Hello, everyone. I recently reached 1500 hours of Korean learning. I thought I'd make a post about my journey for those who are interested.

My learning can be broken down into two phases: the first 500 hours of foundation building and then 1000 hours of pure input.

First 500 hours

This was all about learning the basics and going from A0 to A2/B1. I accomplished it in mainly two ways:

1. Lessons with iTalki tutor. These lessons were mostly conducted in Korean, even when I was a total beginner. We focused on having simple conversations, and there were some vocab and grammar explanations thrown in here and there. In total, I did 95 hours of lessons.

2. Sentence mining + flashcards. For those who are not familiar with sentence mining, it essentially just means you study and memorize sentences from content you consume. As a Kpop and Kdrama fan, this was up my alley. I started sentence mining a few months into my studies and it was HUGE game changer. My understanding of Korean improved drastically, and I was able to create more natural sentences when speaking. My tutor was also surprised to see how many advanced words I somehow knew.

Trip to Korea

At around the 500-hour mark, I took a trip to Korea. It felt nice to be able to read signs and navigate Seoul by myself. However, one of the things I discovered on the trip was that my listening skills were absolute garbage. I had no problem speaking to people, though I could not understand what they said back.

I was used to my tutor's way of speaking, in which she adjusted her speech for learners, but I still could not follow normal native speech. This was when I realized I had to make significant changes to my study routine.

1000 hours of input

In my quest to improve my listening skills, I accidentally fell into the "comprehensible input method." And this is where I've been since then. Here's a breakdown of everything I've done for the previous 1000 hours.

1. Listening to/watching native content. I pretty much spend 1-4 hours everyday on Kpop livestreams, radio interviews, variety shows, as well as Kdramas. (750 hours total)

2. Reading. I've been reading Kdrama scripts, news articles, and books. (250 hours and 347,000 words total)

Results

Listening: My listening comprehension has improve tremendously since that trip to Korea. I'm quite comfortable listening to most Kpop content because that's where I spend the majority of my time. I can also watch Kdramas without subtitles if they are about topics I am familiar with, like everyday life, romance, and Kpop (hehe). However, Kdramas in general require a bigger vocabulary bank, so I still have trouble with a lot of them.

Reading: I've been making great strides in reading news articles for kids about a variety of topics including history, current events, North Korea, health, science, etc. I'm currently working my way into reading adult news articles, though they are still really challenging sometimes. This is the same situation for books as well.

Speaking: I haven't spoken to anyone since July 2023, which was when my tutor went on maternity leave. At the time, I could easily have one-on-one conversations with her for an hour, so that's probably where my skills are at. Since my listening comprehension is much better now, it's likely I can talk to more natives than just my tutor.

Writing: This is probably my lowest skill because it's not something I prioritize. Perhaps if I ever plan on taking the TOPIK, I will work more on it.

Final thoughts

Overall, I'm proud of how far I've come. I've happy that I've been able to incorporate my hobbies into my study routine from the beginning, which has made the whole journey nothing but a huge joy.

I like a lot of Kpop groups who are not popular, which means their videos don't have English subtitles and their social media posts don't have translations. It's really nice being able to navigate this independently without relying on anyone else.

My main goal right now is to keep increasing my vocabulary. The more words one knows, the more content one can consume. I currently know 5500 words, according to Kimchi Reader. For reference, most adults know over 20,000 words and 5-year-olds know around 10,000. As you can see, there's still a long road ahead. My method for increasing vocabulary is to just read, read, and read.

Hi all, I can only really learn language contextually, for example by listening to simple dialogues and then answering questions in the TL about the dialogue. I need to memorizing whole phrases to consolidate grammar concepts, rather than something like a lists of conjugations. Wondering if y'all know of a course like this for Korean.

I'm using Innovative, which is quite good, but doesn't have as much emphasis on immersive phrase-based learning as I am looking for. For example, the phrase flashcards have English in one side, Korean on the other. What I want is a Korean question phrase on one side, and the Korean answer phrase on the other.

Hi, so since talking about your period is still taboo in some cultures, and people often use euphemisms, I think it can be an especially tricky thing to discuss in a foreign language.

So I was wondering if some native/fluent speakers can give some insight on:

a) some natural terms/phrases people use and

b) what are the cultural norms around talking about your period with friends/family/coworkers/partners etc.

For example, what is a natural way to say the following:

1. I have my period/I'm on my period
2. I got my period yesterday
3. I have really bad cramps/heavy flow
4. Do you have a tampon?
5. I have a really regular cycle
6. I missed my period
7. I'm on birth control/I take birth control

Thanks!

hii yall! i have a few questions. does the king sejong institute take you to fluency or do i have to use other sources too? which free ones can i use? also, what are some (may be triggering) >!weight loss!< terms in korean? like i know >!체중 감량!< but that's all (and i got it from google translate) like what is workout in korean and some other common phrases in that area?

