Subtitles by OnDemandKorea
In order to keep global peace and sustain a safe world,
many heads of state would gather at the UN for summit meetings.
On the other hand, there are those who were never officially sent,
but claim they represent their own countries.
These "Gs" hold meetings for the peace of youths in the world.
(Episode 169)
We hereby open up the floor.
I'm chairman Jeon Hyun-moo of Non-Summit.
- I'm secretary general Yoo Se-yoon. - I'm chairman Sung Si-kyung.
We're Jeon-Yoo-Sung!
(Welcome Representatives of Non-Summit!)
We have new representatives today. First off is Aliona from Russia.
Hello. My name is Aliona, and I'm from Novosibirsk.
At Novosibirsk State University, I studied Korean in oriental studies.
Hello. I'm Aliona from Russia's city of science Novosibirsk.
I learned Korean from the oriental studies department at Novosibirsk State University.
The more I learned Korean, the more I fell for its charm.
So I came to study in Busan and completed my Master's Degree here.
It's my sixth year living here. It's nice to meet you.
- Do you live in Busan then? - Yes, I do.
You said you want to break the stereotype of Russia.
Yes. My hometown Novosibirsk is a city in Siberia.
The moment Koreans hear the word "Siberia,"
they always say, "Isn't it really cold over there?"
"Isn't it cold? Busan is so hot! Isn't it cold over there?"
"Siberia is too cold! How do you live there?"
(Busan is great)
Yes, that's how they react.
Truthfully speaking, Siberia has four seasons, too, and
in the summer, it can go up to 38 degrees Celsius.
What about winter?
Well, of course, for about a week, the temperature drops to minus 40 degrees then.
- "It's true! It is cold!" - "It really is cold!"
That's true, but you just have to not leave your house during that time.
(The conclusion is that Siberia is cold.)
We also have Henry from India. Please introduce yourself.
Hello. My name is Henry Pahala Pinilih.
I'm from Semarang, Jawa Tengah, Indonesia.
It's been about three years since I've come to Korea now.
Currently, I am an intern at a Korean trading company. Thank you.
Now in Korean.
Hello. I'm Henry from Semarang in Indonesia.
It's been about three years since I've come to Korea.
Right now, I'm working as an intern at a Korean trading company.
When I first learned Korean, I watched "Non-Summit Meeting" a lot.
- It's been three years. - It's been three years?
I watched from the first episode, so I'm very happy and honored to be here.
Goodness. It's nice to meet you.
- The Korean Language Institute shows "Non-Summit Meeting" a lot. - Really?
They kind of use us as role models.
- There's a photo of Guillaume in a textbook. - Where?
There's a photo of Guillaume in a Korean textbook.
(Why is his photo there...?)
He's not King Se-jong! Why is he in there?
There are four of us in there, and I'm one of them.
It's when I talked about table manners in Canada.
(I saw it, too.)
I'm embarrassed...but I'm not offended.
You're the dream of the Korean Language Institute.
(Shy)
I should be going there.
There's a rumor that Henry is the golden boy in Indonesia.
- What does that mean? - Honestly, I'm embarrassed to say this myself...
I graduated from the number one university Gad Jah
Mada where presidents and ministers attended.
"A university you succeed as soon as you enter?" (Pun)
I was almost always the valedictorian in middle and high schools.
- Oh, really? - You must have a lot in common with Mark.
(Golden boy meeting (?) of the east and west)
So we have one-day representatives from Russia and Indonesia.
I think there's a reason for that.
Today, October 9, is the 91st anniversary of Korean Alphabet Day.
So we prepared a special time to discuss languages and letters all over the world.
As enough of a special day it is, we can't leave out this person.
The one who ran over while calling out "It's me" during Korean alphabet episodes.
Our annual event, writer Jo Seung-yeon!
(Long time no see.)
Just go right over to your seat.
(It's nice to see you.)
(Goes to his seat without any awkwardness)
- Please have a seat. - Okay.
(Everyone takes their seats.)
You came for the new year episode, but it's already the second half of the year.
(He appeared on 2016's National Liberation Day episode.)
We invited this person again after he gave us many
stories during National Liberation Day episode.
- Writer Jo Seung-yeon. - Welcome!
(He also came during the new year episode.)
(Writer Jo Seung-yeon in charge (?) of special episodes)
- Yes. - How have you been?
After I appeared on the new year episode, there are so many people who recognize me.
I snuck around, and it's already October now.
- You snuck around. - That's how popular you became.
Yes.
That's odd.
- You do seem like a celebrity now. - What languages can you speak again?
Of course Korean.
English, French, and Italian.
I can read German and Japanese.
- Aurelien, how is his French? - He's good.
- He's better than Guillaume, isn't he? - What? What did you say?
- What do you think? - Of course I'm better!
- How dare you! He's in a textbook! - I apologize.
(You wait and see, Aurelien.../Sorry.)
We'll start episode 169 of non-summit meeting with
the topic of languages with writer Jo Seung-yeon,
So we're going to discuss languages and letters from different countries.
How do G's see the Korean alphabet?
Just like how we see English or Russian, I'm
curious how you guys see the Korean alphabet.
What you feel when you see the shapes.
I think many Westerners have the same idea.
We think the Korean alphabet is pretty.
It's like a drawing, and it's beautiful because there are many circles.
When I first came to Korea, I took pictures of
all the signs with the Korean alphabet on them.
Like "cleaners" or "glasses."
I just took pictures of all kinds of things.
I like the Korean alphabet so much that sometimes I say that I came to Korea for it.
Because my first awareness of Korea was the alphabet.
I was living in a dorm, and I didn't know, but my neighbor was Korean.
But on each door of the dorms, there was a white board you could leave messages on.
Someone would come and write in a language I didn't know on his board.
