How to learn Korean on your own. How do I learn Korean. my experience
There are not many really good Korean language textbooks for beginners in Russia. And this is despite the fact that they provide a fairly good explanation of the grammatical material, a lot of useful vocabulary. The disadvantage of textbooks for a Russian-speaking audience is that some of them do not have audio recordings and even keys to exercises. That is why it is better not to limit yourself to self-study, but to additionally attend courses and look for acquaintances with Koreans to develop conversational skills.
Proven Textbooks for Learning Korean from Scratch1. “Korean textbook. Basic course" Kasatkina I.L., Chon In Sun, Pentyukhova V.E. The book is intended for students who are studying Korean for the first year. There is enough material in the manual to master good writing skills, learn grammar. The textbook is designed for approximately 180-200 hours of classroom work. The manual is recommended by many students who have studied Korean, but it does not have audio and answers to exercises.
2. Textbooks written by the teachers of the Korean Won Gwan School for students with different levels of training: Introductory Course 초급한국어, Korean Intermediate Course 중급 한국어 and Basic Korean Course 고급 한국어. These textbooks are among the most famous among Russian students. In the manuals, the emphasis is on grammar, there are answers to the exercises. The books come with discs with texts and dialogues. The downside is that there are no listening tasks.
3. "Korean Language Textbook" Verkholyak V.V., Kaplan T.Yu., Galkina L.V., Kozhemyako V.N. and "Textbook of the Korean language" by Verkholyak V.V., Kaplan T.Yu. Benefits for beginners. The books are designed for approximately 400 hours of classroom work. They contain material on phonetics, grammar and vocabulary of the Korean language, but there is no audio for the books, so it is better to study them with a teacher or use them as additional materials for classes.
4. Textbooks of the National Institute of International Education of the Republic of Korea NIIED. There are only four such textbooks. On the plus side, they correspond to the levels of the Korean TOPIK exam. There are exercises in the textbooks to work out all the language skills, but, unfortunately, there are no answers. Therefore, you need to find someone who will check the execution of tasks.
5. “Korean language (Introductory course)” Choi Yang Sun. This course will be a good addition to your main textbook. In addition, this book can be used as a self-study, as it comes with an audio CD and answers to the exercises. The advantage of the textbook can be called a large number of dialogues.
6. Manuals for learning the Korean language author Kogay Yu.P. - "Phonetics", "Hieroglyphics", "Morphology", "Syntax", "Conversational Korean", "Phraseological units of the Korean language", etc. Not all of the manuals were published, but the author posted them for free access. The books are really worthy of your attention.
7. "Basic Korean: A Grammar and Workbook" by Andrew Sangpil Byon. A textbook for those who study Korean for the first year. The manual contains grammar exercises. You can study on your own or with a teacher.
8. "Korean grammar in Use"- a series of three textbooks that are compiled in the same way as English grammar in Use. Those. in the book, in each lesson, a grammatical construction + rules of use with examples + exercises for working out the material are given. These benefits are not to be missed.
Here is a small overview we have. By the way, most of the Korean textbooks listed here can be found on our website.
I started learning Korean a year before my first trip to South Korea. And here many people often ask this terribly embarrassing question: “Daria, how long have you been learning Korean?” People, why are you so cruel?!
I first started learning Korean in the fall of 2010. Yes, yes, I have been studying Korean for 7 years and still do not speak it. Everything! Confessed! And like a stone from the soul. For me, as a person who sincerely believes that, if desired, any language at an intermediate level can be learned in 6-12 months, it is painful to write about seven years. But in fact, we also had good times with the Korean language. Somehow I even passed TOPIK at level 2!
Difficulties in learning Korean
The Korean language is very strange! I can be called a polyglot and with other (European languages) I have never experienced such difficulties as with the Korean language. What have I experienced Difficulties in learning Korean:
- Pronunciation. I am still not given all the sounds and I do not always remember 100 and one rule for reading Korean words.
- Korean words are not memorized. I cannot easily reproduce them (except for memorized phrases), I cannot easily write them (even memorized phrases).
- Sometimes it seems to me that Korean grammar has more exceptions than rules.
