Script guide › East Asian
Chinese (Mandarin) vs Korean (Hangul)
Chinese (Mandarin) and Korean (Hangul) sit in the same corner of the writing-system map — Grafle's East Asian group — and players mix them up constantly. Here's the fastest way to tell them apart.
The tell
Korean is built from circles and straight lines in tidy syllable blocks; Chinese characters are dense with no circles.
Side by side
Chinese (Mandarin)
人人生而自由，在尊严和权利上一律平等。
你好，很高兴认识你。
学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆。
Chinese (Mandarin)'s own tells
- Only dense, square characters — no simple curvy letters mixed in anywhere.
On signs in:
- China
- Taiwan
- Singapore
Korean (Hangul)
모든 인간은 태어날 때부터 자유롭고 평등하다.
안녕하세요, 만나서 반갑습니다.
한국어는 아름다운 언어입니다.
Korean (Hangul)'s own tells
- Circles and ovals (ㅇ) inside neat syllable blocks — circles mean Korean.
On signs in:
- South Korea
- North Korea