Let's Learn KOREAN

Lesson #1 : Hangul

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Koreans use their own unique alphabet called Hangul. It is considered to be one of the most efficient alphabets in the world and has garnered unanimous praise from language experts for its scientific design and excellence.

Hangul, the phonetic Korean alphabet, was created as a simplification of the complex Chinese writing system. It was devised under King Sejong in 1446 to aid commoners and the poor who had no ability to read or write complex Chinese characters.

Hangul consists of 40 letters, many of which are compounded forms of the simpler ones. It is read from left to right and from top to bottom. All character shapes are scientific in design as they are mnemonic representations of the various tounge, palate, throat, and teeth positions used. Because of it's simplicity, you can easily memorize the entire Korean alphabet in a week or less.

● Vowels (mo-eum 모음)

● Consonants (ja-eum 자음)

When ㄱ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅂ are found directly before a vowel, they are Romanized as g, d, r, b.
When ㄱ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅂ are found directly before a consonant, they should be Romanized as k, t, r, p.

When ㅅ (s) is followed directly by ㅣ(i) , it should be Romanized as shi.
Example: 다시 (again) it would be dashi.

To avoid confusion of syllables, a hyphen can be used.
Example: 후에 (after) it would be hu-e.

● Double Consonants (Ssang-ja-eum 쌍자음)

• Double Vowels (Ssang-mo-eum 쌍모음)

Ssang (jae-eum & mo-eum) are pronounced with a longer and higher pitch sound as you would expect.

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That's all for today!
See you in my next class.