Korean Vowels and Consonants

This video expands on the introduction to vowels from the basic 10 to another 11.
Four pairs of consonants with both weak and stronger pronunciation are illustrated with examples.
Online virtual Korean keyboard and Sejong Korean vocabulary phone app are also mentioned.


Watch at Youtube if you need the bookmarks, https://youtu.be/YFcQvBVSTrM

Learn Korean free

This post is specially for those wanting to translate name to Korean. For those with Chinese character name, the Korean version of name is authentic as the Korean language has easily 60% loan words from Chinese language. For those without Chinese name, the convert name to Korean would be by sound, e.g Mary to 메리.

This is the very first video in a series but as of now I do not know how many I could create in total.

 Just check back this blog for updates. 

You can leave questions or comments related to this video at this post. 

Watching at YouTube will display the timestamps or bookmarks to the various sections of the video and you can turn on the YouTube -generated English subtitles https://youtu.be/sr52eHYI458

The table of common Chinese family names in Singapore already translated from Chinese to Korean surname. You can use it as example or to confirm that your attempt to translate to Korean is correct. Then proceed to convert to Korean your second and third Chinese character to Korean.

Homework:

1.     Translate your name to Korean. If there are vowels or consonants in your name not yet taught, then come back and continue to learn more. 

2.     Listen to pronunciation of vowels and consonants at:

(a) http://www.sejonghakdang.org/storage/kosnet/precourse/en/04/04_03.html
Click the row header to have the whole row read to you. Similarly, click the column header to have the whole header read to you.

(b) http://mooc.yonsei.ac.kr/ksh/

You need to first drag & pull in a consonant from the left, then a vowel from the top. Click the combination to have it read to you.

3.     Practice writing Hangeul on blank white paper (you can draw your own rows/columns, if needed) because it is more difficult to write Hangeul on lined foolscap paper.

Those with printer, can use this Hangeul Writing Practice Sheet PDF file.

It is believed that writing once is equivalent to reading five times and practice by pronouncing each character after writing it out.

How to speak Korean for Beginners

Speaking Korean for beginners

 I used to see this series of Korean books at Kyobo bookstore in Seoul.

Do not know why NLB treats it as a reference book and it cannot be borrowed out, you have to go to Level 8 of Central Library and sit in there to read this book.

Korean Picture Dictionary

 This Korean Picture Dictionary can be found in NLB.

Korean picture dictionary : learn 1,200 Korean words and phrases

This Korean picture dictionary covers the 1,200 most useful Korean words and phrases. Each word and sentence is given in Korean Hangeul characters with a Romanized version to help you pronounce it correctly and the English meaning. The words are grouped into 40 different themes or topics. Each theme has around 30 words and several example sentences showing how the words are used. Each page is richly illustrated with dozens of color photographs. The enclosed free Audio CD contains recordings by native Korean speakers of all the vocabulary and sentences in the book, to allow you to practice pronouncing them. An introduction to Korean pronunciation and grammar is included and indexes at the back allow you to quickly look up the words in this easy-to-use Korean dictionary

Conversational Korean ... ideal for Kpop fans and Kdrama fans

 A new 352-page book published by Tuttle in 2023 and in the NLB collection.

The Table of Contents is available for preview at the NLB link below:

Conversational Korean : everyday phrases and vocabulary ideal for K-pop and K-drama fans!. 

You can read the sample of 72 pages online for free Conversational Korean: Everyday Phrases and Vocabulary I cannot find the free audio files, leave me a Comment if you manage to find them.

Korean Textbooks with voice of Korean actor Lee Jun Ki - Hello Korean / Hola Coreano

Actor Lee Jun Ki has two books, titled Hello Korean. Even if you are not his fan, can check out his books. I always felt that if Korean celebrities with great voices and diction were to lend their voices for the audio accompanying Korean learning textbooks, we would learn Korean much faster!

He has Korean textbooks in other languages (e.g. Japanese, Spanish) besides learning Korean through English.

You can copy and paste this to search "이준기와 함께하는 안녕하세요 한국어"

 

Korean Textbooks - KLEAR Series

 I highly recommend the "Integrated Korean" series of 14 books but NLB has only 8 of them and they are not available as ebook at NLB, so borrow the physical books by locating the library shelf with call number starting with 495.78xxx 

Expect to see Japanese books next to the Korean language books.

KLEAR textbooks in Korean

Korean Textbooks by King Ross - Elementary Korean, Continuing Korean, Advanced Korean

Free Korean books you can borrow from Singapore public libraries (NLB).

Digital Korean language textbooks are available for borrowing. 

First, if you do not already have one, is to sign up for Singapore NLB MyLibrary ID,
https://account.nlb.gov.sg/

Then you can follow the guide for those new to NLB e-books,
https://mobileapp.nlb.gov.sg/get-started-with/libby/

I assumed that ebooks are available in unlimited "copies" but no, so if a popular book is not available, you need to reserve via "Place Hold". 

Of course, one of the first things I did was to search for "Korean" and filter by choosing Subjects -> Language Arts. And I am glad a number of books I often recommend are available as NLB's ebooks and I share them below. I like the series of three books by King Ross and his co-authors:

ELEMENTARY KOREAN

CONTINUING KOREAN

ADVANCED KOREAN