- I perceive written texts more or less well, I can even write (if I remember how the word is spelled), but the Korean spoken language is often just a set of sounds that are pleasant to the ear for me.
- If I stop learning Korean for at least a week, that's it! I can start learning the alphabet again. It's horrible! I started to learn the Korean alphabet 10 times already. And I still haven't learned it.
But all this does not stop me in my desire to learn Korean someday to some decent conversational level. For this reason, from time to time I run the Korean Marathon with a group of enthusiasts (read more about what it is). The next one will start tomorrow, so if you want to learn Korean too, feel free to join to our Vkontakte group.
Korean learning apps
- 세종한국어어휘학습 (or Sejong Korean Vocabulary - Basic) The application is developed by the King Sejong Institute, which promotes the Korean language around the world. It is designed for beginners and helps build vocabulary. What I especially like is the high-quality voice acting of words, phrases and sentences.
- PopPopping Korean The application will help you put the correct Korean pronunciation. Suitable even for complete beginners, because the entire learning process is based on pictures. In the sequel, there is also Poppopping Korean–Conversation, in which the simplest dialogues on everyday topics are voiced.
- An unofficial application of the most, in my opinion, interesting project dedicated to the study of Korean - Talk to me in Korean Everything is in English, but you can collect a huge number of colloquial phrases in Korean from the Koreans themselves for a variety of language proficiency levels. What I also like is cultural references and funny videos.
- Learn Korean 6000 Words by Fun Easy Learn The first of all applications translated into Russian. There are probably really 6000 words, but they are divided into normal semantic blocks and you can safely not learn what you consider unnecessary. Words are accompanied by pictures (as I like), pronunciation is voiced by living people, games of varying complexity are used for memorization. One of the nicest apps I've ever used.
In South and North Korea, as well as in the territory of the Chinese Autonomy of Yanban, the official language is Korean. Also, this language is alive within various other countries: from Kyrgyzstan to Canada and Japan. After all, a huge Korean diaspora lives on their territories, which has preserved its traditions.
In order to travel to a foreign country, you need to familiarize yourself with all the details that will be needed during your stay. Learning Korean from scratch will be useful for those who plan to move permanently to the corresponding country (or just visit it as a tourist), get acquainted with the culture and life, and it will also be useful for polyglots who are eager to learn a new foreign language . To speak this amazing dialect, you must follow simple rules and learn step by step.
Over the past few years, interest in the language has skyrocketed. You might be thinking, "If the Korean alphabet is so logical, then why are all the letters messed up and not just straight lines?" Well, it's an ingenious part of the Korean alphabet that makes learning new words and ideas super easy! However, this is likely different from the letter orders in the alphabets you are most familiar with using.
When assembled, they look like 산 which is pronounced "san". Instead of being only three letters per line, it makes a nice standalone block! Korean essentially consists of three types of words. Words that are "pure" Korean; Words based on English; Words based on Chinese characters. When we see 山 in Chinese, we know it means mountain. Similarly, in Chinese-based Korean words, each block in Korean has the same meaning as the Chinese character. 산, in this context usually means "mountain".
First step
To begin with, as in the study of other languages, you need to learn the alphabet. It is essential for reading and writing. Learning Korean from scratch on your own can cause some difficulties at the first stage, but as soon as they are overcome, the language itself will attract the student.
It is worth talking a little about the alphabet. For people who use it in their speech, it will seem a little strange. However, among the trio of Asian languages - Japanese, Chinese and Descriptive - it is the easiest. Korean invented in 1443. And since then it has 24 letters, 10 of them are vowels. In the early stages, this knowledge will be enough to master the basic language.
This means that any time we see 산 at the end of a word, we can assume that it probably has something to do with mountain. In English, the spelling of the words "volcano" and "iceberg" is completely different from "mountain". In Korean, they are 화산 and 빙산. It can help you learn words quickly and guess new words without seeing them before. When you learn one word, you will have almost instant access to other words and phrases that build on that first word.
Similarly, if someone asks you if you are wearing 안경, then we can guess that it is glasses. Take a look at the following list to see how fast you can learn new words with a little bit of logic. When you start learning Korean, start by learning how to read words in the Korean alphabet and then move on to learning how to pronounce those words. While learning pronunciation can be intimidating at first, Korean is easier than many other languages. Each Korean word or block of letters has several different meanings.
