Learning Korean

Hi! Although I do not learn Korean anymore, I learnt it for a year and reached B1 (lower intermiediete) on my own, so I definitely have an experience in this field. Learning the alphabet is incredibly important if you're seriously planning to learn Korean, so I'm glad you have that step behind you! Vocabulary wise, you should concentrate on the most basic words and phrases first, such as ''hello'', ''what's your name'', ''how are you''. Keep it in mind that Korean is a language that uses honorifics to highlight one's social status, so e.g. you couldn't say '안녕' to your teacher, but you'd had to use '안녕하십니까' instead. When you learn new phrases, it's best that you know all the forms (informal, polite, formal). Also, if you prefer to use textbooks when learning a foreign language, I personally recommend Korean From Zero!. They do a good job introducing you to the basics of Korean grammar. You can buy it online, but you can also find all their lessons online for free. First few pages are dedicated to the Korean alphabet, so you should skip them since you know it already. If you need any more help or have any questions, make sure to DM me, I'm more than happy to answer

Thank you for such a detailed response! That's really helpful! I will take a look at that textbook you reccomended and the online pages too. Although, how long did it take you to reach that level? Is it possible to become somewhat fluent in two years?

Thank you for such a detailed response! That's really helpful! I will take a look at that textbook you reccomended and the online pages too. Although, how long did it take you to reach that level? Is it possible to become somewhat fluent in two years?

Of course it is possible to become fluent in two years, no doubt about that!

With languages like Korean and Japanese, it'll take quite a lot of years to reach a very good level of fluency. You'll really need to spend a year or two at the least in the country (in my opinion), or even if you're there for a year or less, constantly consuming Korean material and keeping in contact with Korean friends etc.

Right now, within 2 years of independent study, I'd imagine you could get up to intermediate level of reading Korean. Writing will be harder without proper academic tuition and speaking/listening will be extremely difficult without being in Korea.

Having graduated in 3 languages, including an extremely difficult one in Japanese, I strongly encourage you to invest in some good textbooks if you're serious about learning Korean. From my research, the Integrated Korean textbooks seem to be the best. After that, for online learning, Talk To Me in Korean seems to be ideal. I would personally go for the Integrated Korean textbooks and then supplement those with the Talk To Me in Korean online resources.

This might also help: https://www.reddit.com/r/Korean/comments/rq3th/the_ultimate_beginners_resource_thread/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_body

Hello, I was wondering if you have any advice/tips for learning japanese pls? ive just finished learning hiragana

Of course it is possible to become fluent in two years, no doubt about that! I managed to reach B1 within a year, although my learning technique got really lazy after about 10 months so I guess I it could've been even better. But remember, just because someone achieved a certain level of fluency withing a certain time frame, it doesn't mean you have to too. Everyone learns at their own pace! I also HEAVILY (and I cannot stress that enough) recommend surrounding yourself with the Korean language. Listen to Korean music, watch Korean programmes, look up Korean memes, chat with Koreans, anything! Learning language is all about being consistent and going back to something you've already learnt before to make sure you don't forget it. If you need any more recommendations regarding apps or learning resources, let me know, I gathered quite a lot of them after some time

With languages like Korean and Japanese, it'll take quite a lot of years to reach a very good level of fluency. You'll really need to spend a year or two at the least in the country (in my opinion), or even if you're there for a year or less, constantly consuming Korean material and keeping in contact with Korean friends etc.

Right now, within 2 years of independent study, I'd imagine you could get up to intermediate level of reading Korean. Writing will be harder without proper academic tuition and speaking/listening will be extremely difficult without being in Korea.

Having graduated in 3 languages, including an extremely difficult one in Japanese, I strongly encourage you to invest in some good textbooks if you're serious about learning Korean. From my research, the Integrated Korean textbooks seem to be the best. After that, for online learning, Talk To Me in Korean seems to be ideal. I would personally go for the Integrated Korean textbooks and then supplement those with the Talk To Me in Korean online resources.

This might also help: https://www.reddit.com/r/Korean/comments/rq3th/the_ultimate_beginners_resource_thread/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_body

Thank you! I will certainly check out the post you linked. As well as those textbooks. I'm hoping to buy some soon so that I can have actual material and practice. I do plan on going to Korea in the future, and I have quite a few online friends who are Korean who don't mind helping when I need it. Congratulations on those graduations by the way, I find it pretty awesome that you can speak so many languages!

Okay, so I'm learning Korean and so far I've learnt the alphabet and I'm able to read words (without knowing what they mean though) and now I'm a bit stuck. I don't know what to learn next vocab wise, so can anyone give any advice on an order to learn it?

Hey! I've given some advice on this thread so feel free to check it out: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=84086404&highlight=genki%201

Since you've just learned hiragana, I'd highly encourage you to learn reading and writing katakana. Make sure that for both hiragana and katakana you know the exact stroke order. It's really, really important that you learn the stroke orders. It'll help you in the future!

Of course it is possible to become fluent in two years, no doubt about that! I managed to reach B1 within a year, although my learning technique got really lazy after about 10 months so I guess I it could've been even better. But remember, just because someone achieved a certain level of fluency withing a certain time frame, it doesn't mean you have to too. Everyone learns at their own pace! I also HEAVILY (and I cannot stress that enough) recommend surrounding yourself with the Korean language. Listen to Korean music, watch Korean programmes, look up Korean memes, chat with Koreans, anything! Learning language is all about being consistent and going back to something you've already learnt before to make sure you don't forget it. If you need any more recommendations regarding apps or learning resources, let me know, I gathered quite a lot of them after some time

same i want to learn korean but idk where to start

Excellent! I'd recommend starting off with just 1 textbook for now. Are you doing your GCSEs or A levels at the moment? Thinking about doing modern languages at university?

Cheers. That's really nice of you to say so! I don't get many compliments so it's really nice and refreshing when I do get them.

Okay, I'll take that into account! At the moment I'm not doing either, hence the reason I want to take as much time to learn Korean. My GCSE exams were all cancelled so I get grades from my school or something like that. So I'm doing A-levels next. I don't actually plan on going to uni though, I've decided to join the Royal Navy instead.

Also, it's no problem! I'm surprised you don't get many compliments, because multilingual people are hella cool!

What A levels are you considering? Make sure to keep up with Korean or any foreign language as much as you can. It's not too difficult especially seeing how everything's online nowadays.

The Royal Navy sounds extremely interesting! Maybe you could even get stationed in Korea someday.

I'm taking art, biology and phycology ( i probably spelt that wrong sorry ) and I can't wait. I do plan to study it as much as possible though.
Being stationed in Korea would probably be quite fun :0

Great mix of subjects! Guessing your college doesn't offer A level Korean?