Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tommy]

I'm going to start learning the basics of Korean and then work my way up, but i need to start out with the alphabet! I'm looking for a alphabet song for Hangul.. does one exist? Something I can hum while I walk to work. Something that will aid me in not forgetting it!

The only thing I could find was this: http://media.putfile.com/Korean-Alphabet-Song-in-Japanese.

Except it's not very.... practical

[pet lover]

[tomato]

Doggone it, Tommy!

Now you've gotten me interested!
I've been studying Korean for 6 years, and I still haven't learned all of the alphabet.
Consequently, I have a heck of a time looking up words.
Maybe I should have asked the same question 6 years ago.

I found that same video, but under a different URL address:

http://www.idoo.net/?menu=talk&sub=humor&mode=read&no=5878&pno=1

The pop singer in the cartoon sings through the consonants for 4 measures.
Then for the next 4 measures, he sings through the vowels--not all of them, but 10 of them, and in the correct order.
Then the next 4 measures seems to be something in Japanese.

Then the pop singer shouts out each consonant name,
whereupon an invisible child's voice names something beginning with that consonant.

Then the 12 measures are repeated.

Then the pop singer shouts out each vowel name,
whereupon the child's voice-over names something beginning with that vowel.

I got the 8 measures which you need:



Now if you will excuse me, I must walk to work--while humming the alphabet song.

[ajgeddes]

That is definitely no alphabet song. That would be like an English one where we said "Ah Buh Cuh Duh Euh Efuh Guh......."

They need something where it goes 기업, 니은, 디긋 ... and so on (spelling??). I asked my students today and they said there really isn't one. I do find it funny that no one really knows the names of the letters, I mean people learning the language.

[ttompatz]

[ajgeddes]

not to learn the names of the letters though

[Tommy]

Wow, nice work Tomato! I'll have to try it out

It's not so much the names of the letters, but the pronunciation i'm looking for.. so adding the vowelㅏ to each consonant doesn't bother me at all. However, I'm sure there are advantages to actually knowing the names of the letters.

[stumptown]

The advantage to knowing the names of the letters helps when you are trying to spell a word. The consonants all have names but the vowel sounds are all phonetic. I found that learning the letter names has helped tremendously when there is a discretion in hearing the word. You can ask the speaker the letter's name to make the distinction.

[simone]

There are no spelling bees in Korea.

It would simply be repeating each individual syllable loudly and clearly.

[HamuHamu]

[ajgeddes]

I hope this is good. Also, all the vowels go in under the 이응

[Son Deureo!]

I never knew of any songs, but to help me remember the order of the vowels (helpful for looking things up in a paper dictionary, before I had an electronic dictionary), I used to sing the vowels to the tune of a Gregorian chant:

아 야 어 여 오 요 우 유 으 이....

From there, you also have to remember that ㅐ and ㅔ are actually compound vowels (ㅏ + ㅣ = ㅐ, ㅓ + ㅣ = ㅔ).

I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for, but it helped me.

[Peeping Tom]

To be honest, I think Koreans have trouble remembering their alphabet to some extent. By that I mean they aren't always sure whether those stressed consonants (ㅆ,ㅃ,ㅉ,etc) are considered separate letters or not.

And to add to that, North Korea has a slightly different order than South Korea. I guess it just hasn't be standardized long enough to write a song. Might as well wait until reunification to decide upon a unified order and write a song for it.

[stumptown]

[pet lover]