The aim of this study was to examine the difference of cultural meaning of color terms between Korean and Chinese, and then provide ever-increasing Chinese students who learning Korean with the educational strategy of Korean culture through Korean col...
The aim of this study was to examine the difference of cultural meaning of color terms between Korean and Chinese, and then provide ever-increasing Chinese students who learning Korean with the educational strategy of Korean culture through Korean color terms.
Since Korea and China belong to the same Chinese-character cultural area, they have a lot of common points. However, a color reflects different sociocultural aspects, therefore, its meaning is different as well. So education on colors must take this point into account. In this regard, the investigator compared the meaning of such five colors as black, yellow, red, blue, and white between Korean and Chinese, and then groped after a strategy of reflecting these cultural differences on language education.
In the Orient, black stands for darkness and is used as a negative and ominous meaning. Both Korean and Chinese people use this color as such negative meaning as wickedness, viciousness, wrongness, and ominousness. In addition, Chinese people use this as socially negative meaning, such as shame, dishonor, vanity, a false charge, and narcotics, whereas Korean people as 'an unrecognizable situation of which distance between two points or the interval of time is far great or unknown.
Yellow that stands for gold is used as something very precious and valuable in both countries. In China, yellow is cherished as the color of imperial dress. Besides, Koreans and Chinese use this color in indicating the world beyond, hopelessness, or sickly appearance. And with Western influence, both countries use this as warning and lasciviousness. On the other hand, modern Chinese uses this color not as 'noble' but as 'lascivious' in general, whereas modern Korean hardly uses this as such meanings. On the other hand, Korean uses this as standing for stinginess and this world.
Big difference between both countries is derived from the use of red and white. In general, both countries similarly use these two colors as expressing such physiological reaction as anger and shame, together with nakedness and emptiness like the skin under clothes. Regarding the red color that stands for communism, two countries are different in its political ideology, and Korea uses it negatively, whereas China as progress, revolution, and future-oriented meaning. In addition, China generally uses the red color in the event of marriage to express celebration, happiness, and pleasure.
As for white, Korea uses it as the symbol of the sun, expressing such positive meanings as cleanness and purity. However, China uses it as such negative meanings as gratuitousness, wickedness, trickiness, misery, and fruitlessness. Both countries are the same in that it is regarded as 'death'. China regards death as something ominous, but Korea as something that has the meaning of new beginning.
Regarding blue color, Korea uses both blue and green colors as 'blue', but China uses blue and black colors as 'blue', thus demonstrating biggest difference between both countries. And China has traditionally used blue color as the color of humble people's clothing, thus demonstrating the meaning of humbleness and disgrace, whereas Korea as being sharp and angry, like having a menacing look. However, two countries are the same in that it is used as the meaning of youth, vitality, and hope.
In the next chapter, the investigator presented an effective strategy of teaching Chinese students who learning Korean, the difference of meaning, on the basis of above study findings. This is not to have them acquire vocabularies, but learn Korean culture and emotion filled in those vocabularies.
In this vein, an educational strategy is presented as the most general stepwise flow of 'introduction ―presentation ―exercise/ utilization ―in depth supplement' in the teaching & learning model of Korean language. In the educational strategy of color term, such strategies as 'comparing language expressions', 'narrating firsthand experience', 'context-using education', 'writing an ', and 'guessing answers by means of pictures' are presented in order for students to understand Korean culture more easily with color term presented in the textbook
So far, a lot of studies on cultural education or vocabulary education have been carried out in the Korean language education, but studies on the education of color-related vocabulary and culture have been rare. Thus, this study is meaningful in that the color terms of Korean and Chinese is compared and then an educational strategy of teaching the difference of culture and vocabulary revealed in the color terms is groped after, centering on Chinese students who are learning Korean language. This study has focused only on the color terms of Korean and Chinese, but studies on the teaching strategy of a variety of countries, cultural aspects, and vocabularies must be carried out in the future in order for foreign students who learn Korean language to understand, learn Korean culture and language more easily.
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