This isn’t the first time I have brought this up, but I would like to dedicate a post to the subject. I really feel this is an important subject so I would like to discuss it.
Not all languages can or should be learned the same way. Yes, both Chinese and Japanese have very good romanization systems which represent the sounds of the original language very well. Korean (hangul or 한글) is not like them; romanization doesn’t work and could impede your development. The sounds cannot be represented in English very well and there are sound changes you need to learn which can’t be practically learned through anything except hangul. To this day there are many available systems people use to write Korean using Latin based characters but none provide a system that can just be used without knowledge of the actual Korean language.
It is not worth the effort it would take to try to use romanization to learn Korean. Instead invest a little more time to develop your hangul skills early. I promise that you will see a much larger improvement. Along those lines, I would not recommend using Korean language books that use this method. Integrated Korean uses hangul so I highly recommend it.
I would suggest using romanization to learn individual Korean letters but not when you move on to words. I would drop the romanization immediately at that point. If you are having any problem, use something like Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur Korean where you can look at hangul and listen at the same time. Although it can be very slow in the beginning (yes, I went through that), you’ll get it sooner or later and you’ll be better for it.
Personally, I dropped romanization after I learned the letters of hangul and I believe that helped me a lot so I’m talking from personal experience. This is just my opinion so I would love to hear any of your experiences with it. How far did romanization help you? Do you still use it? Any other advice you found helpful?
Oh, I totally agree with you about the romanization. When I was learning 한글, I only used the romanization for the sounds. After that, ixnay on the latin characters. It may seem daunting at first, but in the end totally worth it. Romanization is just too confusing because not everyone uses the same conversions. And it doesnt always account for tonal changes and sound changes.
Before I even attempted learning the language, I learned 한글 to where I was comfortable with it. *nods*
Hi Matt,
Thanks again for the fast response yesterday.
Personally I never learned romanization. I still can’t read Korean using Latin Alphabet. Only when I was learning how to pronounce Korean letters, I tried to write the corresponding letter in English. I guess I did what you and Bekah did.
I noticed you have a Cyworld page?
Is that Cyworld US?
I opened an account 2 years ago to keep in touch w/ my Korean roommate who moved back to Korea. It turns out, you can only find people w/i the same country. If you have an account w/ Cyworld Korea, could you tell me how you got your acct.
Thanks again
Mike
Mike,
I have a Korean Cyworld page. I ran into the same problem as you, I couldn’t add my Korean friends’ pages. If you want to join Cyworld, the only extra step you’ll need to take is you have to scan and send an ID of yourself to prove your identity. Here is a tutorial on how to join the Korean Cyworld: http://www.soompi.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23581
The first thing I did when I was beginning to learn Korean was learn 한글, even before basic greetings. It makes it so much easier to retain memory of vocabulary.
I think that the romanization’s absolutely atrocious; it doesn’t let one appreciate the beauty of 한글, not to mention how difficult it is to read. Everyone writes it differently, leaving a lot of room for miscomprehension and blatant errors. Also, if someone was using romanization for a long time but wanted to learn 한글, it would be really difficult.
I could go on and on about this.. 한글 is so easy to learn.. Why don’t people just put in a half hour or so a day to learn 한글 so they could express themselves in a way that actual Koreans would understand??