Korean Language Learners

Rai.S. wrote:

ikaymoreno wrote:

A lot of Korean vowels actually sound closer to Filipino vowels than English.
아 = a
에 = e
이 = i
우 = u

Exactly, ikay. I couldn't resist to associate these with the Filipino language sometimes. :)

I find the "o" and "eo" sounds hard because there's no equivalent sound for it in English or Tagalog and I find it easier to "anchor" new sounds to ones I already know. 

Hi ikay, would you also also give me some tips on how to familiarize myself with the combined vowels? "wa" is the easiest for me.

leosmith wrote:

Rai.S. wrote:

Do you have any links on Korean grammar?

I'm sure ikaymoreno will answer too, but I just wanted to share these:
Korean from Zero - A free online textbook that's a great way to start with grammar.
Talk to me in Korean (TTMIK) - The best all-around resource for studying Korean also has excellent free grammar lessons, audio and PDFs, that go far beyond Korean from Zero.
How to Study Korean is another great free site with free grammar lessons (text only). I've only used lesson 11, because it fills in a big hole the the 2 previous resources covered incompletely (Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, Years)
Click Korean gets many positive reviews. I checked it out a bit, and like it, but I didn't use it because my other resources were sufficient.

Thanks for these!!! I'm visiting Korea in 4 months, gotta study hard!  

Rai.S. wrote:

Hi ikay, would you also also give me some tips on how to familiarize myself with the combined vowels? "wa" is the easiest for me.

If you're familiar with how diphthongs work in English, you can "anchor" or relate it to that. You can also visualize each element of the Hangul as a separate vowel then combine them when you pronounce it.

와 = I see the "o" then, "a" so in my head, I combine them and say "wah"

웨 = I see the "u" then "e" so "weh"

ikaymoreno wrote:

I find the "o" and "eo" sounds hard because there's no equivalent sound for it in English or Tagalog and I find it easier to "anchor" new sounds to ones I already know.

Actually 오 is present in both languages but 어 is only present in English. But it's not a one-to-one mapping for English. Regardless, sorry to repeat myself but you shouldn't map these sounds to anything but the hangul unless you're really really stuck.

Hi! I've just joined this site after Leo Smith recommended it to me. I'm planning on using this site for reading if I can figure out how it works. I just checked, but there don't seem to be any Korean reading materials on this site. Is this because everything has been marked as private?

I actually go here for the essays and helping other learners. I haven't tried the reading tools yet. Are you learning on your own or are you enrolled in a class?

ikaymoreno wrote:

I actually go here for the essays and helping other learners. I haven't tried the reading tools yet. Are you learning on your own or are you enrolled in a class?

I'm self-taught :) I signed up for an intermediate class but haven't been attending much since it's not teaching me anything new. I want to focus on reading and listening the next few months so have been looking for site that makes reading a bit more easier.

Christi wrote:

I just checked, but there don't seem to be any Korean reading materials on this site. Is this because everything has been marked as private?

Hi Christi, welcome! We have a very small library here; LT hasn't created it's own material like some other sites. Personally, I'm reading TTMIK Iyagis in private (My Passages). Eventually I hope to create content, but for the time being I'm using all my resources to try to make the site pay for itself.

leosmith wrote:

Christi wrote:

I just checked, but there don't seem to be any Korean reading materials on this site. Is this because everything has been marked as private?

Hi Christi, welcome! We have a very small library here; LT hasn't created it's own material like some other sites. Personally, I'm reading TTMIK Iyagis in private (My Passages). Eventually I hope to create content, but for the time being I'm using all my resources to try to make the site pay for itself.

That's alright. I just wondered if other people were sharing articles that they'd found online. I've started uploading some things I found on sites like Huffington Post etc. Since we're not using the articles to earn money that should be fine right?

Christi wrote:

I've started uploading some things I found on sites like Huffington Post etc. Since we're not using the articles to earn money that should be fine right?

To be honest, I don't know. If you aren't sure you have the rights to publish, please just keep it in "my passages" (you can toggle existing passages if this is the case) for now. Alternatively, you could ask the owners of those sites if they mind, or they may have something in their term that addresses it.

leosmith wrote:

Christi wrote:

I've started uploading some things I found on sites like Huffington Post etc. Since we're not using the articles to earn money that should be fine right?

To be honest, I don't know. If you aren't sure you have the rights to publish, please just keep it in "my passages" (you can toggle existing passages if this is the case) for now. Alternatively, you could ask the owners of those sites if they mind, or they may have something in their term that addresses it.

Alright, will take down the ones I'm unsure of. I do have few which explicitly mentioned being creative commons so will leave those public for other learners.

Christi wrote:

Alright, will take down the ones I'm unsure of. I do have few which explicitly mentioned being creative commons so will leave those public for other learners.

sounds good - thanks!