Questions about Korean Language.

[Langin]

Hey there, I've made a major step in my life a few weeks ago. I decided to go to South Korea when I finished my studies here in the Netherlands. Next summer vacation I am going to spend my time on learning the Korean language. I think it would be the best for me to do at the moment. I have a few questions about the language itself:

1. Is there any sort of grammar? If there is some sort, how hard is it?
2. I've seen on my iPod that there are icons that you can combine, can someone tell me how many icons there are in total?
3. Will I be able to translate my name into Korean? My name according to Google translate is 알렉스(Alex, they pronounce it like: 'Aalegsue') but yeah my teacher taught me that I may never translate names! >.>

A general question about South Korea itself, how is the acceptation of homo-sexuality, I've read somewhere on a reliable site that South Korea is kinda homo phobic and also a bit not. I am confused, since yeah can someone inform me with good and actual information?

I would like to thank you a LOT if you can answer my questions. It would be so nice to know.

 

[Cyan]

I don't like the word "translate" for names. I think what you are looking for is more a transcription than a translation.

What you are trying to do with your name is to adapt it to look and feel Korean, not translating it.
You want to write/pronounce it as it is (Alex) but using the other language structure.

For Example, the difference between translation and transcription:
English "Daisy" is translated "Marguerite" in French (The flower name).
Daisy would be transcribed "dézi" (not a real word and doesn't mean anything). It's written with the French letters and keep the original name pronunciation, but it's not a translation.



About the writting (Hangeul), I would recommend reading the wiki article on Hangul.
Though, I prefer the french wiki to get the full letters.

The Hangul has 40 letters, named jamos.
There are 24 "main" jamos, and some are double/composed.

(example to type korean with a qwerty keyboard)


The jamos are divided in two groups : consonant and vowel.
Jamos are combined together in a specific order to write words.

All words are written using "blocks" (I don't remember how it's named).
Each block always starts with a consonant and is followed by a vowel, which in turn can be followed by another consonant.
The block can contain 2 or 3 jamos.

for example:

Hangul is formed by 2 "blocks" (sorry, I really need to check the name of that thing )
Han and Gul

H (consonant) + a (vowel) + n (consonant)
G (consonant) + eu (vowel) + l (consonant)



so your name :
알렉스 (looks more like Alrékseu for me).

I would write it like that instead:
ㅇ = silent consonant (it can't start with a vowel, so there are silent consonant)
ㅏ = a
ㄹ = l (pronounced R if at the start(in fact in front of a vowel), L if at the end, it's noted r/l)
알 = al

ㅇ = silent consonant
ㅐ = ae (but it's pronounced like the French sound for è)
ㄳ = ks (pronounced x)
앣 = eks, or ex

That's how I would write it
알앣 = Alaeks = Alex
It's certainly wrong, as I never learn that language.

There are Korean user on the forum, they could certainly help you


Edit:
Searching on google with my Alex gave nothing.
But the one given by google is correct
http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%95%8C%EB%A0%89%EC%8A%A4_%281979%EB%85%84%29

Edit2:
Korean are using spaces between words, unlike Japanese and Chinese.
I thought it might be interesting to notice.

 

[CCNaru]

1. I grew up using it so I'm not sure how it would work backwards (English -> Korean)... Korean is kinda hard to produce as a westerner but it's not too hard... also not a good grammar person so I can't really explain but Korean it's usually SOV and English is SVO i think

2. 13 Jaeums (Consonants) + 11 Moeums (Vowels) combine to make letters that combine to make words. Double consonants and combination vowels are also there. The best way to learn a language is to just straight up memorize lots and LOTS of words (that's what you do in English as well, but there are the "roots" shortcuts for English.
http://kr.infant.kids.yahoo.com/infantzone/index.html?service=hangeul&mode=view&contents_no=6545

3. No translation of English names, unless there are hidden meanings to names (like Victor can be Koreanly translated to Seungri (from Big Bang lol)) or something, but lots of names are usually not translated. Luckily there's a famous Korean singer also named Alex so people won't have problems pronouncing your first name (from Clazziquai).

On Homosexuality (copy/pasted from my answer on answers.yahoo.com):
Nope, still harsh against LGBT community.

Sure, more and more Koreans open up or came out of the closet nowadays, but that doesn't mean the society has been forgiving to the LGBT community. There aren't gonna be hate crimes like murder in the US, but bullying or threatening isn't too uncommon. There are a couple of celebrities who came out of the closet (most famous one being Hong Suk Chun), and he claims that he always is threatened, is bad-mouthed in lots of places and whenever there's someone else who comes out of the closet, seems to link that person with Hong Suk Chun with degrading words. You're not going to get killed for being LGBT but do expect lots of subtle threats and unkind words from the people around you. Although that wouldn't really differ from other LGBT people get treated in different parts of the world... and this does not point to a specific age group... I think since younger people use the internet more, more younger people are against this, I'm assuming.

I'm Korean myself and I've had LGBT friends and I'm very open-minded about it, but I've lived in the US for a long time and I'm pretty confident in my sexuality.

 

[Langin]

@[member='CCNaru'], I can't learn any words before I know what every symbol means. I still call it symbols sorry. ^^;;

Another question, can I have a digital Korean keyboard on Windows? I tried a few things but neither worked... D:

Hey when I type Hangul at http://www.branah.com/korean I get ㅗ무혀ㅣ... 0.o

Hmm slowly getting a grip on it =3

 

[CCNaru]

Korean IME. When you reboot w/ Korean IME installed and Korean language set installed, on the login screen you can see an option to turn on the mouse-activated keyboard onscreen 뿌잉뿌잉

 

[Cyan]

To type japanese/korean/chinese I use NJstar Communicator.
It's an IME which add to the bottom of your screen, and propose different word's choice based on what you write.

here is a picture from NJstar Word Processor, but it looks almost identical.

It's a little more complicated for korean as it doesn't use syllabics.
Each key are remaped to a korean character, not necessarily what it pronounce.
For example the L sound ( ㄹ ) is not mapped on the L key on your keyboard, but on the F one).