Hangul

It seems the Korean language is becoming more and more popular around the world as a foreign language to study. This is interesting and welcome, as for a long time reliable and quality learning materials for Korean have been harder to find than those for many other languages.

The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - The Growing Popularity of the Korean Language

Picked up some over the years in martial arts. Wish I had the time to study it a bit.
 
It seems the Korean language is becoming more and more popular around the world as a foreign language to study. This is interesting and welcome, as for a long time reliable and quality learning materials for Korean have been harder to find than those for many other languages.

The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - The Growing Popularity of the Korean Language
How do you say "hello" and how do you pronounce it?


I'm not the one to ask. My Korean is very limited, and my pronunciation is horrible. There are lots of sites where you can hear the proper pronunciation though.
 
"Ya ba day yo" as one word.

Hangul is relatively recent as an alphabet. It is painfully intelligently thought out. It shows how to pronounce a phoneme in the "letter."

It is, however, difficult for English speakers, As it has 4 phonemes that don't exist in english, and three that are combos that are totally different from european languages. It has the r/l confusion, plus b/p and one other

It also has freakish social stratification as part of the language. Russian is bad, Japanese is horrible, and then there is Korean. Prior to 1910 Korean was a hermit Kingdom and it shows
 
How do you say "hello" and how do you pronounce it?

It depends on the level of formality. I picked up a dozen or so simple phrases when I lived over there. I still use them when I go to our favorite Korean restaurants. As bad as I'm sure I jumble the phrases, they are always met with appreciation.

Wonderful people, country and FOOD!

 
Would anyone recommend it as a foreign language option at American k-12 schools?
 
I am in the same boat as williepete. Any well meant attempt to greet and be polite in Hangul is much appreciated by the recipients.
 
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Would anyone recommend it as a foreign language option at American k-12 schools?

Unfortunately no. Too small of a population for widespread practical use. Mandarin, the official language of China and Taiwan as well as being spoken in Singapore would have more use for a child growing up to a life in business. Spanish also has a huge and more useful footprint IMHO.
 
How about Hindi?

That might be smart. It's the dominant language in India which has a huge population. But like South Korea, English is widely spoken and it's the language of business. You can scrape buy in South Korea and India with English. If a deal is to be made, there are readily available proficient English speakers to facilitate.

I still think kids would get more bang for their buck with Mandarin or Spanish.
 
It seems the Korean language is becoming more and more popular around the world as a foreign language to study. This is interesting and welcome, as for a long time reliable and quality learning materials for Korean have been harder to find than those for many other languages.

The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - The Growing Popularity of the Korean Language
How do you say "hello" and how do you pronounce it?

Yaboseyo. YAH-boh-SEY-oh. A common hello.
 
How about Hindi?

That might be smart. It's the dominant language in India which has a huge population. But like South Korea, English is widely spoken and it's the language of business. You can scrape buy in South Korea and India with English. If a deal is to be made, there are readily available proficient English speakers to facilitate.

I still think kids would get more bang for their buck with Mandarin or Spanish.





Portuguese?
 
It seems the Korean language is becoming more and more popular around the world as a foreign language to study. This is interesting and welcome, as for a long time reliable and quality learning materials for Korean have been harder to find than those for many other languages.

The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - The Growing Popularity of the Korean Language
How do you say "hello" and how do you pronounce it?

Yaboseyo. YAH-boh-SEY-oh. A common hello.






That's for hello on the phone.
 
When I order bulgogi or bibimbap, I order in my limited Korean. I also ask for raw garlic and their hot pepper paste, gochujang. Since I'm a pudgy old white guy, this always draws and amused, approving and amazed reaction. When they come back later to check on me, I'm sweating from the pepper paste and garlic but enjoying the pain. They ask in concern if it's good and I say, "jo ah yo" and give them a thumbs up.

dolsot_top_1.jpg
 
Would anyone recommend it as a foreign language option at American k-12 schools?
I would recommend any language. I think the learning of a totally different way of thinking is a tremendous expansion of intellectual attainment.

That said, Hangul would be a simpler way to achieve this goal. The alphabet is simple in concept, but different enough to be challenging. It doesn't have three alphabets like Japanese, or thousands of characters like Chinese.

The Russian verb system is another one that is good for being different enough to be a challenge. Also, it has six(!) cases.

Spanish and Hebrew aren't different enough from english to be much of a challenge. You just learn a different vocabulary and change the position of the adjectives.
 

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