Basic Korean #3: What is the Korean equivalent of an English vowel?

In the previous post, I mentioned that every Korean letter comes with at least one consonant and one vowel. If you think about it, this premise is a little bit terrifying. Does this mean that the Koreans don't know how to pronounce standalone vowels such as "O (as in O Canada)," or the word "a"?

It turns out that the Koreans language resolves this issue in a pretty ingenious way. The Koreans devised a consonant that is equivalent to zero. The consonant even looks like a zero, and it is the consonant "ㅇ," called "ee-ung." In the deconstruction of the Korean letters, there are three places that a consonant can go into; the places 1, 4, and 5. Of these places, "ㅇ" can go into place 1 to signify the empty consonant, or place 4 (and once it occupies place 4, nothing can be in place 5). This is actually the eighth letter of the Korean consonant alphabet. We're skipping over a few, but why not?

The rules to keep in mind:

• If it's in place 1, just skip over this symbol, and sound out the vowel.
• If it is in place 4, the equivalent English sound is the "-ng."

 Some examples, using ㄱ, ㅏ, and ㅇ:

• 아: The character ㅇ appears in position 1, signifying that we just skip over it. ㅏ sounds like "ah", so this letter sounds like "ah." While it is not a word with a huge meaning, try saying it as a short syllable: "아!" This is the Korean version of "Oh!" used exactly in the same settings.
• 아가: The composition of two letters that we already know how to pronounce, it's read "ah-gah." It means "baby" in Korean. Weirdly enough, a lot of old people use it for another usage; you can use this word to call your daughter-in-law, especially if she's newly married to your son. This will instantly paint you in the image of a gentle and loving mother/father-in-law.
• 강: Since ㅇ appears in position 4 (and since position 5 is empty, we stretch it out all the way so that everything looks nice), we know that it sounds like "g-ah-ng." In Korean, this word means "river." It's also a common Korean last name, but most of these people stylize their last name as "Kang," because "Gang" is just weird. In any case, "Gahng" is the right pronunciation. It can also be a part of an adverb meaning "strong."
• 악: Applying our usual rules and reading it in the order ㅇ-ㅏ-ㄱ, it sounds like "ah-g." It's a fun word with many usages. When Koreans scream, they describe the scream with this word: "악!" This word also means "evil." The third meaning, which has no equivalent in English, is really interesting, though. 악 also means the motivation to do something, fueled by negative emotions. If your ex dumped you, you could hit the gym full of 악 (Koreans say that you're supported by 악.) If you failed an exam, you can study for the next exam fueled by 악. But when someone compliments you on your piano performance, you don't prepare for your next concert because of 악. It's an interesting distinction that does not exist in the English language!