Friday, September 16, 2011

The Korean Alphabet

After sharing my plans to teach in Korea, quite a few people asked me, if I knew any Korean - or if I started learning it. When I responded 'no' nonchalantly, they either gave me a look of disbelief or a "Oh, you think you're such a smart bitch, huh?" smug kind of look.

I don't believe to be any smarter than the next person either. 

My language school told me not to worry about learning Korean in a rush, because they would teach me Korean free of charge. 

So. 

I haven't worried about it too much.

I tried to explain to everyone that many Koreans in Seoul already speak English. This includes the ones that I'll teach at the language school. The ones who don't know much English? I have been trained with online modules on how to communicate through hand gestures, expressions, and word(s) like, 'very good' and 'excellent.'

I mean....it's not like these people don't know a lick of English, and that's why they hire us to go over there and teach them. They hire us to become entirely fluent.

Sad to say it! But unlike our country, Koreans value education. It's very important to them to succeed in their professional careers. And well. In order to be successful, they understand the importance of learning what is considered a global language.

In a effort to get myself prepared for learning Korean. I started memorizing Hangul which is the Korean alphabet.

What I am hearing from others is that the Korean alphabet is very easy to learn. And get this! It could take only 35 minutes to learn. 

Ha! 

But not me. 

I spend way too much time analyzing each character and then comparing them to the others. Time never works in my favor....always against me.
 
The next tip I learned about learning Korean? 

I should learn how to read it first. There is suppose to be a scientific way of writing that helps you learn it quickly. 

Oh, and a perfectly good reason why I am memorizing and writing these characters down everyday?

If you don't learn the writing, then you’ll have a hard time pronouncing things correctly.

That's all I needed to hear to get the ball rolling!

*cracks knuckles

I thought it might be interesting to share some of what I learned so far.

Like the fact that Hangul is an alphabetic syllabary. Have no idea what that means? In plain English, it means there is a character for each sound. Only they are put together in syllabic units. Each syllabic unit forms a character in itself. 
Example: the name [Dan] in English, in Korean format would be written like this: .

There are four possible spots for letters in Korean. 

In the diagram below: 


C means consonant, and V means vowel.  There must always be something in the first C position and the V position, but the C positions on the bottom are always optional:

See how it's like a math/scientific equation that can be plugged in easily?

Hangul has 14 consonants, 5 double consonants, and 10 vowels.


The letters are grouped into syllable blocks containing an initial consonant (which may be silent or double), one or two vowels (below or to the right), and sometimes a final consonant (below). 

Just like I mentioned in the diagram:


  
Here is an example of some Korean words grouped together:


If you look closely at them. You can break down each symbol and identify it in the alphabet. 

Going back and forth between the words and the alphabet, makes me feel like I'm deciphering codes!
This is all I learned thus far. Once I master writing them down and remembering the English equivalent. I will work on pronouncing each syllable.

Good day.

No comments:

Post a Comment