How to read Korean from 0 - All the Basics you need | Korean Alphabet - Hangul

Welcome to Korean with Yusuf. This is the first video of complete Korean alphabet course made for beginners from zero. In this video, you'll find everything you need to finally start reading Korean. This isn't just another Korean alphabet video. This is a step-by-step class that helped over 400 real students in my live classes go from I can't read anything to read their first Korean sentences. And you'll do the same in just 30 days. Seriously. Now let me quickly introduce myself. I'm Yusuf. 안녕하세요. A Korean teacher and I help hundreds of beginners like you. It means I know exactly where you might struggle because I've helped so many people go through the same path. So don't worry, I'll guide you step-by-step and together we'll make Korean alphabet feel easy and fun. In this lesson, we'll focus on the right way to learn Korean alphabet. One common mistake many people make when learning the Korean alphabet is trying to learn the sounds through romanization using English letters as a guide. If you learn that way, you'll definitely end up asking questions like, Is this consonant ㄱ sound a G or K? Or is this consonant ㄹ sound L or R? And that's when things start to get even more confusing. The truth is, Korean sounds don't fit neatly into English letters. ㄱ sound. This consonant ㄱ is kind of close to G, but it's not exactly same with G or K. It's just ㄱ. And ㄹ sound. ㄹ sound a bit like R sometimes and a bit like L sometimes, but it's not really either. It's just ㄹ. So instead of trying to match it to English, just listen to the sound as it is. And let your ears get used to how Korean really works. Trust me, your ears will adjust with time. If you have a friend who's also just starting out, feel free to share this with them because learning together is always more fun. So, are you ready to start? Let's read Korean the fun, clear, and natural way. Are you ready? 화이팅! Let's go! The Korean alphabet is called 한글. If you write the word banana in 한글, it looks like this, 바나나. These blocks are Korean syllable blocks, so in the case of the word 바나나, it consists of three Korean syllable blocks. It's obvious, right? 바-나-나. Three syllable blocks. And if you write the word 피자 in 한글, it looks like this, 피자. And how many syllable blocks are there in the word 피자? Yes, 피-자 consists of two syllable blocks. And let's take a look at the last syllable block of 피자. The Korean syllable block consists of consonants and vowels. This orange one is the consonant, and the green one is the vowel. Let's learn the sound of consonants and vowels, and then we are going to learn how to combine consonant and vowel together to make a Korean syllable block, like this. So, let's start with vowels. There are ten vowels. You can actually group these vowels into three categories based on your mouth shape. First row, 아, 야, 어, 여. Second row, 우, 유, 우, 유. Third row, ㅡ, 이. Great. Here are the first four vowels. These vowels are pronounced with your mouth open like this. 아, 야, 어, 여. Can you see how the mouth opens like this? 아, 야, 어, 여. Good. Now, let's take a closer look at the first vowel. 아. Have you heard this song by Rosy of Blackpink and Bruno Mars? 아 is the sound in 아파트. 아, 아파트. 아, 아메리카노. 아, 아이스 아메리카노. 아, 아빠. 아. Some of you might be wondering if the vowel sounds like the English letter A. And yes, they do sound similar, actually. But English and Korean are very different languages, right? If you try to learn the Korean alphabet by matching it to the English alphabet, it might make it harder to understand the sound later. So, this vowel is pronounced as 아. 아. 아파트. 아. 아메리카노. 아. The next vowel. 야. 야. 야구. 야. 야구. 야. 야채. 야. 야채. 사랑해요. 야채. 야. So, when you look at these vowels, you'll see the vowel on the right side has an extra short stroke. When there are two short strokes, the sound shifts slightly like this. 야. So, the left one is 아. The right one with the extra short stroke is 야. 아. 야. 아. 야. Can you feel the difference? Let's go to the next vowel. 어. 엄마. 어. 엄마. 어. 어깨. 어. 어깨. 어. Next one. 여. There is one more short stroke, right? 여. 여우. 여. 여자. 여. On the right vowel, you see one extra short stroke. That's why it's pronounced as 여. 여. 어. 여. 어. 여. So, 아. 야. 어. 여. It's your turn. Please try it by yourself. Great job! Now, let's go to the second row. These vowels are pronounced by rounding your lips like this. Can you see my lips? Make your lips like the shape of a light kiss. Like this. Shape your lips like this. And try pronouncing these vowels. 우. 유. 우. 유. Great! Now, let's take a look at this vowel. For this vowel, round your lips but open your jaw to make more space inside your mouth. Like this. 오. 오렌지. 오. 오렌지. 오. Next vowel. 유. 유가. 유. 유가. 유. 유거트. 유. 유거트. 유. Next. 우. For this vowel, round your lips but close your jaw to make less space inside your mouth. 우. 우유. 우. 우산. 우. Next. 유. 유니퐁. 유. Great! Let's recap the pronunciation. 우. 유. 우. 유. Try it by yourself. Great! Perfect! Here are the last two basic vowels. 의. 이. For the vowels 의 and 이, you pronounce them by stretching your lips like this. In this image. Make your lips long and wide. 의. 이. That's the right shape. Great! Perfect! 의. Look at this. 의. Do you like pineapple pizza? You don't like it? Then you can make a sound like this when you see the pineapple pizza. Pineapple pizza. 의. Like this. Got it? So, this vowel sounds like 의. The last one. 이. 이모지. 이. 이모지. 이. 이빨. 이. Great! Try it by yourself. Perfect! 의. 이. Great! We already learned 10 vowels. Congratulations! How was it? All good? You don't need to memorize it right now, so just relax and follow along comfortably. Okay? Take it easy. We'll keep practicing this together little by little and soon they'll feel totally natural and natural. So, the most important thing is to enjoy the process. Okay? Okay. We just learned vowels and now it's time to learn the consonants. Are you ready to learn consonants? Let's go! The first consonant is pronounced as ㄱ. ㄱ. 