An-nyeong ha-sae-yo, chin-gu (friends)! It’s time to learn Korean characters again of the week. While this post was written during the first day of Hari Raya Aldifitri, I will hope to wish all of my fellow Muslim readers a blessed Eid festival this year! 스라맛 하리라야.
This lesson we will learn a new set of 3 consonants, which are ‘ㅅ’ (s), ㅇ (-), ㅈ(j). Personally I found these shapes of the consonants very cute, as you can eventually create them into an emoji, like (ㅅ_ㅅ) ‘smiling face’, (ㅇ-ㅇ) ‘stunted face’, (ㅈ>ㅈ) ‘bird face’? Comment down below creating emoji text with the Hangul characters we have learnt so far. Without further a do, let us start with the lesson today! Let’s say hi to our ‘oppas’.
Refer to past lessons for a complete guide in learning Korean characters, Hangul step by step with #JomKoreanwithMawen!
In this lesson, we are learning three consonants: -ㅅ (s), -ㅇ (-), -ㅈ(j). Watch the video lesson first before making any notes referring to the written materials, especially on the correct pronunciation as the romanization is not always the best representation for the sound.
The first consonant of today shape like ‘ㅅ’, consisting of only 2 strokes, each at the left and the right. You can relate this like a house roof shape too. This consonant has the sound of ‘s’, in romanization. This is among the easiest one as the pronunciation is quite similar to the English romanization while having simple shape.
Example
1. (사)과 : sa-gwa (apple)
2. (수)학 : su-hak (Mathematics)
3. (쇼)핑 : syo-ping (shopping)
4. 음(식) : eum-sik (food)
The next consonant is something that we are familiar with. Remember Mr. Placeholder we mentioned during the first Hangul lesson? Yes, it is the little cute circle alphabet, ‘ㅇ’. This is consider a consonant, as it can be placed in front of the vowels. In this case, ‘ㅇ’ doesn’t represent any sound, but just a placeholder in front of the vowels. However, if the ‘ㅇ’ is placed after a vowel, then it will make a sound of ‘-ng’. We will discuss this more in the future, on how we pronounce consonants at the back of the syllable, called ‘bat-chim’.
Example
1. (언)니 : eon-ni (elder sister)
2. (아)버지 : a-beo-ji (father)
3. (아)프다 : a-peu-da (painful)
4. (양)파 : yang-pa (onion)
The last consonant of this post will be a modification of ‘ㅅ’, with an addition of a vertical line on top of the roof. This will shape like, ‘ㅈ’. There is another shape which is acceptable in Hangul and more commonly in written form, like as shown in the picture below. It is like a ‘7’ with a line from its middle to towards the right. This consonant can be relate to ‘j’ in romanization. However, it is different as the shape of the mouth when we pronounce ‘ㅈ’ is flatly opened; while our mouth is more to an ‘o’ shape when we pronounce ‘j’. ‘ㅈ’ makes dental sound, similar like ‘ㅅ’, but with the role of the tongue touching to the top of your mouth.
Example
1. (자)동차 : ja-dong-cha (car)
2. (지)하철 : ji-ha-cheol (subway/train)
3. 박서(준) : pak-seo-jun (Park Seo Joon) 😀
4. 감(자) : kam-ja (potato)
Dae-bak! You have mastered 19 Hangul characters now, with an addition of 3 consonants in this lesson! Mama is gonna be so proud of you. I hope you all really enjoy this fun learning journey so far. However, please keep in mind that, for you to master and improve Korean faster, you cannot escape from constant practicing. Start reading short song (Korean) lyrics and identify how each Hangul syllable sounds. Of course, practice writing it repetitively helps you to print them onto your brain. Download the latest worksheet below to start practicing Korean!
You have been working so hard, and you deserved cheering from Park Seo Joon today!
in front of the toilet door int the morning
Learn Korean with me through #JomKoreanwithMawen video series, while enhance your understanding through lesson posts in MyDaehan to give you the best learning experience! You can refer to other video lessons in mastering the consonants better, and I found out Korean Unnie in YouTube teach me a lot of tips in differentiating and reading the correct Korean pronunciation!
In next post, we will continue learning consonants, unlocking all 24 cute Korean alphabets by the end of this series! Just 2 more lessons left!
Tune in every weekend for new lesson posts and follow our Instagram @mydaehan2020 for #JomKoreanwithMawen video lesson series and other interesting content!
Author
Melvin Tan
Content Manager (Language)
Online Supporter of Korean Embassy in Malaysia
Bio-science student in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Korean Enthusiasts
Korean learner for 10 years, but still amateur
Instagram: @tanmawen
MyDaehan 🍂 