To non-CJK language speakers: What do you think when you see my name written in Chinese characters?

[hongminhee@hollo.social]

To non-CJK language speakers: What do you think when you see my name written in Chinese characters?

[ryan@m29.us]

@hongminhee I'm not a CJK speaker, but every few years I re-learn Hangul, think "this is such a simple and logical writing system, I'm sure to remember this forever!", then promptly forget it since it doesn't have much daily utility.

I would have guessed your name was written in one of the Chinese systems, but it's definitely not Korean. :)

[hongminhee@hollo.social]

@ryan@m29.us You're not technically wrong! It's written in Chinese characters, but it's a very common way to write Korean names (we call it hanja). It's tricky because we mostly use hangul now. Good luck with your next round of hangul learning—it really is a logical system!

[ianthetechie@fosstodon.org]

@hongminhee trying to reconstruct my first recollection of seeing you online, I think I was initially confused because romanized the name sounded Korean but you didn’t write it in 한글, you aren’t 50+ years old, and you also had quite a few posts in Japanese at the time 😂

I never thought you were Chinese but I was definitely a bit confused as I’m not used to seeing Hanja names for anyone near my age.

[hongminhee@hollo.social]

@ianthetechie@fosstodon.org Haha, I guess I have an old soul vibe! 😂 You're right—it's definitely rare for my generation to use hanja as a display name. I just personally love the aesthetics and the history behind it. The Japanese posts definitely add another layer to the puzzle!

[3a29@gts.apicrim.es]

@hongminhee none of the above: its first instinct is that it is a Chinese name but then it corrects itself because it knows other languages and places use the same writing system, then it reads the romanized one, but makes no assumption about where you are from

[hongminhee@hollo.social]

@3a29@gts.apicrim.es That's a very logical and objective approach. I appreciate the careful consideration before making any assumptions!

[kai@ajin.la]

@hongminhee I have actually been meaning to ask you about this!

When I started to practice writing Chinese characters 8 years ago 😅, I had read that a Korean who couldn't read them would be considered illiterate.

When I met my friend Su, one of the first things I asked is the Hanja for his name. He said he had no idea and that my thinking was old fashioned. 😂

[hongminhee@hollo.social]

@kai@ajin.la Haha, your friend Su is right! Nowadays, many Koreans (especially the younger generations) don't use hanja in their daily lives, and some don't even know how to write their own names in hanja. I'm a bit of an outlier for displaying it on my profile—I just happen to like how it looks and the meaning it carries! 😊