The sole official tongue of both North and South Korea, the Korean language is spoken by almost eighty million people, making it one of the world’s twenty most-spoken tongues. It’s a highly tricky language to pick up – much to the chagrin of linguists, it remains stubbornly “unclassified” on the global language tree, its very origins something of a mystery. Some lump it in with the Altaic group (itself rather vague), which would put it on the same branch as Turkish and Mongolian, though many view it as a language isolate. Korean is therefore in the same boat as Japanese, its closest linguistic brother; both share a subject-object-verb syntax and similar grammar, though well over half of the Korean words themselves actually originate from China. Korea also used Chinese text for centuries, even after creating its own characters (known as hangeul; 한글) in the 1440s, but now almost exclusively uses the local system for everyday functions.
Native speakers of European languages will encounter some pretty significant grammatical differences when attempting to get a handle on the Korean tongue. Korean nouns remain unaffected whether they refer to singular or plural objects, very little use is made of articles, and verbs do not change case according to who or what they’re referring to – gayo can mean “I go”, “he/she/it goes” or “we/they go”, the meaning made clear by the context. Verbs do, however, alter depending on which level of politeness the speaker desires to use, and the relationship between speaker and listener; the conversation will sound quite different depending on whether it’s between a child and a mother, a boss and an employee, or even good friends of slightly different age. In general, it’s pretty safe to stick to verbs with the polite –yo ending; the verb forms given here are in a formal style which should suffice for most travellers. Unfortunately, there are few good books from which to learn Korean; those from the Teach Yourself and Colloquial series fall short of the two companies’ usually high standards, but are about as good as you’ll find. There are plenty of dictionary and language-learning apps, though unlike with Japanese or Chinese, none of them have really nailed it yet.
The origins of Hangeul
Though it may seem surprising, hangeul was actually a royal creation, having been the brainchild of King Sejong in the 1440s. Up until then, his Joseon kingdom and the dynasties that went before had been using Chinese characters, but seeing that most of his citizens were illiterate and denied education, the king devised a system that would be easier for the common man to learn. He was forced to do much of his work in secret, as the change did not go down well with the Confucian yangban scholars, some of whom were almost king-like in their power at the time; as the only members of society to receive an education strong enough to make reading Chinese characters a possibility, they argued against the change in an effort to maintain their privileged access to historical texts and suchlike. Hangeul experienced periodic bursts of popularity, but was kept down first by the yangban, and then almost erased entirely by the Japanese during their occupation of the peninsula (1910–45). Today, it’s the official writing system of both North and South Korea, as well as a small autonomous Korean pocket in the Chinese province of Jilin. Students in Korea study at least two thousand Chinese characters at school, and some of the simpler ones are still used in daily life.
Hangeul Characters
The basic building blocks of hangeul are listed below. Note that some consonants are pronounced differently depending on whether they’re at the beginning or end of a syllable or word (syllable-ending sounds are in brackets below), and that “ng” is used as an initial null consonant for syllables that start with a vowel.
ㄱ g (k)
ㄴ n
ㄷ d (t)
ㄹ r/l
ㅁ m
ㅂ b (p)
ㅅ s (t)
ㅈ j (t)
ㅊ ch (t)
ㅋ k
ㅌ t
ㅍ p
ㅎ h
ㅇ ng
ㅏ a
ㅑ ya
ㅓ eo
ㅕ yeo
ㅗ o
ㅛ yo
ㅜ u
ㅠ yu
ㅡ eu
ㅣ i
ㅔ e
ㅐ ae
ㅖ ye
ㅒ yae
ㅟ wi
ㅞ we
ㅙ wae
ㅘ wa
ㅚ oe
ㅢ ui
ㅝ wo
Though it consists of a highly distinctive scrawl of circles and Tetris shapes, many foreigners find Korean text surprisingly easy to learn. Koreans tend to assume that foreigners don’t have the inclination or mental capability to decipher hangeul, so your efforts will not go unappreciated. Koreans are immensely proud of hangeul, which they see as the world’s most logical written system. While this is no great exaggeration, the efficiency also has a downside – user-friendly it may well be, but in reality hangeul is a very narrow system that cannot cope with sounds not found in the Korean language, a fact that partially explains the Korean people’s occasionally curious pronunciation of foreign words.
