DPRK: Willing to go to war, any UNSC == declaration of war

[Solver]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Hui/Huy tends to be Chinese/SEAsian; it's quite rare for a Korean surname.

To be perfectly honest, it's hard for Europeans like me to tell Chinese and Koreans apart by names . Most people I know can't even tell the difference between writing used in China/Korea/Japan.

[Q Classic]

To be perfectly honest, it's hard for Europeans like me to tell Chinese and Koreans apart by names . Most people I know can't even tell the difference between writing used in China/Korea/Japan.

I know.

Rules of thumb:
Multisyllabic last names tend to be Japanese or SEAsian, such as Filipino or Thai. The key to distinguishing between them lies in how their names sound. Filipino tend to sound vaguely latin: Zarate, Aquino; Japanese tend to have a very regular pattern of consonant-vowel, like their language: Aoyama, Inoue, Ito, Koizumi. SEAsians are trickier.

Monosyllabic last names are common in China, Korea, and SEAsia as well, such as Vietnam. Rule here is: Park/Pak, Choi/Chae, Kim, Han, Baek, Noh/Roh, Oh, Kang, and Yi are almost assured to be Korean. Chang, Hwang, Chung, Yang, Lee, and the like, are harder to determine. Chinese names will be similarily monosyllabic, but you'll also more often see them with vowel patterns very rare in Korean or SEAsian, such as: Chiu, Liu. Vietnamese, well, you've got Nguyen and the like. Note: Vietnamese also have the name "Kim"--but if it's not a surname, then ignore it for the purposes of this generalization.

As far as the written languages: if you see circles, squares, rooftops (as in: /\ ) and the text seems very componentized, then it's Korean. Japanese will look more fluid with lots of very simple symbols mixed in with lots of complex ones (which are the Kanji--Koreans use these too, but not as often, and they're called Hanja). Chinese is loaded with lots of complex characters.

[Solver]

Yep, my rules of thumb for writing are similar. If it looks very complex, it's Chinese, if it has something that I might even be able to draw, it's Kanji . Actually, I wonder how the Chinese are able to write... I mean, there are obviously many people who do, like me, have awful handwriting and poor drawing abilities. So, how do these people manage to write Chinese?

[Q Classic]

Er... Kanji/Hanja are the Chinese characters the Japanese/Koreans use in their written text.

Japanese writing is a combination of the syllabaries Hiragana and Katagana, and the logographic Kanji.

Korean writing is a combination of the alphabet Hangul and the logographic Hanja.

[Solver]

Hmm, then might it be Traditional Chinese characters the ones I mean? Kanji does mostly look relatively simple, Chinese looks harder.
For instance in:

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/atoz/images/languages/chinese.gif

Last character in first row or first in the second row, too many lines, too close, too detailed...

[Q Classic]

Er...?

Kanji and Hanja are pretty much Traditional Chinese characters. Japanese Kana are the ones that look phenomenally simple. Hmm.... I'll post an explanation with pictures after I get home from work.

[Seeker]

"older McCune-Reischauer system"

IMO, generally easier for waygooks to understand.

Why is Kaeseong spelled 'Gaeseong' in SK, when it is still pronounced KAE as far as I can tell!? etc etc

Is the average Korean's hanja ability the same as a Japanese (i.e. can write your name, know the meanings of single characters like 'river' and 'mountain', that's about it)

[Solver]

Geez, Kanji, Kana, sound all so similar.... no wonder I keep getting confused. At least Vietnamese is different - then again, modern Vietnamese is basically Latin letters.

[Q Classic]

Fft. Written Vietnamese is so... Western.

Give me written Korean with Hanja over it any day of the week. Can you name any other country which has a holiday celebrating the advent of its written language?

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Sava
okay I'm so sick of hearing about this ****... I hope there is war... I hope Kim Jong Dumbass says I DECLARE WAR and then obliterates Seoul... then I hope he nukes Japan... then I hope the US nukes PyongYang

someone please just put a bullet in that madmans head!

By "that madman", do you mean "Sava"?

[trev]

North Korea has always been the greatest threat to world peace and should have been confronted before Iraq. There needs to be a serious strenghening of South Korea's army and other forces in South Korea so that the North Korean's can see that the world is serious about confronting them. These people only respect serious strength and that must be positioned in South Korea, preferably by multiple nations. There must be no more pussyfooting about with the North Koreans.

[Drake Tungsten]

Is the average Korean's hanja ability the same as a Japanese (i.e. can write your name, know the meanings of single characters like 'river' and 'mountain', that's about it)

That's the extent of Chinese character use in Korea? God, that would be nice. You have to memorize 2,000 characters and somewhere around 10,000 compounds to be fluent in Japanese...

Can you name any other country which has a holiday celebrating the advent of its written language?

Most countries have better things to celebrate...

[Sava]

Originally posted by Spiffor

By "that madman", do you mean "Sava"?

actually I'd rather someone put a bullet in my head

[Q Classic]

North Korea has always been the greatest threat to world peace and should have been confronted before Iraq. There needs to be a serious strenghening of South Korea's army and other forces in South Korea so that the North Korean's can see that the world is serious about confronting them. These people only respect serious strength and that must be positioned in South Korea, preferably by multiple nations. There must be no more pussyfooting about with the North Koreans.

Frankly, you don't know what you're talking about.

Granted, NKorea has at least 500k more active duty troops than SKorea, but SKorea's military budget is one of the largest in the world. The two countries also have the 5th and 6th largest standing militaries in the world, and SKorea's entire freeway system and much of the city planning has been with an eye towards defensibility.

[Bosh]

That's the extent of Chinese character use in Korea? God, that would be nice. You have to memorize 2,000 characters and somewhere around 10,000 compounds to be fluent in Japanese...

Yeah the only times I really see Chinese characters is on calendars for days of the week etc. and on menus for small, medium and large. Besides that there's virtually no hanja (what you'd call kanji).