Me, Learning Hangul
I am proud of myself for I can now pretty recall some Korean words and sentences other than saying Annyong haseyo.
I can now understand their sentence construction, which differs from the English language.
If we say ‘I am going home’
in English, it is like ‘home I am going’ in Korean, or like ‘Bahay ako
punta’ in Filipino, not to mention those formal, polite, and informal
endings. If you are watching Korean dramas in DVD’s I am sure
you already noticed that Korean actors often say heyo or imnida at the
end of their sentences. Well, that’s being polite or being formal
depending on the person they are talking to: their friend, their boss,
or their parents.
Last night, I learned, however, that
siblings no matter what order it is, talk to each other using informal
endings. I really admired how they were able to switch perfectly those
endings. Just imagine if you are talking to your boss, your friend, and
your brother at the same time. Anyway, a Korean has mastered it being a
native speaker. So, for foreigners like us, it is safe to use the
polite endings heyo or hayo. I wonder when I am going to watch Korean dramas or movies without subtitles. I could recall my first impression of the Korean language years back. I think it was the time I watched My Sassy Girl (I wasn’t able to finish it), and ‘Full House’
in Korean. Whew! The actors seemed to be angry all the time and they
spoke too fast. I said that it is a difficult language to learn.
(Actually, I thought I would not be able to learn a language by
myself). But it changed when I decided to research on Korean’s writing
system, the Hangul; the writing system is being admired by many
language scholars. Then, I found myself engaged in studying the Korean alphabet.
It was hard at first since I am used to reading roman
letters. In fact, I surrendered and resorted to the Romanization. But
when I tried to memorize songs in Korean, I discovered that Romanized
lyrics weren’t good to follow especially when I compared these to what
I was hearing.I often revised Romanized lyrics
just to sing the Korean songs correctly. I learned later that Hangul
have some irregularities unlike Filipino, which is described as ‘kung
ano ang sulat, siyang basa’. It takes patience to master these
irregularities, but once mastered the rest will be easy.
If you are planning to learn a language like me, you better start
now since it takes time before you become fluent. (But according to a
trivia I read, no one is ever fluent of the language he speaks, even
those native speakers. Interesting.) ^ _ ^
Besides, imagine the benefits you will reap once you learn a new
language. Research those benefits in the net. And pick the language of
your interest.
