#teaching korean

[seoknatural]

해산물 haesanmul - seafood

새우 saeu - shrimp

바닷가재 badatgajae - lobster

게 ge - crab

가재 gajae - river lobster

홍합 honghap - mussel

가리비 garibi - scallop

대합 daehap - clams

꼬막 kkomak - cockle

굴 gul - oyster

오징어 ojingeo - squid

문어 muneo - octopus

훈제 생선 hunje saengseon - smoked fish

생선 통조림 saengseon tongjorim - canned fish

+

살코기 salkogi - filet

훈제된 hunjedoen - smoked

생선뼈를 발라내다 saengseonppyeoreul ballanaeda - to bone a fish

비늘 bineul - scale

비늘을 벗기다 bineureul beotgida - to flake

냉동 naengdong - frozen

신선한 sinseonhan - fresh

[kpoppwriter]

Professor Max’s Korean Class: The Alphabet - Vowels

So to start this off, you need to know the alphabet. Those are the rules, I don’t make them. I don’t want to overwhelm y’all with the whole alphabet at once so I’m breaking it up into 2 parts, vowels and consonants. So we’ll start with vowels.

Basic Components 

There are 3 basic components of vowels, all with origins

- Haven  •  -> the circular shape of heaven

- Earth  ㅡ  -> the flatness of the Earth 

- Man ㅣ -> the standing position of a human being

Yin vs. Yang Vowels

In Korean, the vowels are classified as yin or yang vowels. How they’re classified depends on how they’re “shaped”.

Yang vowels: small lines are added

- to the right of a vertical line  ㅏ

- above a horizontal line  ㅗ

Yin vowels: small lines are added

- to the left of a vertical line  ㅓ

- below a horizontal line   ㅜ 

Neutral vowels: ㅡ , ㅣ

There is a rule when it comes to yin and yang vowels called the “Vowel Harmony Principle”. Yang vowels can not be combined with yin vowels within a syllable and vice versa. 

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are additional lines added to make simple vowels complex. Adding a diphthong usually makes the vowel sound like a y or w. There are 13 diphthongs in the Korean language.

The Vowels

Here are all the vowels in the Korean language, as well as how they’re pronounced. 

ㅏ -> a       ㅑ -> ya       ㅓ -> eo      ㅕ -> yeo       ㅗ  -> o      ㅛ -> yo 

ㅜ -> u       ㅠ -> yu       ㅐ -> ae      ㅒ -> yae       ㅔ -> ae     ㅖ -> yae 

ㅘ -> wa    ㅙ -> wae    ㅚ -> wae    ㅝ -> weo      ㅞ -> wae  ㅟ -> wi

And the only neutral vowel: ㅢ -> ui

[kpoppwriter]

Professor Max’s Korean Class: Lesson One - Section Three

This next section is pretty easy and straight forward. It’s also pretty short so yeah.

Vocabulary

선생님 (seonsaeng-nim) -> teacher

이름 (i-reum) -> name

클래스 (kulaeseu) -> class (this is a loan word)

영어 (yeong-eo) -> English (adding 어 to the end of a country name means that countries language)

한국어 (hanguk-eo) -> Korean

뭐 (mwo) -> what

뭐예요? (mwo-ye-yo?) -> what is/are

그래요 - That’s right

그래요 (geurae-yo) is a term used like how Engish speakers say “Oh, is that so?” or “Yeah, that’s right”. 그래요 translates to “to be so”. If you add a question mark to the end, it becomes a question. If you don’t know what to say in a conversation, just say 그래요?

아, 그래요? (ah, geurae-yo?) -> Ah, is that so?

이에요/예요 and 아니에요

In the previous section, I went over 이에요/예요. To recap, it’s a verb meaning “to be”. 아니에요 has the opposite meaning, “to not be”. If someone asked you if you were Chinese and you weren’t you would say 아니에요. 

안녕하세요 vs. 반갑습니다 

One of the first words anyone learns in Korean is 안녕하세요 (annyeong-haseyo), meaning hello. There is another word that has a similar meaning, 반갑습니다 (bangaseum-nida). I wanted to inform y’all about the word but most people don’t use this word. Mostly only North Koreans use this word. 

If you have any questions or inquiries about words and such, send me a message to my ask box! 

[kpoppwriter]

Professor Max’s Korean Class: Lesson One - Section One

Welcome to the start of learning new words!! Yayy!! I’m going to start this lesson with some useful vocabulary! You may have heard some before if you’re the type to watch K-Dramas.

