The Korean Language

Let’s start a new language – the Korean Language

Let’s talk about the Korean language and my journey in learning it. I think I started learning the Korean language way back in 2016 but unfortunately, I could only learn the Korean letters and just the basic greetings.

Why did I stop? I have a problem with pronunciation. The Korean letters are easy to learn compared to Japanese but when it comes to reading them, Japanese is the easiest. Maybe because I’ve studied the Japanese language since my college days.

Korean letters can easily be memorized and remembered. The letters consist of horizontal lines, vertical and circles. Hangeul (한국) or Hangul or Korean language has 24 letters consisting of 14 consonants and 10 vowel letters.

Consonants:

ㄱ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅅ
G/K	N	D/T	R/L	M	B/P	S

ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅊ	ㅋ	ㅌ	ㅍ	ㅎ
NG (Null)	J	CH	K	T	P	H

 

Vowels:

ㅏ	ㅑ	ㅓ	ㅕ	ㅗ
A	YA	EO	YEO	O

ㅛ	ㅜ	ㅠ	ㅡ	ㅣ
YO	U	YU	EU	I

Aside from the consonants and vowels, there are also the combination letters like double consonants and some complex consonants.  

ㄲ	ㄸ	ㅃ	ㅆ	ㅉ
KK	TT	PP	SS	JJ

ㅐ	ㅒ	ㅔ	ㅖ	ㅘ
AE	YAE	E	YE	WA

ㅙ	ㅚ	ㅝ	ㅞ	ㅟ	ㅢ
WAE	OE	WO	WE	WI	UI

Don’t ask me to pronounce complex consonants because that was my problem when I started studying the language. I've watched a lot of videos on YouTube about how to read it, but I still forget and still cannot read it properly. If you ask me to write it, I can write the Hangeul.

For example:

대한민국 – South Korea (Republic of Korea) Some will read it as Dae – han – min – guk. Others will read is as Dae – han – min – gug. Though ㄱ is G/K, I still don’t know how to pronounce it properly or if there is a rule on how to correctly read each letters.

 

아무것도 – Nothing It is written as A – mu – geos – do. But reading it is different. It will be read as A – mu – geot – do.

This was my problem when I first started learning it but as some teachers said that to learn the language, listen to the native speakers. It will be confusing at first, but eventually, reading it will be no problem anymore.

I also have a YouTube video on how I write the Korean Language. You can check it below:

How to write the Korean Letters

I also hope that I can continue learning the Korean language. It’s a beautiful language but I cannot pronounce it correctly. (crying)

I will share more about the lessons I’ve studied in the next future blogs for the Korean language.


That’s all for now.


This is Ringo.


And I’ll see you soon.