Why the Korean days of the week came from Latin | Korean FAQ

When I was a beginner, I learned the days of the week as everyone else – 일요일, 월요일, 화요일, 수요일, 목요일, 금요일, and 토요일. But I quickly noticed something interesting, like many people; I noticed they seemed to each start with some element.

일 “Sun”

월 “Moon”

화 “Fire”

수 “Water”

목 “Wood”

금 “Gold”

토 “Dirt”

So like anyone else, I concluded that the names of the weekdays must have been based on different elements, and that was that. Right? Well, there’s actually a completely different reason for this, and it has to do with the Romans and Latin.

In this video I explain how old weekday names from Latin came into Korean, and how those changed and that Korea uses those today.