Last week while I was going through piles and piles of paper and
notes of my time as a Korea studies mayor I found some quite useful
information.
It was a piece of paper my Korean language teacher gave me with links
to websites about Korean alphabet or Hangeul.
The first one is
all about the history of Hangeul and the Korean language in general.
There are also great recordings of pronunciation of the Korean alphabet.
Please note that with the pronunciation of the consonants they say the
name of the letter and not just the pronunciation of the letter. However
here is a quick tip for you; the way the name of the letter is
pronounced reveals how the letter itself is pronounced at the beginning
and the end of a syllable. For example the ㄹ or r/l it is pronounced as
rieul or 리을 which means at the beginning of the word is pronounced as an
R at the beginning of a syllable and at the end it is pronounced as an
L.
The next two websites are both have great explanation of how each letter fits in a syllable with the only difference that
one has audio that explains the pronunciation and
the other has not.
Last but not least for the people who thrive by someone explaining it
in a clear manner in a classroom like situation here are 2 videos
for you .
The first
explains the principle of creation of Korean alphabet and its
historical background and vowels and consonants and their phonetic
value.
The second video
explains ending consonants and its phonetic value and write and read
syllables. The videos are a bit on the long side but defiantly worth
watching for someone who really wants to learn Korean.
I hope you find this information useful, if you have other great
websites explaining Hangeul. Feel free to share in the comment section
below.
Love, Wietske
