Hi everyone, I'm a totally new learner, been at it for about 4 days I think, so I'm struggling with the absolute basics. One thing that confuses me is how things are pronounced in a class vs how they are pronounced in reality. For example, when I'm taught to say hello I'm told it sounds like "Anyoung Haseyo" When the lesson teacher says it slowly I can hear pretty much every letter in the Romanization listed earlier. However, when I hear it in various conversation snippets it always sounds more like "Anonseyo" I'm slaughtering that Romanization but in general I'm wondering if there is often a difference between the appropriate/classroom way of saying something and what is said in reality. Is this slang of sort? Is it just my untrained ear hearing it wrong? Thanks for any thoughts or advice :)

the reason why it sounds like "anonseyo" is because they are saying it fast and makes it sound like something different. My advice is to not over think any of the lessons on your course.

Hi David, As a beginner it's difficult to catch all the nuances of native Korean speech but it does come with time and practice! When native speakers are speaking, they don't give much thought to pronouncing words in dictionary format so it's often hard to catch. For instance, if you were speaking in a casual setting, you wouldn't say "Should we catch the fifth bus?" - it would probably sound like "Shoowe catcha fith bus?". If I asked you to slow down you would repeat it properly and clearly but in your mind, you were saying exactly the same thing! This is something really common in languages - you have elisions and assimilations that native speakers don't even realize when speaking. For learners that take on a new language, it takes some time to be able to recognize when this is happening and when you are missing the small sound bites. In the case of "Anyoung Haseyo", the "ng" overpowers the "ha" so it sounds like the "ha" disappeared but it is still there! A native speaker would be able to tell the difference. As a learner, try to focus on the proper pronunciation and you'll soon find yourself speaking like a native as you get more practice. I hope this helps!

that actually makes a lot of sense