Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Keepongoing]

How long Did it Take You to learn To Really Read Korean? Were you welf taught , or did someone help you? What method dd you use?

[Eazy_E]

Self-study is all you need. I began studying it in Vancouver airport and on the plane over here. A cute Korean-Canadian chick in the Starbucks saw what I was doing and she was impressed. Too bad I was just leaving... *sigh*.

Anyways, you need a book like the Lonely Planet Korean phrasebook that can teach you all the characters. Then get a Korean to tell you how each one actually sounds. English can only approximate it.

It took me just a few weeks to get comfortable reading it.

[Son Deureo!]

A lot of people say they managed to do it in a day or two, but it was about two weeks before I really had it committed to memory.

I learned by carrying a phrasebook with me and practicing on street signs and the like. I didn't really have anyone to help me, and I didn't learn about the patchim transformations until a few months later.

If you PM me your email address I'll send you a short guide (it's a Word file so I can't post it) that I wrote to teach friends that is probably better than what you'll see in a lot of phrasebooks and beginner textbooks. It also has a list of English loanwords and place names to practice on.

[mack the knife]

A clever person can learn it in an afternoon, so the saying goes. You can certainly learn how to speak the symbols in that amount of time. Eventually, you'll probably find yourself reading every damn Korean word you come across. It's maddening, and inevitable. Don't worry, though. It passes with time.

[hojucandy]

probably 30 minutes maximum.

i mean come on - it is a very easy alphabet!

i taught myself before i came here. i found a good page online that included the pronunciations. don't remember the url, this was a few years ago.

as for the language itself... that takes a while longer. am still working on that...

568

[just because]

Honestly about a week for all the sounds except for the bloody wha, whae, whi, sounds.
They still trick me up occasionally sometimes.

[blah]

It��s pretty simple, and doesn��t take long to figure out. Like any language, mastering the correct pronunciation of vowels takes more work.

I, too, find myself sounding out every sign I pass – kind of like little kids do when they first start to read. And like them, I��m pretty slow. I think it would take quite a while to read at the speed required to keep up with subtitles on a movie screen. Maybe I��m just not that great at it .

[merryprankster]

Make a couple of flash cards, shut off the music and you'll learn it in a couple of hours.

A bit choppy at first, but, as a previous poster noted, you'll begin to read all signs, and then you'll find yourself ordering food at a restaurant before you know it- whether you know what you're ordering or not.

Be flexible, enjoy.

One shot.

[jazblanc77]

Six hours of writing, reading, and repeating:

�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ī Ÿ �� �� with each vowel sound and then memorising the blended sounds made me competent enough at first. This is also how Koreans learn.

[Blind Willie]

Reading took me a week or two to memorize it.

Speaking will see me dead long before I can call for help, if you get my meaning...

[Sleepy in Seoul]

It took me 2 hours to learn the alphabet, and a few days to be able to sound out the syllable groups. It took a few months more to be able to sound out words properly (I was in my second-last year studying Computer Science at the time, so it took a wee bit longer than it should have).

It's not a hard language to read and write, but the grammar still has me stumped (I'm so lazy ).

A Korean friend forced me to learn the alphabet before anything else - I am so grateful for that now.

[bibimbap]

sit down for an hour and write out the characters. very easy. you'll have them learned.

there are many minor changes to characters (silent, aspiration, inflection). hangukmal has many lovely nuances.

sometimes i think if i stayed for an extra year, i might actually get intermediate conversation skills... but then i think, 'screw it, this country is full of racists and i hate my job.' it literally makes me nauseous to think of that.

oops. sorry. off-topic.

[chiaa]

Learning to read is very very simple. It depends on a person, but you should be able to read signs in a day or two (you sound like a tart at first)

There is a great book for learning to read Korean and it is really cheap.

"Learn to read Korean in 40 minutes" or it is titled "Learn to Korean sentence structure in 40 minutes" Something along those lines with the 40 minutes. I don't have any in the store so I am not trying to plug it to meet this month's sales goals (it is published in Korea and I don't deal with Korean publishers at this point). The book is either red or blue and is around 5-6.000 Won and can be found at any of the big rip-off stores

The way that everything is explained, well you know that it is written by an older man that has old fashion values and views. But it really does help you to understand and memorize quickly. They should hand this book out when people get their alien cards. I have to say that it is the only book on learning the Korean language that I have ever liked.

Has anyone noticed that the books made to learn Korean are not as good as books to say learn German or Spanish?

http://www.whatthebook.com

[JacktheCat]

[itaewonguy]

I learnt it in a couple days! I remember why girlfriend taught me in my room at nights.. and I learnt it pretty much in about 2 or 3 days.. we only studied about 1 hour a time.. ITS EASY!! then I would just practice myself on the bus try to read signs etc... so I had it down good in a week!
im not 100% im about 90% still some senteces words get me.. when reading books.. I have never studied korean in 7 years. since when I first came.. so I have not improved,,I just go by memory from the first 1 week I studied..

it can be learnt in a few hours..