Korean Language Program

Training

KU is the only institution in Kansas offering elementary to advanced Korean language courses. The Korean language program at KU emphasizes almost equally speaking, listening, reading, and writing at each level. The first and second year Korean language courses consist of lectures (Tue and Thu) and drill sections (Mon, Wed, and Fri); third year Korean of three class meetings (Mon, Wed, and Fri) integrating lecture and drill. Many major universities in Seoul and other cities in South Korea are centers of learning for Korean language and culture.

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Cultural and Linguistic History

Korean is spoken not only by citizens of the Korean peninsula and members of the Korean diaspora but recently also by a growing number of non-Koreans for various purposes. Korea is a relatively small country, only slightly larger than Kansas, but its population, South and North combined, is twenty-times that of Kansas. Korean is the eleventh most popular language in the world. Spoken Korean has served the native population for all colloquial purposes for several thousand years. Although the Korean vernacular script known as han’gŭl (great writing) was invented in 1446, it has enjoyed wide-spread popularity for only about a century. Han’gŭl is easy to master, which contributes to the nearly 100% literacy among Korean citizens. While more than half of the Korean vocabulary came originally from Chinese, the structure and grammar of the language are similar to Japanese.

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Korean Placement Exam

Please contact Ji-Yeon Lee, for information related to placement in Korean language courses at KU.

 

Lesson 1 Hangul Alphabet System
 

(1092 total words in this text)

Vowels : -
ㅏ	ㅑ	ㅓ	ㅕ	ㅗ
"a"	"ya"	"eo"	"yeo"	"o"
ㅛ	ㅜ	ㅠ	ㅡ	ㅣ
"yo"	"oo" or "u"	"yoo" or "yu"	"eu"	"i"
Consonants : -
ㄱ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄹ	ㅁ
"g" or "k"	"n"	"d" or "t"	" r " or " l "	"m"
ㅂ	ㅅ	ㅇ	ㅈ	ㅊ
"b" or "p"	"s"	-	" ch "	" ch' "
ㅋ	ㅌ	ㅍ	ㅎ
" g' " or " k' "	" d' "	" p' "	" h "
Note that " ' " means the letter is aspirated, i.e a sharp sound.

 

ㅎ +	ㅏ +	ㄴ =	한	han
h	a	n
ㄱ +	ㅜ +	ㄱ =	국	guk
g	u	k			한국 pronounced HanGuk meaning Korea

 

<About Japanese language>

There was no peculiar character in Japan originally. Based on the Kanji imported from China, predecessors took pains and adapted the Chinese character to Japanese in the Nara period(710-794). The Chinese character used thus is called "Manyogana". ("Manyogana" were used for old books, such as "Manyoshu", "Kojiki", and "Nihonshoki". However, it is too difficult for general people to read "Manyogana" now.) The Japanese notation of the Kana character (Hiragana, Katakana) was produced based on this "Manyogana." Then, the character culture peculiar to Japan different from China progressed.

Japanese consists of three different character sets. Many persons say, "Japanese language is difficult". One of the reason might be the kanji. However, the Kanji can be written in Kana characters. And, the Kanji is unnecessary when talking. "Japanese language education" of Japan starts from the study of Kana characters. All Kanji are not mastered even if it is a Japanese. In short, if you mastered the "Kana character" which is the alphabet of the Japanese language and know the words, you can do communication to some extent.

 

<Kanamoji (Hiragana and Katakana)>

1. What is Kanamoji (Kana character)?

Kanamoji is a generic name for the character of Hiragana and Katakana. It is equivalent to the English alphabet and the kana character has the 46 standard phonetic characters. Kanamoji is the first step of Japanese language learning.

Hiragana was devised as what is replaced with difficult "Manyogana" at the Heian period (794-1192). Hiragana was formed into the simple style from Chinese character. That is, Hiragana is Ultimate Sosho (fully cursive style). Their shape is rounded and rather simple. For example, the character "" was changed as follows. 

 

*If you want to learn about "Kaisho, Gyosho, and Sosho", please see about the style of handwriting.

Katakana was devised to write characters easily at the Heian period (794-1192). Katakana was formed using a part of Chinese character. Their shape is angular and simple. For example, the character "" was formed from the left part of the following Kanji. 

 

2. Pronunciation of Kanamoji

Kanamoji has 46 standard phonetic characters. These are called "Seion". There are "Dakuon", "Handakuon", "Yoon", "Sokuon" and "Chouon" besides Seion. And, "Tokushuon" was added in order to write borrowed words. If you want to listen to the basic pronunciation of kana characters with a sound, please see page of Listen to Basic Pronunciation Voice.

<Note>

The alphabet of the Latin alphabet is used so that everybody can read the Japanese language. Those characters are called "Romaji". This is convenient for Japanese first step learning. And, in Japan, generally Romaji is used when inputting the Japanese language into a word processor and computer.

• Seion: Pronunciation of a clear sound.
• Dakuon: Pronunciation of a muddy sound.
• Handakuon: Pronunciation of a middle sound of Seion and Dakuon.
• Yoon: Pronunciation of a distorted sound. "ya", "yu", and "yo" are added under other Japanese syllabaries. (Generally they are written small.)
• Sokuon: Choked pronunciation of sound. Breathing is stopped and pronounced. Indicating with small "(tsu)". (Examples: Interjection " ", " ", Verbs past form " (said)", " (taken)", Adverbs " (more)", " (few minutes ago)", etc.
• Chouon: Pronunciation which lengthens vowels. The symbol of " " is used. It is used for borrowed words, a interjection " " and " ", etc.
• Tokushuon: Katakana of the unique pronunciation. These are used mainly for the pronunciation of borrowed words.
  
  
  The 1st line of the table is vowels. HanD and HD are the abbreviation for Handakuon.
  
