Looking back my memory、 my wife and I used to be enthusiastic fans of Korean dramas.
Do you watch korean dramas on TV?
We are especially fond of historical series such as the Great Janggum, “チャングムの誓い“ in Japanese title.
These are the DVDs drama I have bought and enjoyed watching several times.
This drama illustrates the character of the Chosun dynasty through heroine Janggum’s success story to become the king’s private doctor.
It takes, however, more than 50 hours to finish the drama.
For the people who have not enough time to do so, let me introduce a couple of episode related to the Chosun Dynasty.
The Dynasty ruled over a united Korean Peninsula from the fall of the Goryeo Dynasty in 1392 through the Japanese Occupation of 1910.
It had sustained for more than 500 years double longer than the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan.
27 kings dominated the country.
The king had absolute authority, but his actual power varied with political circumstances.
And political struggles frequently occurred between factions who supported different royal family.
Thus all the kings from Lee’s family were sensitive to the plots for the assassination especially by poisoning.
Because it was an easy and popular way to put poison into the meal for the king.
To prevent from this attempt the king’s family used silver chopsticks so that they could find out the poison by seeing the changes of color on them.
This is a reason Koreans use metal chopsticks when they eat meals.
In the mid-15th century, the fourth King Sejong invented the Korean alphabets called Hangul in order to let the people of low status read the Confucian books easily.
Afterward both Hangul and Confucian teaching have become the official script and social custom in Korea of today.
Hangul is a true alphabet of 24 consonant and vowel letters. It is easy to write and read like this.
Hangul became increasingly popular since 1945, after the war and Chinese characters in Korean writing has diminished significantly.
And now Chinese characters are rarely used in the daily lives of people in Korea.
Look at this Korean newspaper, you may feel difficulty in finding Chinese Characters.
Anyway I hope you can understand that Chosun dynasty still controls Korean society.
Learn more abaout Korean history through watching the Hanryu dramas during this coming winter vacation.
Have Merry Christmas and a happy new year! Toastmaster.
won the Best Speaker Award
Do you watch korean dramas on TV?
We are especially fond of historical series such as the Great Janggum, “チャングムの誓い“ in Japanese title.
These are the DVDs drama I have bought and enjoyed watching several times.
This drama illustrates the character of the Chosun dynasty through heroine Janggum’s success story to become the king’s private doctor.
It takes, however, more than 50 hours to finish the drama.
For the people who have not enough time to do so, let me introduce a couple of episode related to the Chosun Dynasty.
The Dynasty ruled over a united Korean Peninsula from the fall of the Goryeo Dynasty in 1392 through the Japanese Occupation of 1910.
It had sustained for more than 500 years double longer than the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan.
27 kings dominated the country.
The king had absolute authority, but his actual power varied with political circumstances.
And political struggles frequently occurred between factions who supported different royal family.
Thus all the kings from Lee’s family were sensitive to the plots for the assassination especially by poisoning.
Because it was an easy and popular way to put poison into the meal for the king.
To prevent from this attempt the king’s family used silver chopsticks so that they could find out the poison by seeing the changes of color on them.
This is a reason Koreans use metal chopsticks when they eat meals.
In the mid-15th century, the fourth King Sejong invented the Korean alphabets called Hangul in order to let the people of low status read the Confucian books easily.
Afterward both Hangul and Confucian teaching have become the official script and social custom in Korea of today.
Hangul is a true alphabet of 24 consonant and vowel letters. It is easy to write and read like this.
Hangul became increasingly popular since 1945, after the war and Chinese characters in Korean writing has diminished significantly.
And now Chinese characters are rarely used in the daily lives of people in Korea.
Look at this Korean newspaper, you may feel difficulty in finding Chinese Characters.
Anyway I hope you can understand that Chosun dynasty still controls Korean society.
Learn more abaout Korean history through watching the Hanryu dramas during this coming winter vacation.
Have Merry Christmas and a happy new year! Toastmaster.
won the Best Speaker Award
2.I thnk I could hear an interesting story. Your speech keeps attracting us all the time.
3.I always like your visual message. Topic contained academic and useful knowledge. Thank you very much.
4.Interesting, especially when you mentioned why silver chopsticks are used by Koreans. Those examples are very good to attract us.
5.You introduced a lot of interesting stories about Korea. It was very well organized and informative . I felt very well about well described stories.