As many answered before me, the answer is “NO”.
First, Kanji is “Chinese Characters” in JAPANESE, NOT Korean. Korean calls this “한자” (漢字) /han ja/ which is the exact same Chinese character as Kanji, they also call it “한문” (漢文) /han moon/ which is “Classical Chinese Characters”.
It WAS mandatory from the older generation. Currently, taking Hanja class is like taking Latin class in the U.S. which it’s a “hit-or-miss” situation. I know countless Americans who either took Latin class or never took it at all.
The purpose and concept of Hanja are very similar to Latin class: to sharpen and enhance vocabulary skills + understandings.
Example:
I learn the word “ambi-” from Latin class, which means “both” or “around”, here are a couple of words that use “ambi-”
- ambition - “both” + “the action/ result of (a verb)”
- ambidextrous - “both” + “handed”
- ambiguous - “both” + “to drive/ move”
Hanja works exactly like this concept.
The red font in the image is “eum-dok” (음독: 音讀) which is “on’yomi” (音読み) in Japanese. English: “Phonetic Reading”
The black font next to the red font (on the left) is “hun-dok” (훈독: 訓讀) which is “kun’yomi” (訓読み) in Japanese. English: “Semantic Reading”
To those who are learning Korean, this is a very advanced level of Korean, well beyond the basic and even early intermediate Korean level.
I used this book to self-study Hanja and would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in studying Korean Hanja since Hanja isn’t very common nowadays especially towards natives. So if you have great knowledge about Hanja, this will indeed impress many native Koreans.
To your benefit, I will say that this will give a better angle and provide the reason why certain Korean word(s) means.
* Also, the Hanja is Traditional Characters (繁體字) or Kyūjitai (旧字体) in Japanese, NOT Simplified Characters (简化字) which will be an advantage to those who are Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Macau, and some Overseas Chinese communities (Southeast Asia such as Singapore and Malaysia would occasionally) since the written stroke order is exactly the same.
I hope that this helps.