안녕하세요!
여기에서 우리 한국어를 공부하는 사람들이 연습을 할 수 있습니다. 질문들이 있습니까? 연습을 하고 싶습니까? 펜팔을 찾고 싶습니까? 이곳은 알맞은 곳이 입니다.
저는 2017년부터 한국어를 공부하고 있습니다. 그리고 2015년부터 언어들을 공부하고 있습니다.
Hello and welcome!
This is a thread where those of us who are learning Korean can practice. Do you have questions? Do you want to practice? Want to find a pen pal? This is the right place for you!
I've been learning Korean since late 2017 and I've been learning other languages since 2015. So hopefully I can put some of that to use here and help some comrades out!
Here are some resources that will be helpful to you in your Korean language learning journey!
- Hangul 한글
Step 1 to learning Korean is to learn how to read the Korean alphabet, hangul (한글)*. Do not fear, I know Korean looks like one of those languages like Chinese where you have to learn like a thousand different symbols (characters) before you can even write an introduction, but it's actually an alphabet with less than 30 letters. Once you know them, you can read anything (although you may not understand it, lol), and learning the basics takes less than a day. Hangul was invented from scratch about 500 years ago was designed specifically so that poor people would be able to read with ease (prior to that, Korean was written with Chinese characters, and only the wealthy had time to learn how to read). Today, North and South Korea have some of the highest literacy rates in the world, due partially to the ease of this alphabet.
Practice reading and writing hangul every day, for half an hour a day, for one week and you will basically have it memorized.
There are many resources for learning hangul, but this youtube video series is how I learned to read it.
*Note: Hangul (한글) is also called "Chosŏn'gŭl" (조선글) in North Korea, because Chosŏn is the name for Korea used in the DPRK. I use the South Korean name because I speak/write Korean according to the Seoul dialect, and have only vague familiarity with the Pyongyang/DPRK dialect. There isn't an abundance of resources for learning the Pyongyang dialect of Korean for English speakers, for reasons I assume are fairly obvious to you.
- Naver Dictionary - 네이버 사전 - korean.dict.naver.com/english/main.nhn?sLn=kr
Naver is sort of like the Google of South Korea. Their Korean-English dictionary is widely used by learners of Korean, and Korean learners of English. It is very complete and extremely useful. For those of you who are not natives of English, they also have a surprisingly wide array of other dictionaries, such as Spanish-Korean, Chinese-Korean, Turkish-Korean, and many more. Of course, they also have a regular Korean dictionary, which uses Korean sentences to define Korean words, which will be less useful to lower-level learners.
- Papago- 파파고 - papago.naver.com
Essentially the Google Translate of South Korea. Google Translate itself is not great at translating between English and Korean, so Papago is preferred. Even Papago is not great because Korean <-> English translation is not so straight forward, so usually, you are better off using Naver Dictionary if there is any word you are unsure of, as it provides a more complete listing of potential meanings/translations of a given word.
- Talk To Me In Korean AKA "TTMIK" - talktomeinkorean.com
These people produce a variety of resources for learners, with some being free and others being not-free. Their flagship is the TTMIK podcast, which is a free, primarily grammar-focused podcast that is frequently used by people starting their Korean journey. They also have several physical, printed books that for sale, and a subscription service available.
Some of their books were quite handy to me as a beginner for building up my vocabulary (I recommend the "My First 500 Korean Words" book to every beginner of Korean) and the podcast is a nice, low-key way to get some practice in while on the bus or something. They also have another line of free podcasts called "Iyagi" which is an intermediate level resource that's great for listening practice.
- Kakao talk
Okay, this isn't a learning resource per se, it's actually a Korean texting app, similar to Whatsapp. I'm including it because it is nearly ubiquitously used by South Koreans, young and old, and if you ever get the chance to make friends with a Korean, this is probably gonna be the easiest way to talk to them. I've spent countless hours chatting in Korean on this app and it has been hugely helpful to me.
- Anki
Anki is essentially a flashcard program. It works via the principle of Spaced Repition which is a scientifically-proven method of memorization (note: not of learning, of memorizing!). The UI is not super friendly but explanations can be found on Youtube or elsewhere on the net. When I was a beginner, I used this every day to memorize vocabulary, and it was invaluable. I paired it with the "My First 500 Korean Words" book mentioned above and I was able to memorize every word in the book in 2 months. In total, I've memorized more than 2,000 words using Anki, which is not even a lot compared to some people out there.
- lingodeer
An app similar to Duolingo*. Handy for learning or practicing when you are just starting out. Not really useful past the beginner stage tho, I would say, but not a bad method to get your feet wet with the language. I had my very first introduction to Korean sentence structure with this app. I think the first few lessons are free, but after that, you've got to pay.
*note that Duolingo is deliberately not on this list. Duolingo Korean is not highly recommended.
I might update this later with more resources.
Happy studies! Korea is a land with an incredibly interesting and rich history and culture, and of course, it has very obvious relevance to anyone with an interest in the history of Leftism. The hundreds of hours I've spent learning it over the past three years have been very rewarding.