From the little that i read, the korean script is unlike Chinese and Japanese where you have to memorize thousands of individual characters, but rather the script has a set number of characters like the alphabet right? I also read that koreans are very proud of their script. Can anyone give me general history or any really cool/interesting facts about your writing script, hangul right?

http://www.korea.net/learnaboutkorea/hangeul/hangeul.html

(the second site listed off google.com from searching "hangeul" .)

that pretty much sums up the history of it... and yes, you could say that koreans are very proud of hangeul - in case that website wasn't blatant enough...

hangeul is suitable for modern times. it's very easy to learn, and there aren't any irregularities in it (*cough* english). it's extremely easy to type on a computer, and just as easy to type out text messages on cellular phones (probably why korean cell phones try to cram in so many features - because hangeul can be typed in like a calculator). there's a fast cursive form of hangeul - you'll never find a korean adult writing out single characters nice and neatly like korean computer fonts, that's just for grade school kids. hmm... i can't think of anything else to add. oh, and one more thing, korean is a complete pain in the @$$ to romanize.

hangeul is very easy to learn in my opinion. In middle school, we had a korena class and we had a few non-koreans int he class and they got down the whole alphabet in around 2 or 3 days. It looks very confusing and hard but once you start it, it'll be very very easy.

Good info.

like everybody said, hangul is easy 2 learn and use
however, wen i first learned it, i struggled wif the vowel sounds cuz dey all kinda looked the same and stuff
and some of the sounds were rather similiar
but like ppl say, u can't learn a language overnight

King Sejong was a great man.

Hangul is indeed easy to learn. It is also much more useful and clear than Roman letters. When we write in English, it is not clear where each syllabel breaks off. Well, it may be obvious to native- or fluent- English speakers but not to first time learners. But Hangul clearly indicates each syllable because they are separate characters. It's also easier to memorize 25 simple symbols rather than what, 46 more complicated Japanese hirganas and katakanas and also more possible sounds can be "spelled".

Hangul is among three of my favorite Korean inventions. The other two are Admiral Yi's Turtle ship and Kim Chi

I also have learned to read and write Hangeul and it is certainly easy (took less than a week!).
However I am confused about one thing:
How is it possible for Korean people to have names like Lim or Li?
As far as I know, the only way to get an "L" sound is with Hangeul Choseung Rieul (ᄅ) at the end of a Hangeul syllable. How, then, can a name start with L?

Wow that's kind of confusing
But I fail to see what's so hard about romanizing Hangeul
What's wrong with today's scholars?

This is the new official revised romanization table of Hangul.
Romanization table

I am Chinese and I can read Hangul.

I learned it in two hours, a Korean friend taught me. It is very easy to learn.

lol... in 2 hours?!

And I thought I learned it quickly...

no

yes...the korean alphabet is very simple and easy. i learned the complete alphabet in a couple of hours. i taught my 10 year old sister all the simple consonants and vowels over 30 minutes. less than 10 minutes later i tested her and she was able to write simple words by herself...lol
whenever i visit my family,we give each other secret notes written in konglish...lol
i think that romanized korean needn't be such a pain at all. it is pretty straight i think. koreans are the ones making it a pain...lol
especially when it comes to the romanizing of vowels. for example: 정 written as jung when it should be jeong. it makes reading romanized korean really difficult when it's not accompanied by the korean alphabet itself.
i would confuse romanized 정 for 중...lol. unless u want to use it this way: jUng 정 and 중 jOOng. but makes it very difficult for english speakers...lol
this is the easiest system...atleast for me.
a = ㅏ
i - ㅣ
e = ㅔ
o = ㅗ
u = ㅜ
eo = ㅓ
eu = ㅡ
ae = ㅐ
ya = ㅑ
yae = ㅒ
yeo = ㅕ
yo = ㅛ
ye = ㅖ
yu = ㅠ
wa =ㅘ
wae =ㅙ
wo =ㅝ
we = ㅞ
wi =ㅟ
eui /ui = ㅢ
oi /oe =ㅚ

