Comprehensive Hangul from Zero, Part 1

Comprehensive Hangul from Zero, Part 1

 Hangul is the main writing system of Korea. It’s famous for being easy to learn and in many

linguistic circles is considered genius. Prior to its invention in the 15th century, Korean used

the same Chinese characters as China and Japan. Japanese and Chinese children spend a

significant part of the school years devoted to learning the often-complicated Chinese

characters, but hangul can be learned in a few days for an average adult.

Korean, unlike other languages like Chinese and Japanese, have alphabets.  There are 26 alphabets all together.  ㅂㅈㄷㄱㅅㅛㅑㅐㅔㅁㄴㅇㄹㅎㅗㅓㅏㅣㅋㅌㅊㅍㅠㅜㅡ

Like English they are separated into vowels and consonants.

Hangul characters are “built” using consonant and vowel parts. Using these individual parts over 12,000 characters can be constructed. Don’t worry about memorizing the chart on this page, it is mainly to be used as a reference. The next few lessons will gradually teach you how to read and write hangul. You will be pleasantly surprised as to how easily you learn it.

In this lesson we will focus on the first five consonants and five vowels only to get used to creating the characters. Writing with the correct stroke order will make your writing neater…………….. A as in father, EO as in awe, O as in boat, U as in Zoo, AE as in men.

When creating a hangul character you will always start with a consonant, and then follow it with a vowel. Let’s look at some simple consonant + vowel combinations:

There are standing (vertical) and laying (horizontal) vowels. Standing vowels always “stand” to the right of the consonant. Laying vowels always “lay” below the consonant.

Here we can see different Consonant and vowel combination. 

ㄱ can be pronounced like a G or a K. Typically at the beginning of a sentence or word you will hear ㄱ like a K, and if it is in the middle of a word it’s closer to a G. 

ㄹ can be pronounced like an R or an L. Typically at the beginning of a sentence you will hear ㄹ like a R and in the middle more like L.

As you learn Korean you will find that, depending on the word, the sound of ㄱ and ㄹ will shift. In many cases you just have to learn how that particular word is pronounced.

The sound difference between ㅓ and ㅗ

The sound for ㅓ doesn’t really exist in English so it might be hard to master. It is certainly one of the sounds that Korean people will ALWAYS correct you on. One technique to getting closer to the right sound is this trick: 

1. Shape your mouth as if you are going to say “AH” 

2. Now say the sound “OH”. It should feel as if the sound is coming from the back of your throat

With the first five consonants and vowels it’s possible to create 25 different hangul characters. To practice correct stroke order, first trace the light gray characters, then write each character six times. We will practice with 11 of the possible 25 characters.

Using just the hangul from this lesson, we can already write many Korean words.

Connect the dots between each hangul and the correct Romanization. You can check your answers in the Answer Key at the back of the book.

"Hangul" The Korean Writing System

Let's try to learn Hangul or the Korean Alphabet writing system in a very systematic and fun way. Here you will learn Hangul consonants, vowels and it's writing order and orientation. Let's start!

Vowels

The black is all the vowels and the blue green is all the diphthongs.

Now let's see the consonants

But right now let's just focus on the first five consonants and vowels. 

Vowelㅏ ㅓ ㅗ ㅜ ㅐ

Consonant ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ 

** Consonant and vowel to create simple Hangul **

When creating a hangul character you will always start with a consonant, and then follow it with a vowel. Let’s look at some simple consonant + vowel combinations: 

1.ㄱ + ㅏ = 가 Ka why not Ga?

2. ㄴ +ㅏ = 나 Na

3. ㄷ +ㅓ = 더 Doe ; ㄷ+ㅗ =도 Do

4. ㄹ +ㅜ = 루 Ru why not Lu?

       And so on...

* K/G - ㄱ can be pronounced like a G or a K. Typically at the beginning of a sentence or word you will hear  like a K, and if it is in the middle of a word it’s closer to a G.

 * L/U - ㄹ  can be pronounced like an R or an L. Typically at the beginning of a sentence you will hear  like a R and in the middle more like L.  As you learn Korean you will find that, depending on the word, the sound of and will shift. In many cases you just have to learn how that particular word is pronounced. 

** Writing order and orientation**

There are standing (vertical) and laying (horizontal) vowels. Standing vowels always “stand” to the right of the consonant. Laying vowels always “lay” below the consonant. 

This is the basic order and orientation! Another orientation you may want to learn in advance are these 4!

Now let's put it to work and learn few words that we can learn from CV combinations. Write the appropriate Hangul characters.  

1. All, everything - Da
2. Furniture- GaGu
3. Country - naRa
4. Who - NuGu
5. Older sister (said by males)- NuNa
6. Sand - MoRae
7. Dog - Gae

Writing practice is the key in memorizing Hangul characters. Take time to look for other words that you can learn.

 

Vision, Goals, Plans, and Accountability in Learning a Language

ESTABLISH A VISION

A vision is an idea of where you want to be down the road in the future. It is far beyond where you are now. It considers your resources (time, materials, and teachers). Here are some examples:

• Be able to speak The Language fluently
• Understand native speaker
• Be able to apply it in a professional level.

SET GOALS

A vision is exciting and it makes you feel good, but it isn't actionable. This is why it is vital to set inspired goals. For a goal to be helpful you need to know how to measure your progress over time. You need to set long-term goals and short-term goals. Here are some examples of long-term goals:

• To be effective in reading and writing
• Memorize 1000 common words and phrases
• Learn conversational grammar points

Even though you can measure these long-term goals, they're to big to accomplish in one sitting. Well-defined short-term goals are about what you have to accomplish in the language right now. Here are some examples

• Learn 7 words and 5 phrases if your going to practice how to explain the weather today.
• Spend 20 min. Watching short Korean drama clips just to get familiar with the voice tone and useful words.

CREATE AND EXECUTE PLANS

Specific plans to accomplish your goals include what, how, when, and where you will accomplish them. You will make plans for what you will do during formal language study time as well as what you will do throughout the day to improve your language. For example, if your goal is to memorize how to explain the weather today, your plans might include:

• Spend 15 minutes memorizing 7 words and 5 phrases during language study. Make a flash card.
• Carry the flashcard throughout the day. Review it during free time or while walking.

ACCOUNT FOR YOUR EFFORT

Accounting for your effort is vital to your growth in the language. This includes reporting your effort to someone you trust like your friend and family members. Most importantly ask yourself at the end of the day if you accomplish your goals, if not make necessary adjustments for tomorrow.