I have found that learning Chinese characters has greatly increased my retention of new vocabulary. Also, knowing Chinese characters has given me the ability to glance at Chinese and Japanese texts and understand the basic meaning.

I started studying Chinese characters after my first year of studying Korean language, but it might be better that you have a second or third year proficiency in Korean language before undertaking Chinese character study.

Just updated the radical search. Added new font and fixed some of the bugs associated with the select box.

Slowly I will be adjusting the different pages… sorry once again for this slow pace. I do not have lots of time to update this. However, please give me until the end of February before you start complaining, okay?

Pictograms 象形字

These are characters which are based off of the actual image of an object. Naturally these were the first, most early developed symbols to describe common everyday things. e.g. 月 木 日 .

Ideograms 指事字

These are diagrams of concepts that either do not have form or are difficult to describe by a simple picture. The most common example of this are the characters 上 and 下.

Ideogrammic compounds 會意字

This type of character is essentially the combination of two or more pictograms and/or ideograms. The classic example is when you combine two trees (木) you get a forest (林).

Phono-semantic compounds 形聲字

These characters have two parts, one part is a pictograph which stands for the approximate meaning, and the other is another character which stands for the approximate sound. A common example is 河 river, 湖 lake, 流 stream, 沖 riptide (or flush), 滑 slippery. Notice how these examples all share the water radical and all refer to some type of water body. The remaining part of the character signifies the pronunciation.

Derived meanings 轉注字

These characters maintain a distinct meaning at the same time they also posess an abstract meaning. e.g. the character 交 originally mewas a pictograph of a man sitting with crossed legs. This can be interepreted loosly to mean exchange or communication.

Arbitrary Meanings 假借字

These are characters that originally meant something else but later came to mean something completely different. One example is the character 來 which is a pictograph that means grain. However, out of necessity, it became used for the word to come.

Chinese calligraphy, with its artistic as well as utilitarian values, has been treasured for its formal beauty for more than three millennia. This lavishly illustrated book brings to English language readers for the first time a full account of calligraphy in China, including its history, theory, and importance in Chinese culture. Representing an unprecedented collaboration among leading Chinese and Western specialists, the book provides a definitive and up-to-date overview of the visual art form most revered in China.

The book begins with the premise that the history of Chinese script writing represents the core development of the history of Chinese culture and civilization. Tracing the development of calligraphic criticism from the second century to the twenty-first, the fourteen contributors to the volume offer a well-balanced and readable account of this tradition. With more than 600 illustrations, including examples of extremely rare Chinese calligraphy from all over the world, and an informative prologue  by Wen C. Fong, this book will make a welcome addition to the library of every Western reader interested in China and its premiere art form.

We have planned for big changes after the holiday. Our application will be greatly improved. And, although we will still have the same quality information, my life will be so much easier to update this site.

So, yes. 2010 is going to be a big deal for open okpyon.

You may have noticed, but I have added the ability to extend your user profile. Tell our community about yourself, your interests, and you can even rate your Korean and Hanja skills.

Stay tuned for forums. Ask questions, and make comments directly on character and vocabulary pages. Also there will be an open forum where you can ask translation questions, or get homework help, etc.

Because it is so important, entering characters into the database has been left to myself, but I am considering extending that ability to our community on a content approval basis. e.g. Once you submit the content, a reviewer will take a look and make sure everything was entered properly on a weekly basis and then the content will go live.

After a little fine tuning we can resume business as usual. If there are any requests for functionality, you can do that from the report error page for now.

As any member would know, there are a lot of vocabulary in this database. In an effort to add even more capabilities to this database, I am working to categorize the vocabulary database so you can look up words by theme.

I already have a working beta version but it would be nice to categorize more words first.

Recently the site has been coming together really nicely and I am finally seeing the light at the end of this tunnel of a project that i have been working on for almost 3 years.

The bookstore is a great way to support the open okpyon project. Every book you buy will help support maintaining and developing this site.

Consider buying your Korean course books right here. We have the whole line of Hawaii University Press Korean language series

Remember that a large part of learning a language is learning more about the culture and history of the people who speak that language. There is also a wide range of Korean and Korean-American literature, history, and cook books.

I have been updating the code for what it seems like years, but finally making some progress.

Ever since I started my new job I have had very little time to update this site so please bear with me, and I hope that the still under construction status does not inconvenience any of you.

No, you don’t have to become a member to enjoy the benefits of our community; however, if you would like to be granted certain priveleges, like the ability to create and edit entries, then you must first become a registered member.

Registration is free so do not feel that there is monetary obligation.

Also, if you should decide to become a member, I can keep you updated on our community and the development of our software!