Korean Study Life

쓰다 vs 적다

Both of these mean ‘to write’ and for the longest time I was just using whichever one whenever I felt like it, but actually there is a slight difference to be aware of. 쓰다 means ‘to write’, like ‘to write a letter’ or ‘to write a book’. But 적다 specifically means ‘to write something down’ like a memo or a phone number. My Korean teacher usually asks us ‘적어 주세요' when asking us to note something on the board after dictation, but she also says ‘써 주세요' at times when she wants us to write any text that we created ourselves.

저는 제 여동생을 위해 시를 쓸게요 - I will write a poem for my younger sister

저는 이 빈칸에 제 이름을 적을 거예요 - I will write down my name in this blank space.

하숙집 vs 기숙사 vs 고시원

I used to have a tough time remembering the difference between these accommodation spaces - I guess the take home message is that all of these are multi-person living spaces, but there is definitely a clear distinction.

하숙집 is a boarding house - the kind of place where you live when you are renting a room in a house where other people also live - sometimes things like food and laundry are provided too. It gives off a very ‘living with a host family’ vibe, even if you are pretty much house sharing with other people of a similar age.

기숙사 are college/university dorm rooms - mostly you will share a room with someone else (or more than one person... sometimes 3 other people!). When you think of the word ‘dormitory’ you are probably thinking of a 기숙사.

고시원 have you ever seen the KDrama ‘Strangers From Hell’? (kinda scary). Anyway the place where they live is a 고시원 - they are TINY narrow rooms for individual use but all the other amenities are shared. There are no other added luxuries at all but the rent is usually cheap which is why students sometimes find themselves there.

자연 vs 천연

When talking about nature, I’ve always used 자연 in it’s noun form, such as ‘I like nature - 저는 자연을 좋아합니다’. Or even in it’s adjective form (자연스럽다), ‘Just speak naturally - 그냥 자연스럽게 말씀하세요’.... but I only recently realised there is another way to say ‘natural’.

So 천연 also means natural in the adjective form, but really it’s referring to something that has never been processed or changed out of its natural form (e.g. it is naturally occurring on earth, like mountains or the sea). An easy way to remember this is that the meaning of the first character 천 (天) means sky, which is a reminder that it came from the heavens.

I read a really good example (credit here) about cotton, which has a few terms in Korean. One of these is for the natural product that is picked off plants (솜) and another is for the fabric that we use day-to-day (면). 솜 is naturally occurring therefore you would use 천연 to describe it, but you could never use 천연 with 면 because it has to be processed (changed) to make that fabric (you would use 자연 instead).

But apparently it’s common for people to intentionally use both of these interchangeably so that they can indicate that a product is actually more natural than it really is.

찾다 vs 발견하다

Almost all Korean learners will know that 찾다 means ‘to find, to search for, to look for’ etc. Well, 발견하다 means ‘to discover, to find’. The distinction in Korean is as clear as it is in English. 찾다 is used when finding something that you already know exists, whereas 발견하다 is used when finding (discovering) something that you didn’t know was there before. For example:

시계를 찾았어요! = I found my watch!

저는 새로운 서점을 발견했어요 = I found (for the first time) a new bookstore

체험 vs 경험

With these two words we’re talking about ‘experiences’ - but two slightly different nuances. 경험 is a general past experience - this is something that you have done before, and as a result got an experience from it. For example, work experience, the experience of travelling abroad, the experience of waking up late for school etc. The key thing is that it is an event that happened in the past.

However 체험 mostly talks about something that you feel/experience directly - like a spiritual experience, or experiencing hardships, or experiencing the feeling of zero gravity. It infers more of a present moment feeling rather than 경험 which is talking about things that have definitely already happened. So, 경험 is almost like the knowledge you get after experiencing something (체험).

자동차 열쇠를 잃어버렸다고? 나도 그런 경험이 있어... - Did you say you lost your car keys? I have had that experience too..

하지만 and 그렇지만 ?

