Tag: asks

Be careful of perverts is really good advice though. I learned a lot from HelloTalk, but I also had a rather unfortunate and scary experience. Being careful is important.

Im really sorry to hear that and yeah i want to emphasise to everyone ive recommended language exchange sites to that you should be careful. There are genuinely nice people on these sites with whom you can exchange language and build friendships but in my experience there are also a lot of very shady people (men) so just be aware of that.

Id just say please dont feel obligated to talk to anyone who makes you feel uncomfortable. You dont have to be polite, just block them and there will be plenty of other genuine people that you can meet instead.

I have always wanted to learn korean, and I just wanted to know the best methods and your page will help alot thank you. Also do you think its anything else I should know to help? How long did it take to learn and are you fluent?

I’ve been studying almost 2 and a half years and no I’m not fluent, I’m not certain but probably intermediate/conversational level. If you’re self-studying, like me, I think talking to people in Korean is the most important thing, especially for speaking and listening. 

These are the things I did: learnt basic grammar and understanding of the language through TalktomeinKorean lessons, wrote on Lang-8 to practice and met language-exchange partners to talk to (text and voice) on Skype and Kakaotalk (also met people through Hellotalk and Sharedtalk), every time they used some grammar I didn’t understand I googled it and learnt through the sites talk to me in korean, how to study korean, clare you and eunso cho (berkley), korean grammar dictionary, korean wiki project, and more. practised reading and listening.

The best advice I can give you is try to learn a balance of everything, be careful of perverts, and don’t. be. afraid. of. speaking! Everyone you talk to will know how hard it is learning a language and it is absolutely okay to make mistakes, the important thing is that your meaning can be understood. Also, have fun with it! 

Can you give a good overview on Cafetalk I’m looking at courses with my friend and we both already know Hangul and started on our grammar and vocab but did you like it?

Hi I personally like Cafetalk a lot more than Italki because it’s easier to use and feels more professional. If you want to find out about it or get recs you can have a free ‘counselling’ session which was really helpful for me. 

If you’re just getting started and you like textbook study this teacher would probably be helpful. You can take her ‘counselling’ session to start with as well and she’ll assess your level and recommend which level lessons you should take. Her Korean Conversation lessons will lead you through a text book and she structures it as a lesson for the vocab, a lesson for the grammar etc. so it’s helpful if you intend to take all the sessions not just as a one off. 

If you’re self studying or at a higher level this teachers lessons for speaking, listening and reading are absolutely my favourite because she is really friendly and nice and she uses excellent materials which seem like she’s put a lot of effort into, as well as personalised follow up after the lesson.

I did have another tutor who wasn’t very good though, you gotta remember the teachers on these sites aren’t always professional or very good (although lots are!) so you may have to try people out and be sure to read the reviews etc. 

hii do you know any good apps on ios for learning korean?? thanks!

Hi, sorry I can’t help but I’ve really never used any apps for Korean apart from HelloTalk which is really good for language exchange. I know there are a lot that teach situational phrases which are probably really helpful if you’re about to go to Korea and I’ve also seen the Talk to me in Korean app which I haven’t used but I’ve personally learnt the most through their content so I will always recommend that. 🙂 Maybe other people can add to this if they have recommendations. 

I thought “bam” was night?

Yeah, 밤 (bam) = night. 야 (夜) is hanja (Chinese characters which are used in Korean) meaning night and is used in some Korean words as you can see. There are lots of cases where Korean uses both a native-Korean word and a word taken from Chinese (sino-Korean) so don’t be surprised to see different words for things for which there is only one word in English! i.e.
해 = Sun

(native-Korean)

태양 (太陽) = Sun (sino-Korean)
날 = Day (native-Korean)

일 (日) = Day (sino-Korean)

Learn about hanja: How to Study Korean, Korean Wiki Project