The Korean language! Learn it, practice it, ask about it...

[Caitlin]

안녕하세요~!
AnnyeongHaseyo~!
Hello~!

Took this idea from both the Chinese and Japanese sections, hehe... But I thought there should be a place everyone can go to in order to learn some Korean, ask any questions about the language or the culture, etc... And I figure that those of us who are still beginners can also practice in here, ya know, write little introductions about ourselves in Korean and such and ask if it's right...

If you're interested in learning Korean, the first thing I recommend you do is learn the Korean alphabet (Hangul)! It's very very easy - I memorized it all over a weekend. I learned Hangul here myself, but any of the sites listed below teach it too.

Here are some sites that have been really helpful to me...which I will isolate into a quote-box. ^^

http://www.learnkoreanlanguage.com/l...beginners.html
Scroll down for the lessons... I think I've learned the most from this site.

http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/
This is a really great and really professional site for learning Korean. It's got lessons with audio and video. Highly recommended.

http://rki.kbs.co.kr/learn_korean/lessons/e_index.htm
Provides lots of different lessons for different situations, and good audio!

http://www.learnkorean.com/lesson/kclassindex.asp
Good lessons here also.

http://www.langintro.com/kintro/index.htm
This was where I first taught myself the Korean alphabet - it lets you take baby steps instead of just flat-out giving you every sound and symbol in a big list, which can be overwhelming. And it teaches other things too!

If you know any other good sites, feel free to recommend them!

[BuNnIeMomiJi]

i wanna learn korean, but it's so hard. IMO it's harder than Japanese. the way you pronounce stuff is weird..

btw random question..are you korean?

[Caitlin]

Ah no, I am white. x] I'm taking an intensive Korean course at UCLA right now...until August 24th. But I am still a beginner at Korean hehe.

[yugidogz]

Annyunghaseyo! KT imnida! ^^;

That's about as far as a conversation would lead me. XD I can read in Korean too, but pronunciations are horrible! My bf always tells me it's just like Japanese, which I'm decent at speaking, but I'm like, Korean-Retarded XDD;;

[Joo Hei]

annyeonghaseyo! My name is Kim and I live in Sweden, I've been studying korean at the university of stockholm for about a year and I'm planning to do so next semester as well. I haven't studied japanese but I've heard that japanese and korean grammar are pretty much the same, but they don't use any chinese signs in korean, instead they have letters, which makes it a lot easier to read and write. It's a little bit difficult, but a lot of fun! I now start to understand what they are singing in k-pop songs and thats pretty cool.

Caitlin how long have you been studying korean? and what books do use? We use "integrated korean" from Hawaii Press.

[Caitlin]

I started teaching myself basic things online in late 2006...and I'm on my third week of the UCLA class, which started June 25th. ^^ AH my class uses the exact same books as you!
정말 우연이군요! <--- What a coincedence!
Hehe last Christmas I got an electronic Korean-English dictionary, you know, the things all the FOB Asians carry since they're not fluent in English yet? =) It's quite helpful...and has idioms and phrases as well, so I looked up 'What a coincedence!' x]

[Joo Hei]

yeah what a coincidence! It's a bit difficult for me sometimes because english is not my first language, but it works. I think the book is pretty OK.
An electronic dictionary would be great, but do they really work ? I think they're pretty expensive too, I don't believe I could afford one

There are not many people here who study korean, I've been learning for about a year and we were only about 10 students in my class, but there are sooo many people who's learning mostly japanese but also chinese. Are there many students in your class?

[Caitlin]

Yeh I think they are pretty expensive...but mine works well! It just takes a while to get accustomed to using its features and stuff, and to figure out exactly how to use it.

Ah my class is small too! 학생 아홉 명 있어요. [ Trying to get in as much practice as I can. xD ] Does your class use the workbook(s) too? Hehe I'm doing my homework from it right now. :} Ahh I'm so distracted at the moment...

[Entourage]

Omg just learned there was a korean seciton!

