✨KR Studies✨

PLEASE DO NOT THINK FOR EVEN A SECOND THAT YOUR VOICE WILL NOT HAVE AN IMPACT THIS IS LITERALLY THE BARE MINIMUM

Hi guys, Olivia here. I know I haven't been on here much in the last two weeks and for good reason considering my financial and personal/professional life continue to be in turmoil. But it hasn't been all doom and gloom and I recently received my admission letter to one of my two dream universities. Unfortunately in order to be able to even be able to enroll in, let alone start my classes for the fall 2019 semester, I have to pay $425 as apart of my enrollment intention within the next two weeks in order to reserve my space at the university. As much as I hate to make another donation post, I'm literally at the end of my rope. It was a miracle I even got admitted to the school and with the instability of my job in regards to actually getting my pay correct over the course of the summer and various other bills staring at me in the coming weeks, I know I won't have any extra money to spare and this is pretty much my last chance saloon when it comes to college at least for the next months. My pride is completely out the window right now and literally anything would help. I don't have many options left and I know an opportunity like this won't come along again for me so any reblogs or donations are appreciated.

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These are for a range of different levels so do what you can!

Introduce yourself. Talk about your birthday, hobbies, languages you speak, etc.

Create characters and introduce them

Talk about your favourite book/book series. Why do you like it?

Favourite movie?

Favourite animal(s)?

Least favourite animal(s)?

What’s the weather like outside? What was it like yesterday? What do you hope it’ll be like tomorrow?

Describe your favourite colour without using the word

Talk about a childhood memory

Talk about a family member

Describe your pet/a pet you want

Where do you see yourself in the next year? next 5 years? next 10?

Describe your dream date

Complain about something that’s been bugging you lately

Talk about your day

Write a letter to anyone. Your mom, your friend, a stranger you saw on the train

Write a poem

Write about anything but the first letter of each sentence has to spell a word

Write what you need to do in the next week, month, year

Talk about your favourite food

What was your favourite story you read as a kid? Who read it to you?

Why did you start learning your target language(s)?

What language(s) would you like to learn in the future?

Talk about a dream you had

Pretend you’re at a restaurant. What type of conversations will you have there?

What’s something you’d never tell anyone? Why would you never tell anyone?

Your pet suddenly got the ability to talk. What do they say to you?

You’ve woken up somewhere you’ve never been before. Describe what it looks like

What do you want to do in the future?

Dream trip?

Do you want kids? Why or why not?

Translate a conversation you had with someone

Talk about your favourite weather

Favourite season?

Pretend you’re telling your childhood stuffed animal something

Write a to-do list

Talk about your favourite plant(s)

Write about something funny that happened to you or someone you know

Write about a time you were scared

A time when you were happy

Sad

Angry

Miserable

Give a summary of different books/movies you’ve read/watched

Write about your favourite teacher. Why did you like them?

What’s your favourite meal? Who makes it?

What’s your dream job? It doesn’t have to be realistic

What names do you like. Why?

Write about one of your fears

Welcome to the first week of the Korean Challenge! The goal of this challenge is to help you start learning Korean and provide a foundation to the language.

Day One: Today’s goal is to learn Hangul, the Korean alphabet. During today’s lesson you will memorize, learn stroke order, and learn the pronunciation of Hangul.

Here are the resources for today’s lesson:

My lesson that shows Hangul and has extra learning resources

Picture showing the stroke order of Hangul

A seven part video series by KoreanClass101 that shows pronunciation

Quizlet flashcards to help you memorize (You can also make your own flashcards.)

Day Two: Today you can continue learning Hangul with the resources from yesterday, or you can review what you have learned.

Here are the resources for today’s lesson: 

Quizlet flashcards to review Hangul

Day Three: Starting today, you will be given 5 words per day to learn. Another goal for today is to learn the basic Korean sentence structure.