I fell for the circles. They were absolutely beautiful.
Later, I found out it said, "Hello, dear."
- But... - You felt the word "dear?"
It's instinct!
I kept staring at that. "The circle is so pretty."
(The magical "O" that charms foreigners...)
- Later on, I heard it meant dear. - Goosebumps!
"Yes, this was it! I was right!"
I saw something fun in Canada before.
One Canadian wore a shirt with Korean alphabets on it.
I asked him where he got it, and he said he thought the Korean alphabet was so pretty
that he went to Korea for a trip, saw a sports event
selling a white shirt with words on it, and bought one.
- What did it say? - Mokpo Hometown Alumni.
The shapes of those words are very pretty.
The words hometown alumni must be really pretty.
Britney Spears also wore something with those words on it.
That's because the shape is pretty.
(There are many examples beside that...)
German people who don't know the Korean alphabet say it looks like numbers.
- "Yi" is 01. "Ni" is 4. "Ki" is 71. - That's true!
When I first saw the Korean alphabet, like Alberto said before,
there are many circles and squares, so it looks like a drawing.
- But after learning the Korean script... - You learned that?
Yes, I did, so I learned that the Korean alphabet are letters that makes sounds.
I learned the letters are sounds made from the vocal organs.
I realized how amazing King Se-jong is. I was amazed.
We're amazed as well.
When I learned about the Korean vowels and consonants in college,
I learned that they represent the sky, earth, and
people between them, so I think that is very cool.
When I first learned the Korean language, I had the same ideas as everyone else.
In our country... You know Daewoo E&C, right?
Daewoo E&C made the biggest road in Pakistan.
Ever since then, the image of big Korean corporations became positive.
That's why many people started to learn Korean.
There's a university in Pakistan called National University of Modern Languages.
There's a major called King Se-jong Institute there.
The university president said something very cool.
"Thanks to the Korean alphabet King Se-jong created, Korea advanced quickly."
That's how much of a good image the Korean alphabet has.
Objectively speaking, is our language a difficult one?
It depends on who's learning it.
It hasn't been long since we've taught our language to other countries.
So, even today, when a foreigner asks why we have a particular thing in our language,
we still don't have the skills to exactly explain it.
- We don't have much of a database. - So everyone here is amazing.
But learning Korean would've been easier for Ogi and Wang Xinlin.
Since we're in the same cultural area.
As for Aurelien and Alberto who learned Korean
when they were adults, they're especially amazing.
There's something in America called FSI. Foreign Services Institute.
It's an agency that teaches diplomats the language of the country they're going to.
It splits the languages into five levels.
According to the Americans, 1 is the easiest and 5 is the hardest.
Level 1 languages must be studied for 600 hours.
That means you just need to study hard for two semesters.
However, you have to study 2,200 hours for level 5 languages.
That means that even if you study two hours
every day, including weekends and holidays,
it will take you three to four years to learn the language.
- In level 1, there are Spanish and French. - Right.
But level 5 is the three Asian countries' languages. Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.
So for Koreans, Japanese and Chinese will be easier,
but for Westerners, that's not the case.
- It's really hard. You have to really focus to master the language. - Right.
- It's possible because they respect our culture that much. - They like it, too.
Are there certain Korean words or phrases you guys liked while studying Korean?
- I have one. - What is it?
"Young master."
- It sounds like you're being served. - It's from all those dramas.
I really like watching historical dramas because the female protagonist would call
the male protagonist "young master," and it makes me think of a bright, pure man.
- You got the image right. - Young Master Wang.
- Do you like Husband Wang? - I like that word, too.
- You do? - Yes, I do.
(I'm Husband Al.)
I have one, too. "Thump thump."
It sounds really pretty. There are many repetitive words in Korea.
Boiling boiling, bubbling bubbling, sticky sticky,
chewy chewy, squishy squishy. There are so many!
- Those are hard. - They're so hard!
It's difficult to know their meanings, too.
At first, I thought Koreans did this to emphasize something.
But when you look in the dictionary, it's just a word.
- It's a standard language. - It's the official word. It's so cute.
Isn't the word "cute" in itself cute?
(Seems true?)
When I was learning Korean, I had classmates from different countries.
So we compared the word cute from different countries to see which one is the cutest.
People said that the Korean word for cute is the cutest.
- The Chinese word for it isn't cute. Kehai? - "Ke-ai."
- That's cute, too. - Xinlin said it in a cute way just now.
- Ready, go. - "Ke-ai."
(No way! No way! No way!)
(I shouldnât have done it...)
Go "ke-ai" on your SNS.
In America, there are words you can guess what they mean just by the sound of them.
Many Americans like the word mellifluous.
It means it flows softly.
So when I came to Korea, I really liked the word "relax."
Just hearing it made me feel relaxed.
Relax!
Relax! Relax! Relax!
(Not like that.)
It's not like that. "Relax."
There's "fox," too.
(Human (?) fox)
(Seems like it will have a lot of time to relax...)
I really like the word "goodness."
The way women say "goodness" is cute.
I like that word, too, but there are so many ways you can use it!
When you're tired, you say it. When you see a cute baby, you say it, too.
"Goodness."
There are so many ways you can use the same word.
Is there a word like that in Italy, too? Like when you see a cute baby?
We have the word "mamma." It means mom. We use it when we're surprised, too.
"Mamma!" Or we use it when we see a cute baby, too.
You know the musical title "Mamma Mia" means "goodness" in Italian. Right?
Mamma Mia.
Right. When you translate it into Korean, you don't say it's mom. You say goodness.
(Musical "Goodness" (?))
- "Goodness! Goodness!" - "Goodness! Goodness! Goodness!"
(Sounds pretty good?)
"Chewy chewy squishy squishy."
And something else that amazes Italians are expressions with body parts in them.