I came across -게시리 in this sentence: “아아니 이년이, 응? 무당 년이 재수 없게시리, 술 사 먹으러 온 손한테 뭣이 우쩌고 우째?”

So naturally I looked it up in the dictionary and it says that it is equal to 게끔. However, in this sentence replacing 게시리 with 게끔 makes no sense.

Then I found this blog post kind of going over it, but they dont explain the meaning, just say that its often not replaceable by -게끔. https://m.blog.naver.com/PostView.naver?blogId=udal2008&logNo=50053404119&proxyReferer=https:%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&trackingCode=external

So is there another meaning of 게시리 not indicated in dictionaries? Any clarification on it's usage will be greatly appreciated!

I recently saw a meme on X that reads "어 난데 여기 핫플이야“ and I was curious as to what "핫플” might refer to. I did find out the usage of 핫플 (like a hot spot, a place that's popular??)

However, when I searched further out of curiosity, I also found out that this particular phrase is used like a meme on SNS with a person holding their phone up.

I guess it might be a meme of some kind related to pop culture in Korean or something or sorts, and I would really love to know what the reference is (just in case for future usage).

This might seem like a trivial thing to post on this subreddit but can someone help me itch this curiosity?😅

Hey,

So I am a little bit lost how I should proceed in my korean language studies. I am half korean and I can have conversations in korean with my mother for example(in broken korean haha). I did the "talk to me in korean" level test and got a 5. I feel like I understand conversations very well but actually speaking and finding the correct words to answer brings me down.

I have finished the Sogang 1b book and I am currently working on the "Talk to me in korean - Real life Korean conversations for beginners". Both books feel easy and go over grammar which I can already fluently use in conversations. I am wondering which studying materials I could start working on. I have used the "how to study korean" website a little bit but the website feels boring to use as a main source for my learning. I have looked at the talk to me in korean course and was wondering if it could be the best next step for me in my korean language studies. Of course I am up to other suggestions as well. Thank you in advance!

What's the difference between counting in sino vs native? im talking about simply saying the numbers out loud rather than counting objects (which i understand u should use native for). the whole '하나 둘 셋' is very well known since the beginner stage, but ive seen people count down using '삼 이 일' and so on.. is there a difference? Does it matter? Does it vary depending on the situation? help..

DOes anyone know what all the errors on the list are? I have found a few like sometimes it gives the wrong definition out of like e.g. 3 maybe 1 of them arent meant to be there or like e.g. red pepper paste should be red pepper powder not paste, i guess its a work in progress or something?

Just considering how everyone always says its so highly rated and best etc but why does it have so many mistakes? Is there another Anki vocab deck thats has less mistakes?

For example, if a friend stated “I want to see the Spider-Man movie in theaters”

but you want to say “I want to see that movie too” (I think 저도 ___ 영화를 보고 싶어요)

Hypothetically the movie isn’t physically in front of either of us, so would it be 저??

Thanks in advance <3

If I am in a group chat with my uncles, aunts and cousins and want to say a general kind message like "I hope you all are well and staying healthy and happy" something along the lines of that, would saying "우리 가족 모두 건강하고 행복하게 지내시길 바랍니다.” make sense and be appropriate? Is there a better way to say that in Korean? Thank you so much if youre able to reply.

Hello! I recently started learning Korean and have completed the Hangul alphabet. I would greatly appreciate any guidance on what I should focus on next, in the correct order, to continue progressing.

Still working on this. Like I also wanna know how they will call each other when they are close like colleagues, or colleages calling boss, etc. Please help me guys, thanks 🙏

I’m doing my homework about this. I really wanna know how teachers call students in many ways, not just “학생” only.

Are there common words/phrases that sound the same with different meanings? Or, meanings change depending on context/culture?

I dont know if this fits into the category, but why does 네 mean yes and no? How do korean speakers know whether or not the speaker means yes or no? Im not sure if this was also the case with 아니 meaning yes and no too? Anyways, Im confused abt that as well ahahaha

Otherwise, what are common homophones that you use daily? Especially ones that would be helpful for speaking and sounding like a native?

How can I work on getting rid of my American accent when speaking korean? I’m still a beginner, but it’s something I would like to be conscious of as I learn. I think I’m mostly concerned on my accent being too strong to where it’s not understandable when speaking to others.

I know I’m most likely gonna have an accent regardless, but I’d like to work on it

Any tips or advice?