Korean has diphthongs, double consonants, and hanchu. There are 16 of the first two. Accordingly, the complete alphabet consists of 40 different letters. What is khancha? A few centuries ago, when the formation of the Korean language was going on, many Chinese words began to come into it, which have not found analogues in the described structure to this day. Therefore, the average Korean knows about 3 thousand Chinese characters. And if in Japanese the words of a foreign pronunciation have moved into everyday conversations, then Korean keeps a distance - they are used only in official letters, texts on religious subjects, dictionaries and classical works. It is worth noting that hancha is not used in North Korea.
However, they are all pronounced the same. This is great news since you don't have to worry about tones. Tones are a whole extra element of language that can complicate the learning process. Of course, the fact that one word can have many different meanings can be misleading. For example, 어 often means "fish" or "tongue". However, realistically, how many times are you going to have a conversation that involves both fish and tongue? Contextual hints are all over the place in Korean and will greatly speed up the learning process for beginners.
Why is the alphabet so easy? Knowing the basic information, of course, will help with such a laborious process as learning Korean from scratch on your own. Unlike Japanese and Chinese, which use hieroglyphs, its words are made up of letters. And the individual characters that make up the alphabet mean only one (sometimes two, if we are talking about a pair of voiced-deaf) letters.
Every day new words are added to the languages. The good news is that with Koreans, these new words are often based on English. This means that every day you get better at Korean without even learning! Some Korean words, such as computer, taxi, and ice cream, are almost exactly the same as English words in both their meaning and pronunciation. Other words are based on English but have slight differences from standard English. However, since they are based on English words, they are easy to remember.
step two
Having mastered the alphabet, you should begin to study the numerals. The main thing here is to immediately understand the difference when the Korean calculus is used, and when the Chinese one. The first, as a rule, is necessary for counting from 1 to 99 and when indicating the age of any matter. For example, one is “khana”, two are “tul”, three are “set”. The second is used by the population when counting after 100, in the names of streets, houses, dates, money and phone numbers. For example, one is “il”, two are “and”, three are “self”. At the same time, letters are used in their writing, and it may not seem complicated either, but it’s even more difficult, and without mastering this, it will be very difficult to develop further. After all, such a task as learning the Korean language from scratch cannot be compared with trying to master some Slavic system native to Russian.
As an English speaker starting out learning Korean, you'll find yourself already familiar with some Korean words and concepts - it's almost like the job has been done for you! The parallel between Korean and English words isn't the only easy part of learning Korean-Korean tenses and grammar, which are also much more understandable than languages like French and Spanish.
In fact, when you start learning Korean, it's best not to worry about pronouns at all. When learning Korean, you can quickly master the conjugation quite quickly. Korean verbs change based on several factors such as tense and polite level. However, even when they change, they change in a predictable way based on the final consonant of the verb.
step three
Step three involves learning small phrases and a few dozen basic words. You just have to start and it will immediately be noticeable how Korean combinations themselves begin to crawl into your head.
Be sure to have a small notebook with you, where you can write down how to pronounce certain words. A great way to learn Korean from scratch is to stick stickers with phrases in prominent places. So the brain will better absorb new information.
Since there are a limited number of consonants, and only about five types of irregular verbs, learning how these verbs change doesn't take long. Even better, the verbs stay the same when the pronouns in the sentence change. Pronouns are rarely used in Korean, so you can often just say the verb. The other person can guess from the context you are talking about. As a result, here is a list of verb conjugations for the verb 먹다 in the present tense.
I have more good news: this applies to adjectives too! If you want to tell someone that chimpan, a popular Korean street food, was delicious, then you can just say "delicious." Likewise, if you want to ask someone if this food was delicious, you simply ask "is it delicious?".
The most important process in the third step is to learn not only Korean-Russian translation, but also Russian-Korean. So after all, it will be possible to learn to speak the language, and not just understand it.
step four
When learning Korean from scratch on your own, don't forget about basic words like "hello" or "bye". They are necessary even for the most uneducated polyglots and will always help out when talking with a native speaker. Among the standard words, the following can be distinguished: yes (“ne”), no (“ani”), thank you (“kamsamnida”), hello (“annen”).