Here are the resources for today’s lesson:

Today’s vocabulary words on Quizlet

My lesson on Korean sentence structure

Video from Go! Billy Korean

Picture from h-eonno that explains sentence structure

Day Four: Today’s lesson will be an introduction to the number systems. In addition to the lesson, you will learn 5 more vocabulary words.

Here are the resources for today’s lesson:

Today’s vocabulary words on Quizlet

My lesson on the number systems 

Quizlet flashcards to learn and memorize numbers

Video by sweetandtastyTV that teaches both number systems

Day Five: Today’s goal is to learn the days of the week along with the 5 daily vocabulary words.

Here are the resources for today’s lesson:

Today’s vocabulary words on Quizlet

My lesson on the days of the week

Video lesson by sweetandtastyTV

Day Six: Today’s lesson is on the months of the year. In addition to that, you will learn today’s 5 vocabulary words.

Here are the resources for today’s lesson:

Today’s vocabulary words on Quizlet

My lesson on months

Video lesson by Korean Unnie

Merry Christmas @tollpehely ! This is my present to you! I hope you have an amazing Christmas and New Year. Korean is a language I have enjoyed learning so I really do hope these resources are of good use to you.

A difficult aspect in learning a language is finding resources. Thankfully with Korean there are plenty. More than plenty actually. Personally, I use various resources just because some explain a certain grammar point better or sometimes I need to complement with other ones. I decided to make a list of my favorite resources and where to find them.

Note: The star is for something I highly recommend.

Grammar

★ How to study Korean - This website is great for really understanding the grammar. For some it’s too much but I like how detailed it is.

★ Go! Billy Korean - I like how simple his explanations are in contrast to How to study Korean. You can find his pdfs and lessons here or click here to download most of them up till lesson 91.

★ Korean Grammar in Use - One of my favorites just because it helps a lot when learning HOW to use the grammar. How to study Korean is great for understanding the grammar, but Korean Grammar in Use goes into detail. For example the conjugation charts are really helpful. I have the pdfs from Beginner to Advanced with the audio and answer keys.

Vocabulary

★ Memrise: TTMIK: The Korean Verbs Vol. 1 - A course with practice sentences for the most common verbs. You can also just use this as a guide for which verbs you should learn first.

★  Memrise: TTMIK: The Korean Verbs Vol. 2 - More useful verbs.

TTMIK: Word Showdown - This small pdf explains the differences between commonly used words. I recommend it.

TTMIK: Korean Slang Expressions Volume 1 - Like the name states, Talk to me in Korean shows useful slang expressions through a brief explanation, examples and sample Dialogue.

TTMIK: Korean Slang Expressions Volume 2  

TTMIK: Everyday Korean Idiomatic Expressions   

Listening Practice

Some popular Korean shows to practice.

The Unit -   Ex-idols who never got to shine, and current idols who want to make a name for themselves perform on stage to prove their worth. They will perform in front of Rain, Hwang Chi Yeul, Hyun A, Tae Min, San E, and Jo Hyun Ah. Will the young artists be able to impress the judges?

MasterKey -  Korea’s hottest celebrities come together for an exciting game show where they must use their sixth sense to find the one who’s lying and hiding the ‘master key’! Can they find the liar?

★ Exo Showtime -  A South Korean documentary starring the boy group Exo that allows the fans to see behind-the-scenes of Exo’s daily lives and how they act offstage. It’s one of my favorites and always will be. 

The Return of Superman -  Fathers may not be perfect.. but that’s alright if they aren’t perfect! There’s nothing like a father’s love to boost our spirits. The dads who used to spend all their time working have returned home on ‘The Return of Superman’.

Fast Drama - I won’t recommend a specific drama since there are too many and everybody has their own taste. I did recommend variety shows because those are aimed towards a wider audience. Instead, I recommend this website where you can watch dramas. Note: You can use other websites for watching kdramas. Not this just one.

Reading Practice 

Learning Korean with Humans of Seoul - They break down the phrases, grammar points and words from the Facebook page ‘Humans of Seoul’. Really useful.

Humans of Seoul - Here you can find interesting Korean stories in Korean and English. 

