Introducing Yourself
Introduce yourself with 저는 ~예요/이에요, ask someone's name, and say where you're from with ~에서 왔어요.
저는 ~예요 / 이에요: saying who you are
To say 'I'm [name],' Korean adds 예요 or 이에요 right onto the end of your name — which one depends on whether the last syllable has a batchim (final consonant), exactly like you learned reading Hangul in Level 0. No batchim, ends in a vowel → add 예요: 리사 → 저는 리사예요. Has a batchim, ends in a consonant → add 이에요: 다니엘 → 저는 다니엘이에요. You don't need to memorize which names go where — just glance at the last syllable and check for a batchim.
리사 ends in 사 — just the vowel ㅏ, no batchim — so it takes 예요.
다니엘 ends in 엘, which has a batchim (ㄹ) — so it takes 이에요, not 예요.
이름이 뭐예요? — asking someone's name
뭐 means 'what' — you actually already met the vowel sound that makes this word back when you learned compound vowels in Level 0. 이름이 뭐예요? literally reads as 'name-[subject] what-is?', which is just the natural way to ask 'What's your name?' 이름 means 'name,' and the 이 right after it marks the subject — you don't need to analyze that part yet, just recognize the whole phrase as one set piece.
The go-to question when meeting someone new. Notice 뭐 + 예요 = 뭐예요 — 뭐 already ends in a vowel, same 예요 rule as names.
~에서 왔어요: saying where you're from
에서 attaches to a place and means 'from,' and 왔어요 means '(I) came.' Put together, [country]에서 왔어요 means 'I came from [country]' — the standard way to say where you're from, and it works with any place: 미국에서 왔어요 (USA), 베트남에서 왔어요 (Vietnam), 일본에서 왔어요 (Japan), 브라질에서 왔어요 (Brazil). Listen closely and you'll hear the batchim liaison from Level 0 at work again — 미국 + 에서 links together into [미구게서].
Say this after your name, or on its own when someone asks where you're from. Swap 미국 for any country name.
Same pattern, different country — 베트남 (Vietnam).
일본 (Japan) — the 에서 왔어요 ending never changes, only the country does.
Meeting someone for the first time and answering their questions
Say it out loud
Listen, then repeat aloud. Matching the rhythm matters more than perfection.