This is part one of an aforementioned 한자 post.
Earlier this year, I decided to learn one new 한자 every day, Sunday-Thursday (up from last year’s late resolution). So far, I’ve managed to keep to that schedule. “Studying” each character involves several elements:
The Korea Times reports today that Seoul has chosen a new Chinese name, 首爾 ("leading city"), to replace 漢城.
The new name is expected to solve confusions caused by the differences between Chinese characters, “漢城 (hancheng),” used by China and the original pronunciation of the name of the city, Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak said in a news conference.
“Many problems have been caused due to the differences,’” said Professor Jun In-cho of Yonsei University in Seoul, who had participated in the committee.
As one of such examples, Jun said Seoul National University has been confused with Hansung University in Seoul as China uses the characters with a different pronunciation from Seoul.
“We hope this new name is not considered as a controversial diplomatic issue,’’ a city official said. “It is our request for China to accept and use our proper name, not force them to use this new name.’”
The official said the city has received “very passive” responses from the Chinese Embassy in Seoul regarding the name change.
오늘의 한자 is now available exclusively through the Repertoire section. The Repertoire section has its own RSS feed.
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강미 | learning korean