I am quite curious about modern Korean religious beliefs.
Morningcalm have you any idea how religion is treated in Korea(or maybe South Korea to be acturate). Which religion do Koreans follow? Buddhism Taoism Confucism or others?
Religion is still quite widespread, and I would say on the whole Koreans are spiritual, though not necessarily religious. Buddhism is very popular, as is Christianity. Confucianist attitudes still govern some of the cultural norms in Korea, esp. with regard to the hierarchical structure of various white-collar work institutions. That said, Korea is nothing if not ambitious, and it's become quite its own creature religiously.
Very entertaining read. Thanks for teaching me so much about Korean history. It's always entertaining to talk to patriotic people. Btw: Was patriotism invented by Koreans too?
What I did, btw. is give my first thought to your remarks. What you (successfully) did is pointing out that there are other birds than sparrow, crow and duck. Lots of birds. And I am sure the number of different species even surpasses the number of countries and/or civilizations that COULD be included in a video game.
Patriotism wasn't invented by Koreans. There's more reason to believe it was invented by the West as a term, as it is, last I checked, an English word.
Of course there are many birds in the sky. Each is worth their own, and I would say that for such a small bird, Korea flies quite high, as it's among the "four tigers" of Asia.
Yes, I lived in South Korea for 6 years and am somewhat well versed in the language and history. Certainly not an expert by any means anyway.
Roh Moo Yung was an awful president. He bent over backwards for North Korea.
I never claimed that Yi Soon Shin invented the turtle ships. I merely was saying that the design for armoured ships was being used in China and Japan around that time. There is absolutely no evidence that Korea was first anyway.
As far as metal type goes I wouldn't exactly call it an invention. It was certainly an improvement on existing technology though. I dislike hearing some Koreans saying that Koreans invented the printing press as that is untrue.
As for Americans killing Korean civilians, many Korean civilians were also killed by Koreans. You might also want to look at the war atrocities committed by South Koreans in Vietnam.
Agreed on Roh. That said it's a bit odd people know of the truly brutal leaders more than the peaceable leaders. More foreigners know Kim Jong Il than Sejong.
I never claimed that you claimed Yi Sunshin invented them, either, but I did point out that the Japanese ships that were armored that you talked about were probably around the 16th century, which was the time of the Imjin Wars. You are talking about atakabune, right? Not sure about Chinese armored ships, though. If you point out a name, I'll look it up!
But anyhoo, I mentioned that Yi Sunshin didn't invent them to point out the Turtle Ships were invented many years before the date most associate with their invention. Just in case that was where you got the Chinese/Japanese armored ship dates from.
Well, metal printing type is as much an invention as the typewriter was. Sure , one could argue the fine points and say it's more an innovation than an invention--but to invent means to "originate or create as a product of one's own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance," (according to dictionary.com), and I do believe metal printing type was new at the time, and created by Korean ingenuity.
Yes, Korean soldiers I'm sure committed atrocities too. I was merely pointing out one reason why some Koreans seem to resent Americans so much in contemporary times, and by extension why they have difficulty acknowledging American aid for S. Korea.
6 years is quite a while! Hope you enjoyed your time in Korea, and weren't looked at nastily by xenophobes. Fortunately, Korea (or at least Seoul) is more international than it used to be, so Koreans I think are coming to a slow realization foreigners are necessary and beneficial in some categories. The government seems to think so, anyway (hence new legislation on hiring foreign "experts").
I, also Korean, very much understand your hope for Korea being an independant Civ. However, actually taking a negative stance against other "Civilizations" to promote another is actually spitting in your face. (Many people will probably just wave this thread away, but it will do more harm than good)
Every nation, culture and Civilization have its own unique points. Although it might be possible to make an argument that one is better than another, that kind of stance is exactly what creates Hitler or Hirohito.
And one more thing. People out there defending North Korea, are you serious. What? North Korea is not starving? Loving your country and saying "pants on fire" political statements without facts is self inflicting damage.
Agreed, 100%. Some Koreans feel the need to degrade other countries' achievements in the name of patriotism, which can only serve to cause further rifts in the Far East. As the rifts are big already, there's no need to widen the maws of hatred further.
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At least according to maps at Wikipedia Mongols dominated whole far east (BTW I also thought that everything from China and below to east from India is SE Asia) and much of what is now CIS (the new cool name for Russian dominated world, conviniently excludes Baltic States, which apparently were never part of Mongol Empire). So they happened to cover more territory than the largest modern country, in fact they might very well be the largest empire that has ever existed.
