So, you’ve decided to teach yourself Korean! Congratulations! You are taking your very first step on a long journey to becoming better at a foreign language. As someone who has been on this journey before, I am excited to welcome you to the club, as well as provide a list of 10 tips to teach yourself Korean from the ground up.
Tip 1: Take Your Time to Learn 한글 (Hangeul) From The Start
There are a number of people I know who started trying to learn Korean relying solely upon on romanizations of Korean text. Here’s the problem with that: because of how Korean is pronounced, it doesn’t easily translate into Latin characters or English pronunciation. As a result of this, there are 4 different romanization systems for Korean:
- McCune-Reischauer: this is the system that was used prior to 2000 in Korea, and can still be seen in many pieces of literature based on publication date.
- Yale: Although I wouldn’t say this isystem is commonly used, it is the one that is commonly used among linguists, or those who study language as a profession.
- Revised Romanization of Korean: the most commonly used and widely accepted system since 2000. This is the system that signs in Korea follow
- ALA: This is the version that you see where syllables are separated by hyphens that although based on the McCune-Reischauer system mentioned above, deviates quite a bit. It doesn’t distinguish between pronunciation differences between character placements in syllables.
So, how can you depend on romanizations to learn Korean when there are four different systems that are being used, and different sources use different ones? Well, you can’t. Instead, it is better and smarter to take the time to learn the Hangeul system from the start.
Here are some fun facts about Hanguel that may make you more interested in learning it:
- Hangeul (한글) was created in 1443 by King Sejong the Great (세종대왕)
- It is the only alphabet around the world that was created to promote literacy of the people.
- It’s original name was 훈민정음 (Hoonminjeongeum) when created by Sejong
- The name Hangeul (한글) was adopted in 1912 which literally means “great script”
- There are 4 basic characters that are no longer used in mondern day 한글 (Hangeul)
- Hangeul uses only 24 basic letters which are then combined in various combinations to make other consonant and vowel sounds. That’s 2 letters shorter than the latin alphabet! Many people can learn all of these basic characters in a matter of weeks. Although it can take time to fully perfect reading it, to be literate in Korean, learning these 24 letters is essential.
- 한글 is composed of syllabic blocks, so each block is 1 pronounced syllable. This makes it easier to figure out how to pronounce the words.
If you still aren’t sold on learning hangeul, many Korean products, like K-Beauty products or Korean food do not have their instructions in English. So, learning to read it, will really help you when trying to use these kinds of products.
Tip 2: Practice For At Least 15 Minutes Every Day
To many people, attempting to commit time to learn another language is the biggest hurdle to get over. I’ve seen many people who say they want to learn, but they say “oh, I’ll study more tomorrow. I don’t have time today” or “That takes effort. I don’t have the energy to do this today.”
The US Foreign Service Institute says that to learn easier languages for English speakers, like French, Spanish, and Italian can take 48 days, studying 10 hours a day to achieve “basic fluency”, or be able to hold a 3-minute conversation with a native. Languages like Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic can take 72 days.
So, wait, you are telling me that if I want to even learn the basics of Korean, I have to designate around 720 hours to even grasp the basics? The Answer is YES.
I understand that this sounds incredibly daunting, but learning can be made easier, as lots of different methods count for training your brain to understand the language. Consider it this way, learning to read and write is only part of learning Korean. There is also listening and speaking practice. So, even if you only spend 15 minutes a day reading a lesson in a textbook, and taking notes, there are some very simple ways that you can supplement these 15 minutes a day with more learning to help you more quickly get to that 720 hours. I can think of a few off the top of my head that are fun, and things you may be doing anyways:
- Watching K-Dramas – These are great for hearing speech that is slowed down, and listening for inflection
- Watching Variety shows – These are great for helping you practice reading and listening at the same time
- Watching Youtube Videos in Korean from Native speakers – These are good for helping you understand the cadence of full speed Korean
- Listening to K-Pop – These are great for helping you understand different accents, as a lot of the time, the pronunciation of a word in songs is modified for flavor
So, if we take K-Dramas for example, and assume that the standard length of a K-Drama is one hour long, and there are 16 episodes for each drama. That is 16 hours of practice right there! Of course, the caveat here is that you do have to do your best to pay close attention to them, and you have to understand some basics first, such as word order, hangeul, and some basic vocab.