Korean characters are grouped into syllabic boxes of more or less equal size, and generally arranged left to right – if you see a line of text made up of eighteen of these character-chunks, it will have eighteen syllables when spoken. The way in which the characters fall into the boxes is unique and takes a bit of figuring out – some have two characters in the top half and one at the bottom (the top two are read left to right, followed by the bottom one, so 한 makes han), while others have two or three characters arranged vertically (these are read downwards, so 국 makes guk). Thus put together, we have 한국 – hanguk, meaning “Korea”.
Pronouncing Korean words is tough – some sounds simply do not have English-language equivalents. You’ll see from the hangeul box that there’s only one character for “l” and “r”, with its actual sound some way in between the two – try saying both phonemes at the same time. The letters “k”, “d”, “b” and “j” are often written “k”, “t”, “p” and “ch”, and are pronounced approximately halfway towards those Roman equivalents; unfortunately, the second set also have their place in the official system, and are usually referred to as aspirated consonants, accompanied as they are by a puff of air. Consonants are fairly easy to master – note that some are doubled up, and spoken more forcefully – but pronunciation guides to some of the tricky vowels and diphthongs are as follows (British English readings offer the closest equivalents):
a as in “car”
ya as in “yap”
eo as in “hot”
yeo as in “yob”
o pronounced “ore”
yo pronounced as the British “your”
u as in “Jew”
Transliteratary troubles
Rendering the Korean language in Roman text is, simply, a battle that can never be won – a classic problem of square pegs and round holes. Numerous systems have been employed down the years, perhaps best exemplified in the Korean family name now usually romanized as “Lee”: this has also been written as Rhee, Li, Ri, Lih, Rhi, Ree, Yi, Rii and more besides. Under the current system it would be “I”, but the actual pronunciation is simply “ee” – it’s amazing how much trouble a simple vowel can cause (especially when almost a fifth of the country has this name).
A Korean’s age, schooling, family and even lifestyle influence the way that they’ll romanize a given word, but official standards have long been in place. The Yale and McCune–Reischauer systems became widely accepted in the 1940s, and the latter is still much in evidence today; under its rules, aspirated consonants are marked with apostrophes, and certain vowels with breves. One problem – other than looking ugly – was that these punctuation markings are often neglected, even in language study books; though it remains the official system in North Korea, the South formulated its own system of Revised Romanization in 2000. While this is far from perfect, it’s the official standard, and has been used throughout this book; exceptions include names of the many hotels, restaurants, universities and individuals who cling to the old ways. One other issue is the Korean syllable shi; this is now romanized as si, a rather ridiculous change since it takes Koreans years of language classes before they can pronounce the syllable without palatalizing it – “six” and “sister” will be pronounced “shix” and “shister”. We’ve written it as shi in the language listings to help you achieve the correct pronunciation, but obeyed the official system in the rest of the book – Sinchon is pronounced “Shinchon”, and so on.
Koreans themselves find it hard to render foreign words in hangeul as there are many sounds that don’t fit into the system – the difficulties with “l” and “r” sharing the same character being an obvious example – but even when parallels exist they are sometimes distorted. The letter “a” is usually written as an “e” or “ae” in an unsuccessful effort to Americanize the pronunciation – “hat”, for example, will be pronounced “het” by the majority of the population, while to kowtow to American norms gimbap is often written “kimbob”.
yu pronounced “you”
eu no English equivalent; widen your mouth and try an “euggh” sound of disgust
i as in “pea”
e as in “bed”
ae as in “air”
ye as in “yet”
yae as in “yeah”
wi as in “window”
we as in “wedding”
wae as in the beginning of “where”
wa as in “wag”
oe as in the beginning of “way”
ui no English equivalent; add an “ee” sound to eu above
wo as in “wad”
Yes ye/ne 예/네
No aniyo 아니요
Please (asking for something) …juseyo …주세요
Excuse me shillye hamnida 실례합니다
I’m sorry mian hamnida 미안합니다
Thank you gamsa hamnida 감사합니다
You’re welcome gwaenchan-ayo 괜찮아요
What? muot? 무엇?
When? eonje? 언제?
Where? eodi? 어디?
Who? nugu? 누구?
How? eotteokke? 어떻께?
How much? eolma-eyo? 얼마에요?
How many? myeokke-eyo? 몇 개에요?
