The Alphabet

The Korean alphabet (basic characters):

Consonants ~
ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅎ
Vowels ~

ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ

In the way that we learn our ABC's by singing the ABC song, Korean's learn the sound for each character by combining each each vowel with every consonant, one at a time and saying the combined sound.  You end up with something like this:*

바 자 다 가 사 마 나 아 라 하 카 타 차 파 ㅘ (waah)
뱌 쟈 댜 갸 샤 먀 냐 야 랴 햐 캬 탸 챠 퍄
버 저 더 거 서 머 너 어 러 허 커 터 처 퍼 ㅝ (woah)
벼 져 뎌 겨 셔 며 녀 여 려 혀 켜 텨 쳐 펴
베 제 데 게 세 메 네 에 레 헤 케 테 체 페
볘 졔 뎨 계 셰 몌 녜 예 례 혜 켸 톄 쳬 폐 (ye vowel)
비 지 디 기 시 미 니 이 리 히 키 티 치 피
배 재 대 개 새 매 내 애 래 해 캐 태 채 패
보 조 도 고 소 모 노 오 로 호 코 토 초 포
뵤 죠 됴 교 쇼 묘 뇨 요 료 효 쿄 툐 쵸 표
부 주 두 구 수 무 누 우 루 후 쿠 투 추 푸
뷰 쥬 듀 규 슈 뮤 뉴 유 류 휴 큐 튜 츄 퓨
브 즈 드 그 스 므 느 으 르 흐 크 트 츠 프

*please note that the sound combinations are actually out of order - if I can, I will edit this posting later and fix that.

There are also a few double letters.  Instead of an additional letter, some words are distinguished by just having a stronger consonant (here paired with "ah" vowel sound):

빠 짜 따 까 싸

There are a few additional things to note but this is most of it.  For now, i'm signing out with this sentence:

" Vanessa 이름 입니까 "
Which says: My name is Vanessa.

Okay, Goodnight!

Helpful Classroom Speak

So far my learning of the Korean language has centered around teaching and getting about town. Here are a few words/phrases that I've picked up for use in my classroom and a few words my kids have taught me:

this: ee go 이것

that: cho goat 지시사*

it: kuh goat

do you understand?: ee hey dwen knee? 알겠니

do you know?: aru-gain knee? 알고 있습니까

I understand: arugetta 알겠어요

its not here/ i don't have it:  obp sigh yo 없다

its here/ i have it: eee sigh yo

You're crazy:

I don't know (the students say this all the time!): More lie yo

alright: cray-yo

My Kids have taught me:

Glasses, as in eye glasses: An Gyong 안경

Toliet/Restroom: Hwa Jahng Shil 화장실

Backpack: Ka Pang 가방

Pencil Case: Pil Tawng 필 통

This website is a cute intro to hearing words with basic characters - just click on the picture to hear the word: Hangul

*side note: many korea words are not written in characters exactly how they are pronounced - while you can read a word's sounds and be understood, most people commonly use versions of words that are "easier" to pronounce than the actual word... this makes finding the correct script for each word here a tedious task.... so, you won't always see the hangul for each word, only my way to pronounce it!

Hellos, Goodbyes and Really!?

Just a quickie tonight:

안녕하세요

Hello is usually "Annyonghaseyo," which means "Are you at peace?"

The response is typically "Ne, annyonghaseyo" which is something like "yes, are you?"

여보세요

"Yobosoyo" which also means hello ~ usually used on the telephone but i hear it outside sometimes to

Goodbye is often the same as hello or shorter "annyong" for example.

전체
And, a fun word we all picked up right away and hear spoken often is "cheen-cha" which means "really." It is used as an expression like "no way!" often..  My friend made me laugh when he says that he'll intently listen to a Korean speaking Korean to him and when there is a pause, he responds "cheen-cha!"  Which is so funny because he hasn't got a clue what was just said to him but saying "really?!" works just fine.   

Reading and speaking overview via Youtube

Before I came to Korea, I saw these videos on youtube that I believe aided my ability to pronounce words that I see written in hangul.

Here's a cute quick rap of all of the sounds

This is a ten minutes intro lesson on Hangul
There are several other videos by them available on their youtube page.

This is a video I saw before coming that gives the same info as the class101 above, but It is a woman explaining it to a friend instead of the lesson format as above...There are also other continuing videos of her (3 I think)

Here's a cheesy old telecourse style video, there are a few of these on youtube as well

Megookin - Ko

Annyonghaseyo!  Are you at peace?

This is the basic greeting here in Korea "are you at peace?"  And while I have also learned and heard several other greetings - as we in America have "hello" and "what's up" and more - I still hear this one the most.  The response is generally "Ne.  Annyonghaseyo" which means "yes, are you at peace?"  

I've decided to set forth a blog about the words i'm learning including the actual words (at least how I decide to write the pronunciation), occasionally i'll include how i learned them or any tidbits that are associated with them and if there is any funny notes that go along or interesting cultural anecdotes, i'll toss them in too.   Mostly, this is for me to record my learnings and further reinforce them - but if you folks are interested, by all means, enjoy!

oh yeah!  "megook" means America... "megookin" means American (america-person) and Ko stands for Korea... so, i titled this blog "American - Korea" which means American in Korea to me.. but shorter for convenience.  yep.  ok, bye.