Explanation: The 15th century AD king of Korea, Sejong the Great, an accomplished scholar, was deeply personally involved in the invention of Hangul, the Korean alphabet. It is widely considered one of the most efficient writing systems in common use. It is apparently easy to learn and master, as it was created entirely intentionally, with one of the intended purposes being to make it easier for ordinary people to learn to read and write. Swell guy, Sejong! Great, even!
The alphabet was not immediately popular, however, as the aristocracy resented both the innovation (DISRUPTING TRADITION) and the notion of spreading literacy to the filthy masses. King Sejong would die a few years after the definitive guide to Hangul was published by him and his coterie of scholars, and would not live to see a definitive embrace or rejection of the alphabet. Unfortunately, Hangul would not be widely adopted until the 19th century AD, due to the overwhelming cultural dominance of the aristocracy and pro-Chinese traditionalists in the Korean court.
It really is easy to learn. The consonants (generally) make the same shape as your tongue does when making the sound. For example the letter ㄴ makes the sound “n”. I learned to read it in a few weeks just hanging around Uijeongbu.
My wife picked up reading Hangul pretty quickly. She says it’s easy to read and write but difficult to speak. Japanese is the opposite, easier to speak but harder to read and write.
Speaking for me is always the hardest part of learning a language. Reading, writing, and listening are fairly simple but forming a full spoken sentence properly can be daunting.
Trying to get my friend to learn Japanese with us - she can speak fairly well (as far as a little bit of studying and a 2 week vacation spent in Japan takes you at least), but she definitely gets overwhelmed by some of the kanas. I think just seeing some that appear so similar like…
ウヲワネフラ
Stresses her out a lot. Ironically, her husband can read kana very quickly, but isn’t as good speaking and doesn’t know most any of the words he was reading. At least he could read the signs in Japan and she could say what some of it meant 😆
Knowing a tiny bit of Korean, just enough to figure out some pronunciations and meanings, the hangul feels like it’s designed to represent the movements you make to pronounce a given letter.
While it surely helps, if one wants to learn the etymology, he will still need to thread either/both Korean hanja, Japanese kanji, or some more prevalent Chinese dialect.
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Explanation: The 15th century AD king of Korea, Sejong the Great, an accomplished scholar, was deeply personally involved in the invention of Hangul, the Korean alphabet. It is widely considered one of the most efficient writing systems in common use. It is apparently easy to learn and master, as it was created entirely intentionally, with one of the intended purposes being to make it easier for ordinary people to learn to read and write. Swell guy, Sejong! Great, even!
The alphabet was not immediately popular, however, as the aristocracy resented both the innovation (DISRUPTING TRADITION) and the notion of spreading literacy to the filthy masses. King Sejong would die a few years after the definitive guide to Hangul was published by him and his coterie of scholars, and would not live to see a definitive embrace or rejection of the alphabet. Unfortunately, Hangul would not be widely adopted until the 19th century AD, due to the overwhelming cultural dominance of the aristocracy and pro-Chinese traditionalists in the Korean court.
It really is easy to learn. The consonants (generally) make the same shape as your tongue does when making the sound. For example the letter ㄴ makes the sound “n”. I learned to read it in a few weeks just hanging around Uijeongbu.
My wife picked up reading Hangul pretty quickly. She says it’s easy to read and write but difficult to speak. Japanese is the opposite, easier to speak but harder to read and write.
Speaking for me is always the hardest part of learning a language. Reading, writing, and listening are fairly simple but forming a full spoken sentence properly can be daunting.
Trying to get my friend to learn Japanese with us - she can speak fairly well (as far as a little bit of studying and a 2 week vacation spent in Japan takes you at least), but she definitely gets overwhelmed by some of the kanas. I think just seeing some that appear so similar like…
ウヲワネフラ
Stresses her out a lot. Ironically, her husband can read kana very quickly, but isn’t as good speaking and doesn’t know most any of the words he was reading. At least he could read the signs in Japan and she could say what some of it meant 😆
When I was in Korea reading this made me laugh.
There are so many times I saw signs like that. My favorite is 아이스크림. So many syllables lol.
🍨!
Knowing a tiny bit of Korean, just enough to figure out some pronunciations and meanings, the hangul feels like it’s designed to represent the movements you make to pronounce a given letter.
While it surely helps, if one wants to learn the etymology, he will still need to thread either/both Korean hanja, Japanese kanji, or some more prevalent Chinese dialect.