Like "big hands," "wide feet," "stomach hurts," "thick face."
- "Thin ears." - Right.
It's used in various ways.
- There are such expressions in China and Japan, right? - Yes.
When you say your stomach rises, it means you're mad.
(When your stomach heaves (?) because you're mad)
Oh, because you're mad?
What about in China?
We say your hands or feet are big.
- That means that you're a generous spender. - That's similar to us.
When we express it that way, Koreans no longer think of hands.
So we forget that it's a beautiful comparison.
For example, French people use the word "d'accord" without any thought.
But the word "coeur" means heart.
So d'accord is used to say okay, but it means "going towards the heart."
So foreigners can see the comparison, but the natives can't.
Since they use it without thinking about it.
- At one point, that song "All By Myself..." Whose song was that?- Celine Dion.
Yes, in Korea, people used to think she was saying "Dear, hurrah."
That was a fad back then.
- Tell us about Korean words that are strange to you. - There are many of these.
- You know the OST song "Onara" from "Dae Jang Geum?" - Yes.
In Japanese, "Onara" means fart.
(A fart song is playing in the royal kitchen...)
"Why are they calling for fart like that?"
- They say it in a beautiful way, too. - They set up food and go, "Fart!"
(Bombing appetite)
"You'll fart a lot of you eat this."
There are many words we think are strange, too.
- The word "caca" means poop to us. - Oh, my!
- For us, we're talking about kid's snacks. - Yes, here it's something kids eat.
Or you use it to ask for a discount.
(Ma'am, please give me poop...)
That's how I hear it.
When I think about it, the word "caca" means poop in many languages.
(German, Russia, Italy, France)
We're using that to say snack in Korean?
Choco pie!
I think we should change it to the global definition.
To my baby, I always go, "Should I give you caca?" I can't say it.
Not only that. The Korean word "moco" means booger in Spanish.
So when someone says "caca moco gaja," to me, it means poop booger let's go!
I can't get used to it.
"Moco" for us means snot.
It's funny, because when Italians emphasize something, we use the word "Che."
For example, to say something is very cool, we say "Che bello."
If it's really delicious, we say "Che buona."
Nowadays, in Korea, people say "Che," too.
We definitely connect!
It's funny how it's used like it's in Italy.
("Ge" = adjective used in the front that is similar to so and very)
(Very funny)
There are popular foods in China that come from Korean dramas.
Like chicken. In Chinese, it's called "zha ji."
- It means fried chicken. - The "ji" is chicken, right?
- Yes. That's why the chicken dishes are called "you Lin ji" and "la jiao."
- How is it exactly pronounced? - "Zha ji."
- "Zha ji." - It's exact!
"Zha ji."
And "chi Ba" means "please eat."
"Xi Ba" means "please wash."
Perhaps it could mean something similar to ours.
- "Xi Ba!" - He means "please wash."
- "Xi Ba." - I feel really offended!
"You're giving us a hard time, so please wash."
(Make sure you reveal it's Chinese before using it.)
There's the word "Siva" that means pretty.
It's a name that many girls use.
Many of my friends use that word.
But it sounds like a Korean curse word, so it's embarrassing.
If I say "Siva."
The Russian word that Koreans could misunderstand is...
"Ne" that actually means no.
- That's the complete opposite of us. - That's confusing.
I was confused a lot at first.
- But in Russian, "yah" means me. - Right.
- When Koreans yell "yah..." - Yes, "yah" means me.
(That must be confusing.)
- Doesn't "katok" mean ice rink in Russian? - Yes.
(Ice rink)
In Pakistan language, "say kya" means you do something with something.
That one is right on the spot. You can't do anything about it.
The pronunciation is too exact.
- "I ate with your boss you..." - "Say kya."
So when I say this in front of my Korean friends,
they go, "Why are you suddenly cussing?"
Another thing I was surprised by is the word "opa" in Korean.
In Korea, the word "opa" refers to older brothers, boyfriends, and husbands.
However, in Pakistan, it's only used to brothers.
If a girl you like calls you "opa," that means she's drawing a line.
From then on, it means you guys are like family and can't become more than that.
- So you guys aren't man and woman. - But family.
Yes, so everything changes after that.
In Germany, "opa" refers to grandfathers.
- In Indonesia, too. - What is the exact pronunciation?
- "Opa." - "Opa."
It's so similar that when a younger woman calls me that, I still feel awkward.
Because I call my grandfather "opa."
Grandfather "opa!"
I think the roots of many languages are the same.
How can they be categorized?
You can split them up in two ways.
They either have the same ancestor language or
become similar because they live next to each other.
So, for example, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian
have the same ancestor language, which is Latin.
But for Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, the roots are completely different.
However, they lived next to each other for a
long time, and Chinese books floated around.
So they use the same Chinese characters.
Although they look similar now, their roots were completely different.
There are languages and letters used by each country, like Korea.
Let's talk about the history of how those languages came to be.
(Latin affiliation: Italian)
We actually have a long history.
From 3,000 years ago, there were ethnic groups in the
Italian peninsula that used something similar to Latin.
After the Roman Empire appeared, Latin became the official language.
As Rome took over the other countries, Latin begin to spread.
After the Roman Empire was gone, the aristocrats
used classic Latin a lot because they studied.
But ordinary people didn't get much education, so they used Latin with dialect in it.
Until the 13th century, all the writers used to write in classic Latin.
But Dante from Florence wrote a book in the people's Latin for the first time.
He was criticized heavily, but thanks to him, it became Italian later on.
It'd be easy to understand that Italian and Latin has a
relationship like modern Chinese and Chinese characters.
All philosophy books were written in Latin,
but novels weren't considered literature and
just play, so it was greatly looked down upon.
So they came up with a language for writing "things
like novels" to separate it from fancy Latin.
