The Best Way to Learn Korean

Self-evaluation

When you learn just about anything, whether it's Korean, the violin or pottery - you need to start off with a good teacher.

A teacher isn’t necessarily a person – it could be a textbook, an app, or a Youtuber. 

There definitely isn’t a shortage of options out there. In fact, you’re probably overwhelmed trying to decide.The most important thing is finding the option that suits your own needs, learning style and goals.

Let's start off by asking ourselves some questions:

What do I want to achieve out of learning Korean? 
Revisit your WHY and remember the main reason you want to learn Korean. 

How much time during the week can I commit to studying Korean? 
You don’t need to be studying for hours a day. The most important thing is consistency, so think of a duration that you will be able to keep up with, long-term.

How self-motivated am I? 
Let's be real here.

Learning Korean isn't a responsibility like homework from school or being at work so your level of self-motivation needs to be on another level.

How much money am I willing to spend? 
There are loads of free ways you can learn Korean. However, if you are not self-motivated, then a free option, is not going to keep you accountable. Even if you’re on a tight budget, you should be spending a least a little actual moolah.

How serious am I about wanting to learn Korean? 
Think about your answers from above and then rate yourself out of 10.

With 10 being UBER motivated and 1 being ‘nah never mind’.

Academic vs. Conversational

The Korean language has a pretty big difference between what is grammatically correct versus how Koreans speak day-to-day.

This is because sentence structures allows for us to cut lots of corners in everyday speech and also because we use a lot of slang, internet lingo and shortened words - none of which 'academic' Korean teaching styles, will teach you.

If your main goals revolve around watching media or conversing with Koreans – you will need to focus on colloquial language so Youtube channels and tutors would be better over textbooks.
You will want to find a tutor is doesn’t focus on textbook style teaching.

On top of this, studying on your own won't teach you about the cultural side of things.

Remember, language is an expression, not just words so it's really helpful to have an actual person to help you read between the lines!

If you’re wanting to get a qualification or certificate in Korean, then you would need a more academic approach through formal Language Schools and textbooks.

If you have a full-time life with some little humans to take care of and/or a full-time job, I can appreciate that you might struggle to find the time to study.

In this case, you will want some sort of ‘human’ teacher – whether it’s a tutor or group lessons.

Being busy often means things like learning Korean will fall down the priorities list and get in the way of achieving your goals.

You’ll quickly find that your Korean textbooks are gathering dust and your Youtube algorithm no longer recommends Korean language videos.

Having a human teacher keeps you accountable and encourages you to keep it up! Plus, it requires less effort and time than self-studying because you don't need to prepare or plan study schedules yourself.

Self-learning

Self-learning is absolutely doable through apps, Youtube and textbooks and these are great resources but your self-motivation would need to be absolute top-notch.

Trying to navigate and design a study schedule around something you know so little about will require a huge amount of research and discipline.

(I tried to self-teach myself Spanish once. Lasted a whole 3 months. Fair to say, I cannot speak Spanish)

This style of learning would be suited to someone who already knows at least an intermediate level of Korean so you know how to plan your studies.

On a budget

There are many ways to free resources out there to learn Korean!

There are some great Youtubers as well as free apps and free online blogs! Your local Korean cultural or community centre might do free classes too.

You should bear in mind though that these won't be personalised to your learning style and pace so you have little control over what you learn.
This can get confusing especially for complete beginners when you need a clear sense of direction the most!

So rather than completely free resources, why not try lower budget options!

Group or online lessons are a great option as they are much more affordable than private tutoring but easy to access whilst still motivating and structured to keep you going.

Get started!

The most important thing is consistency! It's not a race - not against anyone, and not even against yourself.

There isn't a BEST way to learn Korean because we all have such different personalities and lifestyles.

But there is a 'worst' way to learn Korean and that's to not start it at all.