Romanization is probably one of the first things you will be attracted to if you start learning Korean. But what is romanization?
The romanization is the act of transforming the Korean characters to latin letters. It allows you to read Korean without knowing the alphabet. In this article, we will talk about Romanization, try to understand what it is as well as how to use it and why you shouldn’t rely too heavily on it.
Table of Contents
Why is Romanization a thing?
Romanization for Korean was primarily developed to facilitate communication and interaction with the Western world. The Korean language, with its unique script (Hangul), presented challenges for Westerners who were unfamiliar with it.
Romanization provided a way to represent Korean sounds using the Latin alphabet, making it easier for non-Korean speakers to pronounce Korean words and phrases, as well as to input Korean text on Western keyboards.
It’s also important for internal trade, as well as diplomacy. Facilitating communication is the root of the creation of romanization, and it exists in many languages. (for example, the romanization of japanese)
Learning Korean with Romanization
I am not advocating for romanization and learning romanization only to learn Korean. It shouldn’t be your goal if you want to learn Korean seriously and have goals related to the country other than tourism.
Now, I can understand that some people would want to just have a trip to South Korea for the experience. In this case, you might want to get a couple of sentences memorized without getting through learning Hangul. And for that, I can give you a few tips.
1. Understand the Romanization System
The first step will be to familiarize yourself with the romanization system. Actually, there isn’t only one romanization system, so it might be tricky sometimes.
We have the Revised Romanization of Korean (the most common one), the McCune-Reischaur or the Yale Romanization. Each system has its own rules.
For example : 영어 (english)
Revised Romanization of Korean : yeongeo
McCune-Reischauer Romanization : yŏngŏ
Yale Romanization : yenge
You can check this Korean romanization converter to explore more about each romanization system : Korean Romanization Converter
2. Focus on Sounds
I would suggest you to use resources that will provide audio recordings, so that you can focus on sounds and link the sounds to the romanization system. Practice speaking at the same time.
If you don’t have access to audio recordings, you can go on Google Translate or Papago. Even though the tone of the translations can be weird, the sounds are usually correct. Rely on it for your travel sentences.
3. Find Resources Using Romanization
It’s not easy to find resources that will use romanization. But by searching specific keywords on Google or Pinterest, you can quickly make yourself a list of sentences that you want to memorize.
You can also check my Tiktok here and get to my playlist “Test your Korean“. Even though you don’t know the sentences yet, you can get to study them through my videos. Later, you can come back to them and actually test your Korean!
Why should I avoid learning Korean with Romanization?
Let’s imagine that your goal is more than just traveling once to South Korea for vacation. You want to live here, you might even want to study here.
In that case, you really shouldn’t rely on romanization, and learning Korean through its romanization will seriously delay your learning journey. You can check some mistakes people do when trying to learn Korean, relying too much on romanization is one of them. But let’s give some reasons as for why you should avoid it if you want to seriously learn.
1. Accuracy
The Romanization system is not accurately representing the sounds of the Korean language. It can lead to mispronunciations, as well as misunderstandings. Of course, when you are just trying to get a couple of sentences memorized, it will be enough.
But if you’re trying to get to actually speak the language, don’t rely on romanization.
Romanization was made to create an approximate sound of the language in our alphabet. But some sounds exist in Korean and not in English, so it’s impossible to be 100% accurate with romanization.
Example :
막내 (maknae)
The accurate pronunciation of this word would be “mang nae“, which is something you can learn only through Hangul and its pronunciation rules.
2. Dependency
If you start by learning and rely on romanization when you study Korean, you will create a form of dependency. As time goes by, it will get harder and harder to let go of it. The transition from romanization to Hangul might take even more time than it should, and you will have a hard time.
Hangul is an essential aspect of Korean language and culture, and learning it opens up opportunities for deeper understanding and appreciation of the language.
3. Limited Resources
If you want to learn and study Korean through romanization, you will quickly run out of learning material. Most of the Korean language materials are targeting learners who can read Hangul. By learning it, you will gain access to a very vast range of learning materials and resources.
Wrap Up
In summary, while learning Korean through romanization can be a helpful starting point for beginners, it’s important to transition to learning Hangul as soon as possible to develop a more accurate understanding of the language and avoid dependency on romanization.
But if you’re only willing to travel one time to Korea, I can understand you don’t want to go through too much struggle (even though Hangul is really easy to learn!!). In any case, it’s really nice to try learning a new language. Don’t hesitate to check out my article about Hangul learning.
Happy learning~