Practices in Korean are also regular, so you don't have to learn extra words like you do in English. There are also no special participles in the past. Instead, you just add an extra word at the end of the sentence to change it to "eat", "eat". Luckily, because of how simple grammar and tenses are in Korean, you can make a lot of progress in learning Korean before you have to deal with more complex elements of the language.
Deal with "difficult" parts of Korean road
When learning Korean, you can save difficult parts of the language for later. One tricky aspect of Korean is that it is a hierarchical language. This means that you use different words depending on who you are talking to. Although it sounds intimidating, if you just use the normal form of the word, no one will be offended.
step five
There is a clear division in Korean culture into an official and an unofficial form of the language. Which one to use in communication with a certain person should be clarified from the following factors: the age of the interlocutor, his profession and achievements, social status. Formality in dialogue has three stages:
- Official. Used to talk with elders, boss and unfamiliar people.
- Unofficial. More suitable if the opponent is a close friend, relative or younger in age.
- Respectful. It is not used in everyday speech, but can often be heard on television in scientific and news programs, as well as in the army.
For those who are learning Korean from scratch, this division is important to understand. Those who do not adhere to formalities are considered impolite, and thus the person himself spoils relations with others.
Also, if you use the wrong word with someone older than you, the worst thing that will happen is that they correct you. As you get better at Korean, you can start using the different levels of the language correctly and fluently. However, you don't need to start learning a language early. There is no reason to be afraid of using your new Korean knowledge with strangers who speak your native language - if you like, it will only help you to acquire more knowledge!
If you're wondering how honesty and hierarchy work in Korean, there's basically a way to talk to people close to you and a way to talk to people more distant. The more distant version often appears early in textbooks. However, you will only use it if you are interviewing, giving a presentation, or talking about the news.
step six
Now you need to master the grammar. It presents complexity only in one thing - in a huge number of different forms of the same verb. And they all need to be known.
Among the most common grammar rules are the following:
- The verb in the sentence is placed at the very last place.
- The subject is used only if it is impossible to understand from the context or from the previous sentence what or who is being discussed.
If you are talking to someone who is younger than you and close to you, you can drop "yo". This will come in handy when you start making Korean friends and acquaintances. This is mainly due to the insertion of 시 into the verb. Some words have special versions that should be used when saying honor. For example, "is", "exist", "birthday" and "age" have special words. You should never use reputation when talking about yourself, but unlike the Japanese, you can use it when referring to your family.
These different levels of Korean often scare people, but English and other languages are also fluent at these levels. When you think about it, Korea's hierarchical system is easier to explain than trying to explain these levels in English, and you've been using the hierarchical system for years, whether you realize it or not!
step seven
Practice is an important step. The more a person speaks and writes, the better his skills become.
Don't be afraid to start learning Korean from scratch. It is morally difficult, although technically easy. The main thing is desire and perseverance. Good luck!
Despite the fact that not much time has passed since the restoration of diplomatic relations in the early 1990s, during this period, dynamic progress has taken place and continues in relations between Russia and Korea in all areas: politics, economics, culture. It can already be said with confidence that the potential for the development of bilateral relations between the countries is much higher than the results achieved to date. Realizing that the development of bilateral relations requires popularization as a tool for mutual rapprochement and understanding, Lingust offers you a brief online course on learning Korean from scratch, as well as additional manuals for further study.
Once you've learned the more accessible parts of Korean, such as the alphabet, tenses, and English-based words, you'll feel comfortable enough to start using Korean conversation. Through conversation and exposure, you will be more comfortable with more complex parts of the language, such as hierarchical changes and words that are not based on English.
Learn Korean for beginners with book2 by "50 languages"
Using Korean words is very simple. If you want to use them as a verb, you can just stick with the verb "to do" at the end of the word. Once you learn how to change this verb in different tenses and how to attach modal verbs to it, you can suddenly say a ridiculously large amount with very little effort.
