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한국말을 쓰고 읽을줄 알고싶어요?

I'm currently in the process of rewriting this main post, as well as formulating lesson plans which will (hopefully) be posted regularly in my journal. I will also work on making some videos once I go home after vacation. Let me know any and every suggestion, request and piece of information/translation that you would like and I'll try my best to accommodate. Thanks! =]

The History of 한국말 [Han-Gook-Mal], or the Korean language.

Spoken Korean is derived from the Chinese language, the writing system remaining hanja until its conception and promulgation by King Sejong from 1444-1446 in an effort to educate the lower-classed peasants and have a nation-defining writing system based upon what he thought "correct sounds" should look and sound like. The shapes of the consonants are based on the shape the mouth made when the corresponding sound is made, and the traditional direction of writing (vertically from right to left) most likely came from Chinese, as did the practice of writing syllables in blocks. The writing is currently known as 한글 or Hangul.

Videos

I found some really great videos that show pronunciation and showcases the letters individually. Check 'em out!

Introduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdiR-6e1h0o
Reading Practice 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_2hDGlF0dI
Reading Practice 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnI-r1NOtQk
Alphabet Rap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDkIpvaAVL0
Numbers [Pure] 1-19: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNRUjeQwzWA
Phrases: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CcXqIaMo5o
[NOTE: The phrases (last video)do not come with a script, but I plan on typing one up in the near future; for now, see if you can understand any of them!]

The Alphabet

There are 14 main consonants, 10 vowels, and 11 complex vowels. Traditionally, text was written from top to bottom, right to left (columns), although modern Koreans read and write from left to right, top to bottom (rows).
Korean is a syllabic language, and must be written in a certain format. Each syllable must be in the format: Consonant-Vowel or Consonant-Vowel-Consonant. There are exceptions, though. Diphthongs are commonly used as singular vowels with the addition of certain consonant pairings at the bottom of the syllable (usually with a ㄹ). There are also double consonants, which are two of the same letters, causing them to be aspirated.

[Any examples of sounds would be misconstrued through text, so I will post standard Korean/English romanization letters until I can get more videos of pronunciation, etc. For now, I've put up links to quite a few to practice with.]

Consonants
ㄱ (ㄲ) G/K
ㄴ N
ㄷ (ㄸ) D
ㄹ R/L
ㅁ M
ㅂ (ㅃ) B/P
ㅅ (ㅆ) S (SH when paired with 이; i.e. 시 = SHI)
ㅇ NG (at the end of a syllable; if before a vowel, makes no sound)
ㅈ (ㅉ) Soft J (Hard J)
ㅊ CH
ㅋ K
ㅌ T
ㅍ P
ㅎ H

Vowels
Vowels are normally paired with Iyung (ㅇ) in order to portray the vowel's sound by itself.
아 A
애 AE
야 YA
얘 YAE
어 EO
에 E
여 YEO
예 YE
오 O
와 WA
왜 WAE
외 OE
요 YO
우 U
워 WO
웨 WE
위 WI
유 YU
으 EU
이 I
의 UI

Lesson 1- Forming Questions and Answers

A basic feature of Korean grammar is that the verb appears at the end of a sentence. An example is this small conversation of Mr. Kim introducing Mr. Chung to his friend.

김선생님, 안녕하십니까?
How are you, Mr. Kim?
정선생님, 이분 아십니까?
Do you know this person, Mr. Chung?
아니요, 모릅니다.
No, I don't know him.
처음 뵙겠습니다.
Glad to meet you. (Lit: I'm meeting you for the first time)

As you can see, there are different verb endings:
Statement: ~(습/ㅂ)니다.
Question: ~(습/ㅂ)니까?

Lesson 2- Dictionary Form
If you look up any word in a dictionary, you will not find it conjugated as in the sentences above. They will be in dictionary form, similar to English's infinitive form or "to be" or "to do". To conjugate, just dropped the obligatory dictionary form 다 and add one of the endings above. If the verb stem ends in a consonant, you will use +습니다/까 and if it's a vowel, you will use +ㅂ니다/까.
Examples:

감사하다 -> 감사합니다. To thank -> Thank you.
좋다 -> 좋습니다. To be good -> It's/I'm good.
괜찮다 -> 괜찮습니다. To be fine/satisfactory -> It's/I'm fine.

To turn any of these forms into questions, just replace the 다 with 까.

Try conjugating these words in dictionary form. Make small sentences, such as:

크다 (to be big) + ㅂ니다 (because it ends in a vowel) = 큽니다 (It is/I am big)

싸다 To be cheap
작다 To be small
보다 To see
이다 To be
있다 To have

Lesson 3- What is where? Introducing markers.
Coming soon!

Some of the characters are a little hard to read in the pictures. Were they resized?

Thanks for making this, it shall be of great assistance to me. ninja

i have a question.
what does this mean?

and this one too.

and this one.


kamsahamnida. ^^