First of all..... I'm really sorry if this response is super late (assignment season in my course), but hopefully I can help you with your query! It's a really good question - thank you for sending it! 

Both of these terms are often used interchangeably to mean 'but' or 'however' and actually the difference between them is down to subtle nuance. 

하지만 can be used as one of the most direct translations of the English word 'but'. Let's look at two simple sentences: "Kimchi is a popular food. But I don't like kimchi". In the Korean sentence, see how 하지만 corresponds to the English word 'but' or 'however - 김치는 인기 있는 음식이에요. 하지만 저는 김치를 좋아하지 않아요  

그렇지만 is actually the contracted form of '그렇다 하지만'. The adjective 그렇다 means 'to be like that'. So when you combine 그렇다 with 하지만, the meaning becomes 'It's like that but....' - some people find it easier to remember it as 'On the other hand'. Let's look at at the same example as above but replace 하지만 with 그렇지만, and then look at how the translation changes slightly. 김치는 인기 있는 음식이에요. 그렇지만 저는 김치를 좋아하지 않아요 - "Kimchi is a popular food. That's the case, but I don't like kimchi". 

The main difference between 하지만 and 그렇지만 is that 하지만 is just a simple 'but', whereas 그렇지만 actually actively refers to the point made before and says "This is true/this is the case, but....." 

In almost all cases you can interchange these two. 하지만 is more frequently used in speech though, but you could use 그렇지만 to really emphasise the difference between your contrasting statements.

Hey! This is a really good (and very interesting) question - thank you for asking!

Actually these are exactly the same thing, they both mean ‘later’ but nobody really writes 있다가 anymore. 이따가 was originally derived from the phrase 있다가 which means ‘to stay for a while and then do something else’ (centuries ago it was spelled 잇다가 - but that’s just extra info). 

So a long time ago, the term was written 있다가, then it was changed into 이따가 over time (probably for ease of pronunciation) but the meaning remains the same. It means “I will stay here (or continue what I’m doing) for a while and then go and do __________”, or in short “I will do ___________ a short while later”

의류 vs 옷

Firstly, big shout out to @epfks ​ for messaging and asking for this to be included in the next post!

Both of these mean ‘clothing’ or ‘clothes’ - I’m sure all of you will know 옷, but fewer people will know 의류. 옷 is a native Korean word, whereas 의류 has a Chinese root (衣類 - 衣 means ‘clothes, covering’, 類 means ‘kind, type, category’). In the past I have mentioned that words with Chinese roots tend to be more formal than the native Korean word - that is also true here. 옷 is an everyday word, but 의류 is much less used unless you’re using it in a professional sense. You could think of clothes on two different scales, a small (personal) scale and a large (industrial) scale - 옷가게 (a clothes store) vs 의류 산업 (clothing industry) - you couldn’t interchange 옷 and 의류 in these situations, it just doesn’t feel right. 옷 refers more to the actual clothes that a person wears, but 의류 is often used to refer to a type of clothes (e.g. 남성 의류 - men’s clothing), the clothing/fashion industry, or to sound more formal, like ‘garment’.

목표 vs 목적

Both of these words mean ‘goal’ or ‘aim’ like to have a goal/aim to achieve something, but there is a subtle nuance between them. It can be easy to confuse the two, and whats worse is that, often, translation apps translate both of these words to ‘goal’ in English - but there is a difference: 

목표 refers to a goal or target that you might have - an overall large thing that you are working towards, maybe like a goal for next year (New Years Resolution), a goal to get into college, or a sales goal/target that your company might meet. For example: 제 목표는 올해 TOPIK II 시험에 합격하는 것이에요 = My goal is to pass the TOPIK II exam this year. Here I used 목표 - it is an overarching target I am working towards.