The popular self-instruction manual of the Korean language by Kurotchenko and Leonov © is taken as a basis, supplemented with audio accompaniment and comments. After studying online lessons, you will be able to read Korean, make grammatically simple sentences according to the suggested patterns, recognize several hundred words by ear, and understand basic Korean grammar. Lessons free.
Remember, you rarely need to use pronouns, and you don't need to conjugate based on pronouns. You'll be surprised at how quickly you'll learn how to relate to basic concepts in Korean with relative ease! Another thing that brings up these new Korean words and concepts is how accessible the available Korean learning resources are. Once you start your Korean language learning journey and start looking for help, you will be surprised by the abundance of resources available through books and the internet.
Go to -› lesson list ‹- (Click)
The Korean language may not have as much importance as Chinese or Japanese, however, reasons to study it this does not decrease:
- Learning Korean will help expand your social circle by 78 million people. This is an approximate number of Korean speakers.
- Knowing the language will help you learn more about Korean culture, traditions and lifestyle.
- If you love to travel or are going to visit Korea, knowing the language will come in very handy, because. not many people speak English and it will be difficult to travel all over the country.
- When employed in Korean companies (including in Russia), knowledge of the Korean language is a prerequisite for a successful career.
- The Korean government offers a variety of grants and various financial aids for those wishing to study in their country. And being in the country, in turn, will speed up your learning process.
- Opportunity to visit Olympics 2018 in Pyeongchang as a volunteer.
- The language is not that difficult. No need to learn hieroglyphs, just one alphabet. Grammar follows a simple and logical structure; knowing several suffixes will allow you to easily make a sentence in any case, and words in any form.
- Why are you learning Korean?
You must have found something interesting on this page. Recommend her to a friend! Better yet, place a link to this page on the Internet, VKontakte, blog, forum, etc. For example:
Learning Korean
Why It's Easy to Find Korean Learning Resources
The rest of the world started caring about Korean culture a lot more at the start of this millennium, so most of the cultural resources for learning Korean are very new and readily available. There are many great online resources, and often teachers will provide up-to-date examples or use the latest videos when explaining complex concepts. When learning Korean, the last thing you will do is look through a dusty old textbook. Korean resources are up-to-date and up-to-date, which makes the learning process more fun!
The desire to learn the language of the country whose culture you are interested in, personally, has always seemed to me very logical, but it is clear that not everyone has the opportunity to learn the desired language at the university or in courses, besides, the Korean language is not included in the list of ten “world languages” languages, so that is quite rare.
Therefore, for many, online lessons are a way out, and therefore, today everyone who wants to learn Korean can try to do it!! Right here and now!
Are you happy and excited? Then we start before your ardor has cooled down: D
And the first thing you should remember once and for all - in Korean alphabet(!!), and the alphabet itself has nothing to do with hieroglyphs. Koreans sometimes use Chinese characters - it's true, but they don't write them, NO.
Therefore, in order to learn how to read and write in Korean, you need to learn 40 letters and understand the rules of reading! :3
Well, good luck to everyone, and in the meantime, we are starting!
LESSON #1
So, I present to your attention His Majesty - the KOREAN ALPHABET. He is 한글
("Hangul" - which is translated from Korean as a Korean letter).
Let's start with consonants, because they are syllabic, that is, absolutely any syllable in Korean must have a consonant, and depending on the position in the word, it can be read differently. Many people get scared when they open a Korean dictionary and see only consonants there. The fact is that all words in Korean must begin with a consonant, and when you hear a Korean word with an initial vowel, it means that there is simply a so-called mute consonant - ieun (aka a circle, so be it) .
In the table below you will see the letters themselves, their names and reading rules ~
Consonants 자음
Letter and its name | Reading Rules |
||
at the beginning of a word | in the middle of a word | at the end of a word | |
ᄀ (kiyok) | |||
ᄂ (niyn) | |||
ㄷ (tigyt) | |||
ㄹ (riul) | before ㄹ - l, before a vowel - p | ||
ㅁ(miim) | |||
ㅂ(piip) | |||
ㅅ (shield) | with a vowel - s, with an iotized vowel - u | ||
ㅇ (yiun) | unreadable | ||
ㅈ (cheet) | ~j/ before voiceless consonants - h | ||
ㅊ(cheeit) | |||
ㅋ(kheek) | |||
ㅌ (thiyit) | |||
ㅍ(phieep) | |||
ㅎ(hiit) | read only with vowels x | ||
ㄲ (sankiyok) | before a vowel - kk, before a consonant - k | ||
ㄸ (santigeet) | with a vowel - tt, with a consonant - t | ||
ㅃ (sanpieup) | with a vowel - pp, with a consonant - p | ||
ㅆ(sanchiot) | with a vowel - "s", with an iotized vowel - u | ||
ㅉ (sanjiit) |
Commentary on the table:
1. iotized vowel is "I", "Yu", "Yo", "E", "I".
