How to Learn the Korean Writing System in Just a Few Hours

Learning Vowels

When learning the Korean writing system, the best place to begin is with the easiest of the easy: the vowels.

Seriously, that's it. 

That short list of components makes up every vowel in the language. 

ㅣ, ㅓ, ㅏ, ㅔ, ㅐ, ㅡ, ㅗ, ㅜ

Don't worry about what sounds these symbols make for now. You'll get to that later, in the videos. Just focus on how each symbol is made up of only the components listed above.

For those symbols which contain a dash, adding a second dash adds something called a glide  (roughly a "y" sound, for English speakers) to the beginning of the original vowel.  

ㅕ, ㅑ, ㅖ, ㅒ, ㅛ, ㅠ

You can even take the pure vowels from the first set and combine their symbols together, creating diphthongs, or a single sound that is a merging of two vowels:

ㅜ + ㅣ = ㅟ

ㅜ + ㅔ = ㅞ

ㅗ + ㅐ = ㅙ

ㅗ + ㅏ = ㅘ

ㅜ + ㅓ = ㅝ

ㅡ + ㅣ = ㅢ

So that's it. That's literally all the symbols for vowels and vowel-like sounds used in modern Korean. Twenty "letters" that are just recombinations of three types of lines. 

Things get even easier when you associate each symbol with its correct sound. For example, if you know that "ㅏ" makes an "ah" sound like in "father", then you'll quickly learn that adding a second dash to the letter (ㅑ) makes a "yah" sound, like in "yard".

Building Syllable Blocks

Now that you've been introduced to all of the Korean consonant and vowel symbols, we can learn one of the most interesting aspects of the Korean writing system: how the symbols fit together.

You see, Korean hangul doesn't work like most alphabets or even character systems.

Most writing systems construct words by simply placing the letters or characters next to one another.

For example, to convey the word "cat" in English, we take the letters "C", "A", and "T". and simply place them one after another in sequence. 

C + A + T = CAT

Korean is a little different, in that the "letters" are not written in sequence, but rather organized into syllable blocks.

Take the name of the writing system itself, hangul:

These are the symbols that comprise the word in Korean:

ㅎ, ㅏ, ㄴ, ㄱ, ㅡ, ㄹ

However, you can't write ㅎㅏㄴㄱㅡㄹ all in a row and call it a day. That doesn't work at all.

Instead, Korean symbols within words are grouped into "syllable blocks". The symbols that make a syllable in Korean are grouped into a roughly square-like shape, and ordered from left to right, and top to bottom.

So, taken syllable by syllable, hangul goes from:

ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ = 한

ㄱ + ㅡ + ㄹ = 글

Then, once the proper syllable blocks have been constructed, you put them next to one another, just as you would English letters.

한 + 글 = 한글

One important exception to syllable-block building  that I have yet to mention: If a syllable in a word is meant to contain only a vowel sound, that written syllable needs to start with a "ㅇ" symbol, which is known in this case as a "null consonant".

So, a syllable containing literally only the "ah" vowel in "father" needs to be written "아", and not "ㅏ".

Practicing Simple Syllables

Once you know the individual symbols for vowels and consonants, in addition to how they are organized into syllable blocks, it's time to practice reading simple syllable blocks, consisting of only one consonant and one vowel.

Fortunately, this is how young Korean children begin to learn to read, so there are ample resources to help you learn these quickly.

I recommend starting with a chart similar to the alphabet chart that is used to teach English speaking children their ABCs.

The only difference here is that instead of your ABCs, you'll be learning your 가나다라마바사. 

You start with a chart like the one below, and use it to memorize the sounds of all of the simple consonant-vowel combinations.

If you'd like, you can even learn the simple syllables through song, as in this video:

Taking Your 한글 Skills to the Next Level

At this point, you've learned the following key aspects of 한글, the Korean writing system:

• Vowels
  • Glides
  • Diphthongs
• Consonants
  • Aspirated consonants
  • Double consonants
• Final consonants (받침)

If you've spent (or will soon spend) a few hours learning and reviewing the information I've shared in the blog and linked videos, you can very seriously say that you've learned the Korean alphabet. 

At minimum, you should be able to semi-reliably read (that is, sound out, not understand) any Korean word you come across.

However, your job as a Korean learner is not done yet. In reality, it is just the beginning.

Here are a couple of things you can work on for the future, as your Korean skills grow:

Pronunciation

Though you can now recognize all of the letters in the Korean alphabet, you probably need a lot more practice pronouncing the Korean sounds that go with those letters.

Don't worry, this is quite normal. For English speakers (and speakers of most western languages), Korean pronunciation is usually the hardest part of the language learning process.

As always, hard does not mean impossible. You can master Korean sounds, just as I (and many other learners) have. It just takes time, dedication, and the right resources.