Do Koreans regret abandoning Hanja?

韩国人后悔弃用汉字吗？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Jihyun Sohn (손지현)

Yes and no.

I used to learn Hanja in elementary school - I remember taking a grade 7 qualification exam and failing dreadfully. I still know about 200 to 300 characters, enough to recognise the really basic ones (I mean come on. It’s not exactly easy to forget how to read or write ‘一’ or ‘二’). The hardest Hanja I know how to write is probably the ones in my name, 孫智賢.

*I’m guilty of having failed this exam

有后悔的，也有不后悔的。

我曾经在小学学过汉字—我记得我参加了一次7年级资格考试，考砸了。我现在还认得大约200到300个汉字，足够我识别非常基本的汉字(我的意思是，想要忘记如何读写“一”或“二”也并非易事。我认识的最难的汉字大概就是我名字里的汉字了，孫智賢。

我对这次考试不及格感到很愧疚。

Hanja is actually pretty good to know - a lot of Hanja words show up in the Korean language, and it’s not too hard to find a word outright written in Hanja when you read the news or certain books. Not to mention Hanja itself is useful if one wants to learn Chinese - and most Koreans do take Chinese as a second foreign language. God knows I’ve opened up and bought Hanja books in the hopes I will magically find the motivation and time to actually work on studying it.

汉字其实很好学—韩语中就有很多汉字词汇，阅读新闻或某些书籍时很容易就会遇见一个完全用汉字书写的单词。如果一个人想学习中文，汉字本身就很有用—而且大多数韩国人确实把汉语作为第二外语。上帝知道我购买了汉字书籍，希望自己能神奇地找到动力和时间，真的好好学习一下。

Then again, there’s a reason I don’t actually find the motivation to study it. Hanja is hard. There’s so many characters you have to memorise, and I’m not going to deny the general Korean method of studying Hanja - writing the characters with the Korean pronunciations next to them, over and over again - is rather tedious. There’s so many things I could do during that time, including scrolling through facebook, shifting through Quora, cafe-hop with friends, reading webtoons, finding books to read without actually reading them…well, you get the point.

不过，我之所以还没找到学习汉字的动机有原因的。汉字太难了。你要记住的汉字又太多，我不想批评韩国人学习汉字的一般做法—把汉字和韩语发音写在一起，一遍又一遍地写—这么做太乏味了。用这个时间，我可以做很多别的事，比如刷facebook、上Quora、和朋友一起去咖啡馆、看网络漫画、找些书来随手翻翻，不费脑子的那种……是吧，你明白我的意思了对嘛。

Yes, some Koreans do regret the intellectual possibilities Hanja could have brought it. However, most of us do pretty fine without it. Hanja is mostly like a ‘bonus’ for us - it’s awesome if you know it, but there’s no reason you actually should bother with knowing that many. It’s like knowing someone who knows how to read another language - you’re definitely jealous they can read it, but you don’t really want to put in the work of studying it yourself.

As for me, I certainly want to get on with my Hanja studies…just let me look through Quora for a bit longer……

没错，有些韩国人确实会对错过汉字可能带来的知识而感到遗憾。但我们大多数人不懂汉字也过得挺好的。对我们来说，汉字多半是一种“加分项”—如果你认得汉字，那很棒，但你也没有理由去掌握太多汉字。这就像你认识一个人，他可以用另一种文字阅读—你肯定会很嫉妒，但你自己绝对不想花时间去学习。

至于我，我当然想继续我的汉字学习了……让我先在Quora上再看一会儿......

Yangfphs

they don’t regret that at all. But it can be quite embarrassing when my Korea friends took me to some historical museum and they don’t understand what’s written on these antiques, so instead of they introducing to me it’s me that introduce those things to them. It made me feel like they were the guests while i am truly the person who grow up there.

他们一点也不后悔。不过，当我的韩国朋友带我去参观历史博物馆时，他们完全不知道这些古董上写了什么，反而得由我这个外国人帮他们介绍，这就挺尴尬的。这让我觉得他们韩国人反倒变成了客人，而我才是真正在韩国长大的人。

Peter Zhu

Some Korean who knows Hanja well do regret, many more don’t.

Korean society believe the biggest contribution made by the abandonment of Hanja was the improvement of the adult literacy, which was 98% in 2008. However, considering Japan has been staying on 99% adult literacy for quite a long time, the great achievement of improving adult literacy in South Korea may thanks more to the successful public education system than to the change of writing system.

