Learning Korean - Your turn!

Yesterday I finally posted our learning-Korean story. Today I want to outline the process in a more pictorial manner. This is how I started my journey of being able to read Hangul. Now, let's see how you do. I'm going to give you all the main consonants and regular vowels and then a few pictures. See if you can figure out what the Hangul words in the pictures say before checking your answers at the bottom of the blog. Feel free to check back with the pictures on the previous post if you need a clue or a hint.

Consonants: ㄱ (g); ㄴ (n); ㄷ (d); ㄹ (l/r); ㅁ (m); ㅂ (b); ㅅ (s); ㅇ (-/ng); ㅈ (j); ㅊ (ch); ㅋ (k); ㅌ (t); ㅍ (p); ㅎ (h).
Vowels: ㅏ (a); ㅓ (eo); ㅗ (o); ㅜ (u); ㅡ (eu); ㅣ (i)

First, let's start off easy. This one gives the name in English below the Hangul, so just try to match the characters to get the feel of it.

And here's another simple one. No English name, but I think you can all figure it out without too much difficulty.

This one has the English letters, but it's a little harder to decipher because of the all the Os. (If you
don't remember from yesterday's pictures, here's a tip: when the Os come before a vowel, they are a
placeholder and don't make any sound. When they come at the end of a syllable, they make the 'ng' sound.)

This one is a well-known restaurant. Try sounding it out like you would a card from Mad Gab.

And here's the hardest of the five, the phrase appears backward. Can you decipher it?

I learned so many interesting things about Hangul while I was in Korea. From editing the junior textbooks I learned a lot about King Sejong, the fourth king of the Chosun Dynasty in Korea. He's called the Great King in Korea because of his invention of Hangul, which is well-known for its scientific structure and easiness to learn, as well as many other inventions he and his scholars produced. All his inventions were to improve the lives of his people, and he is a much-loved historical figure over there. Another fascinating thing I learned about Hangul from the junior textbooks is that an Indonesian island called Buton started using Hangul for their official written language in 2009. Since the island has so many different tribes and languages, it was really hard for everyone to understand each other. So they decided to adopt Hangul as their written language for official business. One thing I realized this past year is how crazy, difficult, and utterly ridiculous written English is. I love the simplicity and ease of Hangul so much that I have half a mind to try to transform the English-speaking world into doing the same thing as Buton. Who wants to join me?! :)

Answers: A. Dettol; B. Pepsi (pronounced pep-shi); C. Icis (pronounced ai-sis); D. Pizza Hut (pronounced pee-jah hut); E. Mix Party (meaning Party Mix, pronounced meek-soo pah-tee)