목적 however is talking about an aim or purpose of something rather than a goal - it refers to the reason/purpose for doing something, such as the aim of a lesson, the purpose for the meeting, etc. For example: 제가 한국어 수업을 듣는 목적은 올해 TOPIK II 시험에 합격할 수 있도록 도와주는 것이에요 = The purpose of me taking Korean classes is to help me pass the TOPIK II exam this year. Here I used 목적 as it is an aim, objective, purpose of something.

관념 vs 개념

These two words mean ‘idea, concept, notion’, like you have an idea about something, or you understand the concept of something (abstract thinking). Actually, the meaning of these two words are quite similar so it is easy to get them mixed up, but largely it is understood if you were to confuse them - the difference is almost a philosophical thing....

관념 refers to ideas and opinions that people naturally have about something (ideas that naturally appear in the mind), as well as any abstract/not realistic ideas about things (e.g. stereotypes about things/people, beliefs etc). e.g. 강박관념 = an obsession (literally: a compulsive idea), or 고정관념 = a stereotype (literally: a fixed idea)

The Hanja (觀念) means: 觀 = to see, observe, view; 念 = to think of, study, recall. So it means, you see something and form an idea (without knowing more).

개념 refers to concepts (ideas) about something that have been formed after reviewing evidence on the topic (e.g. the concept of space, or time etc.), e.g. 시간 개념이 없었어요 = I had no concept of time (I lost track of time).

The Hanja (槪念) means: 槪 = generally; 念 = to think of, study, recall. So it refers to generally held thoughts (concepts understood by many people)

법 vs 법률 vs 법칙

If you are this far in your Korean studies (or like a good legal KDrama, like me), you will have come across as 법 as a word to mean ‘law’. 법 indeed means ‘the law’, as in ‘You broke the law - 너는 법을 어겼다’. 법률 talks about a specific law, act or legislation within the legal system e.g. ‘새 법률 = a new law’. 

Meanwhile 법칙 doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the legal system. It refers more to ‘principles of something’, like Newton’s Laws of Motion, or the law of gravity. 

There are actually numerous nouns with the 법 stem in it, which I don’t want to overload everyone with - but these are some common ones that come up a lot. I’ll cover some other ones in a later post.

변호사 vs 법률가

Keeping with the law theme for the final word difference (was I watching a lot of legal dramas when I was making my list for this post? I can’t remember). When most Korean learners learn occupations, we all learn 변호사 to mean ‘lawyer’ - this is a typical lawyer who will argue a person’s case in accordance to the law, and who you may often find in a courtroom. 

Yesterday morning, when I was kind of half asleep, I took this test which asks a number of questions in Korean, ranging from pre-intermediate to advanced levels, and makes an assessment based on your answers about the size of your vocabulary and the age of your vocabulary. As always - interpret quizzes like this with caution - they are not always a true reflection of skill and ability. Access the quiz through this URL: https://www.arealme.com/korean-vocabulary-size-test/en/ This is my score:

I actually know that I got two wrong (you know when you just click on the wrong one), but I don’t think it made a huge difference to my score. It’s interesting because some other people I know took this quiz and their vocabulary size is around 4000, but their vocabulary size is like that of a 4 year old child..... I (cautiously) take this to mean that I probably know fewer words than them, but might know more difficult words (probably as a result of joining #2021KoreanBookClub). I’m pretty surprised at getting a score of an 8-year old.... I mean, 8-year olds are quite confident with their speech in their native language. But I do know that I need to improve the amount of words that I know - although I believe my true vocabulary number to be a bit higher (based on numerous other tests), it is still far lower than what I need in order to succeed in the TOPIK II exam this year.

Hi guys - just wanted to drop by and say hello, post a little personal update and thank your for your patience since I’ve been absent for almost 3 weeks. A bunch of people sent me some lovely messages and hopefully I have got back to everyone by now, but if you left a comment and I haven’t seen it, I’m very sorry - hopefully I’ll see it soon.

I had to take a bit of a mental health break due to some unexpected stuff going on over here - not really a break from studying, but more just cutting down my activities to an amount that felt manageable with the energy that I had, but I have still been reading in Korean most days and studying my vocabulary decks every day. Everyone, don’t forget to give yourself breaks and days off too! It’s super important for us in the long run to prevent burnout.

