If not, then you are expected to spend a few weeks before taking up the course trying to familiarise yourself with the Korean script Hangeul. This is because students beginning the Intensive Korean Course at the UDE are expected to be able to read and write Hangeul before the course begins.

This does not, of course, mean that you have to be in fluent command of Hangeul. But you should not only know the single letters but also be able to recognise most common syllable blocks and learn 50–100 everyday words, preferably for people, places and things, because verbs and adjectives are less suitable for this because of their variety of forms.

Learners generally pick up Hangeul rather quickly, but in order to be able to read and write it to some degree you should invest about 20–30 hours, a time investment that is most effective if you practice about 2 hours a day for 2–3 weeks. Here it is essential that you take care to learn the correct writing direction and order of the strokes for each letterbecause only then will the handwriting that you develop look natural. This is different from what you may be used to from your own language where it people may write letters in their own individual manner. A neat overview over how Hangeul should be written can be found here: https://jreidy17.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/hangul-‌stroke-‌order-‌handwriting-‌fonts.pdf.

As far as material on Hangeul and Korean pronounciation is concerned you should sooner or later also have a look at the relevant course material deposited on the course Moodle, and if you got the SNU textbooks to start with, do the many exercises there too. For learning and practicing, however, I strongly recommend https://www.koreanclass101.com/learn-hangul/. Once you have worked through this you should also scroll to the end, all the way to “9. Related Lessons” and follow the link “Go to Hangul Series” and (for lessons on pronounciation) the link “Go to Introduction Series”. These materials are free but if you wish to download anything you need to register. Again you do not need to choose a paid subscription and, once registered, you can return to the page using the URL given above.

As a final task FOR ALL OF YOU (unless, of course, you already know how to) you should apply what you have learnt to reading and writing words for foodstuffs, drinks, clothing, writing utensils and other everyday items. You can also practice this using the “First Vocabulary” lists deposited on the course Moodle, as well as the Hangeul pages in the SNU textbook. Details on Moodle enrolment can be found in the Erstsemesterbrief, or contact stefan.knoob@uni-due.de under the title “Korean Moodle 2022”.

Enjoy learning and see you for the course!