One of the most important aspects of learning Korean is understanding the difference between sound and spelling. Unlike English, where spelling often does not match pronunciation, Hangul is largely phonetic. However, certain phonetic changes occur in speech that are not always reflected in writing. For example, 밥 (bap) is written with a final "p" sound, but when followed by a word beginning with a vowel, the final consonant sound can carry over (e.g., 밥을 [바블] (ba-beul) instead of [bap-eul]). The concept of double letters in Hangul can also prove difficult to an English speaker. Almost like tonal languages, double consonants in Hangul require a very specific sound. For example, ㄱ, ㅋ, ㄲ (e.g., 길, 킥, 꿀,) all fall under the same "k" pronunciation under English standards, however, they are all very distinct sounds in Korean that change the meaning of a word in entirety. Thankfully, growing up hearing and speaking the language gives me an advantage. It even gives me an advantage in reading the language, however, writing still proves difficult since I often resort to sounding out the letters in each word similar to how I would in English. But as we have seen, even Korean with its genius structure is full of exceptions, silent letters, and other nuances that provide a challenge. As we discussed in class, a potential solution to this is to just use the words that I find difficult and get to writing and just fixing myself as I go instead of sitting there and trying to sound it out. I think this is a perfect opportunity for me to "just speak (use) the language," as we heard in the TedTalk.