I want… …hago-shipeoyo …하고 싶어요
Please help me dowa-juseyo 도와주세요
I can’t speak Korean jeo-neun hangugeo-reul mot haeyo 저는 한국어를 못 해요
I can’t read Korean jeo-neun hangugeo-reul mok ilgeoyo 저는 한국어를 못 읽어요
Do you speak English? yeongeo halsu-isseoyo? 영어 할 수 있어요?
Is there someone who yeongeo-reul haljul 영어를
can speak English? a-neun bun isseoyo? 할줄 아는 분 있어요?
Can you please speak slowly? jom cheoncheonhi mal haejuseyo? 좀 천천히 말 해주세요?
Please say that again dashi han-beon mal haejuseyo 다시 한번말 해주세요
I understand/I see alasseoyo 알았 어요
I (really) don’t understand (jal) mollayo (잘) 몰라요
What does this mean? i-geot museun ddeushi-eyo? 이것 무슨 뜻이에요?
How do you say (x) in Korean? (x) eul/reul hanguk-eoro eotteokke mal haeyo? (x) 을/를 한국어로 어떻께 말해요
Please write in English yeongeo-ro jegeo jushillaeyo 영어로 적어 주실래요
Please wait (a moment) (jamggan) gidariseyo (잠깐) 기다리세요
Just a minute jamggan manyo 잠깐 만요
Hello; Good morning/ annyeong haseyo 안녕 하세요
afternoon/evening
Hello (polite) annyeong hashimnikka 안녕 하십니까
How are you? jal jinaesseoyo? 잘 지냈어요?
I’m fine jal jinaesseoyo/jo-ayo 잘 지냈어요/좋아요
Nice to meet you bangapseumnida 반갑습니다
Goodbye (when staying) annyeong-hi gaseyo 안녕히 가세요
Goodbye (when leaving) annyeong-hi gyeseyo 안녕히 계세요
What’s your name? ireum-i eotteokke doeshimnikka? 이름이 어떻께 되십니까?
My name is… ireum-i … imnida 이름이… 입니다
Where are you from? eodi-eso wasseoyo? 어디에 왔어요?
I’m from… …eso wasseoyo 에서 왔어요
Korea han-guk 한국
Britain yeong-guk 영국
Ireland aillaendeu 아일랜드
America mi-guk 미국
Australia oseuteureillia/hoju 오스트레일리아 / 호주
Canada kae-nada 캐나다
New Zealand nyu jillaendeu 뉴질랜드
South Africa nam apeurika 남 아프리카
How old are you? myeot-sal ieyo? 몇 살이에요?
I am (age) (age)-sal ieyo (age) 살이에요
Do you like…? …o-a haeyo? …좋아 해요?
I like… jo-a haeyo 좋아 해요
I don’t like… an jo-a haeyo 안 좋아해요
Do you have (free) time? shigan-i isseoyo? 시간이 있어요?
Rather confusingly, the Korean language has two separate number systems operating in parallel – a native Korean system, and a Sino-Korean system of Chinese origin – and you’ll have to learn according to the situation which one to use. To tell the time, you’ll need both – amazingly, minutes and hours run on different systems. The native Korean system only goes up to 99, and has been placed on the right-hand side of the readings. Dates and months use the Sino-Korean system alone, with il (sun) used as a suffix for days, and wol (moon) for months: June 7 is thus yuk-wol chil-il.
Zero yeong/gong 영/공
One il/hana 일/하나
Two i (pronounced “ee”)/dul 이/둘
Three sam/set 삼/셋
Four sa/net 사/넷
Five o/daseot 오/다섯
Six yuk/yeoseot 육/여섯
Seven chil/ilgop 칠/일곱
Eight pal/yeodeol 팔/여덟
Nine gu/ahop 구/아홉
Ten ship/yeol 십/열
Eleven shib-il/yeol-hana 십일/열하나
Twelve shib-i/yeol-dul 십이/열둘
Twenty i-shib/seumul 이십/스물
Thirty sam-ship/seoreun 삼십/서른
One hundred baek 백
Two hundred i-baek 이백
Thousand cheon 천
Ten thousand man 만
One hundred thousand shim-man 십만
One million baeng-man 백만
One hundred million eok 억
Now jigeum 지금
Today o-neul 오늘
Morning achim 아침
Afternoon ohu 오후
Evening jeonyok 저녁
Night bam 밤
Tomorrow nae-il 내일
Yesterday eoje 어제
Week ju 주
Month wol/dal 월/달
Year nyeon 년
Monday wolyo-il 월요일
Tuesday hwayo-il 화요일
Wednesday suyo-il 수요일
Thursday mogyo-il 목요일
Friday geumyo-il 금요일
Saturday toyo-il 토요일
Sunday ilyo-il 일요일
What time is it? myo-shi-eyo? 몇시에요?
