Checkpoint 1

You've learned consonants, vowels, and how to read syllables. Now, lets start reading words with more than one syllable.


Remember, read
1.top, left to right
2. bottom, left to right.

1. 멕시코 =
2. 아르헨티나 =
3. 칠레 =
4. 잉글랜드 =
5. 캐나다 =


Answers:
1. 멕시코 =
ㅁ(m)+ㅔ(eh)+ㄱ(k)+ㅅ(s)+ㅣ(ee)+ㅋ(k)+ㅗ(o)= Mehkseeko (Mexico)
2. 아르헨티나 =
ㅇ(silent)+ㅏ(ah)+ㄹ(r) +ㅡ (eu)+ㅎ(h)+ ㅔ(eh)+ ㄴ(n)+ ㅌ(t)+ ㅣ(ee)+ ㄴ(n)+ ㅏ(ah)= Areuhentina (Argentina)
3. 칠레 =
ㅊ(ch)+ㅣ(ee)+ㄹ(r/l)+ㄹ(r/l)+ㅔ(eh)= Chille (Chile)
4. 잉글랜드 =
ㅇ(silent)+ㅣ(ee)+ㅇ(ng)+ ㄱ(k)+ㅡ(eu)+ㄹ(r/l)+ㅐ(ae)+ㄴ(n)+ㄷ(d)+ㅡ(eu)= Inggeullendeu (England)
5. 캐나다 =
ㅋ(k)+ㅐ(ae)+ㄴ (n)+ㅏ(a)+ㄷ(d)+ㅏ(a)= Kaenada (Canada)

Now to the following 5 all on your own:
1. 에콰도르 =
2. 나미비아 =
3. 바나나 =
4. 리마 =
5. 이란 = 

How well did you do? Could you read them all? If you couldn't, don't worry! All you need to do is keep on practicing and you'll be great!

Reading Hangeul

Here's where it starts to get tricky, BUT DON'T WORRY! I'm going to try and explain this as best as I can with the help of the "Korean Language Guide- Learn Korean: LP's Korean Language Learning" by Luke Park.

Words written in Hangeul are made of 'characters'. There are two rules to make a character. 

1.Consonant + Vowel = Character

2.Consonant + Vowel + Final consonant = Character

Each character is made inside one "box". Here we have nine different ways the letters can be organized inside of a 'box' to create a character. Each 'block' inside the box is a letter, where C represents a consonant, V represents a vowel, FC  represents a final consonant, and FC1 & FC2 represent two final consonants together.

Notice that both 'rules' to make a character are applied in the picture above. Row one follows the first rule and row two and three follow the second rule. 

So how do you read the characters?

You read the C first, then the V (if there's more than one V ALWAYS read the V1 first and then V2) and finally the FC (if there's more than one FC ALWAYS read the FC1 first and then FC2). 

Let's practice now.

From box one:
나:ᄂ(n) +ㅏ(ah) = 나(nah)

From box two:
소:ㅅ (s)+ ㅗ (oh) = 소 (soh)

From box three:
되: ㄷ (d) + ㅗ (oh) + ㅣ(ee) = 되 (doe)

From box four:
정: ㅈ (j) + ㅓ(eo) + ㅇ (ng) = 정 (jeong)

From box five:
송: ㅅ (s) + ㅗ (oh) + ㅇ (ng) = 송 (song)

From box six:
왕: ㅇ (silent) + ㅗ (oh) + ㅏ(ah) + ㅇ (ng)= 왕 (wang)

From box seven:
삵: ㅅ (s) + ㅏ(ah) + ㄹ (r) + ㄱ (k)= 삵 (sak) *NOTE WHEN ㄹ + ㄱ ARE FINAL CONSONANTS ONLY THE ㄱ IS PRONOUNCED*

From box eight:
솞: ㅅ (s) + ㅗ (oh) + ㅂ (b) + ㅅ (s) = 솞 (sob) *NOTE WHEN ㅂ + ㅅ ARE FINAL CONSONANTS ONLY THE ㅂ IS PRONOUNCED*

From box nine:
곿: ㄱ (k) + ㅗ (oh) + ㅏ(ah) + ㄱ (k) + ㅅ (s) = 곿 (kwak) *NOTE WHEN ㄱ + ㅅ ARE FINAL CONSONANTS ONLY THE ㄱ IS PRONOUNCED*

Hangeul-Vowels

LET'S LEARN HANEGUL (한글)! PART 2

So, you've practiced the consonant letters already, right? If you haven't, check out part one of Let's Learn Hangeul! After this lesson you will be able to identify the vowels and get ready to read simple words in Hangeul.

Hangeul has 10 'basic' vowels, then there are modifications to these vowels to create different sounds- since the structure of the vowel is the same, and there's only one stroke added they're not considered new letters. You'll understand what I mean in a minute.

LET'S START!


VOWELS- English letters cannot accurately represent Korean letters, but the sound of English letters can help give you an idea of the real sounds. 

