Written by Cassandra Bos(An Aussie Girl)

Before I get into it and tell you my secrets.

What is Hangul? (한글)

Hangul (한글) is the Korean alphabet. It was created in 1443 by King Sejong the Great to make reading and writing easier for everyone. Before Hangul, Koreans used complex Chinese characters, which were difficult for most people to learn.

Hangul is known for being one of the most logical writing systems in the world. Instead of writing letters in a line like English, Hangul groups letters into blocks that form syllables. Each block represents one sound unit.

Hangul has 24 basic letters:

• 14 consonants (자음)
  
• 10 vowels (모음)
  

Once you learn these letters, you can read almost any Korean word, even if you don’t know the meaning yet.

What you will need

A Work Book

A Pencil or Pen

One’s you have these items you are ready to begin learning Hangul!

Hangul Letters and Pronunciation Guide

Consonants (자음)

Letter	Sound	Similar English sound
ㄱ	g / k	g in go
ㄴ	n	n in no
ㄷ	d / t	d in dog
ㄹ	r / l	between r and l
ㅁ	m	m in mom
ㅂ	b / p	b in bat
ㅅ	s	s in sun
ㅇ	ng (end) / silent (start)	ng in song
ㅈ	j	j in jump
ㅊ	ch	ch in chair
ㅋ	k	k in key
ㅌ	t	t in top
ㅍ	p	p in pen
ㅎ	h	h in hat

Vowels (모음)

Letter	Sound	Similar English sound
ㅏ	a	a in father
ㅑ	ya	ya in yard
ㅓ	eo	u in sun
ㅕ	yeo	yu in yum
ㅗ	o	o in go
ㅛ	yo	yo in yoga
ㅜ	u	oo in moon
ㅠ	yu	you
ㅡ	eu	no exact English sound (relaxed “oo”)
ㅣ	i	ee in see

Write down each letter in your work book in a column similar to this. 

Practice the sound of the letter out loud each time you write it. If you aren’t in a position to make noise, sound it out in your head. 

Once you have done this proceed to the next page and only write each individual letter down the column. 

Then the same way you did in school. Write the letter over and over again, sounding it either outloud or in your head. 

It took me about 2hours to have hangul completely memorised but it is different for everyone. Some people take less time and some people take 2 days. 

Once this step is complete you can now move on to attempting pronouncing entire words like this one!

화이팅!

Did you manage to read it? 

If not, you will be in the next chapter! As I’m making this a series based on my own learning experiences so far!

Fighting my fellow Korean learners!!