After writing about why you shouldn't rely on Romanization when learning Korean, today, I'm going to explore the reasons why Romanization can actually be useful.
Languages Where Learning to Read Is Challenging
To be more specific, there are foreign languages where using your native script can be helpful, especially when learning to read, which can be a time-consuming process.
I've studied Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and English. Both Japanese and Chinese use characters (Kanji and Hanzi, respectively), and if you come across an unfamiliar character, you simply can't read it. It's said that Chinese people use around 3,500 characters in daily life. Japanese, which also uses Hiragana and Katakana, still requires you to learn over 2,000 characters to read and write without problems.
Thai, on the other hand, has 44 consonants, 32 vowels, and 10 unique numbers. Even after memorizing these, you're only just beginning. Each consonant and vowel falls into specific categories, and various rules apply depending on their combinations. Plus, there are five tones to consider, making it a lot to learn. I studied Thai script with a native teacher in 1:1 lessons, but I still can't read Thai. I even wondered who created the Thai script and if they made it difficult on purpose to limit access to only a few people.
English, with its 26 letters, seems simple at first glance. However, the lack of consistent rules in combining them to form words makes it difficult. There are countless examples like "yes" and "eyes" or "thought," "tough," and "dough," where the same letters are pronounced differently depending on the word.
Reading First vs. Speaking First
For most language learners, speaking ability is more important than reading or writing. However, I strongly recommend that beginners in Korean learn Hangul first because it's so easy. Investing just a few hours to acquire reading skills will greatly benefit your overall Korean learning journey.
The languages I studied required a lot of time to develop reading skills, and my primary goal was to converse with native friends. So, I focused on speaking first. During this time, writing foreign words using Hangul was incredibly helpful.
How to express a foreign language in your native language
When learning foreign languages, I frequently used the Anki app. As shown in the image above, I wrote Thai pronunciations as closely as possible in Hangul on flashcards. It didn't matter if it strayed from standard Hangul rules. Of course, it’s impossible to represent the pronunciation with 100% accuracy, but I wrote it in a way that would help me recall the correct Thai pronunciation when reading Hangul. If English were my native language, I might have written it as "P-eom R-eom," for example, something only I would understand.
One crucial point here is the use of native audio. I stored audio for every flashcard, asking native teachers or friends to record it for me. I would read the Hangul while repeatedly listening to the native pronunciation, which allowed me to practice Thai pronunciation even with imperfect Hangul transcriptions.