(sorry if i missed some vowels)

i think that the most confusing vowels should be the oi /oe ㅚ and the wi ㅟ
well,if u remember that all the "w" vowels are written with a ㅜ besides the WA ㅘ and the WAE ㅙ ,it should clear up ur confusion...lol
so everything else (vowels) starting with a ㅜ is a "w" vowel. got it? so,then the ㅚ can't be the "w" vowel WI...coz WI would be written with a ㅜ.

this is how i learned the consonants.
if it is situated at the beginning of a word or syllable...it is pronounced hard...example : BABO 바보 as opposed to PABO PAPO BAPO. i even came across it written as papoo...LMAO!
the only time the B would bepronounced P is if it is written in it's "aspirated"? form which is ㅍ. AND depending on it's position in a word...lol
the same goes for:
D = ㄷ
T = ㅌ
G = ㄱ
K = ㅋ
J = ㅈ
CH = ㅊ

there are rules pertaining to ㄹ...and letters that end in a "t" when at the end of a word for example "s" and "j" and so forth.
m ㅁ and n ㄴ doesn't change...generally...oh golly.

ㅃ ㅉ ㄸ ㄲ ㅆ is another ball game altogether. it depends on it's position in a word or syllable,but if that's too much of headache,then it's aspirated versions will do just fine. (which are the softer sounds pp,ch/tch,tt,kk,ss)

other complex consonants such as ㅄ ㄺ ㄶ....and so forth. basically,it's pronunciation is dependant on whether it is followed by a vowel or consonant. usually,if it's followed by a vowel it would,each consonant is pronounced.
as in 없어 eopseo
only the first consonant will be pronounced if it is followed by a consonant.
as in 없는 eopneun
and if it is no followed by another syllable,then it ends on the last consonant.
as in 닭 dak

the more complicated stuff,DON'T ASK ME O_O YET

when i first met my bf he spelled his name 종승 chong seoung...holy cow! i've since then managed to coerce him in to writing it JONG SEUNG.
so basically,if u want to learn romanized korean,DON'T ASK A KOREAN!!
they usually try to write it the way they believe it sounds like to a foreigner. so dak would become duck...lmao ^^;;

anyway,the korean alphabet can be learned in a jiffy,by anyone. it's actually really fun!

now if only i could speak korean T_T

The history of the Hangul alphabet goes something like this:

Proto-Canaanite alphabet (c. 1400 BC)
-> Phoenician alphabet (c. 1100 BC)
--> Aramaic alphabet (c. 800 BC)
---> Brahmi alphabet (c. 600 BC)
----> Gupta alphabet (c. 400 AD)
-----> Siddham alphabet (c. 600)
------> Tibetan alphabet (c. 650)
-------> Phagspa alphabet (1269)
--------> Hangul alphabet (1443)

Considering Korea had very little contact with the outside world until 1900's King Sejong is a genius.

Korea did have contact with the Mongols, hence the similarities between Hangul and Phagspa. However, being inspired by the Phagspa alphabet does not necessarily make King Sejong any less of a genius. Although he borrowed the alphabetic principle and some characters from Phagspa, most of the Hangul script was his own work.

+1111111111111

it's after midnight...and i'm about to collapse...but what???....lol

+1 =

+111111 =

ah,thanks for spelling that out...lol


+11111

only one word " 愚民文字"

Sejong had to invent a simple script that even a retarded monkey could learn because the Korean people were too stupid to learn advanced languages like Hanzi (Chinese). Nothing to be bragging about.

Come on, you have to give some credit to koreans for making a ultra-cool alphabet like han gul.

Edit: Sorr I quoted the wrong person, I am referring to the 2 comment above mine


Though you comment is extremely blunt and offensive, there is however, a trace of merit about it that allows me to further elaborate upon the subject.

The intent of King Sejong on creating the unique alphabet system of Hangul was to allow the uneducated to be able to express their mind through the written language. As you have known, the Choson dynasty and the Korean people used only Hanzi to communicate before the invention of hangul. King Sejong comments on how he was greatly saddened by the fact that, because of the fundamental difference that exists between the spoken chinese and and korean languages, it was sometimes difficult for the uneducated to express themselves through writing. As a result of this, King Sejong created an entirely new set of radical scripts based on the phonetic linguistical principals. The advantages of this is the extremely ease of use and learning, as like the case of spanish; if you could speak it, you can wirte it. However, serious flaws exists in this systems of radical script writing. When first employed, the King's scholars in the hall of worthy greatly condemned it as such. As a result of the feudalistic structure in which all East Asian society was constructed upon at the time, the use of Hanzi (Hanja) was seen as a symbol of prestige and intelligence. The script as thus, was left to the usage of the uneducated, children and women.