If you guys are ever curious about what I ACTUALLY do day-to-day with my language study activities, I actually set up a language Twitter account two/three weeks ago, so you can now find me posting regularly on @jeitrix227, or on Instagram @jeilylanguage.  Otherwise I’m bouncing back with a lot more energy after my break and will be posting some more This vs That posts and situation phrases over the next two weeks 🤗 Hope you are all keeping safe, happy and healthy and wishing you all a wonderful February!

Hi all! Back to share one of the latest, absolutely essential, new additions to my Korean language learning. It is called Mirinae - it is a web tool that breaks down Korean sentences into their component parts to help you understand form and structure of Korean sentences and analyse grammar even in the most complex of writing. Let’s take an indepth look under the ‘Keep Reading’ cut

NB: Post is a little long this time - lots of examples and explanation - sorry!

이따가 vs 나중에

Here’s something that trips me up at even the best of times - both mean ‘later’ but they imply slightly different things. ‘이따가' indicates that something will happen a short time later - usually within a few hours, whereas ‘나중에' doesn’t really have a time inference - the time period can be either long or short, so it can be used in every situation. However you might prefer to use 이따가 instead to emphasise that the time is short, for example if you ask someone to wait for you and say to them, “I will come back later”, you can say “이따가 다시 올게요” to emphasise that the waiting time will be short. If you use 나중에 instead, the person cannot tell how long they might be waiting.

외롭다 vs 고독하다

Hopefully here are some words you won’t have to use too often - both give off a meaning of ‘lonely’. 외롭다 will be the adjective that most people are familiar with in meaning ‘lonely’ or ‘feeling lonely’, whereas 고독하다 is an even more intense feeling of loneliness. 고독하다 is more like ‘solitude’ - like that feeling of intense loneliness when you are on your own for long periods of time.

인생 vs 삶 vs 목숨

There are numerous ways to say ‘life’ in Korean and it can get a little confusing so let’s break down just three common terms from the numerous options. 

인생 is made up of the Chinese characters 人生, the first of which means ‘person’, therefore 인생 refers to the life of a human and not the life of other living things (plants or animals) or objects, e.g. “Life is worth living - 인생은 살 가치가 있어요" or “What is the meaning of (human) life? - 인생의 의미는 무엇인가요?”

However, 삶 is life as a concept, or life as an existence - it refers to a living thing’s existence on Earth. e.g. “Grandmother lived a good life [existence] - 할머니는 좋은 삶을 사셨어요" or “Cats live a perfect life [existence] - 고양이는 완벽한 삶을 사요"

목숨 has quite a specific use - the word is composed of 목 (neck) and 숨 (breath) to refer to breathing as the primary function of a human or animal’s life. The easiest way to conceptualise 목숨 is as ‘life that can be lost’ - it indicates the idea that a person or animal either has breath in their body (living), or does not have breath in their body (not living). The ‘breath in your neck (목숨)’ can be risked, in danger or lost, so you will likely only see this term in those kinds of sentences. e.g. “I’m risking my life - 목숨이 위태로워요" or “My life is in danger - 제 목숨이 위험해요"

시도하다 vs 노력하다 vs -아/어 보다

All of these mean ‘to try to do something’ but each have quite different uses. 시도하다 holds more of a meaning of ‘to attempt something’ - it is quite formal in the same way that in English you wouldn’t normally say “I will attempt to do it” when speaking amongst friends, therefore it is more likely to be seen in writing than speaking. e.g. “Suzy attempted singing - 수지는 노래를 시도했다” 

You could instead (mostly) use 노력하다 for less formal and less intensive situations, but it gives off a feeling of trying to do something that requires quite a lot of effort, or something that needs long-term effort, e.g. “I will try (really hard) - 노력할게요”

