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Korean Basic 1A: course overview

Sixteen lessons of Korean language and Korean work culture, run at HMGICS between May and July 2026. This is the index — one note per lesson, plus a topic map for when you know what you want but not which Tuesday it was.

  • korean
  • hangul
  • grammar
  • work-culture
  • hmgics

A sixteen-lesson introductory Korean course run at HMGICS (Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore) between May and July 2026, taught by Janel Yun. One hour every Tuesday morning.

The stated goal: read Hangul, speak basic Korean, and understand how a Korean workplace expects you to behave. Those are three different skills, and the course deliberately pairs them — every lesson has a language half and a work-culture half, and they are usually about the same situation. You learn 안녕하세요 and, in the same hour, the angle you bow at while saying it.

How these notes are split

One note per lesson, numbered as the course numbers them (101 through 114). That mirrors the deck and matches how the lessons are referred to in class, so “what did we do in 105?” has an answer. Lessons 107, 115 and 116 were review and assessment sessions with no new material, so they have no note of their own.

#LessonLanguageWork culture
1101Syllable formation, 21 vowelsFormal greeting, bowing
210219 consonantsGiving and receiving a name card
3103Consonant + vowel syllablesThank you, sorry, it’s okay
4104Final consonants, part 1Saying goodbye at work
5105Final consonants, part 2; linkingHold on, congratulations
6106Sentence structureNames, titles, the hierarchy
107Review — Hangul
7108제 이름은 ___입니다Self-introduction at work
8109저는 싱가포르 사람이에요Appropriate work attire
9110저는 싱가포르 사람이 아니에요Yes/no expressions
10111저는 회사에 가요Seating by seniority
11112자동차가 있어요눈치 at the workplace
12113책임님이 어디에 있어요?Table manners at company meals
13114언제 회의해요?Korean Wave
115Review
116Test assessment

The deck prints dates for lessons 101–111 (5 May to 7 July 2026) but leaves 112, 113 and 114 undated. The notes for those three carry the following Tuesdays, which is the schedule continued, not a date the deck states.

Find a topic

The course sequence is not the lookup order. If you know what you want:

Looking forGo to
The vowels, and how a syllable block is assembled101
The consonants; plain vs. aspirated vs. tensed102
Reading practice words, C+V only103
받침 — final consonants and the seven sounds they collapse to104
Why 한국어 sounds like han-gu-geo (linking, 연음)105
Word order, particles, the six speech levels106
이에요 / 예요 / 입니다, and question words108
The topic particle 은/는109
Negation — 아니에요; 네 and 아니요; 알겠습니다110
Present-tense verbs — 아요/어요/해요 and ㅂ니다/습니다111
The subject particle 이/가; 있어요 / 없어요112
Position words — 위, 밑, 옆, 안113
Numbers, months, days of the week, the particle 에114
Which seat to take in a meeting room, car, or lift111
How to address a 책임 or a 상무106

The assessment

A 25-question test closes the course, sent by email afterwards and required to complete it: 10 listening questions and 15 reading questions. Everything it can ask about is in lessons 101–114.

A note on the romanisation

The deck romanises with Revised Romanisation, and so do these notes — [an-nyeong-ha-se-yo], syllable by syllable in square brackets. Treat it as a reading aid you should be trying to stop needing. Where a spelling and its pronunciation diverge, the deck writes the sound in Korean brackets instead: 한국어 [한구거]. That convention is kept here, because the gap between those two is the entire subject of lesson 105.