credit â DOM&HYO â domandhyo.com
Letâs be honest learning a new language can be one of the hardest things in the world. From the alphabet to the random and confusing slang words, every bit of a new language is difficult. Asian languages, in general, are harder for western people to learn because of the new letters and different sounds. While learning a new language can be hard it is really not impossible!
Today I am going to help you all on your journey to learning Korean and give you tips and tricks on what I used when I first started studying Korean!đŠâđŤ
credit â @koreanthreadÂ
Hangul íę¸
When I learn a new language the first step I always take is learning the alphabet. This is one of the most important steps in learning Korean, you need to know the basic consonants and vowels in order to progress in your studying.đ
Start by memorizing the basic letters â how theyâre written and how they sound. Know them by heart and make sure you can recognize them as easily as the letters in your own language. Start by writing each of the letters down on paper over and over again, saying it every single time to get it down. After you know these letters I suggest going on with your studies with only Korean letters.
What I mean by this is donât sound out the Korean words with English letters â for example, do not write/ learn the word:
ěŹëí´ as âsarangheaâ
Learn the word by writing and reading the Korean letters and not the English letters. This will help you either any language you learn because you need to learn how to read and write the letters from that language just as well as your own.â¨
Consonants
There are 19 consonants in the Korean language. These are just like consonants in the English language and they sound very similar. I suggest looking up audio for each consonant so you make sure you are saying each sound as perfect as you can.
All consonants:
ăą â k/g ă˛- kk/gg 㴠â n ăˇ- d ă¸- dd/tt ăš- r/l ă - m ă - b ă - bb/pp ă - h ă - s ă - ss
ă - ng/silent  ă - j ă -jj ă - ch ă â k ă - t ă - p
These might seem a little confusing at first, but trust me once you understand it it will be like second nature for you.đť
Vowels
The vowels in the Korean language are also very similar to the vowels in the English language. Most every word in the Korean language NEEDS a vowel in it just like in English. The way I think of the vowels is with one stem and two stems. When you start to learn Korean vowels you will notice each one has either one stem or two stems and this controls the sound of the vowel.
All vowels:
ă - a ă - ya ă - eo ă - yeo ă â oh ă â yoh ă â oo ă â yoo 㠥 â ew 㠣- ee  ă â ae
ă â yae ă â eh ă - yeh
Again always think of the one and two stems and how those change the sound of the vowel. It is simple to understand these vowels once you get the hang of it!
Textbooks
credit â talktomeinkorean.com
Honestly, textbooks arenât my favorite learning method, but with langauges, I do think they can help a lot when starting out!
A big tip I can give you is if you use a textbook to learn a language than have a spare notebook next to you and literally copy down the entire textbook into your notebook. This will help you learn, understand, and memorize all the material so much better and faster than just reading it once in the book. Trust me I know it sounds annoying, but it will help A LOT!đ
The textbooks that I use are from a company called Talk To Me In Korean. I really love how they lay it out and give you a lot of practice in the textbook, there are also a lot of books that go from beginner to advanced and extra textbooks in between!
This website will also give you a way to learn Korean online for free with their classes, however, they are not very organized and personally, I think they are hard to follow. But, try it out because it might be the perfect fit for you!
Either way, they have amazing textbooks that are perfect to start learning with! Here is the link to their store!
Online Learning
Now my favorite way to learn a new language is through online resources! I think it helps me the best because it has audio I can listen too and I can copy done the notes onto my notebook to help me learn the material even better. There are a few sites that I use but trust me there are so many websites to help you learn Korean so go browse some and pick the best for you!
credit â domandhyo.com
Dom and Hyo is a great website for learning basic and fun information! I think they do a great job at making the site interactive and having cute examples for slang words and other not formal words. Slang words and other nonformal conversations are hard to learn in any language, but Dom and Hyo do a great job at bringing this into their lessons and making it easier to learn!đť
Dom and Hyo also have many digital downloads that you can purchase for cheap and have them to review and study with. They present the information in a very informative and simple way that makes it easy for even beginners to learn!
credit â howtostudykorean.com
This is my all time favorite website for learning Korean! Seriously if you want to start learning and donât know where to start then this is the best place! How To Study Korean is set up in such a simple and easy to understand format! I love this website so much and it is what I use every single day for learning Korean!đ
So this website is set up into Units, there are 6 units and each unit has lessons inside of them. The number of lessons varies on the unit but in total, the website has 141 lessons. This is so much material and will take you from the beginner level all the way up to an intermediate/ almost advance level!
The other great thing about this website is that each example of a Korean word or sentence or anything that is written in Korean has an audio clip right next to it. All you have to do is click the âPLAYâ button and then you will hear the audio for that word or sentence. This doesnât seem like very much, but trust me this will save your life! It is so important to hear the words being said by a native speaking so you can understand the sounds and help yourself make the right sounds when speaking!
This website is the best website when it comes to learning Korean. All the lessons are free for everyone but there are extra workbooks you can purchase if you feel necessary, but honestly, you will get enough information with just the set website lessons.đ
Extra Tip
One way to help yourself not get bored while learning Korean is to watch Korean dramas! Now Iâm sure most of you already watch Korean dramas, but you can use that time as a way to study!
The best of both worlds!â¨
Slow down your episode and make sure you read every word and try to match it with the Korean word they are saying! It starts to become some sort of a game and you will get so excited when you start to understand the sentence someone just said without even reading the subtitles!
Viki Learn Mode
credit â viki.com
Viki has this awesome mode called âLearn Modeâ where they have specific dramas that are available to have English and Korean subtitles at the same time. When you mouse over the Korean word it will give you more information about that word. This helps people SO much because when you watching Korean dramas you are able to learn both the sound of the words, the grammar of words, and the writing of the words. I use this all the time and they have so many good dramas on there that you can rewatch and help you study!
Here is the link to the Viki Learn Mode!
Korean Keyboard
One thing I did right when I starting learning Korean was I got a Korean keyboard! You can find these on Amazon, they are just little stick-on letters that go on your keyboard! They arenât noticeable and will help you SO much! You will see those letters every day and hopefully be using them every day if you start practicing on your laptop! They are so cheap and so useful so please go get some if you are learning Korean or any language honestly!
credit â lovingkorean.com
Thank you guys so much for reading and hopefully, this helped a couple of you to start your journey to mastering the Korean language! It will be a long journey but Iâll be right here with you guys along the way!đ Let me know if you guys want to see more post about learning Korean because I would love to make more of these!
Make sure to follow and leave a like if you found this post interesting! Comment what tips and tricks you guys have for learning a new language because Iâm always looking for more shortcuts lol! Follow me on all my other social media as well!â¨IG: https://www.instagram.com/vhiidii/Â
大弽ăěŹëí´ love^^
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