Hi Everyone! Welcome to Aeri’s Korean Lessons. Many people asked me to teach them the Korean language. So I’m very excited to start these Korean lessons. I will try to post Korean lessons regularly with easy to understand explanations. I want to start from the very basic things and gradually add more advanced lessons. I hope that my Korean lessons can help your Korean study. Let’s study Korean together and have a fun time. Today, I just want to talk about the Korean alphabet, hangul.
Video Instructions
Transcript
A king named Sejong the Great created Hangul in the 15th century. At that time, Koreans were using Chinese letters to represent the Korean language in written form. There was a problem with that though. The Korean language was different from Chinese, and using Chinese characters to read and write did not transpose that well into the Korean language. Another problem was that the common people could not read and write – the majority of Koreans were illiterate. Only a few upper class people, usually men, could read and write fluently. Hangul made it easy for almost everybody to become literate by using a phonetic alphabet to represent the basic sounds in the Korean language.
You might think that learning the Korean alphabet is very difficult, but once you understand how each of the letters are made and connected with each other, you will find that the Korean alphabet is very consistent which makes reading and writing easy.
Let’s briefly compare the Korean language to English. With the English alphabet, you use letters such as a, b, and c to make syllables, and those syllables are connected to make words such as “study” and “together.” With those words you can make sentences like “Let’s study Korean together.” In the same way, the Korean language has an alphabet, and with the letters in that alphabet, you can make syllables, and with those syllables you can make words, and the words become a sentence.
So, to learn Korean, it is important to start with the Korean alphabet, which I will just refer to as hangul from now on. The English alphabet has 5 vowels and 21 consonants, whereas hangul has 10 vowels and 14 consonants.
To make a word in English, you need both vowels and consonants. Here is an example: “banana.” You need the vowel “a” and the consonants “b” and “n.” The Korean word for banana is basically spoken the same way. You need the Korean consonants “ㅂ” and “ㄴ” and the vowel “ㅏ.” Combining them together, we get “바나나.”
Well, that is all for today, since this is just an introduction for my Korean lessons. So today, we talked about the history and basics of Hangul. Next time, we will talk about the 10 basic Korean vowels in more detail. I will teach you how to read and write them. See you next time. Thank you for watching.
Dear Aeri Lee
I’m from Iran, I love Korean people and culture.
love of Korea made me to learn Hangul but I just know some Hangul alphabet.
I want to be your e-student.
I will start by fist lesson.
But as a student demand her teacher to keep her hold to continue her lessons.
You know, students are a bit lazy.
Thank you so much for the Korean tutorial. Now I can further my education with the interest of the language. so far 14/20 on the quiz.
Hi Aeri,
. Unfortunately, my English is not enough to teach somebody. I look forward to your next lesson about Korean
You have so many talent in Food and teaching Korean. I got impressed from the drama ‘뿌리깊은 나무’. And I’m so excited in teaching Korean. I guess you are so busy to post about hangul lesson. It would be very happy if I can help you. Because I’m Korean
hi its a bit hard to understand korean letters and words how to write and read..but hope you upload other vedio to make us learn it easy..thanks for making the site…have a good day..
Your video was well done. Easy to understand. Thank you for your effort to help us understand the Korean language.
I AM KOREAN PERSON. I AM VERY SURPRISE BECAUSE OF KOREAN FOOD AND HANGLE! THANK YOU!
wow that was very interesting. i am glad you have made korean lessons here. thanks aeri! i love ur cooking too!
Hye there. Thanks a lot for the lesson. I don’t know why I’m very interested to learn this language once after I started to listen to Kpop. I think it was really fun to learn your language. I’m looking forward the next lesson from you
Thank you so much for your wonderful Korean lessons. It was very impressive, and I agree the comments people left. I posted your lessons on my facebook.
I am looking forward to your next lesson!
thanks aeri.. i can spell a little bit now even though i dont know what the meaning in english
looking forward for your next lesson
Yeah , it is very hard to find people willing to teach Korean in New Zealand. I live in Christchruch which has a big population of Korean people and they are very friendly
but shy about their English, so talking is sometimes difficult !
Thank you for the lesson.I am very interested in learning Korean in a non formal setting. This would suit me. And the recipes are easy to follow too. We were introduced to Korean food in Hiroshima by a Korean lady born in Japan called Aina. I will attempt your recipes soon as I gather all the proper ingredients.Regards from Los Angeles.
your a big help thank you
Cant wait to learn more ! Thnx so much !
Thank you Aeri for the wonderful recipes and now the Korean lessons. I am looking forward to the next class!
Aeri,
Thank you for the wonderful recipes and the Korean lessons. I am going to Korea in 2 years for a few weeks and look forward to using what I learn!
I made your napa cabbage kimchi. So delicious and pretty simple to make.
God bless,
Wanda
Yes, i heard that Hangul is very easy once you get the hand of it.Reading Hangul is easy, it’s more the grammars that is going to cause much headache.
Thumbs up for Aeri!!!
It’s really lovely of you to conduct this lesson. thank you!! It must be a lot of work for you!! We appreciate it very much
Hi Aeri!
I am also studying Korean (in Korea!) and I am excited about your lessons! I love your website and visit it often for your tasty recipes. Keep up the great work!^^ God bless you and your family! ~A
I read your post on Aeri site for cooking korean….
I am moving to Korea and would like to get a finished learning of the language. Can you tell me how you are learning Korean there. I live in Germany right now, and there are Vocational schools that teach different languages. The lessons are about 200 Euros and last 8 weeks. meeting 1 time a week or 2 time a week. Most of the students are international students and do not need to know German to take the classes. Is it similar there?
hi Jenn,
maybe you can learn from me ?? hehe
I think you can find korean classes in the university (it’s not degree.. some universities have korean lesson programs for foreigners in Korea.. or other places will have korean lesson classes.. ) depending on which city of Korea you will stay.. there is chance you will get a lot and not much.. around seoul.. you will have lots of chances.. or.. i wonder have you ever heard of “http://talktomeinkorean.com/” they have good Korean lessons.. you can learn from them also.
I’m Brazilian, living temporarily in Korea and will follow your lessons! I have always found it very difficult to learn Korean, but seems like you have a great way of teaching!
See you next class!
Thank you so excited and i like your cooking lesson too cause it is so simple to learn them by the way i am vegan so please create for me some vegan dishes