This is the first step of learning Korean, that is to learn how to read Korean words. So in this post I'm going to introduce you all the basic in reading the Korean alphabet.

For your information I learn Korean from a TV show "Let's Speak Korean" which was broadcast at Korea, to teach the foreigner how to speak the native language there. I manage to have the copy of whole series - 270 episodes of the show and I'm really excited to start learning the language. After watching the first episode I was stun because the show show only Korean words with no romanization/spelling of the words. That's when I started to learn the Korean alphabet.

The Korean alphabet (한글) - consist of 19 consonants and 21 vowels is use to form the Korean words. You might think "Wow, so many and English have only 26 from A - Z" but trust me, Korean alphabet is easy to remember and in fact some of the alphabet is repeat itself. Let me show you...

List of Consonant (자음)
ㄱ - g
ㄴ - n
ㄷ - d
ㄹ - r,l
ㅁ - m
ㅂ - b
ㅅ - s
ㅇ - no sound, ng
ㅈ - j
ㅎ - h
ㅋ - k
ㅌ - t
ㅊ - ch
ㅍ - p
* For "ㄹ" is pronounce as "r" when place as first consonant and as "l" as final consonant.
* For "ㅇ" is "no sound" when place as first consonant and as "ng" as final consonant.

Now there is another 4 consonant known as double consonant as follow:
ㄲ - gg
ㅉ - jj
ㄸ - dd
ㅆ - ss
* For all the double consonant, you can notice its pattern difference.
- Example: "ㄱ" is "g" while "ㄲ" is "gg" (double "g"), which sounds like a hard tense "g"

List of Vowel (모음)
ㅏ - a
ㅣ - i
ㅜ - u
ㅔ - e
ㅗ - o
ㅓ - eo
ㅐ - ae
ㅡ - uh
* For "ㅗ" and "ㅓ", both sound is quite similar but ㅗ sound a bit like "u" while ㅓ sound more like "o"
* For "ㅔ" and "ㅐ", both also sound alike.

Next is the "Y" vowel, why I call it "Y" vowel?? Let's see...
ㅑ - ya
ㅠ - yu
ㅖ - ye
ㅛ - yo
ㅕ - yeo
ㅒ - yae
* Notice the difference?? "ㅏ" is "a" while "ㅑ" is "ya", same with all ㅜ,ㅔ,ㅗ,ㅓ,ㅐ. When added with one more line the vowel will add with "Y" sound.

Finally is the "W" vowel, and there is also formula behind it. Let's see....
ㅘ - wa
ㅟ - wi
ㅞ - we
ㅝ - wo
ㅙ - wae
ㅚ - oe (but pronounce like wae)
* We take ㅘ as example. "ㅘ" is combination of two previous vowel ㅗ (o) and ㅏ(a), now put "o" and "a" together and pronounce it faster, you should now notice that it sounds exactly like "wa". This is same with other "W" vowel.

Wait wait, there is still one vowel left, and this is a unique one - "ㅢ" which is "ui". This vowel sounds really hard to pronounce but many time Korean people will pronounce this as "ae"

That's all for the introduction of Korean alphabet, I took 2 days to memorize all and its really not that hard after you figure it. Next I will write about how to read Korean word which made up from all this Korean alphabet ^^

The END~
P/S: I hope my own teaching way make sense to all of you. Do leave comment if you have any question about this topic~