한 – Han Meaning: A notion that is often considered to be unique to Korea, han is the collective feeling of sadness and oppression. It is a cultural concept that can be ascribed to the nation’s extensive history of attacks and invasions from other countries. Often difficult to translate, the Los Angeles Times describes han to be “as amorphous a notion as love or hate: intensely personal, yet carried around collectively, a national torch, a badge of suffering tempered by a sense of resiliency.”