While it is helpful (at first) to memorize the general sound of a Korean letter by using the English letter – you have to remember that Korean sounds are vastly different than English sounds. The English letters presented above are the letters that you will commonly find being used to represent their respective Korean letters. There is no perfect way to represent Korean characters using English letters (or sounds). People constantly ask me about the pronunciation of Korean letters, and how they can be best represented using English (Latin) characters. I want to say one incredibly important thing before you continue. For example, if you were to say “I hadda good time last night” the ㄹ sound is very similar to the “dd” in the slang “hadda.” It’s not quite an R, and it’s not quite an L.) The sound of this letter (to me) is half way between an R and L. *(This sound is very difficult to write in English, and is the reason why people from Korea/Japan have trouble pronouncing the R and L sound in Engrish. There is no easy way to explain them, you just need to memorize them: The following are the first set of Korean consonants that you need to get into your brain. I talk about the names of these letters in this lesson. Nonetheless, here is the actual alphabetical order, which is separated into consonants and vowels: It’s definitely good to know, but for now, you have way more important things to worry about. I’ve lived in Korea for years, and the only time it actually comes in handy is when I input my student’s scores into the system on my computer at work – as knowing the alphabetical order helps me find their names quicker. Unless you plan on attending kindergarten in Korean in the next few weeks, there is no immediate need to learn the alphabetical order. Rather, I am presenting the most simple letters first, and presenting more complex letters later. Note that the letters I teach you in these lessons in Unit 0 are not in alphabetical order. Luckily, Korean has a fairly simple ‘alphabet’, although it seems strange to most English speakers at first because it is completely different than English. Memorizing them at first is hard, but it needs to be done. For example, in the future, instead of studying like this:Īt any rate, study these characters like crazy. However, I highly suggest that once you know how to read the Korean alphabet, you should completely abandon the Romanizations. In the Unit 0 lessons I will provide the Romanized equivalents to the Korean alphabet. Without being able to read Korean, it is very difficult to continue studying other parts of the language. Syllable Practice (1), (2) | Dictation (1), (2), (3) | Reading Practiceįor now, don’t even think about words or grammar or anything until you can read and pronounce Korean letters and syllables. The following videos are available to reinforce the concepts taught in this lesson: Click here for a workbook to go along with this lesson.Ĭlick here for a free PDF of all the lessons in Unit 0.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |