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!