A new alphabet you can learn on the flight.

Hangul was invented from scratch to be learnable in a morning, and it genuinely is: 24 letters that stack into syllable blocks and spell almost exactly what you say. No tones, no stress. The real work is a handful of consonants English doesn't have.

Tap a letter to hear its Korean name. These 24 are the entire alphabet — every other sound in the language is built by combining them.

Hangul builds everything else out of those 24: an extra stroke adds a "y", two vowels fuse into a "w", a doubled consonant tightens it. These nine combinations cover the signs and menus.

• One block, one syllable. Hangul stacks its letters into little squares. 한국 is two squares, so two beats — 한 + 국. Read square by square and you can read a menu on day one.
• No stressed syllables. Korean gives every block roughly equal weight and keeps the pitch flat — there are no English-style stress hills. The CAPS in this kit mark a small lift to aim at, not a thump.
• Consonants change where blocks meet. 감사합니다 is spelled "hap-ni-da" but said "HAHM-nee-dah": a ㅂ before ㄴ becomes an m. The same rule turns 한국말 into "hahn-GOONG-mahl".
• A final consonant slides into the next block. When the next block opens with ㅇ, the consonant before it hops over: 한국어 is "hahn-GOO-guh", 맛있어요 is "mah-SHEE-sseo-yo".
• Every consonant comes in three strengths. ㄱ ㅋ ㄲ are plain, puffed and tense — English only has two of the three. The plain one softens between vowels, which is why 부산 is spelled Busan but often sounds like "Pusan".

The rules nobody prints on the menu.

Your Korean rarely outs you. These do. Read once, and you'll move differently.

The plates and glasses worth going out of your way for — each with the name as you'd say it out loud.

Test the four channels.

Understanding Korean by ear, reading, recall, and your own mouth. Quick rounds — do them twice.