On the other hand, -아/어 보다 is used all the time and indicates that you will try something (possibly for the first time) with the aim of experiencing what that thing is like. It doesn’t require a lot of effort, and it is probably not something that will go on for a long time, e.g. “I will try eating kimchi - 김치를 먹어 볼게요"

대단하다 vs 대박 vs 신기하다

All of these are terms are common words used to express amazement, and largely could be interchanged without much trouble, but I delved a little deeper to understand the differences and here is what I found:

대박 (대박이다) has two meanings:

Totally cool / really great - an expression to indicate positive feelings or a positive reaction towards something or someone, e.g. “최우식의 새 영화는 대박이다! - Choi Wooshik’s new movie is so cool/great/amazing”

Completely surprising - an expression to indicate shock or surprise and can be used in both positive or negative situations to mean ‘Wow!’ ‘No way!’ ‘That’s unbelievable’ ‘That’s unreal’, e.g. “복권에 당첨됐나요? 대박!! - Did you win the lottery? That’s unbelievable!!” or “남자친구랑 헤어졌다고? 대박.... - You broke up with your boyfriend? No way....”

These two meanings can overlap from time to time, like in the lottery example, but dividing them into two like this, makes the other two terms easier to understand. 대단하다 means ‘a huge amount’ or ‘enormous’, but in expression form it means ‘outstanding’, ‘amazing’, so it has the same use as the first meaning of 대박, e.g. “와 대단하다 - Wow, this is amazing.” 

Hi guys! Happy New Year (lol its January 6th - I’m so late). I hope that everyone who was celebrating had a really lovely festive season and that all of you had a nice start to the new year. Wishing you all health, happiness and huge language gains for the year ahead (haha! very important).

Before I get back to the regular type of posts for this year, I just wanted to let you all know about the Korean Book Club that I have joined. It is an initiative that was set up by someone wonderful that I follow on Instagram (ID: clickystudies) as an effort to keep all of us active with our reading goals for the year.

Here’s how it goes:

There is one common book that all of us will read throughout the whole year. [TITLE: 1일 1페이지, 세상에서 가장 짧은 교양 수업 365] (you can buy it on Google Play Store for around $6-7 or something - link here and image below) - it is a book with 365 articles so there is one text piece for every day of the year! NEAT. The articles are about a whole bunch of varied world topics and was only published in 2019 so it is super relevant still. The level is probably around Intermediate+ levels but a bunch of Beginners learners are also finding the text really useful for vocabulary learning so far!

If you wish to, you could post your progress using the hashtag #2021KoreanBookClub on whatever social media platform you like to use.

You can join the Discord group where each day we share notes, vocabulary lists, help each other to understand the text better, and just generally chat. If you want to be a part of the Discord group, please message clickystudies on Instagram and ask if you can join the Book Club - they will walk you through the process of joining.

I only just joined yesterday actually, so I have 6 days of reading to catch up with, but each article is distinct and standalone, so even if you are joining us late, you can just catch up in your own time - no rush at all and no pressure to read the past texts either.

The book club is a pretty social thing, but if you don’t want to join the Discord group, you could always work through the 365 book on your own, at your own pace (you don’t even need to do one a day!). Choose whatever works for you, but personally - I find the Discord channel motivating and it reminds me to read my chapter if I still haven’t read it for the day.

There are a few other books in this 365 series - one on Famous people and one on Modern Culture (both published in 2020, so super current info!), which you could also check out if you like! I guess I’ll tackle those in subsequent years. My reading list is sorted until January 2024 (hahah!!)

Ordering food in a restaurant in Korea is one thing, where you can point at the menu or pick up context clues from body language and surroundings. But what about when you want to order food delivery somewhere and you can only rely on the voice on the other end of the phone. It can be a little tricky but if you at least know the key phrases and vocabulary, it hopefully won’t be as daunting.

Phrases you might say to the delivery service

In the following phrases, anything that is contained within the following brackets < > can be replaced with your own preferred food order.