Country Vocabulary

사람 (saram) -> a person or people

미국 (miguk)-> America/USA

중국 (joongguk) -> China

한국 (hanguk) -> Korea

If you add 사람 to the end of any country, it changes the meaning to a person from that country.

미국 사람 (miguk saram) -> an American person

중국 사람 (joongguk saram) -> a Chinese person

한국 사람 (hanguk saram) -> a Korean person

School Vocabulary

선생님 (seonsaeng-nim) -> teacher

학생 (haksaeng) -> student

The term 학년 means grade, the direct translation being school year. You use this term when describing what grade you are.

일학년 (il-haknyeon) -> 1st year, 1st grade

이학년 (i-haknyeon) -> 2nd year, 2nd grade

삼학년 (sam-haknyeon) 3rd year, 3rd grade

Sino Korean Numbers

In Korean, there are 2 ways to say numbers. Today, I will be explaining Sino Korean numbers, don’t worry about the other one. It’ll be a while before I explain those. Sino Korean numbers are derived from Chinese and are quite easy to memorize. You just need to need to know 1-10 and you know all the numbers up to 99!!

공 - 0   일 - 1   이 - 2   삼 - 3   사 - 4   오 - 5   육 - 6   칠 - 7   팔 - 8   구 - 9   십 - 10

Now, to continue after 10, all you need to do is add the next number after 10 ex. 11 - 십 (10) + 일 (1) -> 십일 (11). To do the 20s, 30s, etc. you add the number before 10 ex. 20 - 이 (2) + 십 (10) -> 이십 (20).

I’m not going to go too much into money right now but I want to give the vocab for larger numbers in Korean. The smallest bill in Korea is 1000₩ so you’ll need to know how to say 1000!

백 (baek) -> 100

천 (cheon) -> 1000

만 (man) -> 10,000

Like the other smaller numbers, you add the number in front to indecate how many hundreds or thousands you mean! ex. 500 - 오 (5) + 백 (100) -> 오백 (500)

If you have any questions or inquiries about words and such, send me a message to my ask box!

[kpoppwriter]

Professor Max’s Korean Class: Lesson Two - Section One

Woo!! Next Lesson!! This lesson has a lot of vocabulary as well as a bit of a difficult topic for foreigners. I’ll explain more later. 

Vocabulary 

학교 (hakgyo) -> school

대학교 (dae-hakgyo) -> college/university

캄퍼스 (kampeo-seu) -> campus (loan word)

도서관 (doseo-gwan) -> library

학생회관 (haksaeng-hwigwan) -> student center

식당 (shik-dang) ->resturant/cafeteria

우체국 (oo-cheguk) -> post office

기숙사 (gisook-sa) -> dormatory 

책 (chaek) - book

첵방 (chaek-bang) -> bookstore

책상 (chaek-sang) -> desk

의자 (ooui-ja) -> chair

시계 (shi-gye) -> clock

Where is...

This lesson is mostly centered around where places are in relation to other places so you’ll need to know how to say where. 어디 means where. To say where is, you add the verb 있어요 (i-sseoyo). 있어요 means “to be”. Yes I know, 이에요/예요 means “to be” as well. The difference 이에요/예요 is used when the topic is a concept. 있어요is used when the topic is a physical thing that exists. 

Ex. 저는 맠스예요 <- I am Max     남자친구있어요 <- I have a boyfriend

My name being Max is a concept but having a boyfriend is a physical thing wink wink.

A New Particle!!

So with the new location stuff that will be coming up next, there’s a new particle! The particle is 에 (eh). 에 means in/at/on depending on where it’s attached. You usually place it after the location. 

I’ll explain locations in the next post, as it’s more difficul.t and needs it own post.

If you have any questions or inquiries about words and such, send me a message to my ask box! 

[kpoppwriter]

Professor Max’s Korean Class: The Alphabet - Syllables and Words

This is the final part of this section before we move on to the first lesson. This is the little bits and bobs you need to know before learning words.

Some Rules

There is a minimum of one consonant and one vowel per syllable. Some syllables have a patchim (see the previous lesson). No more than 2 consonants in a patchim. 

Double Patchim

The second consonant in a patchim is always carried over to the initial position of the following syllable IF the following syllable doesn’t have a consonant in the initial spot. Ex. 없어 -> 업서 (this is how it’s pronounced, not written). Whenever you have a ㅎ as a double patchim, you never pronounce it.

