The Hangul learning pages on Fae’s Journal are fairly basic. There are countless resources on the Internet dedicated to the study of Korean language learning. This site is not a dedicated source of language learning materials. I write about a lot of things on this site.

Collection of Resources

With that in mind, I collected some Korean language learning resources that I have used on my continuing Korean language learning journey.

I like using a variety of sites because one website isn’t enough. Grammar instruction might be clearer on one site, but vocabulary resources might be better on another. Don’t limit yourself to only one resource.

How do I even start to learn Korean?

Hangul First

First things first: Your first step toward learning Korean should be to learn the alphabet, Hangul. Luckily, the Korean alphabet is pretty easy to learn. I have several pages dedicated to learning the Korean alphabet here on Fae’s Journal. You can learn the alphabet in just a few lessons, for real!

After you’ve learned the alphabet, learn the harder stuff next: Korean grammar and Korean vocabulary building. Understanding grammar concepts, syntax, and vocabulary acquisition will take a lot of time and effort, not going to lie.

My Personal Journey

Personally, I started learning Korean with Duolingo. My learning style didn’t mesh with Duolingos. Duolingo’s approach is to show you the language and give hints as to the why of things, but you learn through context and artificial immersion. For what it’s worth, that’s usually a good approach. But for me, Duolingo lessons didn’t explain Korean grammar enough for me to understand what I was doing. How you like to learn a language plays a part of what site and method will help the most. I like understanding the grammar concepts, to deeply study the why of sentence structure and verb conjugations before diving in and practicing them.

HowToStudyKorean.com has helped me the MOST. The grammar lessons are very helpful to understand the complex and different grammar that Korean has, and they have Memrise study sets for each unit. What’s more, you can purchase the exercises for various Units for a very reasonable fee.

I found them to be helpful. So here’s my plug for them. Unfortunately, I have not been keeping up with my language learning journey, but when I was trying, How to Study Korean helped me tremendously.

Hanja

One more note: Many Korean words have Chinese origins. So it’s helpful to learn some basic Hanja characters. Written mediums often substitute these Hanja characters so they are helpful to know. I SUCK at Hanja but everything that you study can help you in your journey to becoming proficient in learning Korean.

HowtoStudyKorean.com
Learn Hangul
Pronouncing the Hangul Consonants

Keyboards:
Hangul Keyboard
Korean Keyboard

The post Hangul Learning Resources to Study the Korean Alphabet appeared first on Fae’s Journal.

This tenth jamo in the Hangul, the South Korean writing system is letter ㅅ (siot). It is the 7th in the North Korean writing system.

Incidentally, both alphabets consist of the same letters but because of where the stressed consonants are placed, differences exist between the writing systems.

Just like the order of the English alphabet, the letters are in an arbitrary order. I digress.

ㅅ (siot) is pronounced in a variety of ways. The most simple way to remember it is that it looks like a seashell. However, it can be pronounced like an s, an sh and sometimes like a t. I get that this can be a challenge to a beginning learner. Sometimes in Korean, depending on where a letter falls in the syllable or word, and what comes after it, the pronunciation is different. When ㅅis followed by some vowels, it becomes a sh sound. Since we haven’t gotten to the vowels in this series yet, I won’t go into detail as this is intended to be a basic introduction. But, a quick Google search will provide you with a multitude of reading materials on the nuances of the Korean language.

ㅆ ss

The double consonant ㅆ (sang siot) is a stressed s sound. However, this consonant often comes at the end of a syllable and in that case, the pronunciation is different. You pronounce ㅆ with a t sound like ㄷ(t) when it comes at the end of a syllable.

Don’t Get Overwhelmed

I want to end by reminding you that ALL languages take a lot of time to learn and learning Korean is no different. It will be hard to learn it, especially the grammar and syntax of the language. There’s a lot to learn. My students often ask me “What language is the easiest to learn?” Honestly, all languages are hard to learn.

However, Korean is for sure a challenging language to learn for English speakers. I am still a novice learner myself, I’ve only been learning (at my own pace and only self-directed) for just at a year. I started June 2019, and I am still so achingly beginner it makes me frustrated sometimes. But patience.

Go back to Learn Hangul. You can also look at resources to learn to read Hangul.

The post Learn Hangul ㅅ s and ㅆ ss appeared first on Fae’s Journal.

This letter ㅂ (bieup) is pronounced like the letter B or P depending on where it falls in a word or syllable. It is related to the previous letter in the Korean alphabet, letter ㅁ (miem). You can remember the sound that it makes because the ㅂlooks like a bed or a bucket.

ㅃ pp

The doubled bieup ㅃ (ssangbieup) is a stronger p sound than a single ㅂ(bieup).

Read through more Hangul Lessons. You can also look at resources to learn to read Hangul.

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Read through more Hangul Lessons. You can also look at resources to learn to read Hangul.

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This letter (rieul) can be pronounced like an R or an L.. it’s sort of in between to be honest. At the start of a word it is pronounced like an R like in really. At the start of a syllable it is also pronounced like an R. At the end of a word it is pronounced more like an L like in the word seal.

Read through more Hangul Lessons. You can also look at resources to learn to read Hangul.

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The letter ᄃ (digeut) is pronounced like a D or a T depending on where it is found in a word or syllable. At the start of a word it’s pronounced like T. Then, when it’s at the start of a syllable it is pronounced like a D. While at the end of a word it’s pronounced like T. Yes that’s a bit confusing but it helps me to remember that D and T sound very similar in English too. Think of how they sound right in the middle between a sharp T and a sharp D sound and you’ll find the right pronunciation.

ㄸ = DD/TT

The letter ㄸ (ssangdigeut) is a strong dd/tt sound.

Read through more Hangul Lessons. You can also look at resources to learn to read Hangul.

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This letter ( nieun ) is pronounced like N.

Read through more Hangul Lessons. You can also look at resources to learn to read Hangul.

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The letter (giyeok ) ᄀ can be pronounced like a G or a K depending on where it is in a syllable. The ᄀ can also look different, for example it can look like ᄀ or ᄀᅠdepending on where it is in a syllable.

If it comes on the side of a syllable it will be curved and if it is on the top or the bottom of a syllable it will be in its original form. Some examples show the variations:
기 (gi), 길 (gil), 김 (gim)

Study words that start with ᄀ on TinyCards – a Duolingo site.

ᄁ= kk

The second letter of the Korean alphabet is the letter ᄁ (ssanggiyeok ). It is a doubled giyeok ᄀ . It is pronounced with a harder kk sound thanᄀ.

See KoreanWikiProject for example syllables withᄁ.

Read through more Hangul Lessons. You can also look at resources to learn to read Hangul.

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