2nd Quarterly Test

Reviewer in English 8
Korean Literature
About Korea
- Located in EAST ASIA
- Called the “Land of the morning calm” 
- Modern spelling of “COREA” a name attested in English as early as 1614, “KOREA” 19th
century
- 84, 616 sq. mi the area of Korea
- 2.8 % is the rate of water in Korea

GEOGRAPHY
- Amnok River – The river that separates Korea from China and to the north east
- Duman River – The river that separates Korea from China and Russia
- Peninsula - surrounded by the Yellow Sea to the west, the East China Sea and Korea Strait to
the south, and the Sea of Japan
- Mount Paektu (2,744 m) - The highest mountain in Korea through which runs the border with
China
- Dadohae-jin - Southern and south western coastlines of Korea form a well-developed Ria
coastline

RELIGION
- Confucian tradition has dominated Korean though, along with contributions by Buddhism,
Taoism, and Korean Shamanism
- Has competed with Buddhism in South Korea, while religious practice has been suppressed in
North Korea
- The influence of traditional beliefs of Korean Shamanism, Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism
and Taoism have remained an underlying religion of the Korean people as well as a vital aspect of
their culture; all these traditions have coexisted peacefully for hundreds of years up to today
despite strong Westernisation from Christian missionary conversions in the South Korea
DIVIDED INTO TWO DISTINCT SOVEREIGN STATES:

SOUTH KOREA or REPUBLIC OF KOREA

- Seoul – Capital and the Largest City
- 51 million – Population
- Korean pop (Kpop) and Korean series and movies
- Jeju Island, Mount Seorak and Gyeongbokgung palace
- Famous with their products like Samsung etc. and cosmetic products popularized by the
Korean stars/ actress

EDUCATION SYSTEM
- Consists of six years in elementary school, three years in middle school, and three years in
high school
- Students are required to go to elementary and middle school, and do not have to pay for their
education, except for a small fee called a "School Operation Support Fee"
- The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, ranks South
Korea's science education as the third best in the world
- South Korea ranks second on math and literature and first in problem solving

NORTH KOREA
- Pyongyang – Capital City
- 25 million – Total population
- Korean descent and small communities of ethnic Chinese and Japanese are also found in North
Korea
- The world's 4th tallest flagpole flying a 270kg. flag. It's 160m in height, over Kijŏng-dong
"Peace village", near Panmunjom in the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

EDUCATION SYSTEM
- Children go through one year of kindergarten, four years of primary education, six years of
secondary education, and then on to universities
- Consists primarily of universal and state funded schooling by the government.
- The national literacy rate for citizens 15 years of age and above is over 99 percent
- The most prestigious university is Kim Il-sung University
LANGUAGE
- Korean is the official language of both North and South Korea
- Worldwide, there are up to 80 million speakers of the Korean language
- Korean has borrowed much vocabulary from the Chinese or created vocabulary on Chinese
models.
- Korean is written almost exclusively in the script of the Korean alphabet (known as Hangul in
South Korea and Chosungul in China and North Korea)
- While Hangul may appear logographic, it is actually a phonemic alphabet organised into syllabic
blocks
- (jamo) – 24 Hangul letters, at least one each of the 14 consonants and 10 vowels at least one
each of the 14 consonants and 10 vowels.

CUISINE
- Believe that the taste and quality of food depend on its spices and sauces the essential
ingredients to making a delicious meal
- Soybean paste, soy sauce, gochujang or red pepper paste and kimchi are some of the most
important staples in a Korean household
- Influenced by the geography and climate therefore there are many fermented dishes and hot
soups and stews

Sports
- Football remains one of the most popular sports in South Korea
- Baseball is popular in Seoul and they have three teams
- Taekwondo is one of Korea's most famous sports
- Hapkido is a modern Korean martial art with a grappling focus that employs joint locks,
throws, kicks, punches and other striking attacks like attacks against pressure points
- Ssireum is a traditional form of wrestling that has been practiced in Korea for thousands of
years, with evidence discovered from Goguryeo of Korea's Three Kingdoms Period

MUSIC
- Traditional Korean music includes combinations of the folk, vocal, religious and ritual music
styles of the Korean people.
- Korean music falls into two broad categories. The first, Hyangak, literally means The local
music or Music native to Korea of which example is Sujecheon, a piece of instrumental music as
old as 1,300 years. The second, yangak, represent a more Western style.
JINJU GEOMMU- traditional Korean dance