It is only at the beginning of the early 1950s did the Koreans completely abandon their use of hanja.The use of hangul is deemed as "patriotic" and "scientific". Because of this, the generation that was born after 1980 knows very little of their history because they are unable to read their historic documents.

Another problem that exists with the use of Hangul only script to express the Korean language is one of ambiguity; as the koreans employ a wide range of loan words from Chinese. Another factor is that, with the use of hangul, only the phonetic part of the word is expressed, and with it, words are often confused with one another that have the same pronunciation with one another. hanja however limited in Korea today, is stilled used in official documents, university research papers and places that needs clarification.

Though it is mandatory for South Korean students to learn upto 1800 Hanjas throughout their entire pre- university learning, very few is retained.

As a result of the these factors, some koreans are even unable to write their own names as their parents have intended.

uhh sorry guys, messed up editing system for me for some reason...

I really want to know more about this. I just made a thread in the main section about it. How prominent is hanja in Korean society?

Every country had a lot of uneducated people back then. Hangeul helped educate a lot of the uneducated in Korea (Chosun).


Watch out with that thumbs down emoticon. For a moment, I thought it was towards LuckyRice.

The older educated people can read Hanja. I remember when I was a kid that the Korean newspapers and books used to have Hanja and Korean in it. But because I was educated in the US, I couldn't read the Hanja. Now they spell all the Hanja in Korean in the newspapers and books. After we moved to Korea, I learned Hanja but forgot most of it. I didn't get good grades on it anyway because I was too busy trying to learn Korean.

Are you Chan-ho?

No.
Is Chan-ho here? He didn't get banned?

edit: Nevermind, I see him in the other thread.

lol. Why would I get banned? I'm the one who cleans up dirt like Beronis here. The question is: how much longer until he gets banned?

Calm down.

Don't worry about me. My fun is just beginning.

Sorry. I never thought of you as a troll. I read a lot of complaints about a lot of the Koreans getting banned.
I don't know who Beronis is and I didn't know he was a troll. I thought he asked that question because he thought you made a second account.

Never mind Thought your profile look similar, and time differences would make both of you hard to post in the very contiguous way.

Chan-Ho
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Cha
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Why would Chan-ho make a second account when he doesn't even troll?

No need to apologize. I've never been banned, but I know alot of good Korean posters have. It's retarded because the Chinese nationalists here are WAY worse than Koreans and yet they run rampant while we get banned. I've been trying my best to improve the conditions of this forum for Koreans, but it really is an uphill battle.

Not that I am trying to be mean or anything but.....


I have this personal .... uhhh lets say opinion towards the decline of hanja usage among the younger Korean generations.... as I do not deem anyone particularity "literate" (or if at all...) if they are unable to write their own names as the way their parents have intended them. I mean would you, if you found out someone that couldn't even do something as simple as that??? But then again.... this Korean / Hanja issue is very unique



But then again..... even the Japanese can........



I know this sounds offensive, and i realize that it is... but hey, is the truth

I love Hanguel writing, it's one of most simplest & wonderful script.
I admire hanguel very much.

Come on Chinese members! we are still using 3000 yrs old scripts and just less than 100 years ago we started using Pinyin with Roman-alphabet characters to help with phonetic problem.

Just look at Hanguel, they are just perfect. We Chinese should even deploy this wonderful script like hanguel to help with sound spell.

I think all hangul policy made the korean a fool..
it is not such age like 15thc.

I sincerely hope that you're not saying that China should change their writing, because that would be catastrophic.

What a fool, are you talking about yourself?



Why disaster?
It would be nice to see China to have own alphabet, I didn't say we should change the writing.

Why many members here throws trash at wonderful language like Hanguel?
Isn't it true that Koreans are the only East Asians that use true alphabet today?