So lets start with the basics. Korean has an alphabet of sorts, as we would be used to in English, with consonants and vowels totaling 24 "letters" or characters. Unlike English however, Korean characters are arranged into blocks that make up one syllable, rather than strung in a line to make a word. So take the name of the Korean language, 한국어, for example. You can see the blocks there, right? There appear to be three sections to the word, and in fact this is a three syllable word. Each block is made up of multiple characters though, as many as four, or as few as two. These letters are either above, below, or beside each other. This word then, 한국어, is made up of the characters ㅎㅏㄴㄱㅜㄱㅇㅓ respectively. So then, as you can see, you read each block by starting with the upper left corner, then upper right, then bottom (also left to right if there are multiple characters on the bottom).
A note on pronunciation. Unless you're Jamie, or you happen to have studied a little linguistics, the multiple "o" and "u" sounds above might seem redundant, and the fact that r and l are somehow the same character may seem strange. For clarification sake, the ㅗ character and ㅛ beside it are pronounced using the same "o" sound you would find in the phrase "oh boy," while the ㅓandㅕcharacters are the "o" sound in "coffee" or "bob." Hear the difference? Similarly, the ㅜand ㅠ characters make a "you" sound, while ㅡ makes a sound much more reminiscent of the noise one might make when the get punched in the gut. It's kind of a grunt of a noise... Unfortunately that's one of the harder characters to explain and with my minimal teaching skills, that's the best I can do. Then there's that strange r/l combo character. What's with that? Unless you've learned any Japanese, it may come as a surprise to you that those two noises are very similar, practically the same. And in fact, in Korean and Japanese, they simply are the same. Sure they make slightly different noises depending on where they are in a word (i.e. whether they are surrounded by vowels or consonants) but mostly the noises are interchangeable. Unfortunately that's all I'm going to be able to say on the subject, since it's just kind of hard to wrap your head around until you're using a language where that's the case. Just for fun, though, try saying out loud the noise "rl." Finally, see that circle on the bottom row? It doesn't have an English letter below it to indicate it's pronunciation, and that is because when it is at the end of a character block it is pronounced "ng" but when it is at the beginning, it is a silent letter, such as in the third character block (syllable) of 한국어.
Other complications of note in the Korean language are the formality levels. If you've learned Spanish at any point, you may know that if you are speaking to an elder, professional, or stranger you would say "you" using "usted" rather than "tu" (which is more informal/familiar). Korean has the same kind of thing in it's conjugations, except that there are more than two of these formality levels. There are usually three-ish, in most cases. There are different endings for words if you are talking to an elder, a stranger, a friend, or a child. An example is saying "hello." I will Romanize them syllable by syllable for convenience sake, after writing the Korean.
- Hello (to a child or very close friend): 안녕 ahn-yong
- Hello (to a peer or stranger): 안녕하세요 ahn-yong-ha-say-yo
- Hello (to an elder or professional): 안녕하십니까 ahn-yong-ha-shim-nee-ka
Learning Korean as an American is rather complicated in a way that learning another Germanic or Romance language isn't. The completely different character alphabet, word structure, and sentence form make for a unique challenge. I have been studying, rather informally (see my notebook above), but diligently, for three months now, and I can eavesdrop on conversations and get a theme, but no details. I can have routine conversations with friends who speak slowly for me, and I can piece my own sentences together at a painstakingly slow pace resulting in a barely grammatically correct phrase. Having learned a language from scrap before, I can say this is a whole different world. The progress is real though, and the gratification of each step makes me think I might just be conversational within a year. Below is a sample screenshot from a recent chat with a Korean friend of mine. It's nifty for a few reasons. First, because it's mostly in Korean, and second, check out the little bit of English. It's neat how progressed her English is, that she types things like "Im" but still spells out slang phonetically in the case of "ganna."
While this hardly scratches the surface of the language, I think that's about all it makes sense to include in a post like this. I don't want to bore anyone to death, but I'd love for you all to have the same respect for the beauty, uniqueness, and complexity of the language that I do. I must say, the more I learn, the more I love it. As with any language foreign to your own, it provides a way to say things you simply can't express the same way in English. As a tool of expression, language offers a way to convey how you feel, perceive, and interact with the world, and, each individual language opens up new options in that respect.
Hope everyone has a great week!
-K
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