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Survival
Korean
How to communicate without
fuss or fear INSTANTLY!
by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
Revised by Woojoo Kim
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore
CONTENTS
PREFACE
The Korean Language
INTRODUCTION
The Korean Alphabet
Pronunciation Guide for Korean Syllables
Korean Grammar
PART 1
Common Expressions & Key Words
Personal Things
Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, This, That, Which
PART 2
The Numbers: Essential Communication “Tools”
The Cardinal Numbers [Chinese]
The Cardinal Numbers [Native Korean]
Ordinal Numbers, 1–10 [Native Korean]
Counting People & Things
Telling Time
Days of the Week
Counting Days
The Week
Counting Weeks
The Months
The Year
Counting Years
PART 3
Travel Vocabulary & Useful Expressions
Airport / Airlines
Money
Taxis
Directions
Subways
Buses
Rental Cars
Trains
Hotels
Toilets / Restrooms
The Seasons
The Weather
Eating
Drinks
Bills / Receipts
Telephone / Cell Phone
Internet / Computer
Shopping / Clothes
Business
Post Office / Bank
Health / Emergencies
Haircut
Measurements
Personal Titles
Academic Titles
Business & Professional Titles
Vocabulary for the Home / House
Holidays
Popular Destinations in Seoul
Shopping District / Street / Mall
Sightseeing
PART 4
Pronunciation Guide for Key Names & Signs
The Nine Provinces
Major Cities
Other Key Words
Common Signs
General Info on Korea
PART 5
Additional Vocabulary
PREFACE
The Korean Language
Linguists say that the Korean language, Hankuk Mal [Hahn-kuuk mahl], originated in the Ural-Altaic region of what is now Russia, and that it appears to be related to Turkish, Mongolian and Tungusic.
Be that as it may, some 60 percent of the spoken language of Korea is Chinese in origin. This massive importation of Chinese words into Korea began over 2,000 years ago when China sent an expeditionary military force onto the Korean peninsula, and for the next 400 years exercised virtual suzerainty over the small Korean kingdoms that had formed by that time, fundamentally influencing their cultural and social development.
The Koreans not only incorporated thousands of Chinese words into their vocabulary; they also adopted the Chinese ideographic writing system (called Hantcha / Hahn-chah in Korean), which contributed enormously to the use and spread of Chinese words among the kingdoms’ educated classes. However, much to the credit of the Koreans, they did not attempt to import the Chinese tonal pronunciation of these thousands of words. They simply pronounced them as if they were Korean.
It was not until the 1440s that one of the early Choson dynasty kings [Sejong] ordered the creation of a native Korean script for writing that is now regarded as the most scientific of all writing systems. But for generation after generation, Korea’s ruling class continued to use the Chinese ideograms as the official system of writing.
Still today, most writing in South Korea consists of a combination of Chinese characters and Hangul (Hahn-guhl) , the unique Korean script. [In North Korea, on the other hand, the government has virtually banned all use of Chinese characters.]
But the use of thousands of Chinese words did not change the fundamental nature of the
