INTRODUCTORY LESSON
Welcome to Korean language learning course. Here we will teach you Korean language from the very basic stage to a stage where you can interact and even do work in language field.
We request you not to be impatient and go according to the course. We know how much you should take for one session and we designed the syllabus accordingly.
If you have been learning language through some institute then you can post your queries on the wall and they will be answered in your mailbox. Do not forget to mention your name and email address while asking any question.
Also if you are not attached with any proper institute for learning Korean and your sources of learning are vague, ie. Websites, audio lessons, etc. then we suggest you not to go further with them and start with us from the very basic stage as it will be easier for you to grasp.
Before proceeding to our lessons regarding language we like to give a brief introduction about Korean language to our members.
Korean language script which is called HANGUL is invented by King Saejeong, the fourth king of Chosun dynasty of korea, in the year 1443.
Before that Korean was written only in traditional Chinese characters known as HANJA in Korean language. Only upper class society or royal people known as YANGBANS used to learn it. It was very difficult and expensive to learn.
However king Saejeong thought that common people should be educated and should be able to understand the policies that royalties made for the kingdom. So he asked the scholars in his reign to invent a scientific and comprehensive language that could easily be learned.
Deriving sounds and shapes from natural elements such as sky, earth and mankind, they invented an alphabetical system.
Though most of its vocabularies are derived from Chinese language script this was comparatively easier to learn even for laymen.
It was opposed initially as YANGBANS thought they might lose their importance and status. But later on a mixed form of writing in sino-korean (HANJA) and pure Korean (HANGUL) came into trend.
The alphabets discovered traditionally were very different from what we use now. Even the structure and composition of syllables has also undergone many changes.
The very basic form of Korean alphabets were made using one dot representing sky, one horizontal line representing earth and one vertical line representing the mankind. That dot however has now been replaced with a line. It is also extremely intelligent that they designed consonants in such a manner that they look similar to the shape of our speech organs when we pronounce them.
Korean language has eight major dialects of speaking according to the provinces in Korea. Though the dialect used in Seoul is considered as standard form of Korean.
The basic sentence structure of Korean language is SOV (Subject + Object + Verb) just like Hindi or Japanese language. Unlike that English uses SVO pattern. Also in Korean language subject can be removed from the sentence. It is mostly implied especially if it is second person.
It is often seen that in translation of a sentence from Korean to English or vice versa person has to start from ending part of sentence and then proceed to the beginning part.
There are also some phonetic rules that follow while pronunciations. Sometimes it is pronounced differently than how it is written.
It is a disyllabic language. One syllable consists of a consonant followed by a vowel and one or set of two consonants below called PATCHIM. Those second consonants often change their sounds depending upon the following vowel or consonant