Learn Korean Language

Part 1

Is Korean Difficult?

Although Korean might be ranked as one of the more difficult languages to learn by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), it is by no means impossible. In fact, compared to Japanese and Chinese, Korean has some huge advantages that make it easy to learn. Let’s find out more about these.

Why the Korean Alphabet is Easy to Learn

The first step in learning the Korean language is becoming familiar with the Korean alphabet, as it’s likely considerably different from the other languages you’re familiar with. When first seeing the Korean alphabet, many people assume that it is just a bunch of squiggles and that it is as impenetrable as learning the thousands of Chinese characters that students of Mandarin face. Believe it or not, this causes some learners to give up before they even start!

While there are ways of learning Chinese and Japanese characters quickly, the Korean alphabet is nothing like Chinese characters. It is far easier to learn than even the Japanese ‘script’ alphabets of Katakana or Hiragana, and maybe even Cyrillic. The reason for this goes back centuries and lies in its origin.

Unlike other alphabets that grew organically, Hangul, the Korean alphabet, was invented. Not only was it invented, but it was made with the specific purpose of being easy to learn and use. Basically, it’s almost impossible to design a simpler writing system than Hangul that would still work with the Korean language.

It is said that “a wise man can acquaint himself with them [the alphabet] before morning is over; a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days.” The truth is that using modern learning techniques, anybody can learn Hangul in just ninety minutes.

Think about that for a second – this language was constructed with language learners in mind! Hangul exists not to confuse and intimidate learners, but rather to give them the quickest access to Korean culture possible. The alphabet itself is not intimidating at all – the only intimidating part is the initial unfamiliarity you can get past in less than ninety minutes.

With only twenty-four letters in the Korean alphabet, it doesn’t take long to learn. Equally, while some writing systems look impossible to scribe, Korean is easy. One of the letters is a circle, one is a square, and two are literally straight lines!

Hangul has another huge advantage over Chinese characters in that it is phonetic. Even if many Chinese characters may have phonetic elementsto them, Korean is entirely phonetic. There aren’t hidden sounds or pronunciations that new learners are expected to know right off the bat. In fact, it has this advantage over the Latin alphabet too. For example, if you are an American travelling to the U.K. and you come across a sign saying ‘Leicester’. You may well assume that this is read ‘Lie-kest-er’ when it is in fact pronounced ‘Lester’.

There are countless examples of this in English and in the Romance Languages. For example, there are many different ways to pronounce ‘ough’ in English. The differences in spelling and pronunciation can make it difficult to put two-and-two together. Yet, you are fluently reading English right now, despite the tricky spelling and pronunciation that comes with the territory.

If you can read Hangul, then it is very rare that you will have similar problems with pronunciation. When pronouncing a Korean place or name, there are only a handful of situations where the pronunciation isn’t exactly the same as how the word is written. Luckily, you can easily learn these exceptions in no time!

That’s why it’s easy to connect written and spoken Korean. For example, if you hear somebody talking about going to an ‘an-gwa’ then you might remember that word when you are walking down the street and see a sign saying ‘안과’ above a shop selling spectacles. The link between the sound and the written word makes it easier to remember these new words. After you become familiar with the characters in the language, acquiring new Korean words will happen in no time!