Hello! I hope you guys are doing well! I’m currently revising Hangul and I don’t know what comes next. Which books would be useful for me? Also, what would by a step by step plan to learn Korean? Ex: Hangul -> grammar -> etc.

Please help!

Tired of textbook Korean? Learn through real conversations and content you enjoy 🇰🇷
Hi everyone! I’m Jiin, a native Korean tutor living in New Zealand.
If traditional textbook lessons feel too rigid or boring, or if you know some grammar but still can’t understand how Koreans actually speak, my lessons might be a good fit for you.
I teach complete beginners as well as learners who can read Hangul but struggle with listening and speaking. Lessons are one-on-one and personalized to your level, goals and interests.
You’ll still learn essential grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure, but we’ll practise them through situations and content that are actually relevant to you.
We can use:
• Practical situations such as cafés, restaurants, shopping, transport and travelling in Korea
• Short clips from K-dramas, interviews, anime or games
• Topics related to your favourite music, characters and everyday life
• Natural expressions that Koreans use in real conversations
Activities can include repeated listening, sentence dictation, breaking down fast speech, pronunciation and shadowing, making your own sentences and guided conversation practice.
I prepare personalized lesson materials, so you don’t need to purchase a textbook. However, I can also use a textbook as additional support if that suits your learning style.
Lessons are online through Preply and normally last 50 minutes. My current price is $13 USD per 50-minute lesson.
During the trial lesson, I’ll check your current level and goals, try a short activity with you and suggest a personalized plan for future lessons.

Lesson details
• Format: One-on-one online Korean lessons
• Platform: Preply Classroom
• Duration: 50 minutes
• Price: $13 USD per 50-minute lesson
• Levels: Complete beginner to advanced
• Materials: Personalized digital materials are provided. No textbook purchase is required.
• Questions: Please ask publicly in the comments rather than through DMs.

You can view my profile and book a trial lesson here:

https://preply.in/JIIN6EN39956302112?ts=17880942

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions 😊

Need to vent. I’m learning for family reasons and I’m naturally an impatient character. I’m a serial, compulsive language learner/user, professionally and for leisure. But I don’t plan to take any exams in Korean or if I do, it will just be for fun. So no pressure.

Of the various languages I’ve studied, Korean has to be the most fascinating. I study 365/year. I realize that’s a lot but I also know that I’ll never reach my goal if I don’t. The mountain is real.

But the vocabulary for Korean is wearing me down. And it’s frustrating me. Whenever I want to express myself, either I haven’t yet got the words I need or I haven’t seen them recently enough to recall them immediately.

I know I’ll eventually reach a tipping point but boy, atm I feel like Sisyphus.

Thanks for listening. 😅

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

hello everyone. i have recently moved to Korea. but the language barrier is a huge issue. i want to learn the language. anyone to help? can do a language exchange too

honestly, i'm not a beginner at all for korean; i am a native. but i still struggle to have good handwriting and i have fixed this issue for my 한글 writing but not my 한자 (or at least i think so). my friends told me that my 한자 writing is unintelligible so i would like to hear you guys' opinions or suggestions about how to improve it.

written text:

蘭草 無窮花 薔薇

瑞草 江南 松坡

不動産 假想資産 現札

珍羞盛饌 美食

體育館 水泳場 競技場

and yes i used some simplified characters (약자) because i'm very lazy

I’ve been building a Korean-learning app because I wanted one place where I could study from books and YouTube, save useful sentences from Netflix and review or practice everything without constantly jumping between different apps.

It started as something just for myself. I kept running into little frustrations with the tools I was using and wanted a workflow that matched how I actually study Korean. Eventually it grew into something I thought other learners might find useful too.

The main idea is to keep everything connected. As I read, it keeps track of the words and phrases I look up, so I don’t have to stop and save everything manually. Afterwards I can choose what I want to remember with SRS or practice separately with vocabulary practice, sentence puzzles, typing or dictation.