Conjugation

Dongsa - I can’t even express how useful this website is. You can look up a verb to see its conjugations or look up a conjugated verb to see its “dictionary” form.

★ Tengugo - I learned hangul mainly from here and really recommend it. They have mini lessons, audios of how to pronounce each character and quizzes. It works without wifi so you can practice anywhere.

Apps

Lingodeer - I recommend this over Duolingo all the way. You can find  Studiousbees’s review on it here. I love this app and it’s a good way to get used to the basics, like Korean sentence structure which is different from a lot of languages.

Blog

Blogs are super useful for when you don’t understand a grammar point. I only recommended one blog since I prefer learning from grammar books and resources that come straight from native speakers, but their blog is seriously amazing.

I’ve seen quite a few posts that claim to have tips about learning Korean vocab, and while they have some solid advice, they’re usually pretty general and could be applied to learning any language. As someone who has learned 2,000 Korean words in the past year (but is still very much a learner), I thought I would give some advice for how to learn Korean words specifically–foregoing the traditional advice that one can find anywhere. (Note: I do not live in Korea; this advice can apply to learners living anywhere.)

Learn with audio. I use the AwesomeTTS Add-on for Anki as well as the audio files from HTSK (I’m learning from their word lists and highly recommend them) when available to integrate both text and audio into my flashcards. Using audio helps you to learn the word as an actual word and not as just a series of syllables. After adding audio to my cards I was much better able to remember the words. And of course, learning with context is important!

Learn the alphabet. It’s essential. Using flashcards with audio will help you to learn pronunciation rules as well as how these rules change when syllables come together.

Learn -하다 verbs and adjectives as verbs and adjectives, not nouns. This can’t apply to every -하다 verb and adjective, but take for example 불평하다. If you were to learn 불평 first, you might not know that it could be combined with -하다 to create a verb, especially if you aren’t familiar with Chinese characters (hanja). However, if you knew that 불평하다 meant to complain, then you could guess that 불평 might mean a complaint.

Study hanja. You don’t have to memorize how to write the characters, but learning what certain syllables mean can help you to guess (and remember) the meanings of many words.

Learn from word lists targeted toward Korean learners. When I first started learning Korean, I used list of “commonly used words” geared towards language learners in general. One of the words was “cold”, which has two problems: 1. I translated it as 감기 (a cold that you catch), not knowing if that meant the disease or the adjective; and 2. There are many Korean words that could translate to “to be cold”. Using the right word lists will teach you the correct definitions for every Korean word.

Don’t let your vocab get too far ahead of your grammar. At the beginning, your grammar resource(s) will likely provide you with all the vocab you need as you learn. It’s much easier to expand your vocabulary once you know basic grammar.

Don’t be too concerned with learning slang. In Korean especially, Internet and slang phrases come and go quickly, so unless you have Korean friends to teach you (or you spend lots of time on the Korean Internet), I would recommend spending your time learning standard Korean words. If you’re curious about up-to-date slang though, this blog is amazing.

I hope these tips are helpful, and please let me know if you have any questions~

To begin you should learn 한글 the alphabet. Learning how to read the characters will help with your pronunciation and will allow you to progress ‘quickly’ compared to using romanisation. While romanisation is useful when you start learning, it is almost completely useless if you were to go to Korea. 

Moving on from that, you could learn basic vocabulary like numbers, manners, verbs, adjectives and nouns, we also have two posts filled with ‘useful words/phrases’ that you might like to learn (1,2). You could also learn how to introduce yourself and your job! 

Learning grammar will allow you to start forming sentences, to start you should learn present tense conjugation, past tense and future tense, there are also other basic grammar points such as ~고 싶어요 meaning ‘to want’. Particles (1,2) are something you will see all the time, while they can be quite hard to grasp to begin with, it’s useful to know what they are and try to understand their usages in the sentence. You could also learn how to make a sentence negative. 

