Resources that helped me improve my Korean
Seoul Universityโs Korean and Korean Culture class
TOPIK 150 essential grammar intermediate book
TOPIK i, ii reading/writing/listening books
avoid solely relying on โlearn koreanโ tumblr blogs, oftentimes the information is incorrect
+ways to tackle the language
Get a firm understanding of most grammar. Correct Korean grammar is crucial to understanding and speaking the language because each grammar has a different nuance and effect. Choosing the right grammar is the most useful way to communicate your ideas in Korean.
Memorize vocabulary. Make sure you are learning a real word that Koreans actually use. Try typing it into naver.com to see what comes up to make sure its the meaning youโre trying to convey. memrise.com is helpful with memorizing and learning new vocab, but some words are not always used in daily life. Just check if youโre unsure, or ask a Korean friend.
Practice speaking. If you watch dramas, try repeating what they say slowly at first. Then move up until you can repeat them at the same speed. Even if youโre not sure exactly what theyโre saying, youโll get a feel for how Koreans actually speak. This obviously works better if you are sure what theyโre saying, so start with small phrases youโre familiar with. This helped me immensely in improving my accent and speaking.
Tip: As a girl, and what Iโve heard from other girls who speak English and Korean, is that your voice may tend to get lighter/higher tone when you speak Korean as opposed to when you speak English. Keeping this in mind may help you get more comfortable with pronunciation etc.
Reading. This helps endlessly with syntax. Very important if you want to sound fluent vs. if you want to sound rehearsed in Korean. There are things taught in Korean language schools that Koreans themselves donโt use in colloquial or formal speaking. So, read news articles, blog posts, webtoons, etc. to get a feeling of what Korean looks/sounds/feels like when used by Koreans. Reading novels in Korean will give you a whole new learning perspective of the language. Read every day, set goals, and keep working at it. You will see yourself improving.
Never think youโve learned all there is to learn! If your goal is to just get by in Korea, then a few weeks or months of study will get you there. But if youโre looking to understand the people and the culture, it is essential to have a firm grasp on the language. It is impossible to really know Korea just by watching variety shows and dramas. Korea is a culture shaped and embodied in its language. The language is like a blanket that covers everything to be known about the culture. Once you can pull the blanket away, as in once you deeply understand the language, you will see and understand Korea as more than just the shape of it you saw when it was under the blanket.
โ์ธ์ด๋ ํ ๋ฌธํ์ ๋ก๋๋งต์ด๋ค. ๊ทธ ๋ฌธํ์ ์ฌ๋๋ค์ด ์ด๋์์ ์๋์ง, ์ด๋๋ก ๊ฐ๋์ง๋ฅผ ๋งํด์ค๋ค. Language is the road map of a culture. ย It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.โ - Rita Mae Brown
โ์ธ์ด์ ๋ํ ์ง์์ ์งํ๋ก ๋ค์ด์๋ ๋ฌธ์ด๋ค. Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.โ - Roger Bacon