The language was called "Romanza" and it meant a dialect of Rome.
But the story in those novels were very romantic.
So when we describe someone as romantic,
it means he or she is like the main characters
in the books that weren't written in Latin.
(Now they know the origin of romantic.)
(As expected from the language genius)
So Europeans learn Spanish very easily because they have a Latin basis.
So I can understand Italian and Spanish sometimes
even though I never learned them before.
(Latin affiliation: Spanish)
Mexicans didn't originally use Spanish. They used the Maya and Aztec languages.
But Spain colonized Mexico and forced Mexicans to use Spanish.
Mexicans don't speak the exact Spanish Spain
does, but some of the words are still left over.
For example when someone calls us and we say, "Please speak."
We reply "mande." It means "please order us."
Why? Because Mexicans were slaves back then.
That's a bit annoying.
So even now, when someone calls us, we reply "mande."
When foreigners learn Spanish, they wonder why they have to say "mande,"
but to be honest, we don't really think about that anymore.
We just answer like that because it's part of our culture. It's just the way we talk.
- But people from Spain don't answer that way, right? - Right.
(The two countries' words are different because of history.)
They say "digame." It means, "tell me."
For example, Italians say "chao" as a greeting.
But during the Roman times, most Italians were slaves.
So it comes from the word "schiavo" which means slave.
That changed into "chao," which actually means "I'm a slave."
Doesn't Germany say "chao," too?
We say "servus," which also means slave in Latin.
Right. "Slave is here." That phrase has been immersed into language.
- It's a tragic history, actually. - Right.
(Latin affiliation: French)
Just like Alberto said, highly intelligent people used Latin in France.
In 1539,
a law passed that you had to use French
instead of Latin in administration and courts.
However, even though there is a law, there are areal linguistics throughout France.
(Vary from area to area)
So after the 19th century, when there was free education,
people were forced to use French from now on.
France has a very unique language history.
French is the first language that made us realize there is a standard language.
We think it is natural for every country to have a standard language.
But let's go back to 500 years.
There's a way of talking that we've used our
whole lives and our ancestors have used as well.
However, citizens from another town came and tell
us, "Hold on. The way you're talking is wrong."
That's a very violent act.
However, an institution called Academy France first made a standard language.
It still exists to this day.
(Academy France: an honorable and prestigious
science institution that was established in 1935)
When they still hold meetings, they wear this outfit with gold on it and have swords.
Forty elderly people with white hair gather and hold a meeting.
Those people hold a very serious meeting.
What they do is, for instance, discuss whether they
should call a computer mouse "mouse" or "souris."
It's an institution that holds serious meetings to decide these things.
They do need swords.
The French's conception of language has become
a global model of the standard language.
- A country that loves their language a lot. - Right.
In Quebec, a majority of the people use French because
many immigrants came from France in the 17th century.
The language used in France 400 years ago is somewhat similar to the French now.
You can think of it as the French used in Quebec has been revolutionized less.
What's wrong, Aurelien?
People from Quebec say their French is similar to ours,
but they were too influenced by English.
It's like that.
From what I know, most people who immigrated to Quebec
from France aren't from Paris but Fecamp, Normandy.
Their dialect became a basis for Quebec's French.
They hold that kind of pride, but I don't believe it.
The French who live in the countryside say-
- It's very similar. - It's different.
- It's very similar. - The accent is different.
Because we can't tell, but-
- Things like "muah" or "ja" that are used in Southern France. - That's similar.
- That's right, but the accent is... - It's similar.
- Is it just for Aurelien? - Is it a difference of languages or personalities?
Is it different if you two speak the same sentence?
- It's very different. - If that's true, we can notice it, too.
"I'm very pleased and happy to talk about languages today." Please say it in French.
- That's it, right? - Guillaume.
(Oh, come on It's similar!)
No!
The words, abbreviations, and accents are a bit different.
- The accent is very different. - It is.
Guillaume used "fun," and that's English.
Aurelien used "interessant," which is from Latin.
Because Guillaume is from a country where there are many
English-speaking people, he was influenced by that.
(He even apprehended that...This guy...)
(Language world's Baek Jong-won)
(The world's official language: English)
English has a long history, and it's one of the languages in the German family.
In about the year 400,
the Anglo Saxons crossed over to Great Britain
and the language they used is called Old English.
Later on, in about year 1066,
France conquered Great Britain.
Ever since then, they were very influenced by France.
So from then on, the language was called Middle English.
After America gained independence from Great Britain,
the language was influenced by both American and
Great Britain and is still being revolutionized now.
The spelling is very different as well.
For example, we spell the word color
c-o-l-o-r while they spell it c-o-l-o-u-r.
It's very funny because many years has passed since it had been conquered by France.
Still, to this day, if you use English from French words, then you're a bit fancy,
If you use English from Anglo Saxon words, you seem a bit more popular.
For example?
We're going to have a conversation. We're going to have a talk.
Like that.
I have to go to the lavatory. I have to go to the bathroom.
There's something called a language stratum. There's French and English.
In America, the more you know the French words, the higher your education is.
If you use the original English words, you give off more of a folksy vibe.
That's why names of animals and cuisines are different.
For example, "boeuf" in France can mean cow or meat.
In England, the animals raised by commoners are called cows.
But the aristocrats eat cow, so it's called beef.
So in order to raise the word, they call it the French word "boeuf."
That's why there are two words: cow and beef.
(Slav affiliation: Russia)
One characteristic of Russia is that it's the country with the biggest land,
but compared to that, there aren't many languages used there.
- Most people use the same language. - Yes, there aren't any dialects.
The letters Russians used is called the Cyrillic alphabet.
They say it's letters made by the missionary Cyrillic brothers from
Eastern Roman Empire who came to spread Christianity to Slavic regions.