My contribution..

line up here
여기에 줄을 서시오

you make me happy
넌 나를 기쁘게 했다.

cheer up
기운 내세요

What happened to you?
무슨 일 있으세요?

Stand in grade order
계급 순서안에 참가하다

Good Night
잘자요.

I'm Embaressed
나 창피해

My head hurts
머리 아퍼.

Kayla wants to go to the beach.
카일아는 바다에 가고 싶어요.

Ahh~ Running out of ideas >_<

Tommorrow is my birthday.
내일은 제 생일이 예요.

Where are you going?
어디에가요?

What are these?
그게 뭐여요?

How much is it?
얼마예요?

That's all time i have for tonight >_<..

So why are you guys learning korean??

I'm personally going to be an ESL teacher in korea, That's my dream anyways..

[Caitlin]

Ah lots of Korean! ^^ Do you speak it? Or are those just phrases you know?

I'm learning it because...hm, well I'm obsessed with the dramas and the music [and the guys] and I just became interested in the whole culture in general. Everything Korean just kind of became my passion without me even meaning it to. ^^ Eek that sentence is kinda confusing... But yeah that just CALLS for learning the language as well!

That's so cool, that's something I'm kind of considering too! I do think it would be really fun to teach English to Korean speakers, or even vice versa.

[Entourage]

Nah i learn it,
I don't take classes though.

My mom won't let me i'm not old enough, almost 14 ^^

But really i'm going to move there to be an english teacher it would help to actually well be able to speak the native language. Those were just phrases of the top of my head. >< Ones that i think people would use ^-^

My favorite sections evarhh.

oh yeah i'm obsessed with it too. Don't worry youre not that only one. >

[yugidogz]

Originally Posted by Joo Hei

I haven't studied japanese but I've heard that japanese and korean grammar are pretty much the same, but they don't use any chinese signs in korean, instead they have letters, which makes it a lot easier to read and write. It's a little bit difficult, but a lot of fun! I now start to understand what they are singing in k-pop songs and thats pretty cool.

Yeah, they use the same S-O-V, whereas english is S-V-O. My bf tells me that a lot of particles in Japanese aren't used in Korean though. And they do use the Chinese characters, though I guess not in everyday or something? I don't know how that works at all; my bf's mom knows most of the Chinese characters for Korean use, but that's all I know about it. XD

With me and my friends, after watching Full House, I am OMMA-Gom, my bf is APPA-Gom, and our friend Agnes is EGGI-Gom! XD We have our whole family tree and everything, it's a lot of fun! I call my bf Da-Bear/Gom all the time too (his name is Da, lol), and my friend Alisa calls her bf "Koji-Gom"

[Entourage]

I love that song

Oppa Kom - My friend Morgan
Omma Kom - Meee~
AGI KOM - My friend Elly~

^_^ I ove how song hye kyo sung it and bi was so cute ^^

[felinius]

Originally Posted by yugidogz

Yeah, they use the same S-O-V, whereas english is S-V-O. My bf tells me that a lot of particles in Japanese aren't used in Korean though. And they do use the Chinese characters, though I guess not in everyday or something? I don't know how that works at all; my bf's mom knows most of the Chinese characters for Korean use, but that's all I know about it. XD

Korean uses a lot more consonant/vowel particles that are absent in Japanese. Japanese uses lots of kanji to specify meaning. Korean doesn't use hanja much...

[MiyaBi_Na]

I used to be really into korean language back when I was in highschool...I learned a lot of the language and wrote REALLY well... I worked with all korean ladies back then and they always told me I had beautiful korean handwriting~ even nicer than a native writes!!! (but that's all my handwriting...I love my handwriting..it's so puuuuurdy! lol)

I kinda forgot it all now though >.< well..I know how to write still (all the letters and how to put it together)...but I just can't remember a great deal of vocab anymore! ;_;
especially since I took Japanese college courses...Korean seemed to be replaced in my brain a bit!!! LOL

CHOTI HWIGHTING!! LOOOOOOL! (anyone know what I'm talking about? >.>)

[Joo Hei]

Originally Posted by Caitlin

Yeh I think they are pretty expensive...but mine works well! It just takes a while to get accustomed to using its features and stuff, and to figure out exactly how to use it.

