Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tsm174]

Hey guys, I wasn't sure how many people are actually interested in learning how to read Korean characters, but I can tell you that it is definitely a useful skill to have, and it's actually very easy. I found this link---------> http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Korean/Alphabet .... which makes it very easy. The language was actually designed to be easy to learn, and there are only 24 basic characters to learn (2 less than our own language, and how easy is that?!). Anyway, I spent about half an hour a day while I was bored at work, and after a few days I was reading signs and finding new places. Good luck, I hope it helps someone!

[dean_burrito]

Definitely easy to learn and well worth the time spent doing it. Here's another site that I used to learn, www.catcode.com

[WendyRose]

Anyone can learn to read Korean in less than an hour and once you know the characters you'll realize a lot of their words are similar to English words.

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

[Pojogae]

Sejong reckoned a wise man can learn it in a morning, and an idiot in ten days. Took me three days, although I had a lot on that week.

[Soju808]

For learning Hangul,

I would say it takes about 2 hours to learn how recognize the characters.
An hour to learn how to stack them properly.
And about a week of practice to read it fluidly.

[Chet Wautlands]

I'm sorry, guys, but Korean CANNOT be learned. It is simply TOO hard. You must have all been learning another language...

[Soju808]

[Chet Wautlands]

I was NOT being sarcastic. No foreigner has EVER learned to speak even BASIC Korean. If it could be done, you'd at least know of ONE foreigner who can do it.

Foreigners can learn French, Spanish, Italian and even German. Foreigners cannot learn Korean. I'm sorry!

......note: today is graduation day and I have a lot of free time.

[Rusty Shackleford]

For me it took about 3 hours to learn the letters and how they fit together.

[English Matt]

[Soju808]

[mnhnhyouh]

Here is a good tip for those learning to read Korean, use the subway. If you have to stand, stand in front of the whole subway map. You then get the English and Korean of each and every station on the map.

Then when the audio announces each station you get to hear how they are said.

h

[Chet Wautlands]

Hey Soju,

I was joking about the foreigners not being able to learn Korean thing. I had lots of free time yesterday. That having been said, your response was thoughtful and encouraging.

I can read Korean, speak enough to get me by, and am slowly becoming conversational. Grind grind grind...

[Pwillig]

The only hard about learning Korean to me is remembering the vocabulary. I got to an intermediate level in Japanese, and that really helped to learn Korean grammar. Learning Kanji (Hanja in Korean?) kind of sucked, but it made remembering vocab so much easier. Korean words just sound like random sounds to me and I have trouble creating that meaningful link.