ㅏ-ah 

ㅓ-eo 

ㅗ-oh

ㅜ-oo (as in moon)

ㅡ-eu 

ㅣ-ee

ㅑ-yah

ㅕ-yeo

ㅛ-yo 

ㅠ-yoo

The following are the ones I was talking about earlier, they just have an additional stroke: 

ㅐ- ae 

ㅔ-eh 

ㅒ-yae 

ㅖ-yeh

AND NOW- we have the 'combined vowels'. They're exactly what their name describes, a combination of vowels to create a sound. These are NOT new vowels, they're vowels mentioned above but learning the combinations will make it easier and faster for you to read Hangeul. 

I will show you in form of an equation which vowels are combined, how they look together and how they sound.

COMBINED VOWELS

ㅗ+ㅏ=ㅘ (oh+ah = wah)

ㅗ+ㅐ=ㅙ (oh+ae=wae)

ㅜ+ㅓ=ㅝ (oo+eo=wuh)

ㅜ+ㅔ=ㅞ (oo+eh=weh)

ㅗ+ㅣ=ㅚ(oh+ ee=weh)

ㅜ+ㅣ=ㅟ (oo+ee=wee)

ㅡ+ㅣ=ㅢ (eu+ee=uee)

FYI: Hangeul

Hangeul (한글) is the name of the Korean alphabet- meaning 'Korean Script' or 'Great Script'. This alphabet is officially used in South Korea, North Korea and 'co-officially' used in the Yaniban Korean Autonomous Prefecture in the Jilin Province of China.

Hangeul has 24 letters, 14 consonants and 10 vowels.

The alphabet was made during the ruling of Sejong the Great (1418) , from the Joseon Dynasty but it was not finished until the year 1444.

  

(The letters say: Sejong (세종)Daewang (대왕) [shortened name from the official title]- interesting fact '대' means 'greatness' and '왕' means king- so the name would be Sejong The Great King)

There's a day to celebrate Hangeul in South Korea- October 9th and in North Korea- January 15 (named Chosongui Day).

The reason why Hangeul was invented is because before Hangeul people would use hanja (or Chinese characters) to write Korean. Since only wealthy people were able to understand and write hanja and since Korean pronounciation was different to the Chinese, there was a need to create an alphabet the Korean population could use.

There's a document explaining how Hangeul was made, the rules and examples called Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye which allegedly says 'A wise man can acquaint himself with them [Hangeul letters] before the morning is over; a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days'.

The tenth king, though, decided to ban Hangeul documents and prohibited the study of the alphabet during the early 1500's, until 1894 when the alphabet was allowed for official documents. BUT it wasn't until after the Koreas' independence from Japan that Hangeul was officially used in North and South Korea as the official script of the Korean language.

Hangeul- Consonants

LET'S LEARN HANEGUL (한글)! PART 1

Hangeul (한글) is the name of the Korean alphabet, it has 24 letters that are divided into consonants and vowels. To learn proper Korean it is extremely important for you to learn how to read Hangeul (한글) instead of reading Romanization (conversion of writing from a writing system to Roman script -the letters that you are now reading).


LET'S START!

Just like English, Hangeul has consonants and vowels.

CONSONANTS- English letters cannot accurately represent Korean letters, but the sound of English letters can help give you an idea of the real sounds. 

Just like the pronunciation of the letters in English changes depending on their position, Korean letters do the same thing. 

The following table shows the letters, their name and their pronunciation according to where they're placed.

*More like an in between sound between T and D. 

**The sound is a strong J or an sound between J and CH. If you try to say the 'J' while pushing air out of your mouth it would have kind of the same sound.

------

Once you've practiced those, I want to introduce you to what I call paired consonants. What are those? Paired consonants are consonants that repeat themselves (so you write them twice) but they count as one letter.

Only 5 consonants have a 'paired consonant'. Those are:

ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅈ

And this is what they look like 'paired':

ㄲ,ㄸ,ㅃ,ㅆ,ㅉ

This is how you pronounce them:
ㄲ= Gone
ㄸ=Date
ㅃ=Bird
ㅆ=Sober
ㅉ=Jim

Go ahead and practice 'reading' those. Memorize the way they look and the sound. Practice, practice, practice.

5 Reasons

Learning new things can be scary and will certainly be challenging. This is specially true when learning a language. You might be frustrated with Korean, maybe because the alphabet is one of a kind, or because the structure of the sentences are different, perhaps you'll be confused with honorifics, formal and informal speech.

Sometimes you might feel like you're not advancing and might want to give up.

STOP RIGHT THERE! 

Here are some reasons why you should continue your journey to learning Korean:

1. Learning the alphabet is really simple. You might learn the alphabet in one or two hours, because the letters are not that many. 
2. Korean grammar is pretty simple. All you need to do is practice!
3. For English and Spanish speakers, Korean phonetics are pretty simple! There are no weird noises you're not used to. 
4. Some words are made up of simple words + syllables. This means that you can learn simple words that make up other words, that way you might not understand the complicated words but you can start relating with the meanings you already know! 
5. The internet is your friend! There are hundreds of online books, audio-files, blogs, videos, flashcards, games, and more material that will help you learn in a fun and interactive way! 

What are YOUR reasons to learn Korean and not give up?