So I have officially been in South Korea for 1 week now. Actually 1 week and 1 day and I’m proud to say that I’m really making an effort to learn Korean. It is one of the most difficult languages I have ever tried to learn as it is so completely different from English or most European Languages that I have previously attempted to learn.
The main difficulty is the letters. They are impossible to learn and often times depending on the word, the letters appear to be written different. Lets take ‘hello’ for example which in korean is pronounced ‘An nyoun ha seh yo’ but written 안녕하세요 . To make the ‘eyo’ at the end, You must combine the last 2 letters which in korean are ㅇ and ㅛ to make 요. Get it?
Words are written in a set format using ‘consonant vowel consonant vowel’ or else ‘consonant 1, vowel, consonant 2’. The letters are either written either side by side or stacked on top of eachother. Its seriously confusing!!
My boss ordered a ‘How to learn Korean’ book for my co-worker Daniel and I so now we have a book and CD each to help us learn the basics. Plus, of course, we have the brilliant resource of about 50 kids who are only too happy to teach us the important Korean phrases such as todays favourite “We hum ha tak” which means….Dangerous chickens. An essential Korean phrase, I’m sure.
I have a 4 day weekend because it’s the end of term at the school so plenty of time to explore Seoul and practice my new korean phrases. Dangerous chickens beware!!
Journalist On The Run 
WHO FLUNG DUNG?
Only you would leave a comment like that haha
just be glad that you aren’t learning Chinese characters, hanja…that blows my mind. I suggest looking into classes for foreigners. It’s great because it really helps alot more in the beginning than books do, plus you get to meet other foreigners. It’ll get easy don’t worry!
Hmmm Korean seems hard enough I would say I wouldn’t have a chance of learning Chinese!!
You’re reading the syllables slightly incorrectly – one of the greatest things about hangul is that the letters always make the same sounds (with a couple exceptions that are a rule in their own way).
안 an
녕 nyeong
하 ha
세 se
요 yo (the o is silent)
Don’t worry though, once you’ve memorized the alphabet, it gets a lot easier. There are a lot of words that are pronounced similarly, but in terms of the written language, what you see is what you get!
Hey Alex!
Thanks for the comment and the help with learning Korean! I’m trying hard to learn the alphabet but its proving harder than I thought!! 🙂
Gam sa hap ni da!
The funky chicken. haha
@ magicmoves: He’s doing the chicken dance! lol
I live in Los Angeles which has a large Korean community. Whenever I see their characters on billboards, etc., I can’t help but think this is the type of hieroglyphic that should be on the side of a UFO. LOL
Haha I know, it does take while getting used to alright. Speaking of Aliens, did you know that when you register as a foreigner in Korea you are given an “Alien Registration Card” which you must carry with you at all times. Way to make people feel welcome!! lol