Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ohahakehte]

seeing as such countries are in the minority in a global perspective, i often find it hard to believe that Korea has been monocultural, monoethnic and monolingual for a long time. like many people think Japan is the same way but its not, nor has it been despite Japanese efforts to the contrary. the indigenous Ainu people were in Japan before the Japanese and the Okinawans to my knowledge dont completely identify themselves as Japanese.

were the minorities in Korea pushed out a long time ago? was there ever only one language (Korean) in Korea (including dialects)?

[HardyandTiny]

[coolsage]

It's well-known that the Chinese and Japanese have had their way with this place in times past. What is lesser known is that the Mongols and Manchurians also 'visited' here, in the same sense that the Vikings 'visited' much of Europe. There are still remnants of the Mongol culture, if you can call it that, on Cheju-do. For their part, the Koreans of that era pushed into Manchuria and made it their own, for a while.

[ohahakehte]

[kangnamdragon]

Korea has not been to the "Hermit Kingdom" for no reason. Never say Korea was Japanese. Japanese culture was stolen from Korea.

I suggest you read about the three kingdoms....Silla, Paekgae, and Korgoryo. Get a Korean history book at Kyobo.

[coolsage]

I hear what you're saying. Did Korea have any minority sub-groups such as the Ainu in northern Japan? A good question, and I have no answer to that one. Does anyone know? Replies are eagerly anticipated.

[ryleeys]

[shakuhachi]

[the_beaver]

[Donghae]

I don't know when you were in Japan, shakuhachi, but in the years I've been here, lots of Japanese people freely accept that some of what came from the Korean peninsula to Japan was taken by force. In fact, I'd be confident that a majority of those historically aware would admit so. Many would probably also argue (and quite fairly in my opinion) that plenty of other countries have done much more plundering than they have in the past.

[matko]

Donghae,

What culture did Japan take by force from Korea? I thought that culture develops slowly. Things are assimilated etc.

Are you talking about artifacts etc?

I don't understand what you mean by 'things taken by force'

[the_beaver]

[Donghae]

One example is the pottery style and of course the actual potters themselves in northern Saga (NW part of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's main islands), which is the area where Hideyoshi launched his invasion from at the end of the 1500s. You can talk to plenty of Japanese people in this area, who, whilst proud that the craft has been established for 000s of years in their area, will also acknowledge the circumstances of the original craftsmen being brought there.

[Donghae]

Hey, I must improve typing speed. I'm going to try using both thumbs from now on

[matko]