Korean Job Discussion Forums

chaz47 · Joined: 11 Sep 2003

I am thinking of writing my own Hanja dictionary for foreigners living in Korea. I am going to base it on the 900 middle school characters and attempt to emulate the style of a few other character dictionaries that I've seen that help make learning the characters more interesting and less difficult by illustrating the etymology, etc.

My question is, how much can I emulate the other dictionaries without infringing/plagiarizing? I mean, it's not a novel, it's a dictionary... ?

I'll probably use Adobe Illustrator for my page layouts. Does anyone know how hard it will be to locate Hangeul and Hanja fonts for Illustrator?

Mashimaro · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: location, location

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

kalkamagi · Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Location: Seoul

yea, i hate to get on the pessimist bandwagon, but it's been done before. and quite well. i have a hanja dictionary with similar features, written by professional and qualified linguists.

if you need to ask here how to find basic assistance with the book, why would any publisher buy it?

chaz47 · Joined: 11 Sep 2003

I was just planning to keep really detailed notes of my own studies which I would then put into a regular book format. I would try to do something similar to "Fun with Chinese Characters" from the Straits Times Collection. I would use Hangeul of course for the translations instead of pinyin and try to use Korean phrases instead of Chinese phrases. I would begin with the basic 900 that are taught in middle schools as the Korean government haved deemed these most useful (?) for students in Northeast Asia.

I didn't plan on making a ton of money doing it, just a little and it would really only be an outgrowth of my own studies.

You guys are too negative.

Laughing

Maybe it is a manic episode...

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

Ok, here's a positive suggestion. Start off by making a blog/website on hanja. That way you get to help along your studies plus share what you're doing with like-minded people. On top of that you'll also have a chance to get some feedback on your work. If that all goes well, then maybe you could start thinking about taking it further.