Korean's alphabet, Hangul, was designed in the 15th century to be easy for everyone to learn — and it shows. Most people can read it after a day or two of focused practice. It's the best possible first step in Korean.
Why Hangul is so learnable
Hangul has 14 basic consonants and 10 basic vowels. The consonant shapes even hint at the position of your tongue and mouth. It's phonetic and systematic — no thousands of characters to memorise.
Letters combine into syllable blocks
Instead of writing left to right like English, Hangul groups letters into neat syllable blocks — for example consonant + vowel (+ consonant). 한 = ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ. Once you see the pattern, reading clicks.
A one-day plan
- Hour 1: the basic vowels.
- Hour 2: the basic consonants.
- Hour 3: combine them into blocks and read simple words aloud.
- Later: double consonants and combined vowels.
Learn Hangul first. Everything else in Korean becomes easier once you can read what you're saying.
Start Korean the right way
Our Korean course starts with Hangul and moves straight into speaking, explained in your own language. Start free or see pricing.