ANNYEONG HASEYO!

Hello everyone!

I am studying Korean through http://talktomeinkorean.com (also known as TTMIK). But before I was able to discover TTMIK site, I already have prior knowledge about Korean characters through the help of the following sites http://thinkzone.wlonk.com/Language/Korean.htm and http://www.indiana.edu/~koreanrs/hangul.html. Then, I was directed by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqFGHMxWtYk to TTMIK website.

Korean language has their own way of writing. Therefore, you should basically learn their alphabet before jumping into learning words, phrases, etc. I will not discuss any further about Korean alphabet, instead, check out the sites that I had mentioned to avoid confusions.

The first phrase to learn in Korean is how to greet. In English, we often greet using the word "Hello." In Korean, this is translated as 안녕하세요. [an-nyeong-ha-se-yo]. It can be literally translated as "peace be with you" since 안녕 [an-yeong] means PEACE, 하 [ha-] means DO, and 세요 [se-yo] means PLEASE.

FYI (in Filipino)

If 안녕하세요. [an-nyeong-ha-se-yo] is a Korean way of saying HELLO! In Filipino, there is no direct translation for this greeting. Commonly, Filipinos also greet with "Hello." and "Hi." But when teaching foreigners(especially celebrities) in greeting Filipinos, they are asked to say MABUHAY! "Mabuhay" [ma-bu-ha-i] is also being yelled as expression for victory. "MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS" (Pilipinas = Philippines).

In casual setting, we greet friends by asking "Kumusta?" [ku-mus-ta]. It means, "How are you?" or "What's up!" To make it more formal, just add the word PO at the end which makes it KUMUSTA PO? which only means, "How are you?" But as a greeting, the person who is asking does not really expecting a response from the person he greets.

MABUHAY! Kumusta?