여보세요 - Hello (obviously)

지금 배달되나요? / 지금 배달돼요? - Are you delivering now? (You can remove 지금 to purely ask ‘Are you delivering?’)

<후라이드 치킨 하나, 떡볶이 하나> 주세요 - One (portion) of fried chicken and one tteokbokki please (You could replace 주세요 with 가져다 주세요 ‘please can you bring’, or  배달해 주세요 ‘please can you deliver’ to be more specific but it’s not totally necessary)

<콜라>도 주세요 - Cola also please

얼마예요? - How much is it?

얼마나 걸려요? - How long will it take?

카드 돼요? - Is card okay?

카드로 결제할게요 / 현금으로 결제할게요 - I will pay by card / I will pay by cash

Phrases they might say to you

어디세요? - Where? (asking where to deliver to) OR:

주소 말씀해 주세요 / 주소 말해 주세요 / 주소 어떻게 되세요 - Please tell me your address / What is your address?

주문 어떻게 되세요? / 어떤 제품 주문하시겠습니까? - What is your order? / What (product) would you like to order?

다른 더 필요한 거 없으십니까? - Is there nothing else you need? (Don’t forget the rules of yes or no in Korean are different to English. If you say 네 [yes] to this question, that means ‘I don’t need anything else’, and if you say 아니요 [no] to this question, that means ‘Yes. I need something else’. I find it a little easier to just answer ‘있어요' or ‘없어요' to get around the tricky yes/no situation)

주문 확인해 드리겠습니다 - I will check your order

금액은 <25,500>원입니다 - The total price is 25,500 won.

현금으로 결제하시겠습니까? - Will you be paying by cash?

알겠습니다 - Okay.

Of course, there are numerous other things that they might say to you, but these are the key phrases you need. As long as you have the vocab from here, you should be able to at least figure out what is being said and rustle up an appropriate answer.

Also it’s worth noting that the phone conversation will normally just end with them thanking you and you thanking them back (or in the reverse order), then they will hang up. There doesn’t need to be any other formal goodbyes.

NB. As I was pulling this together, it made me remember that ordering food at a restaurant could throw some really random phrases your way so I’ll make sure to do a restaurant post at some point later if people will find it helpful!

Awww thank you so much for your kind words! I'm glad to hear someone else studies in a similar way to me! I sometimes feel a bit chaotic but it's good to know that it works for you too! Wishing you all the luck on your continued language journey!! 💕💕

평일 vs 주중

Most people are taught 평일 quite early on to talk about ‘weekday’, but actually it technically is not the opposite of ‘weekend (주말)’. The opposite of 주말 is actually 주중, which refers to Monday to Friday. So, what about 평일 then? 평일 is very similar to 주중, but actually it refers to a ‘working day’, relating more to the average non-rest day which, for most people, is Monday to Friday. If a public holiday falls on a weekday, that day is technically not a ‘평일’ as people will not be working, but it is still a 주중 (a weekday). You will hear both of these used quite a lot, and mostly used interchangeably.

*For anyone that finds Hanja helpful - 주말 has the characters 週末 which means ‘final part of the week’, and 주중 has the characters 週中 which mean ‘central/middle part of the week’. Whereas 평일 has the characters 平日 which means ‘average day’.

담 vs 벽

Both of these mean ‘wall’ but the distinction is actually very clear between the two. 벽 is a wall in a building, such as the four walls of your room, or the walls of your house (바람벽 is specifically a partition wall for inside the house, but 벽 is sufficient). 담 is a wall that has a purpose of guarding or preventing entry, such as a fence or a perimeter wall (like a city wall, or a wall around a building). It is usually used when talking about outside walls or fences.

놀이동산 vs 놀이공원 vs 놀이터

Playground? Since all these words start with the same two characters, it might be confusing to some regarding whether there is actually any difference here. 놀이터 is a playground that children usually play in, with slides and swings and climbing apparatus. Meanwhile 놀이공원 and 놀이동산 are used when talking about an amusement park with lots of fun rides for all ages. Both 놀이공원 and 놀이동산 are actually completely interchangeable with each other, it’s just that 놀이공원 has a Chinese root, and 놀이동산 is pure Korean. Either is fine and both are used in almost equal amounts, but it is useful to know that they mean the same thing.

