Learning Basic Korean[Let'sLearnTogether]

Lesson 1

The first time I posted this lesson here, I was a beginner, like beginner-beginner, in learning Korean. I wanted to share what I was currently learning at that time. It was all new to me. The language felt, well, magical! It amazed me in many different ways. It still does until now, but I haven't been keeping up with my lessons.

So, I wanted to pick up where I left off. I will restart this book and hope that, along with me, you guys will also learn something.

Learning a second language, or it could be a third or fourth, isn't easy. Everything's new. The rules are confusing. The grammar is vastly different. It's difficult to pronounce the words. But, over time, if you persevere and keep moving forward, keep learning, you will get there. You will get to where you want. You will finally master the language; enough to allow you to speak it fluently. Or maybe, you just want to be able to converse freely with other speakers of the language. Oh! And there's also the learner's who, for example: Korean, who want to learn the language to understand their favorite idols (This is one of my reasons, btw, haha). Whatever reason you have, if you're willing to learn and do your best in it, then you will learn.

Anyway, enough with the talking and let's get to the learning.

Our first lesson is the Korean alphabet. I consider the alphabet, of any given language, as the very first step to learning it. This is the very basic - the foundation - step in learning a language.

The Korean alphabet, otherwise known as 한글 (Hangeul), has a total of 40 characters. Each of the 40 characters belong into four different categories; we have (1) basic vowels, (2) combined vowels, (3) consonants, and (4) double consonants.

Now, let's take a look at these characters.

Play the video (timestamp - 5 :13) above while you read the following part. 

First, we have the basic vowels:

ㅏ - a

ㅑ - ya

ㅓ - eo

ㅕ - yeo

ㅗ - o

ㅛ - yo

ㅜ - u

ㅠ - yu

ㅡ - eu

ㅣ - i

Second, we have the combined vowels:

ㅐ - ae

ㅒ - yae

ㅔ - e

ㅖ - ye

ㅚ - wi

ㅘ - wa

ㅙ - wae

ㅟ - wi

ㅝ - weo

ㅞ - we

ㅢ - eui

Third, we have the basic consonants:

ㄱ - g

ㄴ - n

ㄷ - d

ㄹ - r/l

ㅁ - m

ㅂ - b/p

ㅅ - s

ㅇ - no phonetic value (for now)

ㅈ - j

ㅊ - ch

ㅋ - k

ㅌ - t

ㅍ - p

ㅎ - h

And lastly, we have the double consonants:

ㅃ - b

ㅉ - j

ㄸ - t

ㄲ - k

ㅆ - s/sh

Let's backtrack a little bit and look at this character - ㅇ.

This has no phonetic value if we find this character in the beginning of a word.

Example:

어머니 (we read this as eo - meo - ni, meaning mother)

Take note, that the sound we pronounce first is, ㅓ (eo). Not this - ㅇ.

However, if we look at the word:

식당 (meaning restaurant)

Notice that - ㅇ - is at the end of the second syllable, 당. In this situation, ㅇ now has a phonetic value - ng. So, we read this word, 식당, as sikttang.

That is it for this lesson. I hope you found this helpful. The video above is from seemile korean on YouTube. Their videos have been very helpful to me, especially Jenny's Korean Mastering Class In a Month (that's the playlist name, including the video above). You can go check their channel, seemile korean, it's great if you want to hear what the language sounds like. I, hundred percent, recommend it.

Thank you guys for stopping by and hope you had fun learning! Bye. See you next update.