一些熟悉汉字的韩国人会后悔，但更多的人并不会。

韩国社会认为，弃用汉字最大的作用就是提高了成人识字率(2008年为98%)。但鉴于日本长期保持99%的成人识字率，韩国在提高成人识字率方面取得的巨大成就可能更多地归功于公共教育系统的成功，而非文字系统的改变。

Successful education systems in Japan has proofed the difficulty of learning of a mixed writing system could be handled very well. Therefore, Korean society should focus more on comparing the effectiveness of the two systems than arguing on the difficulty of learning.

日本成功的教育体系已经证明，学习混合书写系统的困难不难解决。因此，韩国社会应该把重点放在比较两种书写系统的实效性上，别再争论学习汉字的难度了。

Let’s look at following examples.

“A peaceful sleep”

-> Hangul only “평화로운 수면”

我们一起看看下面的例子。

“平和的睡眠”

->只用韩文表示是“평화로운 수면”

-> Hangul-Hanja mixed “平和로운 睡眠”

韩文和汉字混合是“平和로운 睡眠”

-> English-Hanja mixed “a 平和ful 睡眠”

英文和汉字混合是“a 平和ful 睡眠”

In a mixed writing system, words with actual meanings and those with grammar use only are separated very well. This feature could greatly enhance the efficiency of reading comprehension than the full Hangul system.

Besides, a mixed writing system could reduce the problems caused by the homonyms to the minimum.

在混合书写系统中，有实际含义的词汇和只有语法用途的词汇得到了很好的区分。与完全韩文系统相比，混合书写可以大大提高阅读理解的效率。

此外，混合书写系统可以最大限度地减少同音异义引起的问题。

“평화로운 수면” which means “ A peaceful sleep” in the example at above, could also mean “A peaceful water”, as following,

“평화로운 수면”

“평화로운 수면”的意思是“平和的睡眠”，也可以表示“宁静的水”，如下所示：

-> English “A peaceful sleep” or “A peaceful water”

->用英文表示是“A peaceful sleep” 或 “A peaceful water”

-> Hangul-Hanja mixed “平和로운 睡眠” or “平和로운 水面”

->用韩文和汉字混和表示是“平和로운 睡眠” 或 “平和로운 水面”

-> English-Hanja mixed “a 平和ful 睡眠” or “a 平和ful 水面”

->用英文和汉字混和表示是“a 平和ful 睡眠” 或 “a 平和ful 水面”

A mixed writing system could also help the Korean people to learn Chinese and Japanese languages much faster than they are doing now. It would also help Chinese and Japanese to learn Korean language in a more effective way than nowadays.

Korean people had been always mix-using Hangul and Hanja since Hangul was invented by King Sejong more than 500 years ago until recently.

混合书写系统也可以帮助韩国人更快地学习汉语和日语。也有助于中国人和日本人以更高效的方式学习韩语。

从500多年前世宗大王发明韩文到近代，韩国人一直将韩文和汉字混合使用。

Syd Crimston

I think old generation regret abandoning Hanja, but young generation doesn’t regret at all.

Korean language(Hangul) can be independent without Hanja unlike Japanese and Chinese.

Please refer the purpose of Hangul from its creation:

我觉得老一代会后悔弃用汉字，但年轻一代绝不后悔。

韩语与日语和汉语不同，没有汉字也可以独立。

请参考韩文诞生时的目的:

Because the spoken language of Korea is different from that of China, it [the spoken language] does not match the [Chinese] letters. Therefore, even if the ignorant want to communicate, many of them in the end cannot state their concerns. Saddened by this, I have [had] 28 letters newly made. It is my wish that all the people may easily learn these letters and that [they] be convenient for daily use.

by King Sejong the Great

Personally, I do not regret abandoning Hanja.

国之语音 异乎中国 与文字 不相流通 故愚民有所欲言而终不得伸其情者 多矣 予为此悯然 新制二十八字 欲使人人易习 便於日用矣

这是世宗大王写的

就我个人而言，我并不后悔弃用汉字。

Benjamin Park

No, an overwhelming majority of all Koreans do not.

If the answer is written by someone who is not a Korean citizen, he/she obviously lacks the credentials to answer this question in the first place.

不，绝大多数韩国人都不后悔。

如果有非韩国公民也来回答这个问题，那么显然他们没有资格。

Brandon Back

As a highly educated korean, who can recognize most of basic Hanja still, belonging to the last generation that learned Hanja extensively, I don’t regret it.

