Origin of nationalities in East Asia

[ovidiu]

My ethnically Chinese friend was trying to tell me that at one point Korean and Japanese people were all Han Chinese, and that their languages are basically a derivative of it. This goes against everything I knew about them being their own branches, or possibly linked distantly to Altaic. I thought he meant merely the writing system and many aspects of their culture but he was arguing for an actual Chinese origin in general. Oddly, several of my other friends, who are not altogether ignorant people, agreed with this opinion independently.

Obviously I would never tell that to a Korean or Japanese person as they certainly wouldn't take it well. Is there any merit to this idea? What was this guy talking about? He really isn't a nationalist at all though, and has often denounced China since moving away and doesn't have a high opinion of it. So that's odd

[Marmara]

Lol this is obviously not true. One could claim Chinese is derived from Japanese. In reality these languages aren't related.