(Here are some other posts that, while probably are not essential to 100% memorise when you start, are useful and may answer some questions about why things are the way they are😊 받침, irregular conjugation (1,2), vowel contraction) 

General tips:

1. Making a schedule/planning set time to study will encourage you to work. It doesn’t have to be everyday, it could be just a couple of hours at the weekend - be realistic as well so that it doesn’t feel like a chore.

2. Along with setting realistic amount of study time, you could also set achievable goals to help motivate you. If they are unrealistic it might make you feel like you’ll never reach them, so setting little goals will allow you to feel as though you have achieved something! 

3. Write a diary in Korean. This will allow you to practise the grammar and vocabulary you have learnt even if you don’t have any friends to talk to. It will also help/prompt you to learn new vocabulary/grammar as you may not know how to say what you want. It doesn’t have to be a long passage, just a few lines will help! It’s also something that won’t take too long so you could do it daily!

4. Learning from a text book can be boring, you could alternate learning between textbook work and something you find more fun! You could listen to Kpop or watch dramas and learn vocab/grammar that you hear repeated! (I think it is possible to see both Korean and English subs on Viki, a feature you might find useful). You could also try to find your favourite show with Korean subs (search for the Korean title then google “title 시즌(season)x x화(episode)”, I think Baydrama might be a good place to watch), this will allow you to see how things have been translated - you can look up vocab and grammar you find here as well.

Other resources: 

Sites + Youtube:

Sejong How to study korean Talk to me in korean Korean class 101 90 day korean Naver dic

Apps:

Rieul Korean Duolingo Lingodeer Memrise italki hinative Grammar haja

If you search in the App Store there are so many more apps you can find, there are games and apps specifically for learning 한글, numbers and basic words like colours and food. 

🌱A&R🍑

I’ve updated the Korean Resources section of The Library and I’ve made it rebloggable for those that prefer that :)

Korean

Routledge Grammar - Basic Korean - A Grammar and Workbook (second source) (third source)

Routledge Grammar - Intermediate Korean - A Grammar and Workbook (second source)

Using Korean - A Guide to Contemporary Usage

Korean Grammar for International Learners

Colloquial Korean - The Complete Course for Beginners

Korean Level 1 (Seoul National University)

Essential Korean [Ellen K. Yoon]

Dirty Korean: Everyday Slang from “What’s Up?” to “F*%# Off!” [Haewon Geebi Baek] (second source)

Korean Grammar for International Learners [Ho Bin Ihm, Kyung Pyo Hong, Suk In Chang]

Korean Word Book [Marshal R Pihl]

My First Book of Korean Words: An ABC Rhyming Book [Henry J. Amen IV, Kyubyong Park]

Using Korean: A Guide to Contemporary Usage [Miho Choo, Hye-Young Kwak]

College Korean

Intermediate College Korean [Clare You, Eunsu Cho]

Elementary Korean [Ross King, Jae-Hoon Yeon]

Hippocrene Beginner’s Series - Beginner’s Korean

Korean From Zero 1

Korean Grammar in Use: Beginning to Early Intermediate

Korean through English, Book One

Korean: A Complete Course for Beginners [Jaemin Roh]

My Korean 1 [Young-A Cho, In-Jung Cho, Douglas Ling]

My Korean 2 [Young-A Cho, In-Jung Cho, Douglas Ling]

Step by Step: Korean through 15 Action Verbs [Dr In Ku Kim-Marshall]

Beginner TOPIK Grammar & Vocabulary

Intermediate TOPIK Grammar

TOPIK Elementary Adjectives

TOPIK Elementary Grammar

TOPIK Elementary Nouns

TOPIK Intermediate Adjectives

TOPIK Intermediate Grammar

TOPIK Intermediate Nouns

TOPIK Intermediate Verbs

TOPIK Listening Files

Korean In Action: For International Learners [Gi-Hyun Shin, Adrian Buzo]

Making Out in Korean (second source)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone [Korean]

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets [Korean]

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban [Korean]

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire [Korean]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [ Korean]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince [Korean]