My short answer is that because Korean language does not apply to English phonetics and it has its own rules. To make a long answer we should look furthermore into the rules and history of Korean language. Here’s my explanation.
Korean learners may be excited to learn 한글 at first because it is easy. It is easy to read the first consonant and the following vowel together making a syllable sound such as 가, 너 or 도. And syllables ending with consonant stops (받침) ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, o are easy to predict as in 강, 남 or 밥.
However, the final consonant stop of a syllable which is called 받침(batchim) can be more complex as you go into Korean language further.
A syllable with 받침 ㅅ such as 갓 is pronounced as /gat/ not /gas/. You may wonder why /s/ sound ㅅ is pronounced /t/. What you should keep in mind here is that ㅅ is not equivalent sound of English /s/.
Historically, King Sejong and the scholars of the period perceived ㅅ as dental sound (치음, 齒音). They first set ㅅ as the basic dental sound and then added more strokes to make the letter ㅈ and ㅊ.
While English /s/ sound is voiceless alveolar fricative pronounced with the tip of blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, Korean ㅅ is articulated between the tip of the tongue and the upper teeth. The articulation point is close to the alveolar ridge but not touching it. So, basically ㅅ is perceived as a dental sound. That is why 받침 ㅅ is pronounced as dental stop /t/.
I hope this blogpost helped you to understand ㅅ sound in Korea. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.
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