Let’s do some basic math to help you figure this out:
- 15-ish minutes of actual textbook reading a day (I would do a lesson a day) which amounts to 1.75 hours a week
- Watch a full K-Drama every other week ( 16 hours every 2 weeks, 8 hours each week)
- When driving in the car, if you listen to a K-Pop playlist, that would get you at least 3 extra hours of study time a week, and all in a fun way.
- Altogether, this amounts to 12.75 hours a week of study time.
- If you multiply that by the number of weeks in a year (52) that means that is 663 hours in one year
- This is only 57 hours short of the 720 hours that is estimated that it takes someone to grasp the basics of a language and hold a 3 minute conversation with a native.
- If you want to ensure that you get those extra 57 hours within the year, you can easily add in flashcards from a phone app, such as Drops to help you practice vocabulary while you wait in line, right after you wake up in the morning, etc. The app is designed to help you learn words through association with images. The app sets a timer for you, and sends you notifications to help remind you to practice daily. It is an excellent too, that can help you with learning the alphabet, as well as basic terminology. If you set it to 10 minutes a day, this takes care of those remaining 57 hours that you are missing and you can reach that basic fluency within a year. For reference, here are some screenshots from the application:
Tip 3: Use Subtitles as a Resource
Subtitles on TV shows are typically a direct translation of the original text. They can quickly teach you some key phrases that can be used in daily conversation and help you quickly accumulate some vocabulary.
You may not be 100% positive as to what exactly those phrases mean at first, but you can pay attention to the situation to help you know when phrases like this are appropriate and how to use them in daily conversation. For example, a phrase that people hear commonly in Korean TV shows is ‘모르겠어요’ which means “I don’t know”. When you see this in the subtitles, you can easily start figuring out what was said, and in what situation, as in Korean, you say it differently depending on who you are talking to and the situation.
This is an incredibly useful technique for:
- Learning and reinforcing vocabulary after you learn a few basics
- Learn intonation
- Improve your pronunciation.
- Learn to speak more naturally
Overall, it is an excellent, and fun technique to help you improve your language skills. After doing this for awhile, you will suddenly notice that you are understanding things more and more. It will go from just one word, to a full sentence and then into full conversations. It is an incredibly rewarding experience.
Tip 4: Always Take Time to Learn Grammar
I know that in schools in America, we don’t heavily pay attention to grammar, different parts of speech, etc. beyond elementary school, but when learning a foreign language, grammar is incredibly important. You have to know what certain things mean, when to use them to say what, and where they go in the sentence.
This is especially important for a language such as Korean because the word order is completely different from English or other romantic languages. In English, as well as Romance languages, such as but not limited to French, Italian, and Spanish, when looking at a sentence, it follows a Subject-Verb-Object sentence structure. Korean, on the other hand follows a Subject-Object Verb structure.
And this is just one of the differences between English and Korean. By taking the time to learn the differences between how the languages work, you are arming yourself with the tools to become fluent faster. If we are building a piece of furniture, and that piece of furniture is a language, words are the nails and screws, and grammar are the tools, like hammers and nails, that help you put it all together.
If you want a good resource to help you learn grammar, I highly recommend the books from Talk to Me In Korean. They are incredibly thorough and very easy to read.
Tip 5: Be Patient With Yourself!
In this day in age, where almost everything is at our fingertips, we expect almost everything to come to us immediately, and we expect immediate results. Well, languages do not work like that. It takes a very long time to learn to speak a foreign language, and if you are not patient with yourself, you are doomed to fail.
Continue to study every day, and in time, you will notice the results of your work. At first, it will just be understanding a word here or there, but after a few months, you will begin to be able to understand full sentences. If you give up when you don’t see results within a month, you will never get to that point.
Keep working at it every day, and you will eventually be able to see results. 화이팅!
