The Korean Language

Learning Korean isn’t what I thought it would be. I figured, you know, just live in a country for a while and you will somehow absorb it. I mean, it’s being spoken all around me constantly every day, how could I not eventually just one day start speaking it? Well, it’s been difficult so far. They language is so far from English or French in terms of phonetics and the structure of sentences. Not to mention one of the oddest parts of Korean language and culture is that there are many differently levels of respect and thus politeness in their speech. No less than five different levels (three or four commonly used) in they way you would talk to someone.

A lot of the culture is based upon Confucianism where it is very hierarchal. Knowing your place and respecting social status plays a large role from what I have understood. Someone talking to the their boss or teacher or father is very different from talking to their friend or co-worker. It makes learning the language slighty confusing and will be a while until I can hold a decent conversation. I have met both ends of the spectrum in terms of foreigners speaking korean. Some have made an honest attempt at learning the language and know quite a bit after a year here and I've met others who've been here for 3 or 4 years and can hardly order at a restaurant. I guess its all in how you value learning it.

I am proud to say that I have now learnt Hangul which is the Korean alphabet. It's actually rather easy to learn and only takes a few hours of practise and memorization. It consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels which represent the way your mouth, tongue or teeth look when saying the letters. I can now spell or read any Korean words or signs I see. The only problem... understanding any of it. Oh well, got 8 months to go.