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Korean Basic 1B: course overview

Sixteen more lessons at HMGICS, picking up where Basic 1A stopped: numbers, the past and future tenses, telling the time, and enough Korean to arrange a meeting. One note per lesson, plus a topic map.

  • korean
  • grammar
  • numbers
  • work-culture
  • hmgics

The second half of the introductory Korean course at HMGICS (Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore), taught by Janel Yun. It continues directly from Basic 1A, which ran lessons 101–116 and got as far as reading Hangul and building a simple present-tense sentence.

The stated goal moves on accordingly: communicate in Korean about common topics in daily life, and gain an understanding of Korean working culture. 1A was mostly about being able to read at all. 1B is about being able to say when, how many, and whether it already happened.

1B meets twice a week — Tuesday 09:00–10:00 and Thursday 15:30–16:30 — where 1A met once. Sixteen lessons therefore take eight weeks rather than sixteen.

How these notes are split

One note per lesson, numbered as the course numbers them (117 through 130). Lessons 123, 131 and 132 were review and assessment sessions with no new material, so they have no note of their own.

#LessonLanguageWork culture
1117Sino-Korean numbers; -(으)세요Korean money
2118Native Korean numbers; 비음화Self-introduction, age, zodiac
3119Counters; 몇; N하고 NMaking a request
4120첫째 / 첫 번째; weeks of the monthPublic holidays
5121Past tense -았어요/었어요/했어요Special days
6122에 vs 에서Provinces of South Korea
123Review — 117 to 122
7124Weather; negation with 안The education system, 수능
8125Dates; 며칠 / 무슨 요일; ㅡ and ㅂ irregulars
9126Telling the time국 · 탕 · 찌개 · 전골
10127V-(으)ㄹ까요?Unique Korean food
11128-아요/어요 as a suggestion; N하고 같이Useful expressions
12129그리고 / 그래서 / 그러면Useful expressions
13130Future tense V-(으)ㄹ 거예요Talking about future plans
131Review — Korean tenses
132Test assessment

The 1B deck prints no dates. Its lesson plan has a Tuesday column and a Thursday column, but every cell in both is blank — unlike the 1A deck, which dated lessons 101–111. The dates on these notes are the stated twice-weekly pattern continued from the end of 1A, and they are a reconstruction, not something the deck states. The order is right; the individual Tuesdays may not be.

Find a topic

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

Looking forGo to
일, 이, 삼 — and why 만 is 10,000 rather than a thousand117
Telling someone to do something politely — -(으)세요117
하나, 둘, 셋 — and where they stop118
Why 입니다 is heard as imnida (비음화)118
Introducing yourself properly; age, 살, 띠118
Counters — 개, 명, 병, 잔, 마리 — and the five numbers that change shape119
Arranging a meeting by message or call119
첫째 vs 첫 번째; the first week of the month120
Korean public holidays and 국경일120
The past tense121
에 or 에서?122
Weather vocabulary; saying something is not the case124
Dates, 며칠, 무슨 요일; the ㅡ and ㅂ irregular verbs125
What time is it — and which number system each half uses126
Suggesting something — 먹을까요?127
약속 vs 예약127
Accepting and declining an invitation128
Joining two sentences — 그리고 / 그래서 / 그러면129
The future tense; weekend plans130

What 1B assumes you already have

Everything in 1A, but four things carry most of the weight and are worth re-reading first:

  • Reading Hangul at all, including 받침 and linking — 104 and 105.
  • The present tense, -아요/어요/해요. Every new tense in 1B is built by swapping this ending — 111.
  • Particles. 은/는, 이/가, 을/를 all reappear immediately, and 에 gets a second job in 125106.
  • Titles and speech levels. 책임님 and 부장님 are throughout the dialogues — 106.

The assessment

Same format as 1A: a 25-question test, sent by email after the course and required to complete it — 10 listening questions and 15 reading questions. Everything it can ask about is in lessons 117–130.

A note on the romanisation

Unchanged from 1A. Revised Romanisation in square brackets, [an-nyeong-ha-se-yo], syllable by syllable, and where a spelling and its pronunciation diverge the deck writes the sound in Korean brackets instead: 입니다 [임니다]. 1B leans on that second convention much harder than 1A did, because most of what changes is now happening at the end of a word rather than inside it.