What To Learn After Winning Over Hangul and Batchim
Don’t Be Clueless While Learning Korean As An Absolute Beginner
We have conquered Hangul and Batchim now it is time to move ahead in the journey of learning Korean. Here comes the difficult part of managing vocabulary, learning all the complicated Korean grammar and speaking of course.
First And Foremost Define Your Goals:
You’ve learnt Hangul and memorized all the batchim rules along with the sound rules. Now will be a great time to define your goal for learning Korean. I get it, it is not going to be easy but even having a rough idea would be enough. You want to learn Korean to watch K-dramas without subtitles, understand and pronounce the lyrics better, and be able to understand the interviews of your favourite artist. To learn about Korean society and culture. Or maybe being able to land a better job opportunity. Whatever it is, however, big or small your goals are write them down and manage your study time as per your target.
What I would recommend is to make a list of what you want to achieve, start small I mean really small, big goals like being fluent in 3 months might end up overwhelming you. Keep it simple, that’s the key.
For eg: My goal is to appear for the TOPIK test which is why my pursuit of learning Korean is purely academic. Yours can be well, anything you want it to be.
Mastering Vocabulary:
Now that you have defined your goals it's time to learn the vocabulary. Target a minimum of 10 words and practice speaking them with simple sentences. Vocabulary building is fun because of K-pop songs. If you are not into K-Pop try learning through dramas, watch youtube channels that teach Korean and talk about everyday phrases. Download the Naver app if you haven’t yet. Naver is the holy grail for Korean learners. You’ll get notified with ‘word of the day’ every day.
Make YouTube Your Bestfriend:
YouTube is the best place to learn just about anything. There are so many channels on YouTube that can be a huge help for all the folks who are beginners or intermediate learners. The channels I would recommend are Talk To Me In Korean, Seemile, Tammy Korean, sweetandtastyTV, Miss Vicky, Hailey _Your Korean Friend, and many more. There are a lot of resources on YouTube already available on the tips of the finger. But don’t just sit and watch the videos mindlessly, designate your time to learn specific things and stick to them. You might end up watching a ton of videos and learning absolutely nothing trust me I have been there.
My advice would be to select a topic to learn, search for that specific topic and study it. Don’t watch multiple videos on the same topic. If you are just starting Tammy Korean might be the channel for you, her videos are lined up for absolute beginners, and she also provides downloadable sheets and homework which is great.
Focusing On Grammar:
Learning Korean is fun in the beginning since there is only Hangul and Batchim as most of us might think but the progress on the spoken part of learning any language is hard. Particularly, Korean as it has honorifics, tense rules, vowels and consonants that decide the choice of particles, the formal and plain form of speech and much more. You should spend some time learning Korean grammar don’t just wing it. Building a strong foundation as a beginner helps you with the advancement to the intermediate level.
Seemile has a playlist for beginners to learn the important grammar points. Jenny seonseangnim is fantastic with the lessons that are available on their channel.
Speak From Day One:
Yes, that’s what I mean get comfortable with the idea of speaking the language for real. That’s what the goal is right, speaking. I use HelloTalk for this purpose, I record myself speaking in Korean using simple and basic sentences for getting used to being comfortable speaking in Korean. Many natives are kind enough to correct my pronunciation or sometimes just appreciate for trying.
If you are not comfortable with that use Google Translate that's what I did for building some confidence in my ability to pronounce Korean words, you can also type sentences in your native language and translate them into Korean, listen to the pronunciation and try it yourself. Remember to keep the sentences simple at first eg: I like Shinee, My favourite fruit is grapes, etc.
Get Better At Listening:
Carrying a conversation and being able to understand the language is important and being a good listener is essential. Well, we already have multiple sources for this one like songs, dramas, interviews, podcasts, audiobooks, etc.
You don’t have to pick one of these for this task. You can freely swing between these options. These will help you get used to the natural speaking pattern of Korean.
Reading And Writing:
Reading is going to be great to get used to the flow of speaking Korean. Read the comments in Korean on YouTube loudly. You don’t have to go and buy expensive books to read Hangul. You can read blogs online, watch lyrics videos in Hangul, and use Naver for sentences. You can write lyrics of your favourite songs in Hangul, the name of your favourite idol, or simply just a word in Korean a day. Simple tricks and techniques will get you far, you don't have to spend a lot of time buying books when things are available for free.
What I prefer to do is while listening to a song on YouTube or Spotify I read the lyrics or sometimes, I would pause the song and read the comments in Hangul, I would read about 4-5 comments a day, it is a good exercise. Try it!
Planning And Scheduling:
Set up a planner, this will save you a lot of time. Set small and effective goals. Don’t go overboard with planning too much in the beginning. Minimal goals are enough like writing 10 words a day, speaking about something for 30 seconds a day, the target time for the study goal like 30 minutes of grammar study, etc.
Simple goals will help you acquire the target language better and in an effective manner. Give yourself attainable goals like a simple 30 days challenge, everyday goals targeted towards your goal of learning a particular topic. I recently finished Korean Grammar In Use For Beginners by studying a chapter(unit) a day. Set simple, achievable goals so that you don’t make yourself miserable.
Managing Resources And Apps:
There are multiple resources available for free online you don’t need to have every single one of them. In the beginning, just pick one and see if you like it. Enjoying the process is important while learning. Keep track of your resources like books, apps used to learn Korean, notes, online courses, websites, sheets that you have downloaded, etc.
Collecting multiple resources won’t help you if you haven’t stored them in one proper place. Make a folder or list to keep track of the resources you use. This can be a great help to get quick access to your study material.
What Kind Of Learner Are You:
This is important because you need to analyse your style of learning or studying. It is going to affect your motivation to learn different things. Do you want a study partner? Do you have the ability to self-study? Do you prefer a classroom? Whatever your style might be prepare your study plan accordingly since, in the end, it’s going to be just you who has the target planned out.
As cliched as it may sound but your actions indeed declare your results. However, please do not go and pressurize yourself. Take slow yet effective steps.
Quick Run Through The Points We Discussed:
- Define Goals
- Target Vocabulary
- Using YouTube effectively
- Learning Grammar
- Pillars Of Language Learning: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.
- Planning & Scheduling
- Sorting Out Resources
- Self Analysis To Track Progress and Study Pattern.
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Thank you for reading. Keep learning. All the best.
오늘 정말 수고했어요. 화이팅 해요.