  

 

3. Use of Kanamoji

It is possible to write a sentence by only Kanamoji. However, the sentence of only Kana characters will have pauses of words difficult to understand, and will turn into a sentence which is very hard to read. Therefore, Japanese is usually written by using both Kanamoji and Kanji. Each Kana character does not have a meaning. The use of Kanamoji is as follows.

• Hiragana
  ending of verbs and adjectives
  postpositional particles, auxiliary verbs
  words without Kanji
  indication of the reading of kanji
• Katakana
  foreign words, borrowed words, Japanized English
  foreign names and place-names
  technical and scientific words
  names of animals, plants, etc.
  onomatopoeia
  indication of the reading of kanji
  
  

 

4. Borrowed Words and Japanized English

Japan is a country with many borrowed words. Katakana is used when writing borrowed words, foreign names and place-names. The borrowed word is the word established with the original meaning. "Japanized English" was constructed by combining English words. Although they sound like English, they are the words of expression which is not in original English. As a matter of course, only Japanese people can understand "Japanized English". And, in order that they have flooded too much, we are confused to the difference with original English.
 

• Examples of borrowed words

  	The word borrowed from German "Arbeit". A meaning is "work". In Japan, it means short-term labor contracts, such as a side job and temporary employment.
  	The word borrowed from Portuguese "Castella". This is the baked confectionery imported from Portugal to Nagasaki at the Muromachi period (1338-1573).
  	The word borrowed from French "Croissant". The word about cooking and dress has much borrowing from French.
  	The word borrowed from English "Radio".
  	The word borrowed from Spanish "Medias" or Portuguese "Meias". A meaning is stretchy cloth.

• Examples of Japanized English

  	"Salary" and "man" were combined. People who are working for a company by getting salary. It is used in the same meaning as "Office worker" of English.
  	"Personal computer" was abridged.
  	"Back" and "mirror" were combined. It is used in the same meaning as "Rear-view mirror" of English.
  	"Pair" and "look" were combined. It is used in the same meaning as "same outfit, matching outfits" of English.
  	"Paper" and "driver" were combined. It is used in the same meaning as "Sunday driver" of English.

<Note>The symbol of " " is used when lengthening a vowel sound.

 

<Kanji (Chinese character)>

1. What is Kanji?

The Chinese character was imported from China. However, the Chinese character of Japan has improved so that a Chinese character can be written briefly. For example, the basis of the Kanji "" was "". There are many kanjis which Japanese character culture produced. (The kanji of 10,000 or more are in the "Chinese-Japanese dictionary" of Japan. There is a kanji of 6000 or more which can be used with a personal computer. There are about 2000 also with the "Chinese characters in common use" used usually now.) Please see Japanese Kanji Dictionary with Pronunciation and Japanese Kanji Dictionary help page, if you want to learn in detail about each Kanji.

The Kanji can be written using Kana characters. If so, why does we use the Kanji purposely? The Kanji has the advantage that we can understand a meaning on the shape. For example, it is "" when Kanji is written in Hiragana. There are some words pronounced "" as follows. (Chinese character), (organizer), (inspector), (feeling), a name of a person called Kanji. If it is written as "" in hiragana, we have to interpret the meaning in the context. However, if it has written with the Chinese character, we can understand the meaning only by seeing the word. Of course, if we do not know the Kanji, it is not meaningful. So, it is significant to study the kanji.

 

2. Pronunciation of Kanji

Kanji has two kinds of readings "On-yomi" and "Kun-yomi". "On-yomi" is Chinese pronunciation. "Kun-yomi" is the original pronunciation of Japan. At the time of "Kun-yomi", "Okurigana(a declensional kana ending)" is added to a Kanji in almost cases. The inside of the parenthesis of the following example is "Okurigana".

 

3. Jyukugo (Idiom)

Kanji has a meaning in each and is equivalent to a word. They can combine and can make idioms indicating various meanings. The number of idioms has tens of thousands.

 

4. Yoji-jukugo (Four Character Kanji Compound Word)

Apart from the usual idioms, there are 1000 or more "Four character Kanji compound words" used as a proverb. These features are that there is much amount of information compared with the number of characters.

	A partner's thought is understood without using words. To have a tacit understanding.
	Clouds are drifting in the sky, and water is flowing. That is, the free heart without tenacity of purpose is expressed.

*If you want to learn more about "Yoji-jyukugo", please see Four character Kanji compound word list.

 

5. Bushu (Radical)

A radical is one of the component which compose a Chinese character. They were defined as a standard for classifying Chinese characters. The dictionary of the Chinese character is arranged for each radical. When looking for Kanji which pronunciation does not understand in a dictionary, you can search by the radical. There are many radicals which are one of Kanji originally. The Kanji with the same radical often has a common point in a meaning.

 

<Japanese symbols except Kana or Kanji>

1. Punctuation marks

The punctuation marks used in Japanese are Kuten "" and Touten "". As for the Touten in lateral writing, "" or "" is used. Kuten is equivalent to an English period. It is always used in the end of a sentence. Touten is used in order to make a sentence easy to read and to understand. However, there is no regular rule in this.

2. Iteration marks

Japanese does not have a grammatical plural form per se like English. However, some Kanji can indicate plurality by iterating. The iteration mark of Kanji is "".
For example,

•  (hito) a person -  (hitobito) people
•  (toki) time -  (tokidoki) sometimes

3. Other marks

• "" : This is often used for entry of documents etc. It is used when entering the same word or phrase.
• "" : Indicates a lengthened vowel sound. The direction of writing depends on the direction of text.
• "" : This means "from..to..". For example, the meaning of "" is "from Monday to Friday".
• "" : This expresses silence and the situation of choking up.
• "" : This is the usual Japanese quotation marks.