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Languages · course 78 of 105

The Korean Alphabet, Unlocked

Decode Hangul, the Korean alphabet: every common consonant and vowel, how syllable blocks are built and split, and real words and place names in official romanization.

4 modules

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What it teaches

Reading the Korean alphabet. The basics (who made Hangul, how a syllable block is built, the silent ㅇ), then every common consonant (including when ㄱ is g and when it’s k, and ㄹ as r or l), the simple, y- and w-vowels, building and splitting syllable blocks, and romanizing real words and place names the official way (Revised Romanization, South Korea’s official system), including linking and two sound changes. The AI asks 3 questions, places you, shows a short card per module, then gives you one letter, block or word at a time.

Text only. It teaches reading and the official spelling, not pronunciation; it can’t hear you or play sound.

How long

56 items. About 30-60 rounds (about 30 for a student who knows some Hangul, about 60 for a beginner) plus a 12-item final: 2-3 sessions (estimate, not timed with a real student). The tutor gives a one-line save code at the end of each session.

The modules

4 modules, drilled one item at a time.

  1. M0

    Hangul and romanization basics

    Concept questions

  2. M1

    Consonants

    Read a consonant

  3. M2

    Vowels

    Read a vowel

  4. M3

    Blocks and words

    Build or split a block, or romanize a word

Before it teaches, it asks

  1. 1
    Why Korean (K-dramas, K-pop, travel, family, work), and can you read any Hangul yet?
  2. 2
    How is the vowel ㅓ romanized? (As a syllable on its own it’s written 어.)
  3. 3
    Romanize 한국 (Korea).

What’s exact, and what isn’t

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Straight from the course’s own notes.

Checked by script
Every letter key comes from the official tables of the National Institute of Korean Language (NIKL) (the silent initial ㅇ from Wikipedia’s Hangul page); every syllable block is built and split with the Unicode Hangul formula, which was checked on all 11,172 modern syllables against Python’s own Unicode data; the romanization routine reproduces all 11 of NIKL’s plain examples and all 4 sound-change examples it uses before it makes a single key, and it refuses any word with a sound change it doesn’t model unless that word is NIKL’s own example. A planted-error test (6 errors) was caught.
Sourced
NIKL’s “Romanization of Korean” page and Wikipedia’s Hangul pages; short quotes matched word for word on the live pages (re-checked 2026-10-11).
Coverage
The cards list every consonant and vowel; the items ask 13 of the 19 consonants (not ㄴ ㅁ ㅅ ㅌ ㄸ ㅃ) and 15 of the 21 vowels (not ㅑ ㅒ ㅖ ㅙ ㅞ ㅟ).
Not in it yet
The sound-change rules beyond two examples, final letters other than ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅇ (ㅅ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅎ, ㄲ, ㅋ: 옷 is ot) and double finals (ㄳ, ㄺ...), vocabulary, grammar, North Korean spelling.