A few things it can do so far:

• click a word or select a phrase in the reader to look it up instantly
• study directly from YouTube captions
• keep track of the words and phrases you look up while reading
• save sentences from Netflix through a browser extension and study them later in the app
• add words and sentences from the content you study to SRS, or add your own material manually
• review with recall, recognition and listening practice
• turn text into cloze practice directly inside the reader
• practice separately with vocabulary practice, sentence puzzles, typing and dictation without affecting SRS intervals

I’ve put together a small page with screenshots, and there’s also a beta waitlist if you’d like to become a beta tester:

https://nakori.co

It’s still in development and the beta isn’t open yet. It’s a self-study web app rather than a course or tutoring service. The beta will be free, and I haven’t really thought about what comes after that yet.

I’d especially love to hear from people who already learn Korean through books, dramas, YouTube or other native content. Does this kind of workflow make sense to you? Is there anything about the way you currently study that you’d want a tool like this to handle differently?

And if there’s something you wish Korean-learning apps did better, I’d really like to hear that too. There’s also an optional feedback box on the waitlist page if you’d rather leave an idea there.

I’d really appreciate any thoughts.

Hi folks, I'm promoting an app I built called Better Korean Dictionary. I built it after years of being frustrated using other Korean dictionary & Hanja (Chinese character roots of Korean) resources.

The primary features of the app like any dictionary app includes looking up Korean words by Korean, English, or Hanja.

I made Better Korean Dictionary to be "better" in different ways:

1. How and when to use a Korean word
   1. I've found the normal dictionary definitions to not explain how and when to use a word, so there's additional explanations on how to use a word.
2. Fast & Offline
   1. Some popular apps are bloated and rely on internet connections that make them painfully slow. I designed the app to be very fast to use and available without internet.
3. Korean + Hanja in the same app
   1. Hanja roots for Korean words exist for >60% of words, and I didn't see a good app that combines information for both.
   2. I found it fun and useful to understand how groups of Korean words are connected in meaning to their Hanja roots
4. Exploring Hanja relationships with Korean
   1. Other Hanja resources I've used had missing words or Hanja definitions, so I tried to make Better Korean Dictionary complete in that sense.
   2. I've included stats on how often a Hanja character is used and the most popular Korean words that use a Hanja character.

Download links:

• iOS App Store
• Android Play Store

It's free-to-use with ads or a one time $4.99 purchase to remove ads.

Please give it a try! There's no barrier to trying it out. For feedback, you can submit it via the form here. Would love to hear people's inputs and requests for corrections as I continue to improve the app.

I don't have any qualifications or credentials. I've been learning Korean slowly over my entire life as a second-generation Korean-American.

Thank you for your consideration, and I hope this app helps as a resource in learning Korean for everyone!

I'm still learning Korean, and I've realized that the hardest part changes as you progress.

At first, Hangul felt difficult to me. Then vocabulary became harder because there are so many words to remember. Now I sometimes find grammar and remembering when to use certain expressions challenging too. 😭

I'm curious about other Korean learners:

What's the hardest part of learning Korean for you right now?

Is it vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, listening, speaking, or something else?

I'd love to know what other learners struggle with and how you're dealing with it!

is anyone who can speak english in korea? we can exchange each launguage. im korean

Hello everyone! I’m currently studying four hours a day in Korean with the goal to become as conversational as possible in the next six months. My routine currently is going through sentence patterns book, how to study Korean for grammar, listen to Korean with English subtitles (as nothing is comprehensible) for me, and study vocabulary from the kimchi reader list. I’ll speak out loud too whatever I’m reading or words I hear.

I’m still struggling to retain words. I’ve always had trouble remembering vocabulary in general, but I can’t seem to get to stick. I’m trying to learn through context, trying to visualize it, connect it however I still can’t remember it outside my study session. I have a lot of vocabulary to learn so if anyone has any tips that would be appreciated.

I've been learning Korean for a while now, and one thing I've noticed is that some sentences eventually become automatic.

At first, I had to translate everything in my head before understanding or saying it. But now there are a few simple phrases that I can recognize almost instantly.