It’s 10 o’clock yeol-shi-eyo 열시에요
10.20 yeol-shi i-ship-bun 열시 이십분
10.30 yeol-shi sam-ship-bun 열시 삼십분
10.50 yeol-shi o-ship-bun 열시 오십분
Aeroplane bihaenggi 비행기
Airport gonghang 공항
Bus beoseu 버스
Express bus (terminal) gosok beoseu (teominal) 익스프레스 (터미널)
Intercity bus (terminal) shi-oe beoseu (teominal) 시외 버스 (터미널)
City bus shinae beoseu 시내 버스
Airport bus gonghang beoseu 공항 버스
City bus stop jeong-nyu-jang 정류장
Train gicha 기차
Train station yeok 역
Subway jihacheol 지하철
Ferry yeogaek-seon 여객선
Ferry terminal yeogaek teominal 여객 터미널
Left-luggage office jimbogwanso 짐보관
Ticket office maepyoso 매표서
Ticket pyo 표
Platform seunggangjang 승강장
Bicycle jajeon-geo 자전거
Taxi taek-shi 택시
Where is (x)? -i/ga eodi-eyo? -이/가 어디에요?
Straight ahead jikjin 직진
Left oen-jjok (pronounced “wen-chok”) 왼쪽
Right oreun-jjok 오른쪽
Behind dwi-e 뒤에
In front of ap-e 앞에
North buk 북
South nam 남
East dong 동
West seo 서
Map maep/jido 맵/지도
Entrance ip-gu 입구
Exit chul-gu 출구
Art gallery misulgwan 미술관
Bank eunhaeng 은행
Beach haebyeon 해변
Department store baekhwajeom 백화점
Embassy daesagwan 대사관
Hot spring spa oncheon 온천
Museum bangmulgwan 박물관
Park gongwon 공원
Sea haean/bada 해안/바다
Temple Jeol/sachal 절/사찰
Toilet hwajang-shil 화장실
Tourist office gwan-gwang annaeso 관광 안내소
Hotel hotel 호텔
Motel motel 모텔
Guesthouse yeogwan 여관
Budget guesthouse yeoinsuk 여인숙
Rented room minbak 민박
Youth hostel yuseu hoseutel 유스 호스텔
Korean-style room ondol-bang 온돌방
Western-style room chimdae-bang 침대방
Single room shinggeul chimdae 싱글 침대
Double room deobeul chimdae 더블 침대
Twin room chimdae dugae 침대 두개
En-suite room yokshil-ddallin bang 욕실 딸린방
Shower syaweo 샤워
Bath yokjo 욕조
Key ki 키
Passport yeogwon 여권
Do you have any vacancies? bang isseoyo? 방 있어요?
I have a reservation yeyak haesseoyo 예약 했어요
I don’t have a reservation yeyak anhaesseoyo 예약 안했어요
How much is the room? bang-i eolma-eyo? 방이 얼마에요?
Does that include breakfast? achim-shiksa poham-dwae isseoyo? 아침식사 포함돼 있어요?
One/two/three nights haruppam/i-bak/sam-bak 하룻밤/이박/삼박
One week il-ju-il 일주일
May I see the room? bang jom bolsu- isseoyo? 방 좀 볼수 있어요?
Bank eunhaeng 은행
Foreign exchange woe-hwan 외환
Won won 원
Pounds pa-un-deu 파운드
Dollars dalleo 달러
Cash don 돈
Travellers’ cheque yeohaengja supyo 여행자 수표
How much is it? eolma-eyo? 얼마에요?
It’s too expensive neomu bissayo 너무 비싸요
Please make it a little cheaper jom kkakka-juseyo 좀 깎아주세요
Do you accept credit cards? keurediteu kadeu gyesan dwaeyo? 크레디트 카드 계산 돼요?