Recently started learning Korean and I am wondering when is an appropriate time to begin consuming content like dramas or YouTube videos? Currently I am doing 20 Anki words and grammar each day (I have a lot of time on my hands). Is it worth watching content even when I don't understand anything or should I wait until I have built up some vocab and grammar until I dive in?

when using "요" at the end does the consonant sounds roll over, for example in " 제 연필요 " would the ㄹ roll over making it sound like 피료 (ryo)

I’m aware that “-요“ is common in verb conjugation but what does it add to other words? For example, “진짜” means “really” but I’ve heard people say “진짜요?” To my knowledge, a noun like ”진짜” should not conjugate but why would it in this situation?

Hello!I am going to take TOPIK II for the first time tomorrow and I would like to know whether we are given extra time to mark our answers in the answer sheet or not. In that case, what are your suggestions? Writing directly on the answer sheet not to waste time?

Also, what happens if I write outside the 원고지?Will that bit just be ignored or is the whole exame counted as null? Do y'all suggest to just leave the sentence incomplete rather than writing outside the grid?

Long-time beginner here!!

Recently learned the -아지다/어지다 verb ending to express ‘something is getting something-er’ (excuse me if that understanding is poor…)

Trying to figure out how this works with past tense etc. So for example, if I am trying to express the sentiment:

Every week, Korean class gets harder.

Which of the following would express that better (and feel free to correct these to sound more right/natural!):

매주 한국어 수업이 더 어려워저요 or

매주 한국어 수업이 더 어려워졌어요

(Also for the ever elusive markers - is it correct to use 이/가 in this scenario as I have above, and would 매주 require a 에 time marker?)

Thanks in advance!

Is this translation correct for each language?

So I have English which is what I want to say and then thai and korean

Is this correct ?

Thank you for all your hard work

It is greatly appreciated,

ขอบคุณสำหรับการทำงานหนักของคุณ

ชื่นชมอย่างมาก

여러분의 노고에 감사드립니다

대단히 감사드립니다,

Not much to say here but I been trying to learn korean since last year, and not really working out. I tried to watch those "20 korean vocab to learn now" or "What to say at a restaurant?"

Yes i do write them down but like ig for languages you need to say and write alot to remember? IDK.

My chinese also trash cuz never use in school anymore. So ig i need to speak korean and write korean more?

Hii You know when something feels impossible to do? English is not my first language and before learning it felt like that as well, so I know it is possible but I'm lacking the motivation to really believe that right now. Could you share how your learning journey was? Also how long did it took in order to be able to have a conversation in Korean? Any tips to memorize Hangul? Or to don't waste time and learn in a reasonable timeframe? Thank you!

Hi everyone! I'm hoping you all could help me with this. I was supposed to translate "the watch that my mom bought me on my birthday..." to Korean. For "on my birthday" I used "제 생일 때" but my instructor crossed it out and put "제 생일날에" instead. Is it wrong to use "생일 때"?

I looked up the 때 grammar as well as the 에 grammar again, and while there's a disctinction when they are used with holidays, it seems like for birthday, they should be interchangeable.

Thank you so much for your help!

The phrase “-고 싶다“ means to want but since it is a descriptive verb, should it conjugate to ”-고 싶은“ (adjective ending iirc) or, since it comes at the end of the sentence, would it function like a verb and conjugate into “-고 싶어?” “-고 싶어“ seems correct, but since it’s technically a descriptive verb, would the -은 ending be appropriate?

I use ~에대 해 to describe that a noun is about something. Can I combine this with 이다 to say IS about ? Or is there a better way to express this?

비디오는 이기에 대해 간호사가 어린이들을 지켰어요

Maybe I can't use this order and have to say:

간호사가 어린이들을 지킨 비디오는 이에요.

Context: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fCKJEffmPrM

Are either of these a natural way to say what a video IS about ?

Does anyone know of an ai voice generator that can do Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and English, where you can specify the voice name in the script instead of changing a setting on the generator? On Murf.ai, when I'm doing multiple languages, I have to manually change the blocks and with a long enough script it is surprisingly time-consuming, even if I'm just doing "paste block settings" onto the various blocks. These AI generators are such an obvious language-learning tool-- is this not a common use-case? How do other people make language-learning tracks? Been doing this for years and I just get more and more baffled and frustrated that this is such a hassle. I must be using the wrong tools. Please help.

Hi everyone! Hope this is ok to post, I’m not much of a reddit user. I got a handwritten note but i’m having trouble reading the handwriting 🥹 would anyone be able to help decipher what it says? thank you in advance!

i know it’s something about Nana and it says i love you at the end. image here: https://imgur.com/a/exB0Kyv

thanks so much!!

A lot of times you see 부담스럽다 translated to “awkward” in English, but I personally feel like it’s got a different nuance than 어색하다, so I’ve never really liked thinking of it that way. Considering it also means “cumbersome”, I thought maybe a good way to translate it would be “getting on nerves”….? I’m interested to see what other people’s opinions are~