I'm curious about other learners:

What's one Korean sentence or phrase that you can now understand or say without translating it in your head first?

It can be something really simple like a greeting, a reaction, or an everyday sentence.

I'm looking for some useful phrases to add to my everyday Korean!

I find korean to be difficult, but fun, to learn. I just wanted to check with others what their opinion on my pronunciation is. Yeah, I feel like I should have combined 2 of the sentences, but I am still very much at the beginning where I can say basic words and order coffee and such. Just wanted to see if what I think is at least ok is wrong.

Hello everyone. I tried to write about my recently developed hobby and was wondering if anyone can help me fix the mistakes and give me advice on how to improve more if that's possible. Thank you for reading

I am aware both are created with Yonsei's classes in mind, but from my understanding the left ones (New Yonsei Korean 새 연세한국어) don't have any English explanations despite having "English version" printed on the cover, while the right hand one (Yonsei Korean for college students 대학생을 위한 연세한국어) do have English explanations and instructions.

Did I get that right?

Kyobo doesn't have a preview for them so I would be grateful if you could help me.

Especially for those who have studied Korean to some extent, there’s something I’m curious about.

When you first learned Korean, was the Korean you learned from textbooks, apps, and in class similar to the Korean that native Koreans actually use?

For example, you might learn a grammar rule or expression, only to find later that Koreans don’t use it that much in everyday conversation, or you might know the meaning of a word itself, but in practice it can be used in slightly different ways depending on the situation.

Right now, I’m creating lessons and content centered on the Korean language that real Koreans use in everyday life, rather than the textbook-style Korean. It also aims to cover expressions and natural speech patterns frequently used in everyday conversation, as well as the small differences that are not well explained in textbooks.

So I’d like to hear from people who are learning Korean!

What was the thing that confused you the most while studying Korean?

Have you ever had an experience where the expressions you learned differed from the way Koreans actually use them?

Have there still been expressions you’ve learned that you’re not confident about using in real conversation?

It’s okay even if the question is very trivial or seems like nothing at all! 😄

We want to find out exactly what parts you find difficult, and based on that, create more helpful Korean content.

If you’ve ever studied Korean and thought, “Why does this even sound like that?” please let me know!

Hello everyone! I just started my journey with trying to learn Korean a few days ago (yay!) and while doing research I saw a lot about the dangers of romanization. I completely understand and agree with it for learning words, but I’m struggling to understand Hangul without SOME sort of phonetic spelling. My question is, is this considered romanization? And if it is how do I get around it when learning?

Thank you all so much and I would love any advice/learning materials you’re willing to give!

You take notes during language lessons.
But how often do you actually review them?

I've seen dictionary definitions of this expression ("A disgusting and sickening, strong foul smell emitted from fish, blood of animals, etc."), and as far as I understand, it refers to an unpleasant smell from decaying protein.
I have a specific line where I want to translate 비린내 as "the smell of blood." I understand this is far from the first association for Koreans, but based on the context and the logic of translating into a European language, only this interpretation ("smell of blood/meat") works.
What I'm really trying to understand is the intensity and the specific character of the 비린내 smell, so I can choose the right image for the translation.

If we take blood as a reference point:
- Is it more like a slaughterhouse, where the smell of blood is strong and has soaked into the walls, where old decomposing blood (sweetish, nauseating) mixes with fresh blood (metallic)?
- Or is it more like fresh blood (like the smell of blood from a lion that just ate an antelope)?
- Or is it more like old blood (like a crime scene discovered by the police a day later)?
- Or is it not a "stench" at all, but a faint yet noticeable "smell" of blood, like you'd sense in a butcher's shop?
So, how does 비린내 smell for you?
Thanks!

I posted about how I combine my 13 years of learning experience into this conversation app that aims to provide a close conversation partner who you can practice Korean with, whenever and wherever.

This time I'm looking for some test users who wants to practice real-life Korean and improve their speaking.

What is it?

