Shadowing Practice: Learn Hangul (Part 1) - Introduction and First Letters (ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㅏ) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hi, I'm Billy, and in this video series we'll be learning how to read and write Hangul.
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Hangul is the word for the Korean alphabet.
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Now you might be afraid to learn Hangul or think that it's too difficult, because at first glance it might just look like a bunch of circles and sticks, kind of like an alien language.
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But once you learn the basics of how it works, Hangul is really simple to learn.
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You can actually learn how to read and write it in just a few hours with some practice.
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I should also note that although it might be tempting to just write Korean using the English alphabet instead of learning Hangul,
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doing this will really hurt your progress in the language as soon as you begin learning any grammar.
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So learn Hangul now, and you'll thank me later.
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Hangul is unique because unlike other writing systems, it was created fairly recently, in the mid -1400s by the king at the time, who was named Sejong.
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Before Hangul was created, the majority of Koreans simply could not read or write their own language.
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So people who were wealthy and educated at the time would instead read and write using the Chinese language, because the Korean language didn't have a writing system.
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Fortunately for us, Hangul is an alphabet, just like English uses an alphabet.
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So you won't have to memorize thousands of characters like you would if you wanted to read and write Chinese or Japanese.
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Instead, there are just 24 unique letters
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that you'll need to know in order to read and write any sound that you want using hangul.
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So let's get started learning our first few letters.
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Here's our first letter, and it's a consonant.
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What is a consonant?
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Hangul, just like the English alphabet, is made up of consonants and vowels.
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Now vowels are the letters A -E -I -O -U and sometimes Y, as you probably learned in school, and consonants are just every other letter that's not a vowel.
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In order to make a sound or a syllable in Korean, we'll need at least one consonant and one vowel together.
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To write this letter, start from the top left and draw it all in one stroke, going to the right and then downward.
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You can pause the video to practice writing it yourself.
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Writing these letters in the correct order is very important
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because some letters can actually appear to be different letters if their stroke order is done incorrectly.
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You'll see examples of this later, but for now focus on learning the correct stroke order with each new letter
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and it'll save you a lot of time later on.
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This letter is pronounced similar to a K or a G in English.
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It's not a strong K sound like in the word kite, but it's also not a strong G sound like in the word great.
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It's between a K and a G and a bit softer.
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Now since this is just a consonant by itself, it doesn't have a sound.
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So in order to give it a sound, we'll first need to add a vowel.
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Let's go ahead and learn our first vowel and then we'll come back to this letter to hear what it sounds like.
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Here's our second letter and it's a vowel.
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To draw it, start at the top and draw a single line down.
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Then draw a second shorter line to the right.
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Practice writing this on your own a few times.
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This letter is pronounced ah.
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Ah.
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Such as in the words la or car in American English.
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Now that we have a vowel, we can give our first consonant a sound.
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So let's put them together and create our first syllable.
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In Korean, syllables are written arranged into blocks.
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This is the first type of block that we'll be using.
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C stands for consonant and V stands for vowel.
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And there are six types of blocks that we'll use depending on which vowels we use and how many letters.
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We'll talk about when to use other block types as we learn more letters
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and once we've learned all 24 letters you'll already know
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which blocks to use since we've only covered one consonant
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and one vowel
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so far we can put the two of them together in this order to make our first sound
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and here it is just like in english if we take our k
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or g sound
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and attach an ah sound we get the sound ka ka notice how it's not ka and it's It's not ga,
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but it's ka.
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This sound is between a K and a G in English.
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Practice it on your own.
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Ka, ka, and one more time, ka.
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Here's our next letter, which is another consonant.
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To draw it, start at the top and draw it all in one stroke going down and to the right.
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Practice writing it on your own.
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This letter is similar to N, such as in the word now in English.
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If we combine it with our vowel, A, we can hear that this letter would become Na.
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Na.
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And one more time.
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Na.
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Here's another consonant.
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It's drawn in two pieces.
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First, draw a horizontal line going from left to right.
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Then, draw a second line from the left of the first line, and in one stroke, go down and to the right.
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Practice writing it on your own.
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This letter is similar to a T or a D sound in English, but it's not a hard T sound like in the word time, and it's not a hard D sound like in the word dog.
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It's between T and D, and is a bit softer.
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We can combine this consonant with our vowel A and hear it sound directly. And once more.
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You can already see how it could be difficult to read
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and write hangul using English letters because already two of our four letters can't even be written correctly using English.
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Let's do a bit of practice.
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Try reading the following sounds on your own without looking at your notes.
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You can pause the video here.
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Here are the answers.
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가, 나, 다. And again.
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가, 나, 다.
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Practice these sounds on your own, writing each letter individually, writing them together, and then sounding them out.
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The key to learning hangul quickly is practicing it as much
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as possible in the next lesson we'll cover more consonants
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and vowels and we'll learn another important syllable block
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and I upload new videos to this channel every week so click subscribe and follow along 그럼 다음에 또 봐
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This A2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Learn Hangul (Part 1) - Introduction and First Letters”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: letter, sound, vowel, consonant, hangul. This video has 86 sentences and 1100 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:40. The speaker talks at a natural 165 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| litter noun | /ˈlɪt.ɚ/ | Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals. |
| alphabet noun | /ˈæl.fəˌbɛt/ | The set of letters used when writing in a language. |
| combine verb | /kəmˈbaɪn/ | To bring (two or more things or activities) together; to unite. |
| pause noun | /pɔːz/ | A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation. |
| pronounce verb | /pɹəˈnaʊns/ | To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| correctly adverb | /kəˈɹɛk(t).li/ | In a correct manner. |
| wealthy adjective | /ˈwɛl.θi/ | Possessing financial wealth; rich. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| grammar noun | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. |
| subscribe verb | /səbˈskɹaɪb/ | To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name). |
| arrange verb | /əˈɹeɪnd͡ʒ/ | To set up; to organize; to put into an orderly sequence or arrangement. |
| upload verb | /ˈʌpˌloʊd/ | To transfer data to a computer on a network, especially to a server on the Internet. |
| fortunately adverb | /ˈfɔɹ.t͡ʃə.nɪt.li/ | In a fortunate manner. |
| educate verb | /ˈɛd͡ʒ.əˌkeɪt/ | To instruct or train. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. | |
| follow along verb | To continue behind or beside an animal, person, vehicle or other object, especially as a companion. | |
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Here's our first letter, and it's a consonant.
- Here's our second letter and it's a vowel.
- Here's our next letter, which is another consonant.
- Let's do a bit of practice.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was created · is made · is done |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've learned · we've only covered |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who were · letter, which is |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | started learning · practice writing |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 21 contractions and reduced forms, such as we'll, you'll, we've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: fortunately /ˈfɔɹ.t͡ʃə.nɪt.li/, horizontal /ˌhoɹəˈzɑn.təl/, individually /ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əli/, incorrectly /ˌɪnkəˈɹɛk(t).li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like litter, alphabet, combine.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.