Hangeul Class

Pronounced as HAN-GUL, Hangeul, the Korean Language lesson we had for the past 3 months will end up soon, I think until next week na lang. Before, we thought that this class or lesson is free (actually it is) but there’s an agreement with our company that we have to pay 50% of the tuition fee “if” we will not complete at least 60% of the total attendance. The class started last October 13, since then I had 2 or 3 absences because of work related reasons. During my first year here in Korea, I tried to learn their language by browsing the internet, watching Korean TV series with subtitles or by listening and observing Korean people around me.

What have I learned?

Basically, it’s like learning or studying in nursery, starting from A-B-C then 1-2-3 then afterwards words and sentences. Korean alphabet is easier to memorize than Japanese or Chinese characters. Simple but I really have to know how to combine each character properly and pronounce it correctly. Before, I had a hard time recognizing when to use, for example, “P” or “B” for the character “ㅂ”. Like the place “Busan” sometimes they pronounce it as “Pusan”. After the first weeks of learning their alphabet and language, now I know “some things” already, can read the Korean characters but sometimes doesn't know what it means hehehe.

Listed below are the basic Hangeul characters:
ㄱ is similar to g as in god.
ㄲ is similar to k as in sky.
ㅋ is similar to k as in kill.
ㄷ is similar to d as in do.
ㄸ is similar to t as in stop.
ㅌ is similar to t as in two.
ㄹ is similar to l as in filling, in a syllable final (받침) position.
ㅂ is similar to b as in bad.
ㅃ is similar to p as in spy.
ㅍ is similar to p as in pool.
ㅅ is similar to s as in astronaut.
ㅆ is similar to s as in suit.
ㅈ is similar to j as in jail.
ㅉ is similar to tz as in pretzel.
ㅊ is similar to ch as in charge.
ㅎ is similar to h as in hat.

Hope I can still alot some time to study on my own after this class.

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