The 1st Day: Practical Knowledge for learning Korean Language

If you're interested in learning Korean, you've come to the right place! The Korean language is called ‘한국어’ (Han-Guk-Eo). Korean has an intrinsic letter system called ‘한글’ (Han-Geul). To understand the structure of Han-Geul, it is essential to first comprehend the composition of syllables, which are the smallest meaningful units of sound.

There are two types of Korean syllables: one is a combination of a consonant(C) and a vowel(V), and the other is a combination of a consonant(C), a vowel(V), and another consonant(C). The former is called CV and The latter is called CVC. An example of the CV is ‘가’ (GA), which combines ‘ㄱ’ (a consonant) and ‘ㅏ’ (a vowel). An example of the CVC is ‘한’ (Han), which combines ‘ㅎ’ (a consonant), ‘ㅏ’ (a vowel), and ‘ㄴ’ (a consonant).

Therefore, to form a Korean syllable, we first need to know the consonants and the vowels. It can be said that the starting point of learning Korean is to study these elements and match them in the Korean alphabet, 한글.

The noun, ‘한글’, which consists of two syllables, is written as ‘Hangeul’, but the pronunciation of ‘eu’ in ‘Hangeul’ is unfamiliar to foreigners, so it is often written as ‘Hangul’.

 Like the vowel ‘ㅡ’ [eu], there are many vowels in Hangul that are rarely found in other writing systems, but understanding their sounds and letters is very important for becoming accustomed to the Korean language. This may be the first challenge for you if you start seriously studying Korean.


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