What would change if I wrote my name in Hangul?

The name Thomas does not always take the same form in Hangul. In the National Institute of the Korean Language’s reference materials on writing foreign words in Korean, the French film producer Thomas Langmann is listed as “토마 랑그만,” while the British athlete Thomas Fleetwood is listed as “토머스 플리트우드.” Identical alphabetic spelling does not necessarily produce identical Hangul spelling. How the name is pronounced, and in which language, shapes the written form. National Institute of the Korean Language: French Personal Names · British Personal Names

The same question arises when international readers try to write their own names in Hangul. Is it enough to simply replace each Roman letter with a corresponding Hangul character? Will the sounds familiar from their native language be accurately represented in Hangul? Since names are words we already know well, they serve as an excellent starting point for exploring what new characters convey and how they express things differently.

Listen to the Sound Before Transcribing the Spelling

Hangul is written by combining characters representing consonants and vowels into syllables. In “토마,” ㅌ·ㅗ and ㅁ·ㅏ each form a syllable. When transcribing foreign names into Hangul, it’s more important to determine which consonants and vowels represent the name’s sound than to count the number of letters in the original spelling. This is the key to understanding why the two “Thomas” examples look different. National Institute of the Korean Language, “The Structure of Hangul”

Imagine a situation where you’re telling a Korean friend your name. In addition to showing them the original spelling, if you actually say your name aloud, they can compare the name they read with the one they hear. If your name contains sounds or stress patterns not found in Korean, that difference itself becomes a topic of conversation. The moment you explain which language it comes from or where to place the stress, writing in Hangul also becomes an opportunity to reexamine the sounds of your native language.

How Do We Represent Sounds Not Found in Korean?

When reading an unfamiliar name in Hangul, parts of it may sound different from the original pronunciation. This is because we’re using the Korean writing and sound system to transcribe another language. The National Institute of the Korean Language explains that the rules for transcribing foreign words are designed to facilitate communication within the Korean language based on modern Hangul letters. It is not a method that creates new symbols to represent every sound difference in the original language. National Institute of the Korean Language, “The Significance of the 24-Character Limit”

This process can also be observed in everyday words. The English word “coffee” becomes “커피” in Korean. Pronouncing the ㅍ in “커피” according to Korean rules is different from pronouncing the English “f.” This is an example of a word from another language becoming part of the Korean vocabulary and taking on a form that Korean speakers can read and pronounce. The National Institute of the Korean Language cites “버스,” “커피,” and “컴퓨터” as examples of such loanwords. National Institute of the Korean Language, “Loanwords → Hangul”

This difference also explains why Hangul names may sound slightly unfamiliar at first. While the Hangul characters written on paper serve as a guide for Korean speakers when reading a name, they may not exactly match the pronunciation in the native language. This is why it is necessary to both show the written characters and let the listener hear the original pronunciation.

How Do the Cities I Know Appear in Korean?

An interest that begins with personal names can extend to place names, too. Paris in France is written as “파리” in Korean. The National Institute of the Korean Language’s explanation of foreign-word spelling uses this example, in which French sounds and Korean spelling do not correspond one-to-one, to explain that Korean spelling principles apply when writing foreign words in Korean. National Institute of the Korean Language: Explanation of Foreign-Word Spelling

If you look up the name of a city where you’ve lived or a favorite musician in Hangul, you can recognize the familiar subject even among characters you’ve never seen before. Unlike words where you have to memorize the meaning from scratch, you already know who or what the name refers to, so the only remaining question is how that sound is written and pronounced in Korean. This is where you can connect unfamiliar characters to your own interests.

The Name Remains the Same, but a New Way to Read and Pronounce It Emerges

Writing your own name in Hangul does not change its meaning or the experiences you have had living with it. What changes is how someone who reads Korean approaches that name. Spelling they might previously have passed over without an explanation becomes a sound they can try to read aloud, and you can ask each other whether the pronunciation is right.

If you’re encountering Hangul for the first time on Hangul Day, one good way to start is by writing your own name or the name of your hometown. Simply compare it side-by-side with how it’s pronounced in your native language and see where they’re similar and where they differ. That small comparison embodies the principles of Hangul’s syllabic system, the differences in sound between the two languages, and a genuine interest in pronouncing the other person’s name correctly. Learning a new script becomes a way to introduce your own familiar world to others.