If you love .....

Thinking of what she needs to accomplish next week overwhelms her since she needs to learn the basic Korean alphabet thus she spent her weekend studying the Hangul characters. She needs to learn the aspirated consonants of the Korean alphabet. To do that, she took a look at the four consonant sounds she just learned from Do Yun. B, D, G, and J. She made each of these sounds. "B". "D". "G". "J". For B, a more aspirated sound forcing out more air would make P sound. For D, it would result in a T sound. For G, a "K" sound, like a C or K. The C is really just an aspirated G. Finally, if she aspirated a J, it would result in a "ch" sound.

Driiiiin. Driiiiin. Driiiiin.

Amor missed the sound of the old alarm clock and she hoped to impress Do Yun with her progress in learning the basic Korean alphabet. "Can I really impress a Korean with my Hangul?" she asked herself. She chose to wear a black solid belted midi shirt dress tailored in a seasonless hue, with flap pockets in the front and a self-fabric belt and flat leather mules to complete the look.

Standing outside unit 1203, she straightened her belt and lightly knocked on the door thrice then David opened the door.

"Good..... good morning Mr. and Mrs.....," Amor stuttered but Ae Cha was not there. "Good..... good morning Mr. Kim," but Do Yun stood up to enter their room. She saw Mila sitting on the sofa thus she sat beside her. After the children have finished their breakfast, Mila took notice of what happened earlier "I didn't see Mrs. Kim joined her family during breakfast."

"Oh..... that I don't know."

After a while, Do Yun came out from their room then headed to the door thus Amor hurriedly followed.

As soon as they arrived in the office, Do Yun went straight to his desk closing the door behind him. Amor checked her email but before she can read any of them Do Yun called her in and she hurriedly heeded his request.

When Amor entered his office, Do Yun, wearing a Tipton navy suit; is silently sitting on one of the black swivel chairs with his arms folded and his legs crossed. She slowly sat on the other black swivel chair opposite him.

"What Hangul characters have you learned last weekend?"

"Uhm..... in Korean Mr. Kim, there are ten basic Hangul vowels that I need to learn. They are the basic building blocks from which I can create all other vowel sounds. The first four Hangul vowels I learned were horizontal or vertical lines with a perpendicular line in the middle facing in a particular direction. They look like this: (drawing in the air) ㅗ ㅓ ㅜ ㅏ. The only problem is that I need to remember which way the perpendicular line points and associate that character with the particular Hangul vowel sound."

"Good."

"Ah..... thank you, Mr. Kim."

"Just like English, you read Korean left to right, top to bottom. However, the Hangul letters stick together, existing within small invisible "boxes". Each one of these boxes can have up to four letters. Each little "box" is considered a Korean syllable. You can also think of them as syllable blocks. Instead of reading Hangul straight across as we do in English, we read one Korean syllable (or syllable block) at a time. Within each syllable, we read using the rule left to right, top to bottom. Then we move to the next syllable block. That's all there is to it! 안녕하세요 (Showing his chart) This is the Korean word for "hello." It has 5 syllable blocks, and each syllable block has 2 or 3 Korean letters. In the first two-syllable blocks, there are two Hangul letters on the top and one on the bottom. Following our rule of left to right, top to bottom, we would read in the order 1, 2, 3 as shown. The same goes for the second syllable. But remember, the placeholder character here is ending the syllable so it would have to be pronounced "ng." The third, fourth, and fifth syllable blocks are more straightforward and are just read simply left to right. If you've gotten the associations with the Hangul consonants and vowels down pat in the previous sections, you can start to read some Korean words on your own. Let's try it out. Give each one a try first (showing his chart), then I'll check your answers. Use the associations we made to help you out! How would you pronounce the words written here (showing his chart)? Try reading them aloud. I'll show the pronunciations later using romanization so you can check afterward!

1. 카

2. 너

3. 바보

For the first two, we would just read left to right."

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

1. k for key + a as in iPad = ka. This is the Korean word meaning "car."

2. n for northeast + eo as in iPod = neo. This means "you."

"Now, for the third one, we just read left to right for the first syllable, then top to bottom for the second syllable."

"Uhm..... okay Mr. Kim that would make it:

3. b for bed + a as in iPad plus b for bed + o as in old = babo. This is the Korean word for "fool."

"If you can read these words already, you are definitely not a 바보! Great work! Let's do a quick recap of the Hangul consonants and vowels: Hangul base consonants: ㅂㅈㄷㄱㅅㅁㄴㅇㄹㅎㅋㅌㅊㅍ. Hangul base vowels: ㅗㅓㅜㅏㅛㅕㅠㅑㅡㅣ. The ㅇ is a consonant, so that means it can start a syllable. But remember that is silent when it does! Let's try reading some more difficult words and we can practice this rule. If you get stuck, remember to ignore the placeholder if it exists before a vowel and just read top to bottom and left to right as you normally do! Ready, let's go for Round 2! Look at the words written here (showing his chart). How would you pronounce the following?

4. 오늘

5. 미국

6. 커피

How did it go? Did you remember all of the Hangul letters from the associations we made before?"

"Ah..... yes, Mr. Kim let's check:

4. I remembered to ignore the placeholder, so for the first syllable, o as in old. Then n for northeast + eu as in brook + l for the ladder. Romanized, it is written as oneul. 오늘 means "today."

5. m for mail + i as in tree plus g for gun + u as in new + g for the gun again. This word is written in romanized English as miguk, and is the Korean word for "U.S.A."

6. k for key + eo as in iPod plus p for pi + i as in tree = keopi, the Korean word for "coffee."

"Congratulations! If you got these, then you are now able to read 6 vocabulary words in Korean (and many more!)."

"Oh..... Mr. Kim, you've finally taught me Hangul thank you."

Wherever she goes and whatever he does she will be right by his side waiting for him.