ABSTRACT
A note from Ken Goodman: Like Japan, Korea borrowed Chinese characters to write its language. But a syllabic system was invented for Korean, according to popular belief, for the use of women and the lower classes. In modern Korea, this system, hangeul, has come to dominate, although Chinese characters still carry prestige and are mixed with hangeul for some purposes. The movement away from Chinese characters has been influenced at times by Korean nationalism. Unlike Japanese, the Korean characters are composed of consonants and vowels.
