How to Learn Hangeul Part 2/4

Weren't consonants easy? I bet you mastered all of them after only going through your flashcards twice. Sometimes I used to get ㄴ and ㄱ mixed up, but everything got straightened out pretty fast. Ah, Korean consonants. Those were the days.

Vowels

I'm not gonna lie. Vowels are little tougher, and I blame two things: English's dysfunctional orthographic system and the less-than-intuitive philosophical designs of the Hangeul vowels. I'm spreading the blame around.

Even though English has about 15 vowels, it only has 5 letters to represent these vowels. It's tough to even describe which vowels a Korean letter represents in English. (One of these vowels simply doesn't exist in English.)

Those brilliant linguists who devised a simple way to write consonants--so simple it was called "The Writing You Can Learn in a Morning"--got pretty esoteric when it came to their vowels. I'll try to explain the vowel and the English vowels they correspond to, but this is where real world experience trumps blog-learnin'. Do your best to keep moving and don't get bogged down in details.

Basic vowels

This is a picture of a person: ㅣ

You pronounce that vowel as the ee in beet or the i in bit.

This is a picture of the earth's horizon: ㅡ

This is the vowel that doesn't exist in English. You basically say the u in boot, but pull your lips wide instead of rounding them. Learn more by clicking here. It is Romanized (written in English characters) as eu. If you just say it like the uh in but, you'll be fine.

The vowels in Hangeul are based on these two basic symbols.

ㅣee (as in beet) or i (as in bit)

ㅡ eu 

The person vowels

Based on the vowel that represents a person, ㅣ, we can have a "dark" person and a "bright" person. (I know, it seems weird to me too.)

The bright person has their left hand sticking out (on our right): ㅏ  

This is pronounced like the a in father.

The dark person has their other hand sticking out:ㅓ

This is pronounced like the u in plus. Learn more here. It is Romanized as eo.

ㅏ a

ㅓ eo

The earth vowels

The earth vowel also has a dark and a bright variation.

Bright earth has a line above it: ㅗ 

It is pronounced like the o in boat.

Dark earth has a line below it: ㅜ 

It is pronounced like the oo in boot, or the Spanish u if you know Spanish vowels. It's Romanized as u.

ㅗ o

ㅜ u

Two person vowels

When a neutral person and a bright person get together, it looks like this: ㅐ

See how that has a ㅣand a ㅏ?

This vowel is pronounced like the e in pet or the a in Ashley. It is Romanized as ae.

When a neutral person and a dark person get together, it looks like this: ㅔ

 This vowel is pronounced like the ay in way. It's Romanized as e, and it's also similar to the Spanish e.

ㅐae

ㅔe

(Actually both of these vowels are pronounced as the a in cat or the e in pet. You can pronounce both of these the same and you'll sound like a native speaker of Korean. They were distinctive for centuries, but now they sound the same. It's like in English, how the w in witch used to be distinctive from the wh in which, and now they are the same. Except for Stewie Griffin, of course.)

Your first Korean words

Now you have the eight basic Korean vowels. There are also compound vowels, but that's enough for now. We're going to put the consonants and the vowels we know to the test. 

You don't have to memorize all the vowels completely before beginning this part. In fact, learning these words will help you to figure out those confusing Hangeul vowels.

 I want you to sound out the following loanwords that Korean has borrowed from English and other languages. Remember that ㅇ is silent if it is the first letter in a syllable, and ng if it is the last letter in a syllable:

라디오

토마토

커피

호텔

택시 

햄버거

텔레비전 

후렌치후라이

라지 치즈 피자

스포츠 

마사지 

Now sound out the following names of countries:

멕시코

폴란드

캐나다

나이지리아

네덜란드

아일랜드

인도네시아  

러시아

The answers are below, but don't look until you've sounded all these out. You can do this.

I'm sure you noticed a lot of interesting things. For example, Korean doesn't have an f, so they replace fs with p (in  커피) or h (in 후렌치후라이). Neither is there a Korean v, so you'll see it replaced with ㅂ. Also, Koreans use the letter ㅈ for both j and z. Finally, the dental consonants can't end a syllable, so Korean adds one of the basic vowels to the end of the word. (I used to hear them talk about President Bushy.)

All these differences will become second nature to you after a few weeks of practicing Hangeul.

In addition, you have by now noticed that each syllable exists in its own square. There are a lot of rules as to how these syllables are shaped, but they are easier to just pick up than to memorize the rules one by one. Practice reading, and you won't need to memorize a bunch of rules.

Now make flashcards of the loanwords and countries. Shuffle them into your vowel cards and practice. Also practice any consonants you have been having trouble with.

YOU'RE READING KOREAN!!!

Answers:

radio

tomato

coffee

hotel

taxi 

hamburger

television

French fries

large cheese pizza

sports

massage

Mexico

Poland

Canada

Nigeria

Netherlands

Ireland

Indonesia

Russia