Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rabidcake]

I�m in the process of teaching myself how to read Hangul, but it seems like it�s taking me a while. I was hoping to master it in like a week, but it might take me longer to master how to read it and say all that different types of constants and dipthongs.

How long did it take you to learn Hangul? I am more interested in hearing about korean language learners that learned it while outside of korea, and how long it took them.

[Rusty Shackleford]

It took me 2 hours to learn and about 3 months to master it. It's easy to learn in KOrea, because you can practice all the time. I never actually opened the book again after that initial 2 hours. Except to check back that I was pronouncing it right.

[Wangja]

As Rusty said, about 2 hours to read and pronounce the letters.

To read and understand complete all words - years, and still working on it.

[frankly speaking]

It took me about a day to be able to read most signs. It took another few weeks to get all of the vowel blends. I can phonetically read anything that I see in Korean, but it took a little longer to write it. I still get mixed up on a few vowel blends.

It is one of the easiest (perhaps the easiest) written languages. However remembering vocab. is a lot tougher. I also have a hard time still picking out certain words when Koreans talk. They slur even worse than Americans with English.

Don't beat yourself up over taking more time to learn it. We all take our time and many who brag about learning it, really don't know it that well. Most can read simple signs but still have an awful time with pronunciation. Really get a friend to help with pronunciation. Recognizing shapes is one thing but to be able to fully read newspapers, or even labels on food takes a little while.

[Steelrails]

What helped me the most was getting into K-Poop music and singing songs at church.

Like most I learned the fundamentals in a day's lesson. No mistakes in the basic romanizations in like another day or two. Getting the pronunciation down, well that's been like 10+ years running.

Being able to read at a decent pace and sound "close enough" happened in like 3 months of church singing and noraebanging with my friends (thank goodness Ann Arbor has 3 noraebangs.) Listening to K-poop everyday helped. Now I can rap to some of the more mellow raps in K-pop.

Reading those church tracts are hard though, lots of weird sounders.

[hugekebab]

[oldtactics]

Same as everyone else - the actual letters are easy to learn, the specific pronunciations take longer. Ask your Korean coworkers and friends. Ask Koreans everywhere you go. One of the hardest parts of learning a new language is just confidence and being worried that you're going to make a mistake - Koreans, in my experience, are happy to help (for better or worse) if you're pronouncing something incorrectly. Don't be embarassed, just try as best you can and adapt as you learn.

[Ruthdes]

I learned to read it within a month of getting here, but found that taking lessons after I'd learned all the characters was really helpful for improving pronunciation, as well as gaining a general understanding of how the language works. A few hours is enough to really consolidate what you taught yourself. Use a professional teacher for the best results.

After that, I got really busy at work and stopped taking lessons, but almost 2 years later, I still read signs everywhere I go. My development seems to have been a series of improvements and plateaus. I finally started taking lessons again in August this year and now can read sentences with familiar vocabulary pretty easily at a decent speed.

[dunc180]

I love this quote about Hangul:

"A wise man can acquaint himself with them before the morning is over; a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days."

~ From the Haerye, the book that sets out the rules of Hangul.