal palaces. During the Korean Empire period, Hanseongs public transportation was improved with the installation of streetcars, horse carriage systems similar to the ones in Europe were also established. Following the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Hanseong was renamed Keijo, upon Koreas liberation from Japan in 1945, the former colonial capital was renamed Seoul and became capital of South Korea. In the Korean War, the Capital Area became the focus of battles so destructive that most of Seoul, Seoul was especially hit hard, since it exchanged hands four times during the course of the war. During the latter half of the 20th century, the Capital Area began to develop as South Koreas economic wealth expanded. Population expanded fourfold since the Korean War, in 2001, the new Incheon International Airport took over all international flights to Seoul. Covering only about 12% of the area, the Seoul Capital Area is home to more than 48. 2% of the national population
5.
Administrative divisions of South Korea
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South Korea is made up of 17 first-tier administrative divisions,6 metropolitan cities,1 special city,1 special self-governing city, and 9 provinces, including one special self-governing province. These are further subdivided into a variety of entities, including cities, counties, districts, towns, townships, neighborhoods and villages. The governors of the divisions are elected every four years. A si is one of the divisions of a province, along with gun, cities have a population of at least 150,000, once a county attains that population, it becomes a city. Cities with a population of over 500,000 are divided into districts, Gimhae, Hwaseong, gus are then further divided into neighborhoods, cities with a population of less than 500,000 do not have wards – these cities are directly divided into neighborhoods. A gun is one of the divisions of a province, and of the cities of Busan, Daegu, Incheon. A gun has a population of less than 150,000, is densely populated than a gu. Gun are comparable to British non-metropolitan districts, counties are divided into towns and districts. Specially, the size of a gun is less than a US county, a gu is equivalent to district in the West. Most cities are divided into gu, though the cities of Busan, Daegu, Incheon. Gu are similar to boroughs in some Western countries, and a gu office handles many of the functions that would be handled by the city in other jurisdictions, an eup is similar to the unit of town. Along with myeon, an eup is one of the divisions of a county, the main town or towns in a county—or the secondary town or towns within a citys territory—are designated as eup. In order to form an eup, the population required is 20,000. A myeon is one of the divisions – along with eup – of a county, myeons have smaller populations than eup and represent the rural areas of a county or city. The minimum population limit is 6,000, a dong is the primary division of districts, and of those cities which are not divided into districts. The dong is the smallest level of government to have its own office. In some cases, a legal dong is divided into several administrative dong. Administrative dong are usually distinguished from one another by number, in such cases, each administrative dong has its own office and staff
South Korea
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