How to Read Kanji Differently in Japanese and Korean

Korean is said to be a relatively easy-to-understand language among foreign languages, with many similarities in word order and grammar to Japanese. 2020 is said to be the fourth Korean boom, and Korean is becoming increasingly popular among high school students.

Therefore, I would like to introduce some Korean words whose word order differs from that of Japanese kanji.

There are many words in Korean that originate from Kanji characters.

Examples of the same word order as in Japanese are,

회사 (company)

식 (meal)

공항 (airport)

열차 (train)

백화점 (department store)

and so on.

I think the fact that many of these kanji words can be understood simply by changing the Japanese kanji to the Korean pronunciation is one of the reasons why I feel Korean is so easy to learn.

On the other hand, did you know that some words have surprising readings?

For example, "The invoice issued to ABC Co,

The Japanese word for "passion" is "정열" when written in Hangul in the same order as the Chinese characters, but if you change it to the Japanese kanji, it becomes "passion," which has a slightly different meaning than the word "passion" as a word. Of course, this does not mean that the Japanese word "passion" does not exist or that it is an error. In fact, it is used to describe the piano sonatas composed by Beethoven. However, if you ask me what else I have heard of it, I would say that "passion" or "열정" in Korean is by far the most common.

Also, " Engagement" is "약혼", or " engagement" when converted to Japanese kanji, which, as one might expect, is almost non-existent in general Japanese conversation except in some special fields.

So, what happens if you learn and use these Korean words incorrectly? Let's consider what happens if you learn and use these Korean words incorrectly.

Man: I have "정열" for you. So please "혼약" with me.
Woman: Yes?　Try again after you learn more Korean!

Chan Chan!

This could be the result.

I hope you now understand that there are sometimes pitfalls when trying to pronounce Japanese kanji without changing the order of the characters in the Japanese language.

Now that the fourth Korean boom is underway, it might be a good idea to speak Korean.

We look forward to seeing you next time!