One example of unique Korean culture is Hangul, the Korean alphabet. There are no records in history of a king made a writing system for the benefit of the common people except in Korea. The Korean alphabet has an exact purpose and objective. So its use cannot be compared with other languages.

For example, each Chinese character has a meaning, so people have to memorize all of them, but the Korean alphabet is made of phonetic letters just like English. Anyone can learn Hangul in a day, that is why it is called 'morning letter'. It is easy to learn because it can be put together with 10 vowels and 14 consonants. Hangul has 8,000 different kinds of sound and it is possible to write each sound.

Because Japanese letters imitate Chinese characters, they cannot be used without Chinese characters. The chinese government secretly sent scholars to the United States to alphabetize its language. Chinese is too difficult to learn, therefore the illiteracy rate is very high. Chinese thought it would weaken national competitive power.

Hangul has an independent reading and writing system. It can be used on its own, but some old generations like to use Hangul along with Chinese characters education.

This is an anachronism and absolutely against the globalization of Hangul. Even the Chinese government recognized the weak points of its writing system for the coming 21st century.

Latin was used as an official language of the Roman Catholic church. It has been used as a custom or religious authority for people who in Western societies, Latin is disappearing.

Hangul was invented 500 years ago. but it has only been used for 100 years by all Koreans. Now it is standing in the world proudly with its value. Korean has been chosen as a foreign language in some universities in the United States and Australia. Now large Korean companies are building Factories in some Asian and Eastern European countries. These companies have invested a lot of money. The managers of those companies are also learning Hangul.

It is time to invest money and to make an effort to develop Hangul for the 21st century like the French government has done. The language of the future has a strong economic value. Hangul is seven times faster in computer operation ability than Chinese or Japanese.

When Windows 95 appears on your screen, Hangul is breathing on the tips of your fingers beyond the time barrier.

The 21st century will be the age of information. National competitive power depends on the quantity and quality of information. Therefore the national goal for the Clinton administration is to end illiteracy. The American literacy rate is only 79%. The Korean illiteracy rate is near the zero percent mark, because Hangul is easy.

Yahoo Answers & Questions

W_bluemoon's Question

How long did it take you to learn Hangul(Korean Characters)?? This question is for non-Koreans who are able to read Hangul(Korean Characters).

1. How long did it take you to learn to read Hangul?

2. Are you able to write and type Hangul as well?

3. If you think you were a fast learner, what materials/methods did you use to learn Hangul so fast? Any tips for Hangul beginners?

Nothingbycoincidence's Answer

It took me 1 week to get used to reading Hangul. That doesn't mean I did it well! I have been studying for about a year, now I can type fairly well in Korean (I type well in English, so its not that hard). I can also write in Korean, and it's generally understandable but not grammatically perfect (often I make dumb spelling mistakes like writing ㅣ instead of ㅏ.)

Anyway, regarding materials....

To me, the key is attitude, not materials. However, it's best to surround yourself with materials you think are fun or interesting. I like going to the book store and sitting down in the kids section and reading kids books. Or watching Korean Dramas. I bought one of those big posters for kids that has 가나다......

If your friend is motivated to learn, it will be easy!!!

Captaincoolbeard's Answer

It took me about a week to be able to read and write in hangul. My method was to write down all the characters and their english translation on a small paper, stick it in my wallet, then try to read every korean sign I came across(note: you kinda have to live in korea to do this). If I didn't remember the character I took out the paper and pronounced it from there.

To learn to type took about 3 weeks, because I don't have the korean letters on my keyboard, so for the first few days it was complete guesswork. Then after that I started learning the less common characters. Now I can type pretty well.

PINAY's Answer

I'm a Filipino and it took me four days to learn Hangul characters. I'm serious about learning it. I say it aloud over and over again then write Tagalog (my native language) words using Hangul alphabet.

Start teaching how to write it using the correct stokes. n_n

James W's Answer

I am an American, and have been studying Korean for about 5 years now. It took me about a week to get to where I could recognize Hangul. It took much longer than that before I could read it without having to think about what each character was and how they all fit together. LOL In my opinion learning Hangul is the only way to truely learn the Korean language. I am always confused when people type in the English alphabet and try to sound out the Korean words. I can never understand what they are trying to say. Also, by learning Hangul, you can get the correct pronunciation.

There are a lot of online resources that are available to learn/study Korean. I have listed a couple that I have looked at.

Jef's Answer

안녕하세요 재프(Jef) 입니다.

Q1) It took me 1 month to be very well-versed with hangul in both speed reading as well as writting.

Q2) Yes, I am able to write and type hangul on the keyboard by memorising where the syallables such as the voules and consolents are located on the key board! For example: (ㄹ) = h , (ㅏ) = k & (ㅇ) = d.

Q3) The korean language is actually the most easiest writting system in the world that any one can learn efficiently and rapidly such as very young children to parrots and monkeys can even regconise the syallables well!

Tell your friend whom you are teaching that if he or she can write the following, then your eligible to learn 한국어: "0, 1, 2, E, T, F, H, L, 7, C & M" That looks like: "ㅇ,ㅓ,ㄹ,ㅌ,ㅜ,ㅑ,ㅐ,ㄴ,ㄱ,ㄷ & ㅆ"

Korean is actuall designed from the basic and most simplest geomatrical shapes of the world such as the square ㅁ, the triangle ㅅ, all vevtical and horizontal lines such as parallel, right angles to window frames ㅔㅐㅑㅕㅛㅗㅓㅏㅣㅡㅜㅠ, the circle ㅇ and the moving sea waves ㄹㄹㄹㄹㄹㄹㄹㄹ.

Tell your friend / students that Korean is the most easiest alphabet in the world as there are only 24 alphabets compared to 26 for English. Tell them that Korean is the consolents and the vowels that are combined together to make a syallable sound. With only 24 alphabets, a few thousand combinations can be made with the hangul alphabet and hangul can represent any sound in the world that Chinese and Japanese languages are unable to do so.

Just keep on practising the hangul alphabet over and over again and you will remember it by hard!