Learn Korean with Aydan

  In English, there are many different ways of saying goodbye – ‘goodbye’, ‘bye-bye’, ‘take care’, ‘see you later’, etc. Likewise, there are many ways to say goodbye in Korean, but there are also certain unique concepts we need to be aware of when saying goodbye in Korean. So in this article, we’ll take a deep dive into these concepts and learn the most common ways of saying goodbye in Korean. Who’s leaving and who’s staying? When you say goodbye in Korean, the most important concepts to be aware of are whether you’re leaving or staying at a place and whether the other person is leaving or staying at a place. So in Korean, we have different goodbyes for when… 1. You’re staying and the other person is leaving. 2. You’re leaving and the other person is staying. Another important factor to consider is where you are when saying goodbyes, such as at your home, your workplace, or at a neutral venue like a café or a restaurant. You’re staying and the other person is leaving So let’s imagi...

  We use the word ‘sorry’ in so many different ways in English. The most common way is to apologize for something we have done, but we also say sorry to express sympathy, disappointment, and also to politely ask someone to repeat what they have said. Fortunately, ‘sorry’ in Korean isn’t as multi-functional. Nevertheless, there are a number of different ways of saying sorry in Korean, and in this article, we’ll guide you through all the different ways of saying ‘sorry’ in Korean so that you can say ‘sorry’ appropriately in every situation. “Sorry” in Korean is a verb Sorry in English is an adjective, so to say ‘sorry’, we use the verb ‘to be’ and say ‘I am sorry’. However, in Korean ‘sorry’ is a verb. 미안하다 (mi-an-ha-da) 미안하다 is a verb that means ‘to be sorry’, and this is made up of the noun 미안 (mi-an) which means ‘sorry’ and the verb 하다 (ha-da), which means ‘to do’. When we say ‘I’m sorry’ in Korean, we don’t use the pronoun ‘I’. If we’re saying sorry on someone else’s behalf, th...

  A proverb can be defined as a short well-known statement that gives practical advice about life, and each society has its own manifold of proverbs that are deeply entrenched in the history and the culture of that language. So in this article, we’re going to learn seven of the most well-known Korean proverbs, from which you can learn more about the Korean culture, and the practical advice about life that has been passed down the generations in Korea. Korean Proverb #1: 꿩 먹고 알 먹는다 Vocabulary list 꿩 (ggwong): pheasant 먹고 (mukgo): and eat (infinitive form 먹다 ) 알 (al): an egg 먹는다 (mugneunda): eat (infinitive form 먹다 ) Meaning 꿩 먹고 알 먹는다 (ggwong mukgo al mugneunda) literally translates to if you eat a pheasant, you also eat the egg. The essence of this proverb’s meaning is the same as the English proverb ‘to kill two birds with one stone’, so the basic idea behind this proverb is to accomplish two things through one action. However, instead of killing birds, the Korean proverb is a...

Learn Hangul (한글) The Korean language uses an alphabet system called Hangul. If you knew nothing about Hangul, you might assume that it’s probably quite similar to Chinese and Japanese where each block of writing is an individual character, and to learn Hangul, you’ll probably need to learn hundreds and possibly thousands of these blocks of writing. If that was your thought, then you couldn’t be more wrong. As mentioned already, Hangul is a type of alphabet system, so just like the Roman alphabet, it’s made up of consonant and vowel letters and to made blocks of characters, which represent individual syllables, you just have to learn how to combine these letters. For example ‘ㅁ’ is a consonant that has the same sound as ’m' in English and ‘ㅏ’ is a vowel that has the same sound like ‘a’ in bat and cat. So if we combine ‘ㅁ’ and ‘ㅏ’ to make ‘마’, we can read it as ‘ma’. There are altogether 14 basic consonants and 10 basic vowels, and to be able to read and write Hangul, it’s just a c...

