Teaching English in Korea
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Reading Hangeul
Think you're up to learning to read Korean script? Reading Hangeul is much easier than you might have thought.
If you feel up to it, learning to read Hangeul will greatly improve your experience in Korea and simply help you to make more sense of the confusing foreign world into which you will enter after your plane lands in Korea.
Hangeul is really easy to read since it's so scientific, straightforward and, unlike in most languages including English, there are very few irregularities and rules. A word is simply pronounced as its written and to be able to read it you simply need to be able to pronounce the characters.
A foreigner in Korea will be able to read words written in Hangeul script and with practice pronounce then fluently despite the fact that you don't understand what you're reading.
Why should I learn to read it?
Ever been in a foreign country and gone shopping only to realise that salt and sugar look extremely similar when you can't read the labels. If you know how to read Hangeul and have a miniscule vocabulary (which you'll pick up naturally), many of these minor inconveniences will be resolved.
Everything from taking the bus to reading signboards come easier in Korea when you can read and recognize words. So many Hangeul words are simply English words transliterated in Korean that you'll be surprised at what you recognize when you read signs and names of things and places. It simplifies life in this foreign country.
Reading Hangeul
The first step in learning to read Hangeul is to learn the Alphabet. Take 15 minutes a day to memorize these letters and their pronunciation and within a week you'll have mastered the entire Korean alphabet:
Words in Korean are written in blocks of two, three or four letters next to and underneath one another. The blocks themselves make up the words. Let's say I want to write the word Busan, which is the name of the second largest city in Korea. In English you would simply write the letters from left to right, one after the other: B - u - s - a - n = Busan.
But in Hangeul you'll allign the letters into blocks and place the blocks next to one another to make up the word. B - U would make the first block and S - A - N the second. This is what it would look like.
Hangeul is really easy to read since it's so scientific, straightforward and, unlike in most languages including English, there are very few irregularities and rules. A word is simply pronounced as its written and to be able to read it you simply need to be able to pronounce the characters.
A foreigner in Korea will be able to read words written in Hangeul script and with practice pronounce then fluently despite the fact that you don't understand what you're reading.
Why should I learn to read it?
Ever been in a foreign country and gone shopping only to realise that salt and sugar look extremely similar when you can't read the labels. If you know how to read Hangeul and have a miniscule vocabulary (which you'll pick up naturally), many of these minor inconveniences will be resolved.
Everything from taking the bus to reading signboards come easier in Korea when you can read and recognize words. So many Hangeul words are simply English words transliterated in Korean that you'll be surprised at what you recognize when you read signs and names of things and places. It simplifies life in this foreign country.
Reading Hangeul
The first step in learning to read Hangeul is to learn the Alphabet. Take 15 minutes a day to memorize these letters and their pronunciation and within a week you'll have mastered the entire Korean alphabet:
Words in Korean are written in blocks of two, three or four letters next to and underneath one another. The blocks themselves make up the words. Let's say I want to write the word Busan, which is the name of the second largest city in Korea. In English you would simply write the letters from left to right, one after the other: B - u - s - a - n = Busan.
But in Hangeul you'll allign the letters into blocks and place the blocks next to one another to make up the word. B - U would make the first block and S - A - N the second. This is what it would look like.
In similar fashion the name of the city next to Busan, Ulsan, would look like this:
Now let's look at how it's written in Hangeul Script. Here are 3 letters with their respective Hangeul equivalents:
Reading in blocks of two or three, what word does this spell out?
It spells out J E J U or Jeju, the name of the island off the south coast of Korea, a favourite holiday destination among locals.
And that's the way Hangeul is written. Longer words have more blocks of letters, but the basic concept stays the same.
I've provided a free downloadble copy of the Korean alphabet, click here.
For some easy to learn Korean phrases to get you started, see this page.
For more general information on learning the Korean language, read this article.
And that's the way Hangeul is written. Longer words have more blocks of letters, but the basic concept stays the same.
I've provided a free downloadble copy of the Korean alphabet, click here.
For some easy to learn Korean phrases to get you started, see this page.
For more general information on learning the Korean language, read this article.
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