Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

There's no excuse for anyone not to read Korean. You live here and you really need to figure out some of the things you see all time. Some are useful to know. (Guess I'm talking to newer people,
but have heard of people beyond a year still unable to read... yikes)

I was here 3 months. One day, sat down, figured it out in a few hours. Most will agree, it's easy to read. Speaking, however....

[tiger fancini]

About 3 months too. Only because I was lazy. When I finally got it, I was pretty ashamed that it had taken that long. I'm currently trying to increase my speed, reading signs as the bus I'm on whizzes past shops, and also trying to read subtitles while I watch English movies. My speaking however, is pi$$-poor.

[Atavistic]

I was taught, two days before I got on the plane, by a guy who'd been to Korea 3-4 years before I came. You should have seen the shock on people's places when I said I'd been here less than 24 hrs and I could sound things out. Learning the shifting sounds took more time and sometimes I still screw up the shifting sounds. I'm not sure when I got fairly quickly at reading silently, but now I recognize the syllables very quickly.

[Demophobe]

Learned to read it before I came to Korea. A couple of weeks sitting around by the pool was all it took.

[CentralCali]

On the flight over from Tokyo to Seoul, back in the Summer of 1977, a Japanese man who worked as a teacher in Seoul taught me Hangeul (of course, back then, the romanization was different). It's not that I'm a good student; rather, he was an excellent teacher.

[SuperHero]

The first weekend after I got here I went to the bookstore picked up a book and a few hours later I could read. Took a couple of months to do it with anything approaching ease.

[Oreovictim]

I can read it, but I'm not the fastest reader; that's for sure. There are a few things that throw me off; there are three vowels that all sound like "way" to me, and I can't tell the difference. I don't know where I stand on pronunciation. I can say a word, and maybe 80% of the people will understand. Then I can use that same word with someone else, and they'll have no idea what I'm saying.

[PeteJB]

Learning how to read it, well, no idea. It just happened.

But learning how to TRUELY read it the way it's pronounced and not just written, well that seems to never end!

[tigerbluekitty]

Learned to read the Korean alphabet about three weeks before I arrived to teach.
I went to this site http://langintro.com/kintro/

Best of all, it was convenient and free! Took a day to learn everything.

[karma police]

i'm a dumb ass. it took me at least a year to 18 months to learn to read a simple sentence in Hangul... took me at least 5 years to reach an advanced intermediate level of listening and speaking the language.

i blame it on the ganga i smoked in college, endo...

[tzechuk]

2 weeks.

[Iago]

Yeah the Korean alphabet is great. So mathematical. Only took about an hour or so to get. Reading was a bit more difficult cos u have to sound out every letter. writing and spelling on the other hand is not so straight forward (mind u my English spelling is not the flashest kk).

But i too suffer a bit from the ganga i think.

[the_beaver]

I learned it on one rainy afternoon a couple of weeks after I got here.

[pkang0202]

I know a guy that refuses to learn any Korean. Of course, its the same guy that always asks other people to help him out.

[evilive]

Do you all mean read as in know what the words mean or read as in know what letters/words they are?..I can semi read Hangul but once I've translated I still haven't a clue what the word means:p

Just bought Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary so thats helping a little, but hey I've got a while yet, still working on finishing my degree in England..