Content

• To step
• Tips
• Warnings

At first glance, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters may look very similar. Fortunately, there are differences between all three that can help you. All three languages ​​have characters that are unfamiliar to Western readers, but don't let this intimidate you. With these steps, you can be a lot more confident about which of the three languages ​​you have in front of you.

To step

1. Look for circles and ovals. Korean uses a phonetic alphabet called Hangul, which can be recognized by the many circles, ovals and straight lines (example: 안녕하세요). If the text you are reading has these distinctive rounded shapes, chances are it is Korean. If not, skip to step 2.
2. Look for simple characters. The Japanese script has three components: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana are based on syllables, while kanji are derived from Chinese characters. Many Hiragana characters are curved, but they lack the neat curves of Korean (eg さ っ か). Katakana mainly uses straight or slightly curved lines in relatively simple combinations (eg チ ェ ン ジ). Chinese and Korean do not use either of these two systems. Keep in mind that Japanese script uses a combination of Hiragana, Katakana, and kanji in the same text. So if you see Hiragana, Katakana, or both, you know you are looking at a Japanese text. In the bottom left are complete lists of the characters of Hiragana and Katakana.
   • Commonly used Hiragana: あ, お, ん, の, か
   • Commonly used Katakana: ア, リ, エ, ガ, ト
3. If you don't see the recognizable shapes of Korean Hangul or Japanese Hiragana or Katakana, you probably have Chinese in front of you. The Chinese script uses complicated characters called Hanzi in Chinese, kanji in Japanese, and Hanja in Korean. Although these characters can also be found in the Japanese script, you can check if it is Japanese by searching for Hiragana or Katakana. So if you look at a small piece of text with only complicated Hanzi characters, you cannot rule out that it is Japanese after all. However, if you look at a large piece of text without Hiragana or Katakana, you can almost be sure that it is Chinese.

Tips

• Korean characters don't always have circles. The circle is simply one of their "letters".
• In some Old Korean books you may still find some Hanja (Chinese Hanzi that was used in the past), but this is quite rare and is now not widely used. Still applies: if you see Hangul it is Korean.
• Hiragana are often curved and without sharp turns, while Katakana are more straightforward and neat.
• Korean Hangul is not derived from Chinese Hanzi, so it differs more from Chinese script than Japanese script (since the Japanese kana are derived from Chinese characters).
• Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet and is therefore very easy to distinguish.
• Keep in mind that while Japanese borrows (and uses) certain Chinese characters, if you see Hiragana or Katakana it is Japanese anyway.
• Most Chinese Hanzi are quite complex (for example: 語) and look more cryptic than syllabic characters like Hiragana or Hangul. Simplified Chinese does, however, use simpler characters.
• Korean uses spaces between words, Vietnamese uses spaces between syllables, and Thai uses spaces between sentences. Japanese and Chinese do not use spaces.
• A set of letters in Korean is called a "block". For example, 타 is a block.

Warnings

• If you don't see Hiragana or Katakana, this is no guarantee that it is Chinese. It's probably not Japanese though. There is a good chance that it is indeed Chinese, but there are rare exceptions.