늦다 vs 지각하다

I think one of the earliest words everyone will have learned is 늦다 to mean ‘late’. This can be used universally to mean ‘late’ and can be used for all contexts and subjects. However there is a more specific term for a person being late to work or to school which is 지각하다. Although you can use 늦다 in school and work settings too, 지각하다 is more specific. You will hear 늦다 far more, but it is good to be familiar with its more specific counterpart.

사무실 vs 사무소

This is actually kind of specific to if you want to actually live in Korea but I was revising this topic today and thought it would be useful to share some of my learnings - of course there are going to be a lot more things you might want to ask or tell the realtor, but this will be a good starting point:

Things a realtor/estate agent might say to you:

어떤 집을 구하세요 - What kind of house/home are you looking for?

월세를 구하시나요? 아니면 전세를 구하시나요? - Are you looking to rent (monthly rent)? Or are you looking to lease?

금액은 어느 정도 생각하고 있어요? - Approximately what total cost are you thinking?

원룸은 어떠세요? - What about a one room? (a studio apartment)

한번 보러 가실래요? - Would you like to go to see it?

주인에게 연락할게요 - I will contact the owner

계약금을 가지고 오셨어요? - Did you bring the contract fee?

Things you might want to say to a realtor/estate agent:

아파트를 구하고 싶은데요 - I want to look for an apartment

월세를 구해요 - I am looking for a monthly rent (apartment)

방이 2개 있는 아파트를 구해요 - I am looking for an apartment with 2 rooms

지하철 역에서는 거리가 얼마나 걸리나요? - How far is the distance from the subway station?

몇 층이에요? - What floor is it on?

건물에서 엘리베이터가 있나요? - Is there an elevator in the building?

보증금은 얼마나 되나요? - How much is the deposit?

조금 비싼데요. 조금 더 싼 아파트는 없나요? - It’s a little expensive. Do you have a slightly cheaper apartment?

그 아파트는 특징이 있나요? - Does the apartment have any special features/characteristics?

관리비가 있나요? - Is there a maintenance fee

계약하려면 어떻게 하나요? - How do I sign the contract?

Awww I'm so happy to hear that! 😭😭

I'm sorry I haven't been posting a lot lately, life has been hectic but I hope that you manage to stay motivated and keep curious about Korean and have fun too!

I have been discussing resources with a few people on private message and have been thinking a bit about what resources were the best on my journey.... so here’s my final (maybe) compilation of resources for the year that will hopefully be helpful for anyone who is looking at resources between the beginners and upper intermediate levels.

NB. This list is based off materials I have used in the past and is not an exhaustive list of ALL the resources I have used - it is just a selection of some of my favourite. There are so many Korean resources out there so there might be some that work more for you that I haven’t even looked at.

Course Texts

In my opinion, the perfect course text isn’t going to teach you everything you need to know, but a good course text will at least give you a clear framework to chunk up and guide your studies. I have used a few but the most user friendly one is definitely:

Talk To Me In Korean - they set things out clearly so nothing feels overwhelming and provide a sensible framework to follow for self-study. Other course books tend to be better suited for in-class settings and not great for self-study.

Grammar

The course texts will teach you about grammar but I think they don’t teach you how the grammar structures are related to each other. So I think it is key to look at one or more of these books:

Korean Grammar In Use: Beginners

Korean Grammar In Use: Intermediate

The above series is incredible and a serious MUST for all Korean learners. They clearly and concisely set out the grammar points and show how they are all related to each other. There is an Advanced book as well which I have yet to use and will teach quite complex structures.

Basic Korean: A Grammar and Workbook (I have linked the forthcoming version being released in Dec 2020!)

