How to Learn Korean by Yourself in 13 Simple Steps
Korean is an East Asian language spoken by about 77 million people, mainly Korean, as of 2010. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (originally Korea), with different standardized official forms used in each country. It is a recognised minority language in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County of Jilin Province, China. It is also spoken in parts of Sakhalin, Russia and Central Asia.
Modern Korean is written in Hangul, a system developed in the 15th century for that purpose. Modern Hangul uses 24 basic letters and 27 complex letters. Originally Korean was a spoken language as written records were maintained in Classical Chinese which is not mutually intelligible with either the historical or modern Korean languages even in its spoken form. Hanja, which is based on Chinese characters, is still used to a very limited extent in South Korea.
Learning Korean, or any language for that matter takes dedication and commitment. The best way to learn Korean is to do a little bit each day. Until you have the basics down, and then you can build on what you’ve learnt. Try taking some time out of the day. Thirty minutes would be a good starting point. But the main thing is to have fun. One thing I did was set goals. I told myself I should be at this level at this date, and that I will to pass the TOPIK test at this point in time. What happened was that I lost motivation because I missed some of the goals I had set myself. Enjoy the process of learning, and you will feel much more fulfilled.
Whether you are trying to learn the Korean language to understand K-drama’s, K-pop music, planning a trip to Korea, or even learning for work purposes, just follow these simple steps and you will be on your way to speak Korean fluently.
Steps to learn Korean language by yourself
1. Learn Hangul [The Korean alphabet]
Learning Hangul is a good place to start if you want to learn the Korean language. This is important especially if you are hoping to progress to reading and writing Korean later on.
Surprisingly, Hangul is an easy alphabet to learn. Hangul has 24 letters – 10 vowels and 14 consonants.
The letters in Hangul are highly symbolic. The consonants are made of simple diagrams of what shape the mouth makes in order to articulate the sound.
Vowels are made up of three symbols: a dot representing the sun (written as -), a horizontal line (ㅡ) representing the Earth, and a vertical line (ㅣ) representing humans, who connect the Earth and sun.
2. Learn the Hangul Irregularities
Not sure if its “ee-neun” or “eet-neun”? Irregularities in Hangul can occur due to various reasons!
Just like the English language we have certain rules for combining certain letters to make a new pronunciation.
The Korean language also has certain rules for pronunciation when specific letters are combined in the third/final letter in a syllable/character and the first letter of the following syllable/character.
3. Memorize simple Korean vocabulary
Once you have learned to read Hangul, the next step to learning the Korean language is to begin collecting vocabulary.
The wider vocabulary you have at hand, the easier it will be for you to speak the language fluently. Familiarize yourself with as many simple Korean words as possible. It is recommended to learn at least 10 new vocabularies in a week.
First, you can start by memorising the colours in Korean. By doing this, it can actually help you with making basic daily conversational sentences whenever you want to talk about the colours of your clothes or shoes and maybe the next colour you want to dye your hair to!
Besides colours, you can even attach little labels to items around your house in the Korean language. You can add to a mirror, coffee table, and TV, and refrigerator. You will see these words so often that you’ll learn them without even realizing it.
4. Focus on Korean Verbs and Verb Tenses
The third step in getting started on the Korean language is learning common verbs as verbs are probably the most important part of any Korean sentence.
In fact, it is quite common in the Korean language to skip a sentence entirely and to only say the verb!
Eat, ate, eaten. Confused about which is the right tense to use? Once you have mastered the basic verbs, you will need to know how to use the right tense. Just like English, there is past, present, future tense in the Korean language.
5. Learn to Count in Korean
Knowing how to count is a basic skill in any language. Counting numbers in Korean can be really tricky as they have 2 different number systems depending on situations – Native Korean system and Sino-Korean, which originates from Chinese.
The Native Korean numbers are used for item numbers (1-99) and age. E.g. 2 children, 5 cookies, 23 years old. Sino-Korean is used for dates, money, addresses, phone numbers and numbers above 100.
Here’s how to count to five in the Native Korean numbers:
One = 하나 pronounced “hana”
Two = 둘 pronounced “dul”
Three = 셋 pronounced “se(t)”(” t” is not pronounced. However, make sure to close the sound completely-somewhere between a ‘se’ and a ‘set’)
Four = 넷 pronounced “ne(t)”
Five = 다섯 pronounced “da-seo(t)”
Here’s how to count to five in Sino-Korean:
One = 일 pronounced “il”
Two = 이 pronounced “ee”
Three = 삼 pronounced “sam”
Four = 사 pronounced “sa”
Five = 오 pronounced “oh”
6. Install A Korean Dictionary App For Reference
Korean translator apps can help you bridge the gap between learning and understanding. They can also make your Korean studies more fun, efficient and interactive. Unlike heavy Korean books and dictionaries, they can follow you on the go and are always there to assist you whenever you need them.
7. Join A Learning Community
The best way to improve in Korean and any other language is to practice speaking and get used to it. Since we’re in a pandemic, the best way to meet people is via online! Online learning communities make it easy to take part in the group. From online discussions with classmates to video chatting, there are enjoyable ways for students to become engaged with their learning community.
8. Have A Study Plan
Having a study plan helps with your productivity and time management when learning! A study plan will help you split your studying into bite-sized chunks and outlining what you need to learn for your every day will help you know exactly what you need to do to improve your Korean. This way, you can learn and memorise more effectively and avoid stressing yourself.
9. Listen to some Korean music.
Familiarize yourself with some songs. You will notice that you can understand more and you can build on your vocabulary. You could always listen to TTMIK podcasts. They have a great beginner and intermediate series. You can supplement them with the course book too.
10. Discover your Learning style
One basic but important tip for learning Korean quickly is to consider your special style of learning. There are 3 major types of learning:
- Visual (Learning by seeing the picture)
- Auditory (Learning by hearing)
- Kinaesthetic (learning by actions)
The one characteristic everyone shares in learning styles are the desire to practice. In other words, by speaking the language, we all learn! One of the easiest ways to learn Korean online is to practise your conversational skills with a tutor.
11. Start using the language all day, every day.
Never stop your learning or practising. Make sure that you are learning a third language every day. If you give your time every day, it will be easy for you to learn.
12. Get a private Korean teacher
When you think of private tutors, you mostly think of a teacher at home who makes you recite the declension of verbs and has you writing out sentence structure exercises. But a private tutor can also help you with your conversational Korean. Instead of teaching grammatical rules, a Korean language coach can talk with you in Korean about current events, or you could discuss a book you just read. Unlike language partners, private tutors are paid a set rate.
13. Set SMART Goals
All of the above are excellent tips for learning Korean quickly, but you can be swept away by all the new knowledge you obtain without clear goals. Set SMART targets in order to build a learning plan with healthy milestones and inspire you to take the next steps.
Finally,
Don’t forget that learning a new language is a lifelong process and you will always be learning. But these steps should give you a solid boost and help you learn Korean fast, at least to the beginner level.
So are you ready to learn the Korean language? Start learning now only.
Good Luck!!!