Learning Korean!

Can you read this message?

 

That's right! It says "anyung haseyo," which is Korean for "hello." (If you didn't know what is says, don't feel bad--until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know either. What are all those strange-looking lines? They're the Korean alphabet--and not strange at all!)

A few weeks ago, I decided that I want to learn some Korean. It was after I finally realized that Korean (like English) has an alphabet. I used to think it was more like Chinese, where one has to learn many, many individual characters--but I was very wrong! Hangeul (the Korean language) has an alphabet with vowels and consonants just as English does! You only need to learn 40 letters, and then you're ready to go! Well, after learning how to put those letters together. And how to pronounce the words. And figure out what the words mean. I've got a ways to go.  :)

 I bought a couple of very good books (which meant a nice long time browsing 

at the bookstore!).

Then I grabbed a pad of paper and star practicing. The letters felt very strange at first--I didn't know how to write the characters correctly--but they are not hard to learn. I started with the consonants, and now I'm working on learning the vowels.

I won't bore you with ALL the details of my journey to learning Hangeul, but I'll share a few interesting (at least, to me!) tidbits that I've learned so far:

* The Korean alphabet has more letters than English so it must be harder, right? Nope! Actually, it's easier because each letter only has one sound. For example, in English the letter "a" has many sounds. Sometimes it can sound like the "a" in "cat," sometimes like the "a" in walk. . . If you're learning English, how do you know which way to say it?! No problem in Korean: once you know how to say the letter, you'll always know how to pronounce the word! (Of course, even if I can SAY a word, that doesn't mean I know what the word means--but it makes me feel smart!)
* Each syllable is written separately in Korean. Most syllables have three letters: a consonant, a vowel, and another consonant. When written together, the three letters form a kind of "box," if that makes sense (that's why Korean writing looks like it has a lot of characters, but it's actually just combinations of letters). When you know the sounds of the letters, you can combine the three in the "box" to say the syllable.
* There are sounds that we have in English that they don't have in Korean, and vice versa. For example, the "r" and "l" sound that we have in English is kind of combined together in Korean; it's called "ri-eul" and I'm still learning how to say it correctly!

Okay, that's enough for now (I have some vowels I have to go learn!). I'll keep you updated with how I'm progressing (I'm guessing it will be slowly), and next time I'll share some pictures of the book that Hanna and Hyunkwan made to help me learn Korean! They've taken a lot of time to help me learn, and in the process of learning Korean, I'm learning a lot about English, too! (I think Korean is MUCH easier to learn--it's a sensible, well-thought-out language, at least what I know of it so far!) And, best of all, I'm having a great time learning something new!!