This is the last post on the Korean keyboard.
Here are the remaining letters:
u – ㅕ
i – ㅑ
b – ㅠ
n – ㅜ
m – ㅡ
z – ㅋ
x – ㅌ
c – ㅊ
v – ㅍ
For those of you who still have trouble getting the Korean font, try this website: http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/user/xpintlsupp.mspx
This is for those who have a Mac: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA20563?viewlocale=en_US
If you’re still having trouble, try Googling it yourself and see what comes up.
I got sidetracked and forgot to do the rest of the Korean keyboard. Today’s keys have to do with the keys that have different characters depending on whether you press the shift key or not. This is what I mean:
q = ㅂ
q + shift key = ㅃ
w = ㅈ
w + shift key = ㅉ
e = ㄷ
e + shift key = ㄸ
r = ㄱ
r + shift key = ㄲ
t = ㅅ
t + shift key = ㅆ
p = ㅔ
p + shift key = ㅖ
o = ㅐ
o + shift key = ㅒ
June sixth is celebrated as 현충일 or Memorial Day in South Korea. It’s a day to commemorate the soldiers who have died while serving in the military. It’s especially for the soldiers who have died in the Korean War.
In some ways, the Korean War has been overshadowed by the Vietnam War. Despite only lasting three years, it’s inflicted a lot of casualties, both civilian and military. I guess you could say the war never really ended. The technical term is called armistice. The “war” is still going on, in a sort of “cold war.” In fact, some people don’t even call it a war. They call it a “conflict.” Whatever you call it, the Korean War has definitely shaped the Korean psyche and its attitude towards war.
For those of you who may not be familar with the history behind the Korean War, it started when the North Korean army invaded South Korea in an attempt to unite the Koreas into one Korea. In South Korea, the Korean War is called the 육이오 전쟁 or the 6/25 War. It’s named 6/25 because it’s named after the date the War started. On June 25th 1950, the North Korean army attacked Seoul and killed around 7,000 people. The survivors were forced to fight in the North Korean army.
President Truman, who was the American president at the time, intervened, for fear that communism would spread all throughout Asia. The U.S. got the support of the UN and tried to prevent the North Koreans from coming into the South any further. The Chinese thought it would be an opportune time to secure Taiwan, especially with the Americans preoccupied with the North Koreans. Truman had to send U.S. forces to Taiwan, spitting up the defenses that could have been used to fight the North Koreans.
China also enlisted the help of Russia. China was able push back UN forces, causing the UN forces to retreat. Finally in 1953, the UN and North Korea agreed to a cease-fire. The legacy of the Korean War is a bitter one. Many nations including Turkey, South Africa and others that were part of the UN forces, lost their men. The aftermath of the war concluded with a U.S. military base in South Korea, guarding the border between North and South Korea.
That’s why on 현충일 a national ceremony is held in the National Cemetery in Seoul. On May 27th 2009, Kim Jong Il announced that he would withdraw from the truce of 1953. Whether he will attack South Korea or whether it will turn out to be just a bluff is unclear. There are recently some disturbing news about nuclear missiles being tested on the waters of Japan. Hopefully, history won’t repeat itself.
Have you ever wandered about in a convenience store in South Korea? For a a lot of new comers, it’s hard enough trying to figure out what all those strange letters mean, not to mention the headache of trying to pay for it. Hopefully, this post will straighten out some curiosities that you might have with Korean currency.
Let’s take a look at the coins first.
₩1 : has the 무궁화 on one side of the coin and the numeral one on the other side of the coin. The 무궁화 is South Korea’s national flower.
₩5 : has the 거북선 or turtle ship on one side and the numeral five on the other side. The 거북선 is the warship responsible for defeating the multiple Japanese invasions of 1592-1598.
₩10 : has the 다보탑. The 다보탑 is a temple in South Korea. It’s considered one Korea’s architectural treasures.
₩50 : has a stalk of rice.
₩100 : has General 이순신 on one side. General 이순신 was one of Korea’s most loved generals.
Next time I’ll describe the type of money having to do with the “paper” kind.
If you have an English language keyboard, and you want to type in Korean, it can be a bit tricky. I’ve actually memorized the Korean keyboard, but you may not want to do that. Here’s what you can do: go to control panel, click on keyboard and languages, add the korean language file. Then a language bar will show up, it’s a thin horizontal strip. Click on Korean, which will show up as KO on the language bar. Then click on the arrow pointing downwards on the right side of the bar. You’ll see a list of items. Click on “Soft Keyboard.” Then a layout of the Korean keyboard will appear on screen. Just click on the “X” on the top right hand side if you want the layout to disappear. If it still doesn’t work, I’ll provide the layout below.
a = ㅁ
s = ㄴ
d = ㅇ
f = ㄹ
g = ㅎ
h = ㅗ
i = ㅓ
k = ㅏ
l = ㅣ
Just so you know, you will need the “d” key which looks like this ㅇ in Korean to type words that contain Korean vowels. I’ll post the rest of the Korean keyboard for the next post.