2. pp, ss, - etc. are close to Russian double sounds, as, for example, in the words "quarrel", "about the floor".
3. ㅎ - read more like an English h, without "pressing" on the sound.
4. ph, kh, etc. are called "aspirated" and the sound "x" should sound, as it were, softer, less loud, clear in comparison with the main one.
But in general, any recording of Korean pronunciation in Russian letters will never convey the true sound, so I suggest you listen to how the Koreans themselves will read it;)
Listen and repeat after them!~
And, probably, you have a question: "How to write all this?".
The main principle of Korean writing is from left to right, top to bottom. You can write in discord and as you please, but from left to right and from top to bottom, the truth is more convenient and faster.
So now it's time to talk about vowels. It just so happens that Korean has more vowels than consonants. For a whole one)) Vowels
Commentary on the table:
I can even explain the difference between the two vowels O: it is connected with hieroglyphics and the notorious Yin-Yang. The side letter O is also called dark, and the bottom one is light, so the side letter is read “with a blot” (you know, when in plays, actors say lines “to the side”, they cover their mouths with their hands, twist their faces a little and pronounce something indistinctly This O should be pronounced the same way), and the lower O is read openly, cleanly, like in Russian, although in the Korean variation it often sounds much more like "y".
The sound of diphthongs ㅘ, ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅝ, ㅞ, ㅟ, namely their initial part, conveys the sound of the English "w" closer.
Let's listen?)
And one more useful thing: listen to the following audio. In it, Koreans will read what is written in the pictures below. Pay attention to the difference in pronunciation of similar sounds like ㄱ, ㅋ, ㄲ and others.
And the last thing we need to discuss today is the rules for writing syllables.
There are only four rules:
1.It's obvious, but in Korean, the syllable is always written as a separate sign, namely the syllable, not the letter.
2. Vowels ㅏ, ㅑ, ㅓ, ㅕ, ㅣ and all diphthongs must be written to the right of the initial consonant,
가, 냐, 더, 며, 비
and ㅗ, ㅛ, ㅜ, ㅠ, ㅡ under the initial consonant.
고, 뇨, 무, 류, 크
3. If a syllable begins with a vowel sound, then the so-called "mute consonant" will be written at the beginning ㅇ,
아, 야, 어, 여, 이, 오, 요, 우
, 유, 으
.4. A syllable in Korean is formed according to three patterns: consonant + vowel (나), consonant + vowel + consonant (집), consonant + vowel + consonant + consonant (닭). The final consonant is called 받침 and is always written below
간, 곰, 약, 응, 백, 굉, 퀸
About some reading rules and many more interesting things, we will talk with you next time, i.e. in a week!
P.S I would like to once again wish everyone good luck and patience in learning this difficult language! remember that the most important thing is to sincerely love Korean, and then he will love you back! I've been learning it for six years now, in my memory, I know what I'm talking about;)
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
Just in case, since I don’t spend much time on the Internet, I specifically created an account on ask.fm so that my application on the phone immediately notifies me of new questions ~ Anyway, if anyone wants to talk to me, I won’t be upset :) However, you can ask here, it doesn't matter.
Asia is becoming more and more popular among students, and more and more people are seeking higher education in one of the Asian countries. South Korea ranks 1st in the world in terms of digital technology development. Korean students do internships at enterprises such as Samsung and LG. Universities in South Korea lead the world rankings in the field of technology, computer science and natural sciences. The main language of instruction in universities is Korean, so if you want to go there to study, you should start learning the language right now. To make it easier for you, we have compiled a selection of useful resources for learning this language.
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