Billy Go's Blog, page 86

Learn Hangul (Part 14) - Final Sound Change Rules and Irregulars

Here's the fourteenth and final episode of the "Learn Hangul" series - a series designed to help you learn the Korean alphabet from the very beginning to the end.

This video series covers all of the basics. We've learned all of the basic vowels and consonants, all 6 syllable blocks, double consonants, strong consonants, diphthongs, the names of the letters, as well as all major and common sound change rules.

Today's episode will cover the final few sound change rules.

Thanks for watching this series, and I'm looking forward to new and different series related to learning Korean in the future~!

The post Learn Hangul (Part 14) - Final Sound Change Rules and Irregulars appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

Learn Korean Ep. 90: Compared to…

I've always wanted my own gym ball. And what a coincidence! Keykat happened to get one the other day. I hope she doesn't mind if I use it for a few minutes... or hours... or if I keep it.

But anyway, let's learn about the form 비해(서). You can use it to mean "compared to~" something else. I'll show you how in this week's new episode.

Remember that there are free extended PDFs available for every "Learn Korean" episode, and each contains additional information or examples not covered in the video.

Check out the episode here!

Click here to download a free PDF of this lesson!

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Korean Food Buffet – All You Can Eat (뷔페)

Korean buffets are a fun way to experience a lot of different Korean foods while in Korea in a short amount of time. While the quality of the food isn't going to rival other restaurants, it's usually good enough - after all, Koreans are their main customers.

Check out a Korean buffet during your next trip to Korea to experience more of the food, and to help you decide which types you enjoy and which types to avoid.

The post Korean Food Buffet – All You Can Eat (뷔페) appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

(Updated) A free Hangul typing practice game - New Version

Last month I made a free game for practicing typing Hangul, and I promised to add updates and new features to it. Well, I re-made the entire game from scratch, and improved on every part of it that I could. I'd still like to add more features, if there's interest in the game.

Here's a trailer of the updated game.

It's the year 2020 and the Hangul Aliens have invaded the planet. Fortunately for us, they have a weakness - the modern Korean keyboard. Can you save earth from disaster?

How to play:

Type the letters on your keyboard as they fall from the sky. If you make a mistake, a meteor will fall down. You can shoot meteors with your turret, using the space bar. Any letters or meteors that hit the floor will drain your life.

If you don't know where the keys are on the keyboard, you can press Escape at any time to show an interactive keyboard and pause the game.

Remember that some letters also require the shift key.

There are 4 levels: consonants only, vowels only, consonants and vowels, and a master mode. In master mode, letters will continue to fall more frequently and faster over time, making it more difficult the longer you play. There is no time limit in master mode, so try to score as high as you can.

There are also a variety of falling items that you can shoot: health packs will restore some of your health, comets will slow down falling objects temporarily, nuclear bombs will destroy all letters and meteors on the screen, and power ups will increase the speed and effectiveness of your turret.

Download the game here:

Click here to download for Windows.

Click here to download for OSX (Mac).

Click here to download for Linux.

The post (Updated) A free Hangul typing practice game - New Version appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

Learn Hangul (Part 13) - More Sound Change Rules

Here's the thirteenth episode of the new "Learn Hangul" series - a series designed to help you learn the Korean alphabet from the very beginning to the end.

So far we've been introduced to the basics. We've covered all of the basic vowels and consonants, all 6 syllable blocks, double consonants, strong consonants, diphthongs, the names of the letters, and sound change rules including the base consonants.

Today's episode will cover a few more sound change rules.

Stay tuned for more! New episodes of this series will be posted once a month until it is finished. There will only be one more episode in this series (14 total).

The post Learn Hangul (Part 13) - More Sound Change Rules appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

Who Were the HWARANG (화랑) – "Flower Boys" – The Shilla Kingdom’s Elite Young Men

The HWARANG (화랑) are known by practically every Korean, but not much is actually known about them. Find out all about them in this week's new video.

The Hwarang were an elite youth organization in the kingdom of Shilla (신라), during Korea's "Three Kingdoms Period" in history. The Shilla Kingdom grew to cover all of the peninsula, and was the dominant kingdom in Korea until 935 AD.

Find out more in the video~

The post Who Were the HWARANG (화랑) – "Flower Boys" – The Shilla Kingdom’s Elite Young Men appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

How to Say "Thank you" and “No thanks” in Korean – A Glass with Billy Episode 2

감사합니다 is one of the most commonly used Korean expressions. It's also one of the very first things most people will learn when they study Korean. But 감사합니다 isn't the only way to say "thank you," and doesn't work in every situation. Find out more about this phrase, and more phrases including 고맙습니다 and 도움(이) 되다 (literally, "to become help") in this second episode of "A Glass with Billy."

I met up with Jonson Lee from SpongeMind to chat a bit about this question. Check out his website (and also his YouTube channel) for more~!

Check out the video below:

The post How to Say "Thank you" and “No thanks” in Korean – A Glass with Billy Episode 2 appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

The History of Korea - Learn Korean History in Under 12 Minutes

Korea has an amazing history. It really does, but most people don't learn much about it (besides learning about the Korean War in high school... and "Gangnam Style").

Learn about Korea's history from its first origins, its first kingdoms, and its history from the past up to the present day. Because this video is under 12 minutes long, and is meant to be a summary, some parts, people, and details have been intentionally left out. Please let me know if there are any parts you'd like to learn more about, and perhaps I can make another video in the future.

Check out the video here~!

The post The History of Korea - Learn Korean History in Under 12 Minutes appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

Korean Phrases Ep. 47: 동문서답

This week we have a new "Korean Phrases" video, and we're going to be learning another useful idiom from 한자 (Chinese characters used in Korean).

We'll be learning about the idiom 동문서답.

Check out the video below!

The post Korean Phrases Ep. 47: 동문서답 appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

A free Hangul typing practice game

Here's a free game I made for you to practice typing in Korean. It's called "Hangul Attack," and I made it in three weeks as my very first game. I've always wanted to make a simple typing game for Korean like this. This game will always be free. I'd like to try to add more features to make it better. Some features I'd like to add are newer weapons to shoot the meteors, and extra levels with new typing challenges. I'd also like to remake most of the menu art.

It's the year 2020 and the Hangul Aliens have invaded the planet. Fortunately for us, they have a weakness - the modern Korean keyboard. Can you save earth from disaster?

Here's a screenshot of the menu, showing the game's controls:

And here's a screenshot of the game:

How to play:

Type the letters on your keyboard as they fall from the sky. If you make a mistake, a meteor will fall down. You can shoot meteors with your turret, using the space bar. Any letters or meteors that hit the floor will drain your life.

If you don't know where the keys are on the keyboard, you can press Escape at any time to show the keyboard and pause the game.

There are 3 levels: consonants only, vowels only, consonants and vowels, and a free play mode. In free play mode, letters will continue to fall more frequently and faster over time, making it more difficult the longer you play. There is no time limit in free play mode. Try to score as high as you can.

Remember that some letters also require the shift key.

Here's a short video of the game:

Click here to download the game.

Update history:

11-26-2016: First beta released. Several bugs removed. Added Level 5 and high score list.

The post A free Hangul typing practice game appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.