So you can think of Cyrillic alphabet as the Christian alphabet.
- In our eyes, the Roman letters are unique. - They're difficult.
She said she can read this.
- These aren't words! - What is this? Can you read it in Russian?
(Let me see...)
- You can't read it. - Yes, I can!
Victory. Economy. Government involvement.
It's an answer paper about economics and the government.
Russia embraces the Greek Orthodox.
The Grecian bible is written in Greek.
So the Cyrillic brothers had to translate the bible into Slav, but
back then, Slav only had a speaking language and not a written one.
So they sightly changed Grecian language
and created a Slavic bible that became the first bible written in Russian.
So they took their names and call it Cyrillic alphabet.
If you look at Greek and Russian side by side, they look eerily similar.
(Indonesian)
First of all, Indonesia has about 300 ethnic groups.
And there are over 720 areal linguistics.
According to the 2000 census,
Java Island has the heaviest population, so there are
more people who speak Java language than Indonesian.
So you guys can't understand each other?
If we meet someone from a different area, it's
difficult to communicate. We must speak Indonesian.
Like he said, Indonesia is the heaven of linguists.
Every 1.6 kilometers you travel, the language changes.
- There are so many things to study. - Right.
- You're right. - It's the country that linguists want to live in the most.
That's why there's a huge problem about how Indonesians communicate with each other.
When Netherlands conquered Indonesia, the people spoke Netherlands language.
But Indonesia overcame a very violent domination and became independent.
It doesn't make sense to use the language
- of the people who made you suffer. - Right.
So they create something called Bahasa Indonesian.
But what they got the basis was from these merchants who went back and forth on ships.
Those merchants came in contact with all kinds of tribes.
Their language, Riau Melayuau,
isn't used as a mother tongue for anyone.
But every tribe has one or two persons
who can speak that language.
And on top of that,
Dutch technical and scientific terms
were added to make a language called,
Bahasa Indonesia.
No Indonesians have ancestors
who spoke Bahasa Indonesia.
(Name suggested by Mohammad Yamin.)
Henry, how many languages can you speak?
My native tongue is Java,
and I learned Indonesian.
Then I learned Arabic because I'm a Muslim.
English is a required subject in school.
Then we have to learn another language.
5...
That's crazy.
You don't get confused
(Urdu.)
Pakistan has a lot of languages too.
Just like Indonesia,
we have a lot of regional languages.
We learn our native language at home.
Then English and Urdu in school.
In 16th century, we got a royal family.
Urdu is the language they used.
The official language of India, Hindi,
and Urdu were a same language at first.
Then it evolved differently.
Writings are different.
Only spoken language is similar now.
Do people from Pakistan and India
understand each other?
Of course.
But we can't read each other's language.
Urdu and Hindi are basically the same.
But they were split due to politics.
Because Pakistan's religion is Islam,
they started using Arabic to write.
Hindi uses a changed form of Sanskrit
as their writing.
They may look very different
and Indians and Pakistanis may seem
as two different ethic groups.
But they're the same.
(They were separated due to religion.)
(Chinese.)
The standard Chinese is based around
the dialect used in Beijing.
In our language, it's called...
About 1.5 billion people use Chinese.
Isn't that just a population of China?
It's not as much as 1.5 billion...
Plus immigrants.
They have a strong domestic market.
It doesn't need to be exported.
The Chinese characters that used
are based on writings on back of the
turtle's shell that was recorded
about 3 to 4,000 years ago.
It's one of the oldest languages.
We use Chinese characters sometimes too.
We can use it to communicate
without speaking each other's languages.
(Japanese.)
Japan uses Chinese characters too.
There are a lot of theories but
one of them says that our writing
is based on Chinese characters.
And we have hiragana and katakana.
They're based on Chinese characters.
They use some parts of Chinese characters
or use similar shapes.
That's how they were made.
I learned a book by
a Finnish doctor named, Dr. Frellesvig
on a history of the Japanese language.
(A Finnish author?)
I chewed a Finnish gum once.
Why did you even read that?
Finland is known as the language heaven
as much as Indonesia.
(Dr. Frellesvig studies Japanese language.)
Did you read it for your own curiosity?
Japanese and Korean are similar.
I wanted to find out why.
He has a lot of curiosity.
That book says Korea and Japan
were in a similar situation.
The Chinese characters could only write
ancient Chinese.
But we spoke different languages.
So Japanese scholars
took Idu from Korea and decided
to do something similar.
(Idu: How Koreans used Chinese characters)
(to write Korean.)
In each of the schools and temples,
letters were made independently.
One major system became a hiragana
and the other became katakana.
When I didn't know this and tried to study
hiragana, it was really difficult.
But this person
wrote hiragana on one side,
and wrote the Chinese characters
they were based on, on the other.
It was so easy to understand.
Ah came from an.
Ii came from ii.
U came from u.
It's super easy to understand.
They do look similar!
He knows everything.
(I'm a language genius.)
How do languages spread?
By following money.
Following money?
Depending on countries you trade with.
Simply put...
People learn languages that help them
get jobs more easily.
That's totally right.
What was human's first written language?
It's hard to pinpoint when exactly
we started using letters instead of
drawings.
But when we generally talk about
the first written language...
Do you remember what a cuneiform is?
It's from Mesopotamia in 3000 BC.
There are a lot of languages
it can write.
We think the oldest one...
Could be Sumerian.
I went to go see this with a professor
when I was in college.
It was a clay plate with Sumerian
written on it.
With no pen and paper, they used sticks
to engrave on clay plates.
I asked my professor...
Professor, what does it say?
He took out his magnifying glass...
And said, I borrowed 2 cows
from my neighbor.
(Amazing.)
Paying it back with 6 bags of wheat.
It was a receipt.
How did your professor even read it?
Some people major in that.
