[sleeps_in_library]

Can someone explain to me how to read Korean Romaji?
When I listen to a korean song, and then i wonder what the korean lyrics are, i can't go read the actual characters and look up the romaji instead. The problem is, the romaji isn't written how it's pronounced!

Someone please tell me how the pronunciation works!

Thank You

[winterofdiscontent]

But it is....
Are you new to korean music?

[sleeps_in_library]

^ I don't know if i'm new. I don't listen to much. Unless it's a really popular song [Gee anybody?].
I think the first time i was introduced to any sort of korean entertainment was a year or two ago. Even till now i've had limited exposure. But soompi is helping me with that! lol. plus blogs like allkpop and popseoul.

I just want help with reading the romaji.

ex: sometimes k is not pronounced? how the syllables work? like the city Seoul is pronounced "sole" and not "seh-oul".

ugh... korean romaji just confuses the hell out of me.

[aimfullyz]

Err.. this is kind of hard but i'll try to explain ><

This is because pronunciation is done differently in different languages. When you use english alphabet as a pronunciation guide, you might have to pronounce the sounds differently because the korean language has it's own alphabet and sounds that don't directly translate into the english language.
Like... Seoul would be pronounced "seo(suh or in english sounds, a very quick "so")-ul"

Did you get the notion that "se" was pronounced "seh" from japanese romaji?

Anyways.. what I meant to say was that different languages' romanizations are pronounced differently

ok I don't know if that made sense, I tried my best:(

[I_play_with_dolls]

Lul, it was hard for me to follow along (I'm stil struggling) but eventually you'll get use to the pronounciations and eventually you'll get it right away. In my opionion, Japanese is the easiest language to follow along and Chinese (atleast for me) is the hardest ^.^'

[PDURRR]

most of it should be fine

only problems that you should be having a hard time with is like

hye - is pronounced like - hae

and

ex: sometimes k is not pronounced? how the syllables work? like the city Seoul is pronounced "sole" and not "seh-oul".

its pronounced "seo-ul"...like suh-ool, like son without the N and pool without the p.

i tried..lol

[sleeps_in_library]

well, i guess I should add some information about myself.

I'm Chinese and speak mandarin... and English as well (duh lol. you guys knew that already ;p)

i would say chinese is more straight forward. the hardest is probably pronunciation of some beginning letters such as the "zhi"s, "ji"s, and "xi"s (only some examples) which i have experienced as the hardest for foreigners. [i guess i'm biased]

Japanese is pretty easy, i mean, it doesn't get any easier than that, but sometimes the double letters which indicate a sort of space or gap in sound is kind of confusing, but easy to pick up. sometimes all the syllables confuse me XD

the thing is, with japanese and chinese, there are no extra letters that confuse pronunciation. i don't know if i'm being clear or not. sorry

I know that romajis are different, but that's why i'm asking all you people here on soompi to help! I'm pretty sure there are a lot of korean people here with romaji knowledge!! :]