A

A is for...alphabet!

but not the one I am blogging through this month...

The Korean language, very conveniently, has its own alphabet called Hangul. 

 [pic via]

Up to 70% of Korean vocabulary is shared with Chinese but just has different pronunciation. I still don't quite understand how that works but anyway...Korean was only written in [modified] Chinese characters until the 1440s when King Sejong the Great decided to create an alphabet. Thankfully. 

There are 24 basic consonants and vowels and then some double consonants and vowel combinations. Two to five letters are arranged into block syllables which makes trying to read new Korean words much easier than trying to read new English words.   

Just in case you want to learn [or really just look at] Hangul, here are the letters and how they are usually Romanized:

consonants:

ㄱ     ㄴ     ㄷ     ㄹ     ㅁ     ㅂ     ㅅ     ㅇ     ㅈ     ㅊ     ㅋ     ㅌ     ㅍ     ㅎ

       g/k    n     d/t    r/l    m     b/p     s      ng      j      ch      k       t       p      h

                                                             [or silent]                  

double consonants:

ㄲ     ㄸ     ㅃ     ㅆ     ㅉ

kk     tt     pp     ss     jj

[they're just kind of more aggressive]

vowels:

ㅏ     ㅑ     ㅓ     ㅕ     ㅗ     ㅛ     ㅜ     ㅠ     ㅡ     ㅣ

                        a     ya      eo    yeo     o      yo     u      yu     eu      i

vowel combos:

ㅐ     ㅒ     ㅔ     ㅖ     ㅘ     ㅙ     ㅚ     ㅝ     ㅞ     ㅟ     ㅢ

                   ae    yae     e      ye     wa   wae    oe    wo    we    wi     ui

[I think these are kind of tricky]

and Koreanizing English:
Anna Curl ---> 애나컬

[In the disclaimer on my last blog I said that some of these blogs might be serious, funny, random, and about food - I forgot to include the possibility of boring. If you feel asleep reading this one, don't worry, they won't all be this 재미없는!]