He's like Indiana Jones!
(Just like his professor.)
Languages change due to culture
and age.
What are special in your languages?
Spanish has...
Are you supposed to pronounce it like that?
Yes, it really exists.
Just like the double S sound in Korean...
We have double R.
(Easy to understand.)
Do you know what my gamertag is?
I used to know it!
That's right!
People pronounced it differently
every single time.
In Germany...
It's long but not very good.
But Korea was the funniest.
I didn't go to Mexico back then...
(How would Mexico say it?)
A lot of people can't do it.
I found out why
and how to help them.
The reason is...
Some people don't have muscles
in their tongues.
No muscles?
(You need muscles to pronounce double R.)
There's an exercise you can do.
That's enough.
(How to master the double R.)
Use F.
Leak just a bit of air.
What the...?
(Calm down.)
You have to relax your tongue.
Relax and try to pronounce F.
(Like this?)
(Someone's going to throw up soon...)
And what does that make you accomplish?
(World's best double R.)
What does that mean?
Up.
I'm the mayor!
(The exercise really works!)
Alberto!
We have a few...
But we have 12 past tenses.
It depends on when the action was done.
(Headache.)
And they don't have patterns.
(Italian is known as a difficult language.)
Indonesian doesn't have
past or future tenses.
(Fantastic.)
(Add -sudah for past tense)
(and -akan for future tense.)
No plurals?
No plurals.
How would you say people then?
Buku means a book.
If we want to say books,
we say buku-buku.
You can just say it twice?
(Very simple.)
I can just say it twice?
If there are tons of books...
Do you have hit song hit song?
(Nice application.)
It's called an official language effect.
For Italian, French and German,
verb forms are very complicated.
But English is very simple.
Countries with a lot of ethnicity
tend to have simpler grammars
because learning everything is hard.
Because Indonesian was made
to become an official language,
it's known as the language
with easiest grammar in the world.
Just learning words is enough
to make you able to speak it.
It's very easy to learn.
Are we the only one with intonations?
No?
Vietnam has it.
What's that?
Pronunciation is the same,
but intonations makes words different.
For example, with ma...
(They're different?)
Can you tell us what they are?
This means mom.
The second one...
Means plants.
Plants.
The third one, means a horse.
A horse.
The fourth one...
Means to swear.
Swearing and mom sounds that similar?
So this...
Means swearing at mom?
So, mom's swearing at a horse is...
Is did mom swear at a horse...
We have that in Korean too!
Why don't you try it?
Mom's swearing at a horse.
(Tries again.)
(Ma...Ma...Ma...Ma...)
(Embarrassed.)
(This is too difficult.)
Do Chinese people have a loud voice
to make intonations stand out?
Exactly.
But you guys ignore it when you sing.
That's weird.
But you still understand?
I'm not good with intonations.
But I can understand them
when I know the context.
Most people can.
Japanese has a lot of distinct features.
What Korean people has difficulty with...
Is that we don't have spacings.
A lot of people put spaces
in very weird places.
So when you say, I love you...
I lo...
Ve y...
Ou.
Just like that.
(That's why Japanese is hard to read.)
And we write vertically a lot too.
(Vertical writing.)
That hurts my eyes.
It's been like that for a long time.
We used to write like that too.
Our newspapers were like that too.
It's more convenient.
It's easier to read?
When I came to Korea long time ago,
movie subtitles were on the side
vertically too.
How do you know that?
How old are you?
I watched a lot of old movies.
(That was a very long time ago.)
A lot of languages have
gender specific words.
So do we.
That's very difficult.
Watashiwa is I am.
But people who learned Japanese
from One Piece say ore.
But it's weird to see women use ore.
And...
You guys all know about eh.
When you're surprised?
Women say it long.
Men say, eh?
It's shorter.
But Hyun-moo...
Says...
But doesn't that suit him?
He learned it from a woman.
We write from right to left.
We read and write from right to left.
Foreigners say it looks like a painting.
It looks like a dancing snake.
Arabic used to have spaces.
But it doesn't anymore.
So a letter looks different depending on
where it is.
(They're all a same character.)
So we may think it looks like a worm.
But...
Just think of it as a cursive.
Every language is pretty and meaningful.
That's cool.
Korean has honorifics.
Do your countries have it?
We have honorifics
and the one even higher.
But in Italian, honorifics will be
in 3rd person.
We say, what's he doing?
Even when I'm speaking directly to him.
So you becomes he?
Yes.
And the one even higher
is in plural second person.
We say, what are you guys doing?
Even to one person.
That's really hard.
We used it a lot a long time ago.
Not as much anymore.
It's only used for really important people.
What I find interesting is...
When they use 3rd person,
it's always in a feminine form.
Yup.
Even when you speak to a man,
you say, did she sleep well?
Are you speaking to me?
Yes, I am.
(Surprising and confusing.)
Not like that.
(Ogi won't let it go.)
If you're talking to an elder in Russian,
you say that person's name,
then the person's father's name,
and a suffix depending on a gender.
For example,
my name is Alyona,
my father's name is Igal
and since I'm a girl,
-evna is added at the end.
So all together,
it's Alyona Igalevna.
How would I know your dad's name?
Is it only used between friends?
You can ask.
Is it written in your business card?
It's even in our passports.
I'm sure it's in business cards too.
That's why when I read Russian novels,
I don't know who's who.
(They all have long names.)
A father keeps coming up!
Would that father use his father's name?
This is northern Europe's tradition.
(Which is close to Russia.)
So names with 'Son' included like,
Tomson or Johnson,
used to be John's son.
So Johnson.
So Scarlett Johansson means,
Johan's child, Scarlett.
Because Russia is really close
to northern Europe,
I think that's where Russians got it from.
Arabic is similar too.
We use -ibne or abulhasan.
