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Study sources🧠

 Study sources🧠

Self-studying isn’t always easy. It can be very overwhelming and you have no idea where to start. To help you a bit, here are some sources that I use to study Korean.


Grammar📕

Talk To Me In Korean (Website/books)

I use TTMIK as my main study source. It’s great and structured! It explains things really well and detailed. It contains 9 levels, each with up to 31 lessons for free! You can take these lessons at your own speed. Besides the free lessons TTMIK also has a bookstore where you can actually buy the lessons in actual books, for those who prefer studying on paper rather than on a computer. Other than the lessons they have multiple other books you can purchase. You can also upgrade your account to a premium account which gives you access to even more lessons, quizzes, certificates and dialogue videos. But I promise you, even with a free account, TTMIK is definitely one of the best sources out there. 

Korean From Zero (Pdf)

When I first started learning Korean this was my first “textbook”. It’s a free downloadable textbook with exercises. Just like TTMIK, it helps a lot with grammar and explains things really well. The only thing is that it’s not as broad as TTMIK. Korean From Zero is a bit more compact. 

Duolingo (App/website)

Ah, yes, everyone who tries to study a language has heard about Duolingo. The scary green bird that follows you in your dreams and will not let you live if you miss a lesson… Duolingo is great for studying Korean as well, unfortunately in my opinion it does miss some explanations and it goes from 0 to 100 really quickly. So I suggest, use Duolingo as a “test” for yourself, the exercises are great and they make you think. For the fundamental grammar, I’d suggest to use TTMIK or KFZ. The sad thing about Duolingo is that it works with those damn hearts. If you make 5 mistakes, you need to wait until you get a new heart. Obviously this is their way to hope you upgrade to Duolingo Plus. Can’t really blame them, they need a way to get the moneys as well. Doesn’t take away that as you are learning a language, having to stop and wait isn’t really progressive… Especially since you’ll make a lot of mistakes in the beginning which can cause frustration. Nonetheless, still a great source to study!


Vocabulary📗

Drops (App)

Drops is an app where you can study Korean vocabulary for 5 minutes a day for free. If you upgrade your account, you can study endlessly. In the free version some topics are locked, but still there are plenty of free topics! It’s great to build your vocabulary.

Quizlet (App/website)

Quizlet is a great place to study vocabulary. 


Other📘

Jolly (Youtube)

Believe it or not, but Youtube has some great videos for learning Korean. I’m not a huge fan of watching videos to study, but for some it definitely works. One of the Youtubers I do watch, is Jolly. It’s a shared channel run by both Josh and Ollie. Josh is British but can speak multiple languages, including Korean. In their Korean lessons, Josh attempts to teach Ollie Korean. Anytime I watch it, I die laughing. They are friends with 선현우 (Hyeonwoo Sun), the brain behind TTMIK. He too has been on their channel! Besides teaching Ollie Korean, they also show the Korean culture and take you on trips around Korea. I’m sure anyone who watches them will fall in love with their channel! 

영국남자 - Korean Englishman (Youtube)

This is one of the most famous Korean-English Youtubers with almost 4 million subscribers. Guess what? It’s Josh’s solo channel. Ollie is involved in this channel too, but behind the scenes. On this channel Josh introduces Korean food to (famous) people, which is great if you want to learn things about the Korean culture!

Kpop/K-drama

Now this one is quite a difficult one. Some say it’s great to get a feeling for the speech and the understanding yet at the same time it’s not the natural speaking. No one in the real world is going to use some poetic words to widely describe how much they are in love with you. However, imo, it has helped me greatly with getting a grasp of the flow of the language. Whereas in the beginning everything sounded like it was just mushed together, it has helped me to hear the separate words. And well, vocabulary speaking, it helps a lot as well, even if you’ll most likely never use it in the real world haha. 


Feel free to add your own resources in the comments

Reference:

Korstudying. “Study Sources🧠.” KorStudying, 26 July 2020, korstudying.tumblr.com/post/624704696589926400/study-sources.

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