This is an elementary-level Korean language course, consisting of 5 lessons with 4 units, and covers 4 skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. The main topics include basic expressions used in everyday life, such as greetings, introducing yourself, talking about your family and a daily life and so on. Each lesson covers dialogues, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, quizzes and role-plays. After completing this course, you will be able to 1. read and write Korean alphabet. 2. communicate in Korean with basic expressions. 3. learn basic knowledge on Korean culture. It’s fun and easy to follow! Enjoy it!
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From the course by Yonsei University
First Step Korean
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From the lesson
The Korean Alphabet
In this module, you will learn the Korea alphabet or Korean writing system called 'Hangeul'. After completing the lessons, you will be able to understand the principles how each letter was invented. Also, you will be able to read and write Hangeul.
Meet the Instructors
Seung Hae KangAssociate Professor
Korean Language Education as a Foreign Language
Hello everyone.
In the last unit we studied the 10 basic vowels of Hangeul.
In this unit, we will now study the 14 basic consonants.
First of all you will learn how the 14 basic consonants were formed.
And how each one of the 14 consonants sound and also you will be able to
create letters by combining the consonants with the 10 vowels from last unit.
Here are the original 17 letters of Sejong's creation.
Now three of these are no longer in use.
Can you guess which ones they might be?
That's right.
These three letters are no longer used.
Now I've said that, one of the virtues of Hangul is its simplicity.
If you look carefully you will notice that these 14 letters all consist of
combinations or manipulations of the same 5 symbols.
Yes, only five symbols are used to generate all the consonants.
Take a look for a moment and see if you can identify these basic symbols.
Basic symbols are these.
That wasn't that hard, was it?
But, here is another question.
Where did they come from?
What was the inspiration for the inventor's choice?
Well, all of these letters were formed after the shapes of the mouth
and the other articulatory organs we use when we are making sounds.
In other words each symbol represents how it's sound is vocalized.
Five sides are involved in our creation of the basic consonants.
Which are the throat at the most inside part, the molars and
the palate, the lips at the most outside part and the teeth at the inside again.
Five elements: tree,
fire soil metal and water.
The principal five elements from the Eastern philosophy was applied to
the consonant sounds and their position in the mouth.
Consonants can be categorized into five separate branches in modern
linguistic terms.
Velar.
Alveolar.
Labial.
Dental.
And glottal.
The velar sound ㄱ
is the shape of a tongue that blocks the windpipe and the sound is made.
When the real part of the tongue touches the soft palate, also known as the velum.
This sound has the shape when you pronounce the final consonant [FOREIGN].
However, when pronounced as the initial sound, it is pronounce soft K or G.
The alveolar sound ㄴ is the shape of a tongue touching
the gums of the upper teeth.
This is the N sound in English.
The labial sound mieum is the shape of the lips opening after they have pushed.
The dental sound siot has a connection to teeth.
This strong represents the tip of the tongue that is touching the back part
of the upper teeth.
There isn't an exact equivalent in the English sound,
and it is slightly different than the S and C sound.
Finally, the glottal sound [FOREIGN] is the shape of a throat and
King [INAUDIBLE] thought that this sound would best represent the epiglottis
which is the space between the vocal cords, and
as a final consonant sound [FOREIGN] is the same sound ng in song.
Then, besides these five basic consonants,
what are the other nine consonants and how were they created?
The first principle of letter formation in Hangul is the principle of
stroke addition.
As you can see, the rest of the nine consonants were formed by
adding a stroke to each one of the basic five consonants.
Take a closer look.
Adding one more stroke.
One more stroke and two more strokes.
Adding vertical strokes or horizontal strokes.
Adding strokes.
Second letter is not in use any longer.
Two strokes again.
You might hae noticed that there are some letters missing from the list.
There are these three and
there are exceptions to the principle of letter formation.
These letters are the palato-alveolar sound [FOREIGN],
the semi-dental sound and the velar sound, which was modeled after the throat.
However, these two are not any longer in use.
Okay, then shall we take a closer look each of the consonants again?
[FOREIGN] is not a strong K sound, or a voiced G sound.
But pronounced in a soft k sound in an initial letter.
[FOREIGN] is a strong k sound.
[FOREIGN] is similar to the English n sound.
And [FOREIGN] has the soft t sound somewhere in the middle of
T sound and a D sound.
[FOREIGN] is a strong T sound.
[FOREIGN] has the English M sound,
and [FOREIGN] has a soft P sound between a P sound and a B sound.
[FOREIGN] is a strong p sound.
[FOREIGN], like I mentioned earlier, is a different sound from the s sound and
the c sound in that it resembles a sound in between those two.
But rather is a sound of air casing
made by touching your tongue to the gums of the upper teeth.
Sounds like between S in sound and SH in she.
Sounds starts from the same place and it resembles the J sound in the word job.
[FOREIGN] is an aspirated sound with a burst of air and
it has the ch sound like in the English word chapel.
[FOREIGN] is silent when used as an initial
sound such as in [FOREIGN] and.
When used as a final consonant, however, it has the NG sound like in the word song.
[FOREIGN] is a strong H sound.
Lastly, their isn't an exact match to the [FOREIGN] sound in English, but
you consider it a sound in between the l sound and the r sound.
So when you prononce [FOREIGN], it's not ramen or lamen, it's ramen.
Well at this time let's repeat the names of 14 consonants one more
time to the operatic order which is in the dictionary.
Giyeok nieun digeut.
[FOREIGN] I know
it's very hard to
remember the names
of the consonants but
you don't have to
remember them all of
them in the beginning.
Just take time to practice.
When we pronounce these letters with the first basic vowel
Ka.
Na.
Ta.
Ra.
Ma.
Ba.
[FOREIGN]
these letters,
like the English
alphabet, have
a specific order.
This is the order of the letters created when the 14 consonants
are combined in order with the 10 vowels.
Repeat
after me,
[FOREIGN]
well
done.
This is the order of the letters in the dictionary, so
it would be very helpful to memorize it.
This time we will read words formed by using the 14 consonants and the 10 vowels.
You don't need to memorize all the words, just practice reading them.
All right, repeat after me, please.
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
[FOREIGN]
I think this unit is the most difficult part of learning Korean alphabet, but I hope you just enjoy practicing.
That's all for this unit.
Thank you.
Bye.
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