Someone's son or someone's father.
Japan is famous for difficult honorifics
as well.
It's hard for me to teach too.
There are 3 types.
Honorifics, a humble version and
a polite version.
(Headache.)
The most difficult one is humble version.
It's by lowering yourself,
you're honoring the other person.
Itadakimasu, which means
thanks for the food,
is a humble version of to eat.
It's kind of like thanks for
letting me eat.
We lower ourselves too.
When I try to lower myself,
I say...
It means someone below.
Why are we all like that?
And when I introduce my son,
I don't say my son.
It means dog's son.
Why do you say that?
It's like this is lowly my son.
Exactly.
When I first learned Chinese,
I was happy because I thought
honorifics didn't exist.
But as I got better,
I found out that Chinese people
still use terms like dear.
They use all of them.
But there are so many.
Out of every honorific that I have learned,
Chinese was the most difficult.
Aren't honorifics difficult for westerners?
It has to be.
It was really difficult when I came here.
America is famous for not having one.
It's so simple.
You can speak to your boss
just like you're speaking to your friend.
But in Korea...
So honorific for I did something is...
Honorific for let's do something is...
So I told my boss,
let's go eat next week in honorific.
(Hapshida.)
Then his face went...
He said, that's not how you say it.
Than's an honorific for your subordinates.
What?
(An honorific for subordinates?)
I didn't know such a thing existed!
You say that when
you kind of decided already.
It's so difficult.
I've been here for 7 years now.
I still don't know how to say
let's do something to my superiors.
So, this is what I've decided on.
I don't know if you have time next week.
But if you do...
What do you think about having a meal?
(Great! Perfect!)
I don't know how to make it shorter!
You're Korean!
I may not know everything but that's good.
(He masted everything he needs to know.)
But you really can't say hapshida...
To your superiors?
Nope!
I didn't know!
I just found out too!
I said,
professor, when's our next seminar?
Let's do it tomorrow.
(Hapshida.)
You spoke like the university president.
Your first part was okay.
Just make the other person
make the decision.
That's not in the books.
(Not all cultural aspects)
(are in textbooks.)
Thanks to King Sejong,
we have our own language.
What do you think makes Hangul special?
(Hangul: Korean writing system.)
There are a lot of languages.
There are over 7,000 languages.
But only a handful of writing systems.
All Europeans here use same system.
So do Indonesia and Vietnam.
But we...
Have our own system for our own language.
Tailor made for us.
Other writing systems
weren't invented by someone.
You can trace them how they began
from symbols.
For example, 'A'...
When you flip it upside down,
it becomes a cow's head with 2 horns.
In ancient Egyptian,
alif meant a cow.
This symbol used to mean a cow.
Then this symbol went west.
The definition of a cow disappeared.
It flipped upside down
and became 'A' in Latin.
It went north to Greece and became alpha.
It went as far as Russia.
It went east to Arab and became alif.
If you trace every writing system,
you can find symbols at the end.
But only Hangul...
It's the only language in the world
made by someone, a king,
who was interested in linguistics
and made a system that's suited
just for us.
When you look at how to pronounce...
How did he...
Consonances look depending on
how our tongues look when you
make that pronunciations.
I heard it's the best language to digitize.
It's perfect for texting.
Twitter has a limit of 140 characters.
See you tomorrow in English...
But in Korean...
(3 characters?)
It's magical!
You can even make it shorter!
(13 in English, 2 in Korean...)
One character contains
so much more meanings!
He's right.
Japan uses too many Chinese characters.
We press the space key a lot.
It's to change it to Chinese characters.
(Alphabet to Japanese to Kanji.)
Korean is so simple.
Do your countries have people
like King Sejong who tried
to improve your language?
Thanks to our former chairman,
Mao Zedong,
we have simplified Chinese now.
It reduced our illiteracy rate a lot.
We can use English
to read and type on computers.
It's called...
It's using English to type
as it's pronounced.
It's recognized globally.
There's a guy named Noah Webster.
Around 1820,
America didn't have an official grammar.
So there were people who wrote
the same thing differently.
Noah Webster wanted to fix that.
He made the first dictionary
for American English.
Webster dictionary is the most famous
dictionary in America.
German...
Compared to French has a shorter history.
A lot of people think
it's not as luxurious either.
That was our complex for a long time.
Grimm brothers did a lot of research
and played a huge role
in changing that perception.
We have 6 umlauts.
(6 characters on top of 26 alphabets.)
Grimm brothers are the ones
who named them umlauts.
The history of the German language
is very tragic.
The history of the German language
is very tragic.
Europeans think Greece and Rome
as the center for their culture.
They think a language that's close to Latin
is more civilized.
And the further a language gets from Latin,
the more uncivilized it gets.
French or Spanish have direct
relationships with Latin.
But German is vastly different.
So Germans had a lot of complex
on their own language.
There's a famous saying
by a German emperor, Charles V.
He said,
I use Spanish when I pray,
I use French when I'm talking about
diplomacy and military.
I use Italian for love.
And I use German to command my horse.
Horses and soldiers.
When he gives orders.
He speaks a lot of languages.
He has so many options.
But he's the German emperor.
You can tell what the Germans
thought about their own language
from this.
We know the Grimm brothers
only as authors.
They thought German had to be related
to Latin.
They wrote Latin words on one side
and wrote German words on the other.
Then they studied the relationships.
They found something surprising.
Every word that starts with 'P'
in Latin,
started with 'F' in German.
What's foot in French?
In German?
Father?
They deduced 'P' in Latin
and 'F' in German share roots.
They proved German was actually
one of the civilized languages in Europe.
They're very important in German history.
To protect French in Quebec,
Quebec made
Charter of the French.
(Businesses with more than 50 people)
(must use French.)
(All government documents must be)
(in French.)