Ah my class is small too! 학생 아홉 명 있어요. [ Trying to get in as much practice as I can. xD ] Does your class use the workbook(s) too? Hehe I'm doing my homework from it right now. :} Ahh I'm so distracted at the moment...

Yes, we use the workbooks too. I guess there aren't many books to choose from when learning korean. and certaily no ones in swedish

I'm adopted from Korea and I was really surprised that there were a lot of other korean adoptees in my class. Ever since I was little I've always been interested in everything korean. So I've always wanted to learn more about the contry I came from. Are there any korean adoptees in your class too? And do you only study the korean language, 'cause when my course started I wanted to focus mostly on the language part, but found out later that history, economics and social studies was included. They can be pretty boring sometimes, but you actually get a better understanding for the language if you know some of how the korean society works.

What I find very difficult is how to talk towards different people, when to use mnida/sumnida, -iyeyo/yeyo, panmal (there are soo many speach levels!) and when to use honorific expressions etc. I'm starting to get used too it but in the beginning I was so confused

[Joo Hei]

Originally Posted by yugidogz

Yeah, they use the same S-O-V, whereas english is S-V-O. My bf tells me that a lot of particles in Japanese aren't used in Korean though. And they do use the Chinese characters, though I guess not in everyday or something? I don't know how that works at all; my bf's mom knows most of the Chinese characters for Korean use, but that's all I know about it. XD

yeah, I found out that I'm going to learn some hanja. I've just started and I keep mixing up all the characters. It's very difficult! But I talked to some korean exchange students and they say they don't use them very much in korea. well I dunno....I think the signs are very beautiful though, but difficult to remember all different strokes.

[Dutchie]

O thanks for the websites I really want to learn korean... the only thing I can say is hello, and my name is... but the pronouncuation is so difficult, I've 3 penpals in Korea, and I don't even know how to pronouncuate their names.. so if somebody can help me?? their names are jinju and seon-a and jeongmi...
I want to learn Korean so bad!! maybe I even go study it at the university when I finished this school.. it's Korean culture and language study... It's so cool.. but really nobody want to learn it.. if you are lucky you maybe have 2 other classmates... but well I think it's cool...
OHw I also know a website where you can Learn Korean and other languages... it's www.byki.com

[Caitlin]

That's really interesting Joo Hei ^^ though I have no Korean adoptees in my class. All of them are either full or half Korean and just want to know their language. Except for one guy who's taking it because he'll be working in Seoul for 10 months. And then there's me who's just taking it as a result of being obsessed with everything Korean. :] We actually haven't been learning about the history or culture, but it's probably because the class is fitting in a year-and-a-half of Korean all in only 9 weeks.

Hi Dutchie, yeh Korean pronunciation is pretty difficult...just takes a lot of practice! Can you read Korean? It's a lot easier to know how to pronounce things when you read Hangul rather than romanized (written in English) Korean. Their names would basically be pronounced Jeen-joo (진주), Sun-ah (선아), and Jung-mee (정미).

Ah BYKI, I forgot about that site! I have that downloaded for Korean and the flashcards are really good. ^^

[Dutchie]

Originally Posted by Caitlin

Hi Dutchie, yeh Korean pronunciation is pretty difficult...just takes a lot of practice! Can you read Korean? It's a lot easier to know how to pronounce things when you read Hangul rather than romanized (written in English) Korean. Their names would basically be pronounced Jeen-joo (진주), Sun-ah (선아), and Jung-mee (정미).

Ah BYKI, I forgot about that site! I have that downloaded for Korean and the flashcards are really good. ^^

aah thank you