Learning the Korean alphabet has much more difficult than I imagined. When learning Spanish, it was not that difficult to figure out the new symbols and their corresponding sounds. However, with Korean, all of the symbols are completely new to me, with the exception of ㅋ as I have seen it being used to express laughter. It has been hard to learn these new shapes and also learning how to pronounce brand new sounds as well. The part of Hangul I have been learning is the Korean consonants: ㄱ,ㄴ,ㄷ,ㄹ,ㅁ,ㅂ,ㅅ, ㅇ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅎ. One of the hardest parts has been the subtle differences in sound. Jannette is fortunately very patient with me and has really been helpful in guiding me. It feels as though I am exercising my mouth as I work on learning the new alphabet. It definitely is not as mindless as the English alphabet. Although Jannette has worked with me through each consonant, I found myself unable to pronounce the differentiation in the sounds that are similar if a period of time had passed by. I would have to hear it again to remember how it sounded. Jannette recorded her saying the different letters for me so I could practice on my own and have it for reference. It has gotten easier and helped me learn and remember the consonants. I have also been using YouTube videos that go over hangul to hear it and see it together. Since I am a tactile learner, I have been using the worksheets Jannette provided too.
Something new I also learned is that when writing each character in Korean, there is an order of which way to write each one. So ㄷ, d, is written by starting from the top left to the right, then the horizontal line down, and then the bottom line is drawn. When I am on the go or waiting around with my phone, I use the “Learn Korean” app which lets me trace the different constants I am learning and also pronounces them as it presents each.
This week, Jannette taught me the vowels: ㅏ,ㅓ, ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ, ㅣ. I have been using the “Learn Korean” app and YouTube for this as well. A new resource I am finding very helpful is “Naver Dict.” One of my best friends’ back home is Korean and recommended it as it’s a popular search portal in Korea. It’s a dictionary app that has so much content regarding Korean or English translation. It’s fun to use because they have so many videos with Korean speakers breaking down scenes from Korean dramas into English and explaining the context. They’re short videos too so I’ve been learning a lot of random phrases on my downtime with this.
For the end of this week, I want to have learned the vowels and constants both. This Sunday when I meet with Jannette again, I would like to learn how to put these together to make words. Initially, I also thought I wanted to focus on speaking and not so much on grammar. However, as I keep learning the basics, I think I’ve realized I am a more systematic person, maybe It’s because I am a math major, but the structure helps me. Therefore, I think I want to continue to build and learn basic grammar now rather than having it be a task I wanted for later on. Next I want to go to the global studio and see what kind of books there for Korean to use to learn grammar. It has been a fun experience so far yet challenging and very different than I expected. I heard learning Hangul is easy from many people, but I do not find the same ease as others may have. The self-directed approach allows me the flexibility to see what works for me and what doesn’t so I am having fun testing different approaches.
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I also learned about the Korean consonants and vowels in the first two weeks. My language partner taught me a consonants song, which helped me a lot during my memorization part. The alphabet song started with the combination of the first vowelㅏand consonants. After the first vowel, it is followed by the second vowel. The song is very catchy and it helped me to memorize the alphabet a lot.