中韩红绿颜色词文化意义对比及其教学启示

Abstract

As the cultural circle of Chinese characters, China and South Korea share many similarities in their traditional cultures influenced by Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. However, with the development of Society, language and culture, there are many differences in the meanings of specific words in Chinese and Korean. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations in 1992, "Han style(汉风)" has become popular in South Korea, and "South Korean trend(韩流)" has also arrived in China. As a result, "education craze" of the second foreign language emerged in both countries. In foreign language teaching, cultural contrast is the most eye-catching, and the cultural meaning of color words has become a difficulty in teaching. Thus, choosing the most commonly used red and green colour words in the teaching of Korean and Chinese as the object of study, this paper compares the similarities and differences in cultural connotations of red and green colour words in two countries, and explores the educational significance of red and green colour words. Therefore, the difference between Chinese and Korean red words is that 'red' in Chinese has the meaning of jealousy, success, smooth, rising, loyalty, etc. while ‘red’ in Korean has the meaning of lies. Green in Chinese is used to describe lowliness, betrayal and worry, while green in Korean is a symbol of peace, youth, public welfare, sharpness, power and position, which are produced by different cultures. Hence, taking red and green colour word as an example in teaching can improve students' imagination and comparative analysis of red and green colour words in the two countries can help understand the cultural differences between China and South Korea and cultivate the sense of national confidence.