기타. ㄱ. 기타. ㄱ. This consonant is pronounced as ㄴ. 노트. ㄴ. 노트. ㄴ. ㄷ. 다리. ㄷ. 다이빙. ㄷ. 다이빙. ㄷ. By the way, it's not harsh. It's not ㄴ sound. It's very soft. ㄷ. Got it? And this consonant is pronounced as ㄹ. 레몬. ㄹ. 라면. ㄹ. 라디오. ㄹ. By the way, a lot of people ask me, is this an R sound or an L sound? Well, it's somewhere in between. It's not exactly R and not exactly L either. But if you really want an answer, it's a bit closer to L sound. Just like I said before, try to focus on the current sound itself, not the English alphabet. You don't need to get it perfectly right now. Don't worry. Just notice the general sound and keep moving forward. That's more than enough for now. Next, the consonant is pronounced as ㄴ. ㄴ. 마라톤. ㄴ. 마이크. ㄴ. Next, ㄲ. 바나나. ㄲ. 바나나. ㄲ. Now we can read this Korean word. If we write 바나나 in Korean, it looks like this. 바나나. Just like I mentioned before, the word is made of 3 syllable blocks. Let's read the first syllable block together. This block consists of consonant and vowel. Like this. The orange part is the consonant and the green part is vowel. So, now look. This consonant is the one we just learned. Right? And the vowel is the first one we studied. Let's put them together. Easy, right? Say it with me. Great. So, we just read the first syllable block. How about the second syllable block? This syllable block consists of ㄴ sound consonant and ㅏ sound vowel. And the vowel is the same with the previous syllable. So, ㄴ plus ㅏ. Amazing. Now you can read this word. 바나나. Yay! How does it feel? Easy, right? Let's keep learning other consonants. So, the sound of this consonant is ㅂ. Next. And this circle-shaped consonant. This consonant is special because it is not pronounced. Instead, it works as a placeholder when there's no consonant sound in a syllable block. Interesting, right? Let's add a star next to this consonant like this to show it's very special. Let's read this syllable block. The consonant here is the one I just mentioned. The silent consonant and the vowel is ㅏ. In this syllable block, there's no consonant sound at all, but instead of just leaving the consonant part empty, Korean uses this circle-shaped consonant to show that there's nothing there. So, you can think of it as a placeholder. That means we just read this syllable block as the vowel sound, which is ㅏ. Yes, so the sound of this syllable block is ㅏ. Same with the sound of the vowel. So, remember that this consonant has no sound. Let's go to the next consonant. This consonant is pronounced as ㅈ. Jelly Juice Orange juice Pineapple juice And next, this consonant is pronounced as 치. Cheese Chocolate Here, we have two consonants we just learned. If you look closely, you'll notice that the consonant on the right, 치, has one extra stroke sticking out on top. That extra stroke means the sound is a bit stronger. It's more harsh, and when you pronounce it, you'll feel a stronger burst of air from your mouth. Try this, put your hand in front of your mouth, and say these two sounds with me. I'll use this tissue, okay? Can you see that? It's more harsh, and the air will be burst out of your mouth. Can you see that? So, again, one more time. You cannot feel the air. Can you feel the air when you pronounce this consonant? If you do, that means you're doing a great job with the pronunciation. Perfect. Next consonant. Coffee Cookie Now, let's take a look at these two consonants. Just like before, the one on the right, has an extra stroke. That means the sound is stronger. is a softer sound. But is stronger. And you'll feel a burst of air when you say it. Try it. I'll use this tissue again. So, Very soft. And next one. Harsh. Try it with your hand, okay? One more time. Can you feel the air? Great. If you can feel the air with your hand, then it means you pronounced it really well. Good. Next. This consonant is pronounced as Again. T sound consonant has an extra stroke. So, it means it has stronger sound. Check it with your hand again. Got it? Next. Two more consonants. Fighting! This consonant is pronounced as These two consonants might sound similar to you at first. But, the one on the right has more strokes. And that means it's the stronger sound. So, whenever you see the extra little stroke, you can remember, Oh, this one is stronger sound. Use your hand. Great. And now, you can read this Korean word. There are two syllable blocks. Let's try to read the first syllable block. Here are the consonant and vowel. We just learned the sound of the consonant. And the sound of the vowel is Let's combine And And the second syllable. Here are the consonant and vowel. The sound of the consonant is And the sound of the vowel is So Yay! How does it feel to read your second Korean word? Feels good, right? I'm so happy you're enjoying it. And the last consonant. Almost there. Great. We covered all the basic consonants, vowels, and how to read the Korean syllable block. You did a great job. You've just taken your first step into the Korean alphabet. This was the very first video in the Korean alphabet series and I'm so proud of you for starting today. From now on, I'll be posting new videos every week so make sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss any of them. We'll cover writing, reading, typing, and lots of interesting Korean words. If you have any questions or parts that you want me to explain again, just leave a comment below. I always check them, so leave a comment. And remember, don't rush to memorize everything right away. Just take it slow, take it easy, and enjoy the process. You'll naturally get used to Korean sounds and hangul over time. And if you'd like to learn with me in live classes where we read, speak, and practice together, have a conversation together, check out the link in the pinned comment. I'd love to meet you there. So, you did a great job today. 잘했어요. 잘했어요. See you in the next video. 안녕. 잘가요.