All politicians have to be good in French.
If you can't, you can't be a politician.
When our prime minister gives a speech,
after giving a speech in French,
when he finishes off with English,
people boo him immediately.
(Trudeau speaking in English.)
It's best not to speak English in Quebec.
If you want to sell something in Quebec,
it needs to be in both
French and English.
If an American import only has English,
it's illegal.
You know Kentucky Fried Chicken?
KFC is a brand.
In Quebec, it's...
It has a different logo.
Totally different.
And the stop signs on streets...
Quebec people doesn't like English.
It used to have both English and French.
But a lot of people didn't like that.
It's only in French now.
We use stop in France.
(Even France uses English...)
Why...
Maybe we bought them from Canada?
(Quebec loves French.)
Quebec used to have a party
for people who wanted independence.
They really wanted to protect French.
They made a lot of laws for it.
Languages change over time.
New languages are also created.
Some people are worried
that new slang may destroy a language.
Do your countries have new slang?
Does China?
We have a lot.
We even make a list every year.
The most popular one is
Chinese style English.
For example...
What's that?
Was that English?
It means...
If you can do it, go do it.
No can.
If you can't...
Bibi means complain.
(Bibi...?)
So, don't complain.
An American just laughed.
(Bibi sounds like English but it isn't...)
Mark.
Always remember that.
If you can't do it, don't complain.
And a famous quote by Mao Zedong,
which means, study hard and study everyday.
In Chinese...
I understood that!
(That's funny.)
Mark, did you understand the last one?
Yes, but...
I can't get bibi out of my head.
What does that even mean!
That sounds really awkward to us.
But there are a lot of Chinese English
that we thought were real English.
For example, long time no see.
It's from Chinese workers
who worked in Britain.
Say this in English word by word.
Long time...
No see.
It kinda sounds like Chinese too.
That sounds like Kanto.
It actually isn't grammatically correct.
It's Chinese grammar.
(I see.)
America likes new words and slang.
We like seeing what's been added
to the dictionary every year.
For example, photobomb.
It's a new word.
Photobomb is when someone
comes in secretly in the back in a photo.
Or this.
Facepalm.
This year...
Bibimbap was added.
(A spelling bee for bibimbap.)
No can no bibim.
Don't eat if you don't know how to mix!
That's how popular bibimbap is.
My brother texts me when he eats it too.
(A Korean word in an English dictionary.)
Japan uses foreign words more.
About 1 in 5 Japanese words
are foreign words.
(That much?)
1 out of 5.
Not just English.
French, German, Italian...
They come from a lot of places.
For example, jubon is pants in Japanese.
It comes from jupon in French.
Cigarettes in Japanese is tobacco.
That's Portuguese.
And ikura.
Salmon or trout roe.
That's Russian.
Indonesian for potatoes is jagaimo.
It's the same in Japanese.
Arbeit, which is German,
means part time job.
They come from a lot of places.
And we make our own verbs.
So the word miss in English.
We add Ru at the end.
Misuru.
It means to fail.
What surprised me when I was in Japan
is that I thought they'd have
their own word for tenant.
We don't think of them as foreign words.
We use it so much...
It doesn't seem foreign.
Tenant is French.
Really?
We use it too...
But it's originally French.
He's so proud of French.
He has a lot of pride.
Does azit come from Russia?
Azit?
It's from Soviet Union.
It's from agitation propaganda.
That became agit prop then agit later.
Let's ask him questions until he's stumped.
Until he can't answer a question.
I'll try.
Japan doesn't take in a lot of immigrants.
But why do they have so many foreign words?
Answer him!
I don't know!
(The genius finally falls.)
Guillaume wins!
Do any of your country hate new words?
We don't like it that much.
We change Spanish words and use it too.
We don't say computers.
What is it?
We don't say mouse either.
What do you think about new or foreign
words?
It becomes a serious topic
on Korean Day.
Yes.
Some say kids these days
aren't good with grammar
and use too many foreign words
and make King Sejong disappointed.
But I disagree.
I think King Sejong might be happy.
Back when he was alive,
educated people used Chinese characters.
He made Hangul
because people couldn't write
what they speak in writing.
It's been 500 years since it was made.
Korea changed a lot since then.
We have cell phones and computers.
But when he finds out than Hangul
can still express every new things
that we have now,
I think he'd be very proud
of his creation.
I think he'd smile.
His language can adapt!
When he sees...
I did that!
Greatness of Korean...
Is its flexibility.
Every sound we make can be written.
That means we're safe despite
how much our language changes.
People who are interested in linguistics,
may have felt a new desire
to learn a new language today,
despite today being Korean Day.
I learned how great Korean is again.
How was your third time here today?
I feel like I'm at home now.
I lived my 20s mostly in youth hostels.
I met people from all over the place
in youth hostels
and we talked in English or French.
I had to speak a foreign language.
But I'm so delighted that I got to
talk about Korean in Korean
with people from all over the world.
I'm very proud to be Korean today.
I wish that Koreans would start using
Korean to other foreigners.
Even when we're on TV,
people come up to me and say...
But when I reply in English,
they say...
But you can speak Korean!
(Let's speak in Korean.)
We'll call you on every holiday.
You have to come every time.
Okay.
Clear your schedule beforehand.
There are some important dates.
How's Pepero Day?
I'll get Pepero's history ready then.
That's it for today's summit.
Until we're all normal again.
This song's lyrics...
Shows Korean's greatness.
I love this song's lyrics.
It's amazing.
Shows Korean's greatness.
I love this song's lyrics.
It's amazing.
To the word, nim
(nim: Dear.)
If you add a dot...
(It becomes nam.)
(nam: Stranger.)
(Hyun-moo and Se-yoon are excited.)
Adjourned!
Subtitles by OnDemandKorea