just another blog about how to speak korean

Today we gonna take a look at the korean alphabet, also called 한글

First of all, here are some facts~

Information

King 세종 developed the korean alphabet around 1443 for citizien. There is a public holiday 한글날 ->the day of hangul at the 9th october.

Hangul is the main writing system of korea but there is also hanja which are 5000 chinese and about 2000 japanese signs, Koreans have to learn around 1,800 chinese signs in school.

Hangul has about 40 letters and over 12,000 possible combinations. 

There is no way to learn korean without hangul. I will write the romanization in the next few entries but you really have to read and write without roman letters. From time to time I won’t write roman letters anymore, fine?

So write some letters on a paper when you are bored to learn hangul fast.. lol

1. “easy” consonants

Note: You may be confused why ㄱ (and the others)can be k and g. Accept it for a second. An explanation will be at the end of this post:D

2. “easy” vowels

Since this is the internet and I cannot tell you in person how to spell the letters here are two ‘alphabet songs’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E0A6oYvTpA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VIrBnxaYUI

[Source: http://www.antiquealive.com/Blogs/Hangeul_Korean_Alphabet.html]

Also you have to know how to write it correctly.. I teached myself how to write hangul with the WriteIt! Korean app but I searched the internet for you~

Note: There are letters I didn’t show yet. the aspirated consonants and y-vowels, also the double consonants and the w-vowels I will show you later.[but lets do everything step by step~ ]

How to write 

Hangul characters are built using the vowels and consonants you have read before.

[Source: http://easykorean.edsoftapps.com/learn-structure-of-hangul/]

As smart as you are, you already noticed something in this graphic right? 

1 and 4 uses vertical vowels

2 and 3 uses horizontal vowels.

While 

1 and 2 use two consonants and one vowel

3 and 4 use one consonant and one vowel

Deeper explanation 

the word human 사람 contains two syllable blocks. 사 and 람

사 is built with a consonantal initial sound and vocal final sound

삼 is built with a consonantal inital sound, vocal medial and a consonantal final sound.

Attention:

a (ㅏ) cannot be written alone. there is always a consonant needed. But what now? You write 아 instead of ㅏ.ㅇgets a blank value. 

the vowels still mean the same but also comply with the writting system. 아, 어, 이,애,야,우,유,으

Some rules of spelling:

Consonants are spelled different by their phonetic surroundings.

for example 

사(sa) - 시소 (shiso)

 사심 (saram) - 리면 (ramyeon) [the r in ramyeon is without vibration of the apical l or r]

From vowels surrounded:

Remember the consonants graphic?

[k]/[g] - 가기 - Kagi

[p]/[b] - 바보 - Pabo

[t]/[d] - 도둑 - Toduk 

[ch]/[j] - 자주 - chaju

Personal Note: I noticed that the post got like.. really long.. and i am just halfway through lol.. So I think this will be enough for today and I will write the second part (the y-vowels etc also some vocabulary)

So my teacher decided not to learn hangûl at the first day.

Instead we learned basic introduction and stuff.

Note:

The words in {} are the transcription (how to spell it) in my language which is german but I think you will be fine in any language you speak

1. Greeting

안녕하세요 {annyông haseyo) - hello! Good morning...

Actually means 'may the peace with you' - annyông means peace. Also it doesn't depend on the time when you say 안녕하세요. It means good morning, good evening and hello.

2. Farewell

• 안녕히가세요 {annyônghi kaseyo} - Good bye!

Actually means 'Go in peace'. You say that when someone leaves first but you stay. For example you are meeting a friend at a cafe but he leaves first and you stay. So you say 안녕히가세요.

• 안녕히계세요 {annyônghi keseyo} - Good bye

Actually means 'stay in peace'. So you are the friend now who leaves first (from the café example) You say 안녕히계세요.

3. To thank

• 감사합니다 {kamsa ham-nida} - thank you [sinokorean]

Now listen. There is korean but also sinokorean which are words derived by chinese. My teacher told us using sinokorean would be more polite.

• 고맙습니다! {Komap sūm-nida) - thank you [korean]

Girls use this often. (Quote from my teacher)

• 천만에요 {tschōnman-eyo} - you are welcome

Example

Person A give Person B a pen.

Person B: 감사합니다

Person A: 천만에요

4. Sorry

• 실례합니다 {sille ham nida} - excuse me!

Ex. ~ Excuse me, can I use the bathroom. (Sorry for asking)

• 미안합니다 {mian ham nida) - excuse you!/Apologize

Ex. ~ Excuse me, could you not scream please? (I/You feel bothered)

• 죄송합니다 {chõsong ham nida) - I am so sorry

Ex. ~ I am so sorry for breaking your heart. (You did sth really bad)

5. Answer particels

네 {ne} - yes / 예 {je}

When I answered a question from my teacher with 아니~ she told me to use the polite form which is

• 아니요 {Aniyo} - No

Older generation will may write it as 아나오 (Anio) which is also correct.

Introduce yourself!

• 저는 your name 입니다 {chõ nūn Jones, Jessica im-nida)

My name is Jessica Jones

If you introducing yourself with surname, you put your surname first and then your first name.

• 저는 your country 사람 입니다 {chõ nūn togil saram im nida}*

I am german

• 제 고향은 your hometown 입니다 {che kohyang-ūn berlin im-nida}*

My hometown is berlin

• 제 취미는 your hobby 입니다 {che chuimi-nūn yorihagi im-nida}*

My hobby is cooking

• 만나서 반갑습니다 {mannasõ pankap-suem-nida}

Nice to meet you!

Vocabulary*

사람 - saram - human/person

독일 - togil - Germany

한국 - hanguk - korea

한국사람 - hanguk saram - korean (person)

고향 - kohyang - home

취미 - chuimi - hobby

#1 entry:

This will a blog about how I learn korean at my university! I have my lesson every friday~ I will just write down here what I have learned and I hope you can learn it with me :D

Please tell me if you already can speak korean and see entries which are incorrect in the way I explain (the current topic)