Lately, I asked myself what the differences between Chinese, Korean and Japanese culture are. Actually, many people outside Asia cannot distinguish between these three countries. That is mostly a result of ignorance and prejudice, whether unconsciously or not. → The same goes for me! There was no way for me to answer this question completely, not nearly. Due to this lack of knowledge and uncertainty, I did some research on this issue. As a result, I realised that in some cases, Chinese, Korean and Japanese people are as different as chalk and cheese!
Well, the aim of this post is to familiarise you with a part of Asian culture and to show you what I have found out:
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Language
For untrained eyes and ears, the Chinese script and the language probably looks and sounds the same as the other two languages. After showing you the differences, you will see that it is quite easy to distinguish.
Chinese is the origin of all East-Asian languages and it has many forms. The most widely spoken form is Mandarin. The complex Chinese characters mostly consist of a semantic element, which focuses on the study of meaning, and a phonetic element that indicates the pronunciation. At least, you have to learn about 3,000 necessary characters to be able to understand the newspaper, out of around 40,000 in a Chinese dictionary.
If you want to learn Mandarin, do not confuse the four distinct tones! Otherwise native speaker will get you wrong. For instance, ma has, according to tone, more meanings: mā (媽 – mother), má (麻 – hemp), mǎ (馬 – horse) and mà (罵 – scold) - Do not end up calling your ma a horse, or worse!
how to introduce yourself:
Japanese is written with a combination of three scripts: Kanji (漢字) which are characters of Classical Chinese; Hiragana (ひらがな) for native Japanese words and Katakana (カタカナ) for foreign words → together they are called Kana
In comparison to Chinese, Japanese pronunciation is not that complex. It has relatively few sounds. Therefore, pronunciation does not present a problem to learners. The real difficulty are the large number of local dialects and the honorific suffixes such as -san which is a title of respect: e.g. you can add it to a person’s name in both formal and informal contexts, but you can also attach it to names of animals, workplace nouns and so forth...
how to introduce yourself:
The Koreans are one ethnic family speaking one language. The language is somewhat easier to read than Chinese because of its existing alphabet, called Hangeul. It contains 24 consonants and vowels. The letters are grouped into blocks, such as guk 국. This syllable consists of three distinct letters: ㄱ= g , ㅜ = u , ㄱ= k (, g)
In South Korea, the language is most often called Hangungmal. However, in North Korea, they call it Chosŏnmal.
how to introduce yourself:
Common Surnames:
Chinese: Li, Wang, Yang, Wu, Chen
Japanese: Sato, Yoshida, Sasaki, Suzuki
Korean: Kim, Park, Lee, Young
A funny description on the characters:
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Mannerism
China ⟶ A simple and kind salutation and a handshake, with only a slide head nod are common. Eye contact, a smile and politeness are the most important thing when you start a conversation. It expresses sincerity. The Chinese greeting is actually pretty much the same as the way you greet people in the Western culture.
Japan ⟶ People greet each other by bowing to express appreciation and respect. The deeper the bow is, the more respect is shown towards the opposite person. How deep somebody bows depends on the situation. You give a slightly bow when passing by someone of a higher social status or exchanging a casual greeting. That kind of bow is called eshaku. The keirei bow is deeper than the eshaku and is usually used in business interactions. The saikeirei is at the same time the deepest and most polite bow, and it expresses feelings apology or deep gratitude.
Korea ⟶ The Korean greeting manners are similar to the Japanese. At this point I would simply like to show you this video because I think this girl has such a delightful and cheerful appearance! :D
MANNERS IN PUBLIC:
China ⟶ The Chinese do not have the cultural custom of quietness in public spaces. Therefore you will often see Chinese people laughing and raising their voices.
Japan/ Korea ⟶ Natives of both countries tend to behave quietly in public. In trains, for example, it is not polite to speak in a loudness that is audible and understandable. They even keep their laughter to a minimum.
EATING MANNERS:
China ⟶ A typical Chinese eating manner is that people in China usually sit around a table and share a large plate of food with each other. While it is rude to leave a part of the meal, it is impolite to take the last piece of food on the plate. Furthermore, not only is China the origin of the Japanese and Korean language, but it is the inventor of the chopsticks. The most interesting fact about their manners is that they have no manners! It is allowed to eat and drink noisily or to belch and leaving part of a meal is polite! :D
Japan ⟶ For Japanese it is common to say before every meal itadakimasu - I humbly receive and after the meal they say gochisousama - thank you for the good meal. Both words express appreciation for being able to eat foods and a person who cooks meals. Japanese hold the dish while eating and they even touch their lips on the soup-bowl.
It is impolite to eat or drink something while walking down the street.
Aaaaand….Always clean your plate! Japan is not in China!
Korea ⟶ In contrary with Japanese eating habits, in Korea it is not recommendable to touch your lips on the soup-bowl. Apart from that, they do not leave the table while eating.
While Japanese and Chinese only eat with chopstick, Koreans use both spoon and chopsticks.
TOWARDS FOREIGNERS:
China ⟶ Chinese people are really curious about foreigners. They often come up with questions such as ‘How old are you?’, ‘Which University do you attend?’ or ‘Are you married or planning to get married?’ and so on. In addition, Chinese like to compliment foreigners on their look or their pronunciation after they have said ni hao. Sometimes, it seems as if Chinese want to soft-soap foreigners, but actually they place importance on harmony and politeness, less on honesty. In our cases Chinese may do not lie when the say such things, because many Asians really fancy the Western look!
Japan, Korea⟶ Both countries generally seem to be less enthusiastic about foreigners. They even have more or less nationalistic tendencies. In opposition to North Korea and large parts in China, the Japanese and South Korean lifestyle is similar to the Western lifestyle, but they still avoid the contact to foreigners. Nevertheless, this kind of ignorance does not apply to all Japanese and Koreans! There will always be open-minded and frankly Japanese and Koreans who will appreciate people, no matter where they are from.
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Traditional Fashion
Each of you may have an idea how the Asian fashion looks like, but can you distinguish between Chinese, Japanese and Korean clothing, and do you even know how they are called? Actually, I did not know it. :D
Chinese Clothing = Hanfu
Japanese Clothing = Kimono
Korean Clothing = Hanbok
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Hanbok - Hanfu - Kimono
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Now, after you saw the slight differences in fashion, are you also able to say who is who? Here you see three average faces, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. First guess, then look above to the headline which is the right order!
For those who are interested and accurate in every detail :D
That just wraps it up today! I hope you are now more familiar with this topic.
zài jiàn 再见
sayonara さよなら
ahn nyeong hee ga se yo 안녕히 가세요
...or simply: GOOD BYE!
