When I first started learning Korean, I found it to be so difficult because of the new symbols along the new sounds of Hangul. Even if I knew what a vowel or consonant sounded like in my head, I wasn’t able to pronounce it. It was kind frustrating and a slow process. I didn’t think it would take me as long as it has to really get the hang of Hangul. However now I feel as I have a good grasp on the simple vowels and consonants. I am still learning the pronunciation of some of the aspirated(ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, and ㅊ) and tense consonants(ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, and ㅉ) compared to their plain counterparts.
I use to look at written Korean and completely ignore it. I would immediately go to the romanization of it written in an English version instead. Now, after learning most of the basic Hangul, I have found that when I look at words or sentences, I can slowly work through and figure out how to say the word or phrase. This is a part of learning Korean I was intimidated by. Now, I am so excited to learn more words and phrases and work out how to write them down after learning them. I can slowly read and write Korean because Jannette taught me how to put together syllables and words. When writing and reading, Jannette taught me the order for vowels and constants as in the photos below where constants precede the vowels, but the placement depends on the horizontal versus vertical letters. She gave me a lot of practice in combining the different letters in Hangul.
This week, I got to learn a little bit about formal versus informal with Jannette. In Korean, respect is so important so depending on who you are speaking to, there are different conjugations for the same word which imply respect and politeness to the person you are speaking to. To be formal, (b/sub)nida (ㅂ/습니다) or yo (요), is used, where the former is very polite.
This week Jannette also introduced me to the particles 는 or 은. For subjects, the 는 is used when the last letter of the last syllable of the subject is a vowel and 은 is used when the last letter of the last syllable of the subject is a consonant.
I am also learning the verb “to be” which can be 이에요[ieyo] or 예요[yeyo]. Similarly, to the differences in vowel or constant with the particles, these verbs work where if the last word of the sentence ends in a consonant, you add 이에요 (ieyo) and if the last word ends in a vowel, you add 예요 (yeyo). So the wodrd 선물[seonmul] means “gift” or “present.” To say, “ it’s a gift”, then since 선물[seonmul] ends in a consonant, it would be 선물이에요 [Seonmurieyo] with the 이에요 (ieyo) ending.
Korean is also sort of backwards to English because sentences are subject-verb-object in English but subject-object-verb in Korean. With learning verbs now and particles, I am working on creating simple sentences and phrases which is super exciting. It has been hard initially learning Korean and very slow, but now as words and phrases are making sense, it is so much fun! I didn’t care as much about wanting to learn grammar initially, but I’ve realized it has been really helping me understand how to put together sentences and phrases. I do want to put more effort to continue learning other bits and pieces of grammar to have a stronger foundation that I can use.
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