Post office uche-guk 우체국
Envelope bongtu 봉투
Letter pyeonji 편지
Postcard yeopseo 엽서
Stamp u-pyo 우표
Airmail hanggong u-pyeon 항공 우편
Surface mail seonbak u-pyeon 선박 우편
Telephone jeon-hwa 전화
Fax paekseu 팩스
Telephone card jeonhwa kadeu 전화카드
Internet café PC-bang PC 방
I would like to call… …hante jeonhwa hago- shipeoyo 좀바꿔 주세요
May I speak to… …jom baggwo juseyo 저는 아파요
Hello? yeoboseyo? 여보세요?
Hospital byeongwon 병원
Pharmacy yak-guk 약국
Medicine yak 약
Doctor uisa 의사
Dentist chigwa-uisa 치과의사
Diarrhoea seolsa 설사
Nausea meseukkeo-um 메스꺼움
Fever yeol 열
Food poisoning shikjungdok 식중독
Antibiotics hangsaengje 항생제
Antiseptic sodok-yak 독약
Condom kondom 콘돔
Penicillin penishillin 페니실린
Tampons tampon 탐폰
I’m ill jeo-neun apayo 저는 아파요
I have a cold gamgi geoll-yeosseoyo 감기 걸렸어요
I’m allergic to… …allereugi-ga isseoyo …알레르 기가 있어요
It hurts here yeogi-ga apayo 여기가 아파요
Please call a doctor uisa-reul bulleo juseyo 의사를 불러 주세요
Restaurant sikdang 식당
Korean barbecue restaurant galbi-jip 갈비집
Seafood restaurant hoet-jip 횟집
Western-style restaurant reseutorang 레스토랑
Italian restaurant itallian reseutorang 이탈리안 레스토랑
Chinese restaurant jungguk-jip 중국집
Japanese restaurant ilshik-jip 일식집
Burger bar paeseuteu-pudeu-jeom 패스트푸드점
Convenience store pyeonui-jeom 편의점
Market shijang 시장
Café kape 카페
Bar ba/suljip 바/술집
Club naiteu-keulleob 나이트클럽
Where’s (a) …? …eodi isseoyo? …어디 있어요?
Waiter/Waitress (lit. “Here!”) yeogiyo! 여기요!
How much is that? eolma-eyo? 얼마에요?
I would like… …hago shipeoyo …하고 싶어요
May I have the bill? gyesanseo juseyo? 계산해 주세요
I’m a vegetarian jeo-neun chaeshikju uija-eyo 저는 채식주의자에요
Can I have this without meat? gogi bbaego haejushilsu isseoyo? 고기 빼고 해주실수 있어요?
I can’t eat spicy food maeun-geot mot meogeoyo 매운 것 못 먹어요
Delicious! mashisseoyo! 맛있어요!
Chopsticks jeot-garak 젓가락
Fork po-keu 포크
Knife nai-peu/kal 나이프/칼
Spoon sut-garak 숟가락
Menu menyu 메뉴
Beef so-gogi 쇠고기
Chicken dak-gogi 닭고기
Duck meat ori-gogi 오리고기
Fish saengseon/hoe (raw fish) 생선/회
Ham haem 햄
Meat gogi 고기
Noodles myeon 면
Pork dwaeji-gogi 돼지고기
Red-pepper paste gochu-jang 고추장
Rice bap 밥
Rice-cake ddeok 떡
Seaweed laver gim 김
Shrimp sae-u 새우
Squid ojing-eo 오징어
Tuna chamchi 참치
Vegetables yachae 야채
Bread bbang 빵
Cereal shiri-eol 시리얼
Cheese chi-jeu 치즈
Chocolate chokollit 초콜릿
Eggs gyeran 계란
Fruit gwa-il 과일
Pizza pija 피자
Spaghetti seupageti 스파게티
Steak seuteikeu 스테이크
Beer maekju 맥주
Bottled beer byeong maekju 병 맥주
Cocktail kakteil 칵테일
Coffee keopi 커피
Draught beer saeng maekju 생맥주
Fruit juice gwa-il jyuseu 과일 쥬스
Milk uyu 우유
Mineral water saengsu 생수
Orange juice orenji jyuseu 오렌지 쥬스
Water mul 물
Wine wain 와인
Whisky wiseuki 위스키