When learning a new language such as the Korean language, mistakes are bound to happen. But don’t freak out, it is normal. However, mistakes can also cause you to want to quit learning completely. Therefore, there are a few mistakes that are best to be avoided entirely from the beginning. You will progress quickly if you are able to avoid these 7 common mistakes made while learning the Korean language. Not Learning Hangul If you are learning the Korean language, you have most probably learned the Hangul alphabets or at least you are in the process of learning it. Learning the Hangul alphabets is the easiest part of the Korean language learning process. Writing the Hangul alphabets are straightforward and easy. However, when it comes to speaking Korean sentences, it is not easy. Examples; Hangul: 거기 있어 Romanization: gu-gi ee-ssuh Meaning: Be right there Hangul: 여기 있다 Romanization: yeo- gi it- dda Meaning: Be right here If you didn’t notice already, the same alphabet 있 can have two dif...

For the first time in my life I tried to read a webtoon in Korean – a language I barely know – as I am too impatient to wait for the translation and too sick to work on my textbook right now. As I went through it I wrote down Korean vocabulary and grammar and decided to share it here, in case anyone would like to join me in the struggle of reading it in Korean. It is called July Found by Chance (어쩌다 발견한 7월) (<- this is raw Korean version) published by Daum and made by my favorite webtoon author (만화가) known as muryu (무류). It is beautifully drawn and has an exciting plot and a type of humor I really enjoy. I decided to try to read it even though I don’t understand 90% of what’s being said (95%?). July Found by Chance is a relatively easy webtoon to learn Korean with. Granted, it’s a regular webtoon written for native speakers – not for Korean language learners, and since the beginning is quite mysterious it takes an episode or two to figure out what’s going on, but other than that it ...

Is it even possible to practice speaking Korean without native Korean speakers? With the help of technology, of course, it is! Many people who are learning Korean don’t live in Korea and don’t have native speakers to practice with. I’m even worse. Not only do I not know any Koreans who I could talk to, I actually don’t speak to people in my own language either because of my illness, apart from very few people who enter my room to take care of me. So whether there just aren’t any Koreans living where you are, or you’re an antisocial weirdo, or you’re completely isolated in your bedroom by a serious neurological condition, we have the same problem: we’re learning in silence and have no way to practice speaking Korean… would be what I’d say if we were living in the 19th century. Luckily we have the technology to replace humans. Yay for us. It occurred to me that I could just switch voice recognition from English to Korean. So the idea was born: I can practice Korean pronunciation using v...

Korean Alphabet (Hangul or 한굴) How to Learn the Korean Alphabet Guide: Download the 90 Minute Challenge guide for free and learn the Korean alphabet in about 60 minutes. Pictures, stories, and associations make it easy to learn and hard to forget. Langintro: Basic site teaching the Korean alphabet. They cover intonation as well, with audio clips to make sure you are pronouncing the words correctly. The National Institute of Korean Language: Lessons for learning the Korean alphabet, including example words and intonation. The irregular pronunciation example is helpful, but maybe confusing for beginners. Requires plugins to be downloaded. Busy Atom’s Korean Alphabet: Video explanations for how to learn Korean, with Quizlet flashcards at the bottom to help you practice. Korean Wiki Project: Wikipedia-style page showing how to learn Hangul in detail. Also explains why the Romanization of Korean doesn’t work. Korean dictionaries Top Korean Dictionaries: A resource for the best Korean di...

Learning a new language can be tricky, you are not likely to find the learning process an easy one. Some of the difficulties faced by second-language learners have to do with the differences between their first and second languages, differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and usage. You do not have to know linguistics to learn a second language; after all, people all over the world who have never heard of linguistics do this successfully all the time. However, knowing what pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and usage are; how they can differ between languages; and how people seem to learn them (as first- or second-language learners) can help you be aware of and understand your problems and possibly correct some of them. It is difficult, if not impossible, both to understand the source of the problem and to come up with ways of addressing it. When you’re first starting out, do yourself a favor and start small, don’t bite on more than you can chew, or else it would feel like...