Hanja might possibly facilitate understanding korean language. The problem is, learning Hanja is not efficient, because it takes too much time and effort.

作为一个受过高等教育的韩国人，我仍然能认得大部分基本汉字，我是大量学习汉字的最后一代韩国人，我并不后悔。

汉字可能有助于理解韩语。但学习汉字的效率不高，需要花费太多的时间和精力。

Sunggyoon Oh

Guys, don’t get misunderstood. The reason why korean abandoned hanja is not we are too nationalistic or something but just, hanja is too hard and hangeul is way too easy.

伙计们，别误会。韩国人弃用汉字的原因不是我们太民族主义了，而是汉字太难学了，而韩文容易太多了。

Peter Zhu compared literacy of japan and korea but you had a big mistake. The environment and situation of that time in each country were very different. Even though japan was defeated in WW2, it was once a strong country and korea was a colony of them. Nobody can deny that japan deprived korea of many things and the education system was not an exception. Most of korean were not educated and the korean war demolished even a piece of hope. Japan accumulated assets from colony and could educate people quicker than korea did. Can you still compare two countries at the same level?

Peter Zhu比较了日本和韩国的识字率，但是你犯了一个很大的错误。每个国家所处的环境和情况都大不相同。虽然日本在二战中战败了，但它曾经是一个强国，而韩国曾经是日本殖民地。没有人能否认日本剥夺了韩国的很多东西，教育系统也不例外。大多数韩国人没有机会接受教育，朝鲜战争更是摧毁了仅存的一丝希望。日本从殖民地积累了财富，可以比韩国更快地在国民中普及教育。你能在同等水平上将两个国家作对比吗？

In 2020, korean people barely think hanja has to come back to our writing system. Hanja is similar thing with Latin for English speakers. Many suffixes, prefixes, and roots of english words are originated from latin. However, it doesn’t mean that you necessarily know latin to speak English! The atmosphere of korean society now is that people want their children study english rather than hanja because time is limited! If you have to spend same quantity of time, english is more practical because the international communication is important.

在2020年，韩国人基本都认为汉字没必要重回我们的书写系统。对于说英语的人来说，汉字和拉丁文字很相似。英语单词的许多后缀、前缀和词根都来源于拉丁语。但这并不意味着你一定要懂拉丁语才能说英语！现在韩国社会的氛围是，由于学生的时间有限，人们希望自己的孩子学习英语就行，别学汉字了！如果你必须投入同样多的时间，学习英语还更实用，因为国际交流很重要。

However, hanja is still benefiting to understand sophisticated korean. From elementary school to high school, and all the university have hanja class. Korean wouldn’t fully abandon hanja. It contains our four thousand years history and culture. Since it was an official writing system in korea, almost (not all) of recordings of old korea was written in hanja, it means that it is impossible to abandon hanja and is also unnecessary.

不过能读懂汉字有利于理解复杂的韩语。从小学到高中，所有的大学都有汉字课。韩国人不可能完全弃用汉字。汉字包含了我们四千年的历史和文化。因为汉字是韩国的官方文字系统，几乎所有(并非全部)韩国古代的文献都是用汉字记录的，这意味着韩国不可能弃用汉字，也没有必要。

But one thing I want to point out is making written korean again to be mixed with hanja for japanese and chinese learner or speaker? That is very absurd. Why do you guys consider convenience of other countries people but not korean? Why do we have to change the simplest and the most efficient way to the inefficient old one? Korean language and chinese language are totally different, hanja(hanzi) is proper writing system to china but is very inefficient to korea. Think about the reason why King Sejong invented Hangeul. (His first reason was this; Korean language is different from chinese so the Hanzi is incommunicatable to korean -Hunminjeongeum Haeryebon, 1446). Korea developed its own, the most efficient and practical writting system to themselves.

但是我想说一点，为了日本和中国的学习者和使用者把韩文和汉字重新混用？这也太过荒谬了。为什么你们不为韩国人着想，只是为了其他人的便利，就想把最简单、最有效的书写系统换回效率低下的旧系统？韩语和汉语完全不同，汉字对中国来说是合适的书写系统，但对韩国来说则效率很低。想想世宗大王发明韩文的原因吧。(他考虑的第一点就是：韩语与汉语不同，所以韩国人无法用汉字交流。韩国推出了自己的文字，是对韩国人而言最有效也最实用的文字系统。