Korean words are made of pieces

You already know 학교. You probably know 학생 and 대학 too.

Look at them next to each other:

학교 · 학생 · 대학 · 학년

The same block keeps coming back. That is not a coincidence and it is not a spelling accident. 학 is a piece, and it means learning. Once you see it, you are no longer memorising four words. You are reading one piece four times.

Here are seven. You already know every word in the last column — that is the point. Nothing new is being asked of you today except to see the seam.

Now the pieces do work. Take 대학생. You know 대 is big, 학 is learning, 생 is a living person. Big-learning-person: a university student.

Not a guess in the dark. A reading.

Some pieces change sound when they join. 학교 is said [학꾜], not [학교] — the ㄱ tenses after the ㄱ underneath. You met this in the sound course; it does not change the spelling and it does not change the pieces.

And some words that look assembled are not. 사람, 아버지, 어머니 are native Korean words, whole all the way through. There is no piece to find in them. Not every word comes apart — only a bit more than half of them.