Hangul

On my to-do list all summer was to begin learning Korean.  In three months time, my studying totaled 15 minutes.  Laziness. Traveling. Living in fantasyland. (Even after a month of living in Korea, I’m still in disbelief that I am here.)  However, Bethany did her homework this summer so upon arriving in Korea I felt behind and I did not like it. My very first jetlagged morning Bethany helped me figure out this whole Hangul alphabet thing.  And believe it or not, it was not impossible.  Dare I say it was even a little fun, like a puzzle.  Thankfully, the Korean alphabet is not a character system, like the Chinese system, but rather it consists of symbols with phonetic sounds that build words.  A little memorization would go along in the coming year deciphering signs and menus.

I found a couple websites and completed a few worksheets to practice reading and writing.  I am a star pupil, if I do say so myself.  My favorite words to translate were Konglish words, or English words adopted in the Korean language.  Not only could I read them, but I knew what they mean!  With just a few hours of study I could (sloooowly) read practically any sign in Korea…the only problem being I had no idea what I was saying…

Something that I come across everyday in the classroom, and work with kids ad nauseum on, is the extra syllable Koreans tend to add to English words.  It is not natural for native Korean speakers to end a word with just the ‘s’ sound, for example.  Instead, the tendency is to pronounce words ending in ‘s’ with an extra ‘suh’ sound.

Despite my expanding knowledge of Hangul, I may have still eaten fish intestines.  But I figure things could be much worse without this little base.  Bethany also obtained a copy of the Korean Rosetta Stone which I have really enjoyed the two times when I made time for it. I had never done Rosetta Stone before and the idea of acquiring a second language the same way you would acquire your first language as a baby fascinates me.  I am nearly settled in and ready to hit the books a little harder. I just may be on the market for a language partner. Fluency is not high on my list of priorities but I am definitely aiming to develop some basic Korean in the coming year!

A few Konglish words! Say the Romanized spelling out loud and hear your very own Korean accent!

nyu-seu                             뉴스                         news

pi-ja                                    피자                         pizza

bi-di-o                                 비디오                     video

seu-teu-re-seu                  스트레스                 stress

keopi                                  커피                         coffee

a-i-seu-keu-rim                  아이스크림             ice-cream

syu-peo-ma-ket                 슈퍼마켓                 supermarket

Keu-ri-seu-ma-seu            크리스마스             Christmas