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The Annotated Classic of Poetry – The Overgrown Mugworts
The Classic of Poetry (詩經, 시경) is one of the oldest poetry collections known to mankind, with some poems dating back to the 10th century BC. Because of its age, it is probably one of the hardest, if...
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Exhibit Announcement – Korean Won Currency Series
I hope readers enjoyed the series on Children’s Instructional Books. I have one more post left for that exhibit. For the next exhibit, I will be translating poems by various figures and about various...
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Yi Hwang – At Mount Do in the Moonlit Night a Poem on the Plum Tree
Yi Hwang (李滉, 이황, 1501-1570) was a Chosun dynasty Neo-Confucian scholar and literati bureaucrat. He was of the Jinbo Yi Clan (眞寶李氏, 진보이씨); his courtesy name (字, 자) was Gyeongho (景浩, 경호); his pen name...
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Yi I – At Hodang Sitting Throughout the Night
Yi I (李珥, 이이, 1536-1584) was a Chosun dynasty literati bureaucrat and a Neo-Confucian scholar. He was of the Deoksu Yi Clan (德水李氏, 덕수이씨); his courtesy name (字, 자) was Sukheon (叔獻, 숙헌); his pen name...
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King Sejong – Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven
King Sejong (世宗大王, 세종대왕, 1397-1450, r. 1418-1450) was the fourth monarch of the Chosun dynasty. He is famous for many deeds, including expanding Korea’s borders, renewing the sciences, and...
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Shin Saimdang – Longing for Parents
Shin Saimdang (申師任堂, 신사임당, 1504-1551) was a Chosun dynasty artist, calligrapher, and poet. She is the mother of Yi I (李珥, 이이, 1536-1584), who appears on the 5,000 won note. She was of the Pyeongsan...
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Announcement – Essays in Natural Language Processing
I have decided to take a break from the usual and write blog posts on one of the various topics in natural language processing (NLP), a field of study that is concerned with how computers process...
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An Overview of Automated Machine Translation – Introduction
Enigma Machine in use (from Wikipedia) This is the first post in the series on automated machine translation. The content is largely taken from class notes from a natural language processing course I...
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An Overview of Automated Machine Translation – The Ruled-Based Approach
Vauquois Triangle This is the second post in the series on automated machine translation. The content is largely taken from class notes from a natural language processing course I took a few years ago....
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An Overview of Automated Machine Translation – Statistical Machine Translation
Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek holding a “universal translator” device. In this episode, it is explained that this device translates based on how often (the frequency) signals occur in the...
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Project Announcement – Kuiwon’s Hanmun Primer
The vast majority of literature written by Koreans before — and even during the early years of — the latter half of the twentieth century is in Classical Chinese, or Hanmun (漢文, 한문) as it is called in...
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Kuiwon’s Hanmun Primer – The Four Tones of Classical Chinese – Introduction
Introduction There are four tones (四聲, 사성) in Classical Chinese: (1) plain tone (平聲, 평성), (2) rising tone (上聲, 상성), (3) departing tone (去聲, 거성), and (4) entering tone (入聲, 입성). It should be especially...
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Kuiwon’s Hanmun Primer – The Four Tones of Classical Chinese – Rimes
Rimes The pronunciation of a Chinese character can be broken into two parts: (1) the initial consonant, referred to as Seongmo (聲母, 성모) or Seong (聲, 성); and (2) the rime, which consists of the medial...
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Korean Linguistic Purism and Shoddy Scholarship
In March, the National Institute of the Korean Language (國立國語院, 국립국어원) (“National Institute”) posted a tweet claiming that the word ”geyang” (揭揚, 게양), meaning “to hoist [a flag],” originated from...
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Hwasannocho – An Unrestrained Composition on the Double Seventh Festival
The 7th day of the 7th month on the Chinese Lunar Calendar, which fell last week, is the Double Seventh Festival, or Chilseok (七夕, 칠석) as it is pronounced in Korean. The day commemorates the annual...
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Kim Eungjo – Eagerly Waiting for the End of the Summer Heat
Kim Eungjo (金應祖, 김응조, 1587-1667) was a Chosun literati bureaucrat. He was of the Pungsan Kim Clan (豊山金氏, 풍산김씨). His courtesy name (字, 자) was Hyojing (孝徵, 효징); and his pen names were Haksa (鶴沙, 학사) and...
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Should Korean Language Students Study Hanja? What Do Native Korean Speakers...
I have been frequently asked by those that are learning Korean, “Should I learn Hanja?” Anyone who follows my blog knows my answer to that question. (For those that do not, my answer is, “Yes, if you...
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歸源 (Kuiwon) on Twitter
I have started a Twitter account to serve as another gateway to social media. Note that I write this blog as a hobby, and put a fair amount of time into it when I can. I would greatly appreciate it, if...
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Japanese Kanji-isms in Sino-Korean Words
Example of a word with a “Kanji-ism” in print from the July 19, 1984 edition of the Maeil Gyeongje Linguistic Purism is a sensitive and controversial topic in Korea. This is especially true with words...
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Professor Isao Ishii’s Method of Teaching Chinese Characters
Introduction – Who is Professor Isao Ishii? Professor Isao Ishii (石井 勲, 이시이 이사오) is a pioneer in Chinese character education in Japan. He proposed that children should be taught Chinese characters...
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