A foreign friend said this on Hangul Day. "The signs all look like pictures. Where do you start reading?" All you need is paper and a pen, and 10 minutes is enough. ## When you want to try writing your name Follow the sounds, not the spelling. Anna is "안나" and Mark is "마크". Hangul is a script that writes sounds, so you don't need to memorize spellings like you do in English. There is only one rule. You gather consonants and vowels together into a single block. ㅁ+ㅏ becomes "마", and ㅋ+ㅡ becomes "크". Just split the sounds up one by one, write them down, and group them into blocks, and you're done. ## When you can't read the signs Try breaking each syllable block into consonants and vowels. "카페" is ㅋ+ㅏ and ㅍ+ㅔ. Consonants go on the left or at the top, and vowels go on the right or at the bottom. When the circle ㅇ comes first, it has no sound. So "약국" is read as ㅇ (silent)+ㅑ+ㄱ and ㄱ+ㅜ+ㄱ. Consonants were created by imitating the shape of the mouth and tongue when making the sound. So if you look at the shape, you can remember the sound. ## When Similar Letters Get Confusing For vowels, look at which side the short line is attached to. If it's on the right, it's ㅏ ("a"); if it's on the left, it's ㅓ ("eo"). If it's on the top, it's ㅗ ("o"); if it's on the bottom, it's ㅜ ("u"). The vowels were created by imitating the sky (a dot), the earth (ㅡ), and a person (ㅣ), so their direction follows a rule. The final consonant ㅇ makes an "ung" sound, so "강" is not "간." On your way home today, try breaking down just three signs and reading them syllable by syllable. The moment it clicks and you can read it is really fun.