LEARN HOW TO READ OR WRITE KOREAN IN JUST 2 DAYS: A BEGINNERS GUIDE by Fiza's Blog

Hello, everyone! It’s me author of the Fiza’s Blog: Everything U Need.

In this post, I am going to teach you how to read and write Korean in just 2 days. Yep! Just 2 days. You all must be wondering how can we read and write Korean in just 2 days. Well, I learnt Hangeul (Korean Alphabet) on weekends. But keep this thing in your mind you are only going to learn how to read and write Korean. I am not talking about SPEAKING here because learning how to speak a foreign language can be quite difficult.

Why do you need to learn how to read and write Korean?

Well actually, the answer is quite simple which is “Just4Fun.” There are many other reasons. For example, you are getting bored during quarantine and you don’t have anything to do except for just using your mobile and wasting your time Internet but still you have an urge to do something new. Why not just learn how to read and write a new language? Learning how to read and write Korean is pretty much easy and that’s the reason I mentioned 2 days only. 

Besides this, you can also use it as a code language between you and your friends. You can also write your name in a different language. How much exciting and fun will that be when the whole class or your cousins will come to you and ask you to write their names in Korean. Just imagine that. NOW LET’S GET STARTED!

Introduction:

Korean alphabets are called Hangeul (한글). It contains vowels and consonants. There are two types of vowels in Korean: Combined Vowels and Basic Vowels. But there are three types of consonants: Beginning consonants, Ending Consonants and Combined Ending Consonants.

Overall, there are 40 Korean alphabets/letters.

21= Vowels

19= Consonants

A Korean syllable can have the following structures:

•    아
• 강
•    않

A syllable must contain a consonant and a vowel. It is meaningless to write Korean without a vowel or a consonant.

Korean Vowels:

Basic Vowels:

The 10 basic vowels are as follows:

• ᅟᅡ  [a] (It is pronounced as ‘aa’)
• ᅟᅣ  [ya] (It is pronounced as ‘yaa’)
• ᅟᅥ  [eo] (It is pronounced as ‘aw’)
• ᅟᅧ  [yeo] (It is pronounced as ‘yaw’)
• ᅟᅩ  [o] (Just say ‘o’ and done)
• ᅟᅭ [yo] (It is pronounced as ‘yo’)
• ᅟᅮ  [u] (It is pronounced as ‘uu or uo’)
• ᅟᅲ  [yu] (It is pronounced as ‘you’)
• ᅟᅵ  [i] (Just say ‘e’ and done)
• ᅟᅳ  [eu] (It is difficult to pronounce. You have to say ‘ee’ but from your throat)

They are identical, right? You have to memorize all of them. I hope all of you understood it. If not then just let me know in the comment section.

Combined Vowels:

The following are the 11 Korean combined vowels:

• ᅟᅦ  [e] (Just say ‘a’ and done. You have to open your mouth less wide while saying ‘a’)
• ᅟᅢ  [E] (In it you have to open your mouth slightly wider than ‘a’. It is pronounced as ‘ae’)
• ᅟᅨ  [ye] (It is pronounced as ‘yay’)
• ᅟᅤ  [yE] (It is pronounced as ‘yae’)
• ᅟᅪ  [wa] (It contains two Korean vowels: ᅟᅩ ‘o’ andᅟᅡ ‘aa.’ Try saying ‘o’ and ‘aa’ together ‘oaa.’ It will sound like ‘wa.’ That’s why this vowel I pronounced as ‘wa.’)
• ᅟᅯ  [weo] (It contains two Korean vowels: ᅟᅮ ‘uu or ou’ and ᅟᅥ ‘aw.’ Try saying ‘uu’ and ‘aw’ together ‘uuaw.’ It will sound like ‘weo.’ That’s why it is pronounced as ‘weo.’)
• ᅟᅱ  [wi] (It contains two Korean vowels: ᅟᅮ ‘uu’ and ᅟᅵ ‘ee.’ Try saying ‘uu’ and ‘ee’ together ‘uuee.’ It will sound like ‘wi.’ That’s why it is pronounced as ‘wi.’)
• ᅟᅴ  [uei] (It contains two Korean vowels: ᅟᅳ ‘’ and ᅟᅵ ‘.’ Try saying ‘ue’ and ‘ee/i’ together ‘ueee/uei.’ It will sound like ‘uei.’ That’s why it is pronounced as ‘uei.’)
•  
• The following three vowels have same sounds:
•  
• ᅟᅬ  [we] (It contains two Korean vowels: ᅟᅩ ‘o’ and ᅟᅵ ‘uu.’ Try saying ‘o’ and ‘uu’ together ‘ouu.’ It will sound like ‘we.’ That’s why it is pronounced as ‘.’) It is pronounced more like ‘way.’
• ᅟᅫ  [we] (It contains two Korean vowels: ᅟᅩ ‘o’ and ᅟᅢ ‘ae.’ Try saying ‘o’ and ‘ae’ together ‘oae.’ It will sound like ‘we.’ That’s why it is pronounced as ‘we.’) It is pronounced more like ‘way.’
• ᅟᅰ  [we] (It contains two Korean vowels: ᅟᅮ ‘uu’ and ᅟᅦ ‘e.’ Try saying ‘uu’ and ‘e’ together ‘uue.’ It will sound like ‘we.’ That’s why it is pronounced as ‘we.’) It is pronounced more like ‘way.’

KOREAN CONSONANTS:

Korean Beginning Consonants:

19 Korean beginning consonants are listed below:

ᄀᅠ[G]	ᄏᅠ [kh]	ᄁᅠ[kk]
ᄂᅠ[n]	-	-
ᄃᅠ[t/d]	ᄐᅠ[th]	ᄄᅠ[tt]
ᄅᅠ[r/l]	-	-
ᄆᅠ[m]	-	-
ᄇᅠ[p/b]	ᄑᅠ[ph]	ᄈᅠ[pp]
ᄉᅠ[s]	-	ᄊᅠ[ss]
ᄋᅠ[no sound when used in the beginning of a syllable]	[h]	-
ᄌᅠ[j]	ᄎᅠ[ch/jh]	ᄍᅠ[jj]

Korean Ending Consonants:

• ᄀᅠ,ᄏᅠ,ᄁᅠ [kk]
• ᄂᅠ [n]
• ᄃᅠ, ᄐᅠ, ᄉᅠ, ᄊᅠ, ᄌᅠ, ᄎᅠ, ᄒᅠ [tt]
• ᄅᅠ [l]
• ᄆᅠ [m]
• ᄇᅠ, ᄑᅠ [pp]
• ᄋᅠ [ng e.g. in sing]

That's it. Now you can read and write Korean. Send me your names written in Korean in the comments, on my twitter account or on email! Congratulations!!! 

If you have some confusion, then feel free to comment.