Meeting a Korean person for the first time? Do you want to impress some of your friends with some basic and useful Korean phrases? Well, we could hep you out here at LetsLearnKorean.com. Speaking (or trying to) other person’s native language always breaks the ice and it always enlightens the mood. I think this is probably better than asking if he or she knows “Kim Yu-Na” or “Kim Jung-Il” The intention is good – Yes, you want to relate to some Korean culture but trust me, this is not the way to go.

There are 14 consonants and 10 vowels and there are further 5 double consonants and 11 double vowels. In addition, there are 11 final double consonants in Korean. In this lesson, I am going to teach you how to pronounce each Korean alphabets so please become familiar with these beautiful geometric shapes.

Consonants (자음)

ㄱ = g
ㄴ = n
ㄷ = d
ㄹ = l, r (ㄹ is a sound somewhere between l and r)
ㅁ = m
ㅂ = b
ㅅ = s
ㅇ = “no sound” when used as a first consonant, “ng” when used as a final consonant.
ㅈ = j
ㅊ = ch
ㅋ = k
ㅌ = t
ㅍ = p
ㅎ = h

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure and receives kidney dialysis once every two weeks, the head of a think tank affiliated with the National Intelligence Service claimed Wednesday.

Nam Sung-wook of the Institute for National Security made the claim in a lecture on the future of inter-Korean relations organized by the Young Korean Academy. “The reason why Kim’s fingernails are white seems to be chronic kidney failure,” he said.

Carlos Slim Helu has become the richest person in the world. The 71-year-old Mexican telecom tycoon rose from third place last year to first place on Forbes magazine’s 2010 World’s Billionaires list, dethroning Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Riding a 35 percent surge in the stock price of mobile operator America Movil, in which he is the largest shareholder, Slim’s net worth rose US$18.5 billion over the past year to $53.5 billion. It is the first time a non-American has ranked atop the list since the U.S. business magazine began ranking the world’s richest people 16 years ago, the BBC said.

More than 14 percent of children and adolescents aged between nine and 19 are addicted to the Internet and have difficulties leading a normal life, a survey shows.

According to a survey conducted in 2008 by the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion, 168,000 or 2.3 percent of children and adolescents over nine years old are serious Internet addicts and in need of treatment, and a further 12.1 percent or 867,000 are potential addicts who need counseling.

More than two-thirds of Koreans consider money the most important sign of success, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Korea and China topped the poll of 24,000 people in 23 countries on the question at 69 percent.

They were followed by India (67 percent) and Japan (63 percent).

But respondents in Western countries regard money as a less important indicator of success. A mere 27 percent of Canadians thought money spells success, followed by Swedes (28 percent), Dutch (29 percent), and French (32 percent).