Intermediate Korean: A Grammar and Workbook

The above Routledge series is great for its workbook feature. The layout is a little academic so it’s not super appealing but the way they explain grammar is clear and relatively detailed. The number of examples included in the workbook is fantastic, providing a lot of opportunity to practice. I haven’t used the Basic book but if it is anything like the Intermediate, it will be a winner.

Vocabulary

The part that people often miss out when learning Korean is vocabulary, because it can be so easy to just follow course texts and grammar books, but those will never teach enough words. To learn more vocab, it is really important to read around. There are so many Korean language books that you can pick up, but here are some books and resources that are catered specifically for language learners that I have loved:

Korean Culture in 100 Keywords - they give a paragraph on different cultural aspects of Korea in both Korean and English and highlight all the new vocabulary for you. The texts are graded from easy to more difficult.

News in Korean - lots of short news stories with translations in English and comprehension questions. Might be targeted more at intermediate learners

Mind Map TOPIK VOCA 2300 - this book sorts vocabulary into categories and shows them as mindmaps. It also gives readers sentences in context and has mini quizzes, HOWEVER it is written in 98% Korean so this is a book that is definitely more pitched at upper intermediate levels and above and teaches vocabulary that is a little less common 

Anki - my most used resource. Everyone has their own favourite for flashcards and this is mine. Anki do spaced repetition meaning that it will constantly test your knowledge on vocabulary, spacing the quizzes/tests depending on how difficult you find the word. It is more efficient than other flashcard platforms, but it is a little tricky to get started and create your own cards. If you want to download pre-made decks, you can, but this works best when you add the words you have learned yourself so that you get decks that are full of vocab that is relevant for you

Beelinguapp - This is an app that has some story books written in both Korean and English. It also has an audio function so you can listen to someone reading the stories in Korean. This is neat for pronunciation and listening, and also identifying new words, however the range of stories are limited.

Gloss - Gloss have a set of online lessons pitched at different levels which takes you through articles or texts (or audio and video), then asks a lot of comprehension questions. It follows a lesson format so it is far more engaging than your regular book, however it is a little on the difficult side.

[EXTRA] Your First Hanja Guide - you might not want to learn vocabulary this way and it is absolutely NOT an essential, but for me it is helpful to visualise the Hanja character when seeing the relationship between words, so if you like learning words like that, then this is the book for you

Listening / Watching

Like with reading, there are multiple resources that you can use to listen to native Korean, but here are some that are specifically targeted at learners

여보세요 - this app/website has a few short video clips and goes through slowly to examine the meaning and new words, then has a number of test quizzes through multiple choice or through speaking (via microphone). There are different clips graded by levels and the app tracks your progress and gives progress reports.

Real Life Korean Conversations: Beginners / Intermediate - this IS a book, but it is best used in conjunction with the audio files. The book gives the script, as well as the vocabulary, and also looks at key grammar points and structures used in the conversations

Speaking

There aren’t many resources that I find great for self-studying speaking - generally you need someone else to do that with you, but here is one that I thought was quite neat:

Teuida - I just did a very quick run through this app as it is definitely pitched at beginners, but I thought that it was a smart way of learning some basic conversational Korean. It teaches you phrases and you have to repeat them back through the microphone feedback function. Then to test your retention, they take you through a mock situation and you have to speak your answers - there is quite a strong focus on getting pronunciation correct. My biggest downsides of this app are that the free sections are really limited, AND they seem to have geared the lessons towards the idea of dating, which I just find so awkward and embarrassing hahaha!

Writing

I’m in the market to buy some writing books and have my eye on some but am waiting until I have the time to work on them, but this book is quite neat for learning different sentence structures and how to construct meaningful answers:

The end of the first part of NCT season is almost with us, so someone asked me if I could translate a song from the album. I chose to do Misfit since it has an MV and I only translated the verses from the MV since its a song PACKED full of new vocabulary. All the tricky vocabulary is under the cut (some really useful new words in there!)