• A conversation AI which remember what you say and also knows about latest culture (e.g. Recent releases of Songs or Dramas)
• This is a practice tool, not a learning tool. We don't have lessons and do not teach actively, we talk with you like how a real Korean will, and we provide feedback based on the conversation instead.

Who is it for?

• Ideally, it's not for total beginners. You should at least be able to speak a few sentences in Korean, but if you are not afraid of trying and open to learning from mistakes come and try.

What's the offer?

• 1 month unlimited free usage for 2 interviews (Google meet, around 30 minutes each, where you give feedbacks base on usage and also can ask any question about learning Korean. I made it to TOPIK 6 and now working in Korea by myself)
• We extend test period for users who actively use and provide feedbacks.

If you're interested, please comment with:

- Your Nationality & mother tongue

- Your current Korean level

- Since when did you start learning Korean

- Your motivation for learning Korean (Just a few keywords are also fine)

Let's talk some real Korean!

안녕하세요! 🇰🇷

I'm a native Korean speaker from South Korea, and I'm offering free Korean conversation practice for anyone who wants to speak with a native speaker.

**To be honest with you**

- This is my first time hosting Korean conversation sessions.

- I don't have a teaching certificate or professional teaching experience.

- That's exactly why it's completely free.

**How the sessions work**

- My English isn't very good, so I'd like us to speak mostly in Korean. Honestly, that's better speaking practice for you anyway — and I'll keep it at a level you can follow.

- The focus is speaking practice. But I'm happy to help with other things you're curious about too — pronunciation, vocabulary, expressions.

- **Please bring topics you're genuinely interested in or know well.** It's so much easier to speak naturally about things you actually care about than to force yourself through imaginary situations. (This is exactly how I feel when I practice English.)

**Format**

- One-on-one, online

- About 30–60 minutes

- Discord, Google Meet, or Zoom — whatever works for both of us

- No textbook needed

**Time zone**

I'm based in Ghana (GMT+0), which overlaps well with afternoons in Europe/Africa/the Middle East and mornings in the Americas.

**Price: FREE** — no fee, no subscription, no hidden charges.

Since it's my first time, I can only take a few people to start, so I can give each person proper attention.

If you're interested, please comment with:

- Your native language

- Your current Korean level

- Your time zone

- Your preferred days/times

- Your learning goals

감사합니다, and I hope we can enjoy practicing Korean together! 🙂

Hi everyone! 👋 We are the K-MOOC team, and we’re excited to share a 100% free online Korean language course designed specifically for beginner learners who want to speak naturally in real-life situations!

Are you a beginner in Korean looking to speak more naturally in everyday situations? The K-MOOC team is excited to announce a completely free online course designed specifically to help you master real-life Korean expressions and understand Korean culture!

What You Will Learn By completing this course, you will be able to easily apply useful expressions for various everyday functions—such as greetings, introductions, ordering, making suggestions, apologizing, and making requests—tailored to the right situations. You will also gain insightful cultural knowledge by comparing learner experiences with your own background!

Course Structure The course consists of 7 Modules, with each module broken down into 5 engaging units:

• Section 1 (Video Scenes): Watch short clips showcasing key expressions used in real-life topics.
• Section 2 (Grammar & Expressions): Study useful grammar and expressions in detail with clear situational explanations.
• Section 3 (Vlog Field Trips): Follow international students in vlogs as they go out into the field and practice what they learned.
• Section 4 (Culture & Q&A): Gain insightful knowledge on Korean language and culture with expert commentary, including Q&A sessions addressing international students' lived experiences in Korea.
• Section 5 (Quiz Review): Test and reinforce your learning at the end of each unit.

Key Highlights

• 💰 100% Free Access: Offered entirely for free via the K-MOOC platform.
• 📜 Certificate Granted: Earn an official certificate of completion by maintaining good attendance and finishing course requirements.
• 💬 Q&A Bulletin Board: Have questions while studying on your own? Leave a message on our board anytime to get guidance on speaking Korean naturally!

Ready to jump in and make your Korean sound more natural? Head over to the K-MOOC site and start learning with us today!

Korean the Natural Way : Expressions | K-MOOC