Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ellamarie]

I just bought the teach yourself package to start learning Korean. It comes with a lesson book and 2 cds which was exactly what I was looking for. The first word the book introduces is "thank you" which the book has romanized to ko-map-sum-ni-da. I'm confused because I have seen this word spelled out gamsa-hamnida and heard it pronounced the same way. So, anyone know what's up?

[n3ptne]

Yeh... thats a common problem and it boils down to this: Transliteration is crap. G's become K's, etc, etc.

The only way you're ever going to learn anything about this language is if you learn how to read it first, and then learn how to speak it by reading the Hangul.

Take Pusan for instance... its spelled Pusan on maps and signs... and still I wouldnt be suprised if there were a good deal of foreigners here who would be shocked to find out its Busan. Hell, there are foreigners here who say Pusan with a P like they're in the know... not to mention the lot who are going to tell me it really is Pusan...

[caniff]

Gomap sumnida and kamsa hamnida are both 'Thank you'. Can't be bothered typing the Hangul now.

You should learn how to read Hangul, however, if you are going to be in Korea for any length of time.

[ontheway]

But 부산 is not Busan or Pusan, because ㅂ isn't either b or p.

So, yeah you're right. Get rid of the books and tapes that transliterate and use a series that starts with the Korean alphabet. I recommend "Korean Through English" from Seoul National University. It has some mistakes but it's not bad.

Also, be aware that the Korean/English dictionaries are full of thousands of translation errors. One of the big problems in Korean public schools is that they usually teach English by translation, yet the translations they teach are wrong. Then they memorize grammar rules written, incorrectly by a Korean in Korean. Mix the bad grammar with incorrect vocabulary and throw in some Konglishi and voila ...

Study Korean in Korean, if you can find the books or a teacher.

Teach English in English.

[Satori]

Go map seum ni da is the pure Korean for thankyou

Gam sa ham ni da is the sino Korean for thankyou

[vox]

I heard that too (gomabseumnida is more traditional Korean) but a Korean friend also told me it really means more like 'I appreciate it' ... a little difference from 'thank you'.

[bucheon bum]

[ellamarie]

[Ya-ta Boy]

The words you are asking about are basically variations of the same thing. Nothing to worry about at your beginning stage. Just pick one and learn it. Also learn how to say 'hello', 'good bye', 'Do you have...?', 'How much is it?'' and the numbers. Those alone will get you by.

The most useful thing you can do for yourself now is to learn the alphabet. For me, the easiest way to do that was to select some city and food names and learn to read and write them in Korean. Within a few days I had the alphabet down. Once you have the alphabet, you can read the Korean words and skip the transliterations which are often useless, and have a reasonable shot at pronouncing the word at least semi-correctly.

[Newbie]

Am I the only rocket scientist that can figure out that if sometimes it is a "k" and sometimes a "g" than the actual pronunciation falls in somewhere between k and g. Same goes for "B" and "P".

[the_beaver]

[ajgeddes]

Sorry to say it Ellemarie, but that book is crap. I bought it before I came over here, and it is absolutely full of mistakes. I was showing it to my girlfriend, and she had a great laugh at how bad it was. Sure, it is useful for teaching a few things, but as soon as you get to Korea, buy a different book.

In that book, just wait until you get to parts where the romanization just makes absolutely no sense and doesn't explain why it is that way. YOU HAVE TO LEARN THE KOREAN ALPHABET!!

Good luck and just stick with it, don't take the easy road at the beginning, you can do it!

[doggyji]

I heard "Teach Yourself Korean" book is not very recommendable multiple times. The thing is there are not many Korean learning books with decent audio CDs available on Amazon.com, right? Maybe you should check out some Korean-learning internet sites, too. Don't forget to check the url in my signiture.

[SPINOZA]

Obviously people are right when they say learn the Korean alphabet, Ellamarie, but also obviously....listen closely to the sounds Korean people make. That'll take a bit of time to identify the sounds and equate them with the Korean letters in your head. Equating ㅌ with 't', ㅈ with 'j' and ㄱ with k/g is all well and good at first because it gets you started, but after a while you'll realize that none of the consonents in Korean exist in English at all.

[Bulsajo]