Learning Journal Post #6

[Jessica Elphick]

I have been practicing reading the Korean hangul language as I have been learning. I learned the complexity of sounds and how it's difficult to relate English letters to Korean characters sometimes. The vowel pronunciations don't change like English vowels depending on the word. Some consonants in Korean change sounds depending on where it is within a character. One of the symbols that looks similar to a backwards S (except with straighter lines) makes a sound between an R and an L. I find that the most difficult to pronounce. When I read, it takes a while to put the sounds together, but I can eventually read most words. I feel very accomplished in being able to do even this little by reading slowly because a couple of weeks ago, Korean letters just looked like scribble scrabble to me. My goals of an extensive vocabulary does seem more difficult than I had imagined. I need to overcome the struggle with simple words before I can move on to much longer phrases. I think my goals are still realistic, but it will just take a lot of practice.