- A traditional dress for a woman is called a hanbok

- A hanbok has a short jacket called a jeogori and a long skirt called a chima
- Men also wore a jeogori, but much longer
- Men wore baggy pants, which were comfortable to wear when farming and sitting on the floor

KOREAN DYNASTY GORYEO or KORYO DYNASTY

- Founded in 918 founded by Emperor Taejo

- It replaced Silla as the ruling Dynasty of Korea
- Goryeo land was at first what is now South Korea and about 1/3 of North Korea
- Goryeo is a short form of “Goguryeo” and first used during the time of “King Jangsu”

CHOSON DYNASTY
- Yi-seong-gye founded the “Choson Dynasty” and moved the capital from “kaesong to
Hanseong” formerly HANYANG, Modern day SEOUL and built “Gyeongbokgung Palace”
- It was founded aftermath of the overthrew of the Goryeo Dynasty
- Most notable among them was “Sejong the Great” who promote (Hangul) – Korean Alphabet

KOREAN WAR
- In 1945, with the surrender of Japan, the United Nations developed plans for a trusteeship
administration, the Soviet Union administering the peninsula north of the 38th parallel and the
United States administering the south
- Politics of the Cold War resulted in the 1948 establishment of two separate governments
North Korea and South Korea - During the Korean War (1950–53) more than one million people
died and the three years of fighting throughout the nation effectively destroyed most cities.
The war ended in an Armistice Agreement at approximately the Military Demarcation Line
- The Korean War led to the development of literature centred on the wounds and chaos of
war. Much of the post-war literature in South Korea deals with the daily lives of ordinary
people, and their struggles with national pain. The collapse of the traditional Korean value
system is another common theme of the time.
LITERATURE
- Korean literature written before the end of the Joseon Dynasty is called "Classical" or
"Traditional"
- Literature written in Chinese characters (hanja), was established at the same time as the
Chinese script arrived on the peninsula
- Korean scholars were writing poetry in the classical Korean style as early as the 2nd century
BC , reflecting Korean thoughts and experiences of that time.

Early Korean Literature

- Classical Korean literature has its roots in traditional folk beliefs and folk tales of the
peninsula, strongly influenced by Confucianism Buddhism and Shamanism
- Begin as an oral tradition
- Good was rewarded and evil was punished. Values like loyalty to the king, respect for elders,
true friendship and chastity were emphasized
- Korean poems were called Hyangga
- A new form of poem developed after the Goryeo dynasty and was called shijo a three- line
poem written in Hangul and gained wide acceptance

Modern Korean Literature

- The first period of the modern Korean literature is often called “Enlightenment”
Introduced the Western-style schools and newspaper emerged
- Many biographical works were published, the main character was often depicted as a hero 
Jayusi is the formation of modern free verse poetry
- The first printed work of fiction in Korea was John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress or Cheonno-
yeokjeong 1893
- The first complete edition of Bible in Korean was published in 1910
- Often linked in the development of Hangul which helped increase working class literacy rate
- Sinsoseol was a novel that was written in hangul

CONTEMPORARY KOREAN LITERATURE

During the Colonial Korea 1910 – 1945 free speech and press were restricted, thus influencing
the literature
- Literature focused on self discovery and increasingly on concrete reality
- Many novelist experimented with new literacy style and techniques
- In 1919, Kim Tong-in and Kim Hyok founded a literary magazine “Changjo”
- The literary magazine appeared during 1920’s and 1930’s were the basis for the future
development of Modern Korean Literature
- Almost all the magazine were ordered to discontinue publication in the 1940s as the Japanese
tightened the grip with the spread of their aggressive war to the Pacific
- Many novels of the 1920s centred around themes of the suffering of intellectuals
- The Korean literature was directly affected by the Japanese government strengthening
ideological coercion during 1930s

Watch the Video of The Tiger’s Whiskers Story

Writing

Four Types of Writing (Paragraph)

1. Expository Writing
2. Descriptive Writing

3. Persuasive Writing

4. Persuasive Writing
Hyperbole

- an intentional exaggerated statement;

- not to be taken literally

Example
 I can do anything
 We caught all the fish
 I am so hungry I could eat a squirrel
 The walk was a million miles long
 He's running faster than the wind.
 This bag weighs a ton.
 That man is as tall as a house.
 This is the worst day of my life.
 The shopping cost me a million dollars.
 My dad will kill me when he comes home.
 Your skin is softer than silk.
 She's as skinny as a toothpick.