Lesson 1: Origins of Hangul
Hangul was first created by King Sejong (the fourth king of the Chosŏn dynasty), in 1443 to improve Korean literacy rates. By 1446, Hangul was the official writing system in Korea. However, Hanja (Chinese characters) would still persist as the main writing system of the elite class for 500 more years.
This statue of King Sejong is located at the Sejongno, Gwanghwamun Plaza in central Seoul.
It is very important to learn Hangul so that you are not relying on romanization to learn Korean. While it may seem like rominization is fine at first, it is important to learn the correct Korean pronunciation and for being able to read in the future. Before you start to learing Korean words, make sure to prioritize learning Hangul as it is very important.
Lesson 2: How to Read Hangul
Hangul is made up of 14 consonants and 10 vowels, with a total of 24 letters. Hangul is fairly simple to learn, and this is why King Sejong was able to raise Korean literacy rates so much in 1443. To get a better understanding, let's take a look at the Korean consonants and vowels in Hangul.
This is a Korean consonant and vowel chart. There are many helpful videos on Youtube to make learning Hangul very simple, including mnemonics and helpful tips to help you memorize Hangul easily. If I were to recommend someone good for Korean beginners it would be either BillyGo or KoreanUnnie.
Tip: BillyGo also covers sound change rules associated with Hangul that may be hard to understand without video instruction.
Lesson 3: How to Write Hangul
After memorizing the Korean alphabet Hangul you are now able to read almost all of the Korean alphabet with a few sound rule exceptions. In order to understand how to actually write in Korean we must look at Hangul's structure. Lets take a look at Horizontal Vowels, Vertical Vowels, and the Vertical & Horizontal Double Vowel.
Again, to help you understand and retain the most information I recommend watching a Youtube video on this topic.
The biggest tip I can give is making sure you memorize the correct stroke order for each symbol. This will help you correctly write and make sure your print is legible. To practice writing, try to copy down these simple countries in Korean. Make sure to take your time with this step so that you can save yourself more time in the future.
This page covered the surface on how to effectively learn Hangul, I hope this guide was helpful for people beginning learning Korean. Let me know if you want me to post more material on how to advance after this primary stage.
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