Loan Words

This is the best thing about Korean for English speakers. Loan words are words that use the English pronunciation. Loan words make up 5% of Korean. There are no f, v, th, and z sounds. 

ㅍ -> f and p sounds

ㅂ -> v and b sounds

ㅈ -> z sounds

ㄸ, ㅆ -> th sounds

ㅡ andㅣare inserted when there would only be a consonant present. Ex. 버스 - bus

If you have any questions or inquiries about words and such, send me a message to my ask box!

[kpoppwriter]

Professor Max’s Korean Class: The Alphabet - Consonants

Ok, so consonants are a bit simpler than vowels. They’re pretty straight forward.  

5 Basic Consonants

ㄱ -> g or k      ㄴ -> n       ㅅ -> sh       ㅁ -> m       ㅇ -> ng

The 5 basic consonants are edited to make more consonants

ㄱ -> ㅋ (hard k)    

ㄴ -> ㄷ (d or t), ㅌ (hard t)      

ㅅ -> ㅈ (ch or j), ㅊ (hard ch)      

ㅁ -> ㅂ (b or p), ㅍ (hard p)     

ㅇ -> ㅎ (h)

Some consonants can be doubled to make double consonants

ㄱ -> ㄲ - more of a g sound

ㄷ -> ㄸ - more of a d sound

ㅂ -> ㅃ - more of a b sound

ㅅ -> ㅆ - more of a traditional s sound

ㅈ -> ㅉ - more of a j sound

ㄹ - How is it pronounced?

ㄹ is an interesting consonant since it can be pronounced in two ways that are somewhat different. ㄹ is either pronounced as an l or r sound. How it is pronounced depends on where it is in a syllable: at the front or end. When It’s at the beginning of the syllable, it’s an l but if it’s in the end, it’s an r sound.

Patchim

A patchim is the final consonant in a syllable. There are only 7 sounds that can be in the patchim position- k, n, t, r/l, m, p, ng

ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅉ can’t be in the patchim position. If 2 consonants are in the patchim position, only the first consonant is pronounced (ex. 읽다 -> il-da). The sound of a consonant can change if it’s in the patchim position. (There are exceptions)

hard k sound -> ㄱ, ㅋ, ㄲ

n sound -> ㄴ

hard p sound -> ㅂ, ㅍ

l sound -> ㄹ

m sound -> ㅁ

ng sound -> ㅇ

hard t sound -> ㄷ, ㅌ, ㅅ, ㅆ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅎ

[kpoppwriter]

Professor Max’s Korean Class: Lesson One - Section Two

This next part is the start of learning about particles and how to talk about yourself. By the end of this section, you should be able to make at least one sentence!! Progress!!

을/를 and 이에요/예요

N1을/를 N2이에요/예요

The sentence above (yes that’s a sentence) is a basic way of saying something about yourself, let me explain

N1 is the first noun of the sentence, like the subject or topic of the sentence. N2 is the second noun, in this case, the word(s) describing the first noun. 

을/를 (eul/reul) is a particle. A particle is equivalent to an article in English. 을/를 is placed after the topic of the sentence so you know what the topic is. There are 2 versions of the particle depending on whether there is a patchim or not in the word before the particle. If there is a patchim, 을 if there is no patchim, 를.

Ex. 저를  <- no patchim   선생님을 <- patchim

이에요/예요 (i-e-yo/ye-yo) is a verb meaning “to be”. If you watch K-Dramas, you may have heard some words and sentences ending with 입니다 (ib-nida). 이에요/예요 has the same meaning but is the polite version. Like 을/를, 이에요/예요 has 2 versions based on the word(s) that comes before it and if it has a patchim. If there is a patchim 이에요, if there isn’t 예요.

Ex. 미국 사람이에요 <- patchim   마이씨예요 <- no patchim

So if you wanted to say I am an American, you would use I (저) for N1 and American (미국 사람) for N2, as well as the verb 이에요/예요. Don’t forget to add the particle!

저를 미국 사람이에요.

See? Not too difficult right? Now you can say your nationality!!

을/를 vs. 도

Sometimes instead of using 을/를, you can use the particle 도 (do). 도 is also used after the topic, like 을/를 but there’s a difference in when you use them. 도 is used when agreeing as if saying me too. 

Micheal: 저를 미국 사람이에요.

Yumi: 저도 미국 사람이에요.

In the dialog above, Micheal is saying that he is American then Yumi says she is also an American. Changing the particle after the topic to 도 can turn a sentence into an agreement with the previous one. 

If you have any questions or inquiries about words and such, send me a message to my ask box!