True love stories never have endings .....

"Take a seat."

"Ah.... yes, Mr. Kim."

"We will have our Hangul lesson today so that you've learned the basic by Wednesday. We'll start with the Korean alphabet and I expect you to read the Hangul characters by tomorrow. In our lesson, you're going to learn the Korean alphabet in only 30 minutes using visual associations, mnemonics, and stories. That means you will be able to read the Korean alphabet and start sounding out Korean words anytime you see them. You may be surprised how often you see the Korean characters! I've also got a Korean alphabet chart here that has audio samples. Once you know the alphabet, you can then skip directly to the chart and practice your pronunciation and listening. Let's get to it!"

"Oh..... copy Mr. Kim."

"The official writing system for South Korea is Hangul (한글), which is the name for the Korean Alphabet system. That means you can say Hangul and Korean alphabet interchangeably since they mean the same thing. Korean is the official language of South Korea, and it uses Hangul as its alphabet and writing system. Hangul is also written as "Hangeul". They are two different ways of spelling the same word. "Hangul" is the most common way, and "Hangeul" is the newer way of writing it. "Han" means "Korean", and "gul" means "letter". Put them together, and you've got the term "Korean letter", or "Korean Alphabet". The Korean alphabet has a lot of similarities to the English alphabet, which makes it easy to learn. It has consonants and vowels that form syllable blocks. These syllables can be sounded out just like words in English."

"Uhm..... yes Mr. Kim."

"Here is the basic Hangul chart for the consonants and the vowels of the Korean alphabet. The first Hangul chart, or Korean alphabet chart, is for the consonants. Next to each of the consonants is the romanized spelling for that particular consonant. The spelling changes depending on whether the consonants are positioned at the start or the end of the syllable. The romanization is only used for the spelling of the Korean word in English letters. Since you're learning Korean and needs to know the correct pronunciation, then you should use the associations later in this lesson and learn the correct pronunciation of the Korean alphabet consonants."

Consonant Romanization (initial) Romanization (final)

ㄱ g k

ㄲ kk k

ㄴ n n

ㄷ d t

ㄸ tt -

ㄹ r l

ㅁ m m

ㅂ b p

ㅃ pp -

ㅅ s t

ㅆ ss t

ㅇ - ng

ㅈ j t

ㅉ jj -

ㅊ ch t

ㅋ k k

ㅌ t t

ㅍ p p

ㅎ h t

"Here is the Hangul chart for the vowels of the Korean alphabet. Next to each of the vowels is the romanized spelling of each vowel. The spelling of the vowels is consistent and doesn't change. However, keep in mind that some people may spell Korean words in English letters using their own system."

Vowel/Name of Vowel Romanized Spelling

ㅏ a

ㅐ ae

ㅑ ya

ㅒ yae

ㅓ eo

ㅔ e

ㅕ yeo

ㅖ ye

ㅗ o

ㅘ wa

ㅙ wae

ㅚ oe

ㅛ yo

ㅜ u

ㅝ wo

ㅞ we

ㅟ wi

ㅠ yu

ㅡ eu

ㅢ ui

ㅣ i

"To have a good pronunciation of the Hangul consonants and vowels, it's best to use the associations as a guide and learn how each letter is correctly pronounced."

"Ah..... okay Mr. Kim."

"Since Hangul is a very scientific alphabet, it's great for beginners like you who don't know any Korean. It's also quite easy to write in Hangul since the letters follow a basic order. Did you know that there are fewer letters in the Korean alphabet than there are letters in the English alphabet? The Korean Alphabet has 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Unlike Japanese or Chinese, which have thousands of characters and each can have 10, 15, or more strokes, the most complex Korean character in the alphabet can be written using only five strokes. That makes learning both Hangul and Korean quite easy. On top of this, the Korean language has a grammar structure that can be mastered by understanding some basic rules. This makes Korean a great language for learning quickly and easily. It all starts with knowing the Hangul (Korean alphabet)– the basic building blocks of the language. Hangul is a very scientific writing system. It was developed with precision in mind about 500 years ago by King Sejong the Great. King Sejong wanted to give Koreans a practical way of reading and writing to promote literacy. Throughout this lesson, we'll use the terms Korean letter and Korean character interchangeably. People tend to use them both when they learn Hangul, so you can use either one."

"Oh..... okay, then Mr. Kim."

"In this Korean alphabet lesson, we'll make use of psychological techniques to help make learning Hangul fun and easy. Namely, associations and stories to help everything stick in your brain so you can't forget it. This lesson covers the Korean alphabet, broken down and simplified so you can begin speaking right away. There is audio to help your pronunciation with Hangul."

"Uhm..... I guess so."

"Hangul (the Korean Alphabet) has both consonants and vowels just like English. Let's learn the consonants to start. First, let's take a look at the English alphabet. Instead of looking at the actual letters, let's just look at the sounds they make. In doing so, we can find the closest equivalents in the Korean alphabet so that we can start to make associations to learn the Hangul letters. In Korean, there are no F, R, V, or Z sounds, so let's take them out. The rest of the consonant sounds exist in the Korean language. However, the Q, W, X, and Y sounds must follow one of these two rules:

a) They only can be made by combining two or more sounds (ie., X = K+ S)

For example, The X sound can be made by combining the K and S sounds (X = K + S). Try it now!

b) They cannot be made without adding a vowel sound after (ie., "ya" or "yo")

For example: In Korean, we can create the sounds ya or yo but not the standalone Y sound.

Finally, let's remove the English vowels since we are first focusing on the consonant sounds. But we can group C and K together since, in English, they make the same sound. Since you're learning a new language and have never seen these shapes before, it will be very difficult for you to just memorize them. Therefore, we need to 'link' the characters to something already in your mind in order to create an association. Let's do this using a visual learning technique to associate the new letters with pictures and sounds you already know. The first letter of the English word in the picture has the same sound as the corresponding Korean letter. This will help to start to create associations with Hangul characters. The Hangul letter ㅂ, which has a sound similar to B in English, looks like a bed with a post at either end. Make this association in your mind. Write it down and commit it to memory. Likewise, the Hangul letter ㄷ could seem like a doorframe or the panels on a door. Correspondingly, this letter makes the sound D. The Korean consonant ㄱ has the appearance of a gun and sounds similar to an English G. This Hangul letter is especially easy to write since its only two lines. The same goes for the Hangul letter ㅎ(H), which looks like a man with a hat. You can write this consonant as a circle with two lines above it. And the consonant ㅈ (J) which could be seen as a jug with a spout at the top. You can write this Hangul letter a few different ways, so just become familiar with the overall shape of the letter. Try creating the associations for these consonant letters now. Next is the Hangul letter ㄹ, which is written using 5 basic strokes and could be compared to the rungs of a ladder. Its sound is most similar to an English L and can be made the same way by pressing down with your tongue. This is a fun letter to write! Finally, there are the Hangul letters ㅁ, ㄴ, and ㅅ, which have the sounds M, N, and S respectively. The ㅁ is a square box like a message on a phone or a piece of mail. You can write this consonant like a rectangle. The Hangul letter ㄴ points up and to the right like a compass pointing to the north (and the east at the same time). You can write this letter with two lines. The consonant ㅅ is like a seashell or clam, having only two strokes that slightly overlap. There are two different ways to write this Hangul letter, so just get used to the overall shape. It's basically just two lines."

"Ah..... Mr. Kim, you're finally teaching me Korean thank you."

Do Yun feels wonderful not because she is grateful but because he can see the love light in her eyes. But the wonder of it all is that she just doesn't realize how much he loves her.