Leanring the language. (Day 2)

안녕하세요!!



King Sejong sculpture in the center of Seoul

So here is a piece of information for you:

Today in our first lecture we began with learning the basics of the Korean language, or "Hanguel". The alphabet, itself, wasn't established until the 15the century by King Sejong. Up until that point, Koreans were using Chinese characters for writing (which is much more difficult) and as a result, only the rich were literate. King Sejong established the new alphabet with the lower class people in mind. The efficiency and methodology behind the design is quite beautiful.

The vowels are made up of a series of points, horizontal and vertical lines. The reasons behind this are remarkable! The horizontal line is connected to the earth (the essence of yin) and the point is connected to the sun and the heavens (essence of yang). The vertical line represents the upright human (the connection between heaven and earth). Beautiful, right?

So we learned all of the basics... vowels, consonants, dipthongs, etc. We also were taught how to write out the characters out and how to read them. We got to practice a lot with our Korean counterpart. Eun Ji was my partner for the lecture and she was so helpful and patient. It's amazing how many more vowels and consonants the Korean language has than English. There are little nuances in the vocalization that is practically undetectable in English.

Practice is what's on the agenda from now on. I've learned enough to hold a conversation and everything that is important for a proficient shopper. :)

I cannot wait to practice more!

Sejong's alphabet

A close up.

You can see the clear distinctions between Hanguel and Chinese characters



PS- I'm doing my best to catch up on my time here. I've been so busy living the experiences that by the time I get back, I am exhausted and have no energy for blogging. So, they will be posted, I promise!

Until then!