This might be kind of a cop out answer, but my recommendation would be to just find any book that grabs your interest and dive in! There’s a Facebook group that gives good summaries of popular novels, 책 끝을 접다. Browse through their posts and see if anything catches your eye, then buy it and start reading! It might be difficult at first, but if you keep at it, it’ll become easier.
Another option, if the thought of a novel is still intimidating, is the 외국인을 위한 한국어 읽기 graded reader series. I believe they have books running the gamut from beginner to advance, so you’re sure to find one that suits your level. Other bonuses of the series: difficult words are glossed at the bottom of each page; they’re available for download directly onto your phone or tablet via the Google Play Store! They are definitely much easier to read than actual novels, but they might help ease you into more lengthy Korean readings.
I hope this was somewhat helpful!
EDIT: Oh, and, of course, you could always find the Korean version of a book you’ve already read and enjoyed! Your familiarity with the story could be an asset in making sense of the Korean.
This blog hasn’t been very active for the past year because I’ve been so busy with my last year of uni I have barely studied Korean at all. But I just graduated, and now I’m so excited to get back to studying Korean!
I was planning to take the next TOPIK exam but couldn’t get a place, I didn’t realise there was a deadline or limited places! I might still use some TOPIK materials to study now though and take it next time.
Please check out my tags and new resources page to find things you need on my blog. Especially if you’re a beginner, it will show you how to find older posts. I’ve been self-studying for 4 years now and have collected so many great resources for learning Korean!
I also moved to Korea this year, so if you’re interested in what I’m doing here check out my instagram: nabi.day. Actually living in Korea has been so, so good for my Korean skills even though I haven’t had time to study, but I’m ready to take them to the next level!
If you’re struggling with 쓰기, I recommend this book! It teaches not just all the basic stuff you need to know but also how to express things in formal writing. Gives examples of the most common mistakes in writing. It has a lot exercises. LIKE A LOT. A lot to make sure it sticks in your mind and never forget it ever again. Provides answers at the back.
In case you’re looking for korean book recommendations, this facebook page introduces books in a really nice and compact format. If you’re looking for good korean book to read you should definitely check this page out!
Don’t know if this is pretty known throughout the online Korean learning community but SAY (which stands for Seniors and Youth) is a new Korean learning platform made for Korean learners wanting to practice speaking Korean. It first started out as a volunteer project for seniors living in Seoul–they tutored students in Princeton and Yale. The project became a success, and SAY was born, now as a company providing students all over the world with opportunities to have 1:1 conversations and learn from a 선생님 willing to share their experiences and knowledge not just about the language and the culture but also about life.
I had the chance to check out the free 30-minute trial earlier today. Prior to that, I emailed say asking if they could place me in a particular level, since I honestly have no idea which level to pick. For the curious: SAY currently offers 5 levels. Levels 1 and 2 are beginner levels (Level 1 is currently unavailable), levels 3 and 4 and intermediate, and level 5 is advanced. As someone who’s never attended an actual class (except for that one time I participated in a Nooma class when it was just starting out) and has never taken the TOPIK, all I know about my level is that I’m somewhere in the intermediate range. I just don’t exactly know where I stand. This is where SAY is still trying to figure out the little kinks, since a placement test was still unavailable and the person who responded to my inquiry just suggested I pick level 3, which is the basic intermediate level.
In each level, there is a list of topics you can choose to talk about. The list for level 3 looks like this:
I don’t think it’s necessary to go from lesson 1 downwards since I had no problems picking lesson 3 (It’s only natural I pick it, being a drama fan). You can pick the time and date you want based on availability, and then wait for the SAY team to pair you up with a SAY tutor, based on your answers to the profile questions. I mentioned wanting to learn more about Korean history since I’m fascinated with it, and they paired me up with my teacher, 이계원 선생님 (tutor profiles can be found here).
Free Korean textbooks from the Korean Education Center in Washington, D.C. These seem geared towards children/young heritage speakers, but perhaps someone who is just starting out could find these helpful. Along with grammar books, there’s one about Korean culture and one about fairy tales for those looking for reading practice.
For anyone who’s looking for real Korean speaking practice, here’s a plug for this cool startup thing my fellow Fulbright alum is doing! Learn and practice Korean with seniors of Korea! With Seniors and Youth (SAY), he’s trying to bridge the gap between generations by empowering elderly Koreans, esp. relevant as Korea has the fastest aging population in the world.
From their Facebook page, “As these seniors navigate through their second acts of lives, many are searching for meaningful activities and relationships. That’s where SAY comes in. We provide seniors high-quality employment with unrivaled opportunities to engage with students from all around the world. We believe that our SAY tutors have so much untapped talent and knowledge left to contribute to society. Our company provides them a way to regain their dignity, interact with the youth, and become cultural ambassadors of Korea.”
Hi! My other sources with actual lessons were howtostudykorean which has very informative grammar explanations and Clare You and Eunsu Cho’s Intermediate korean which has reading and listening passages (you can go on to use this once you’ve passed beginner level on TTMIK or HTSK.) If you check /tagged/resources on my you’ll be able to find pretty much every source I’ve ever used. Or if you’d like textbooks instead of online sites, @hannah-dulset has a great masterpost here. 🙂
Hi everyone! I wanted to ask you all for opinions about some Korean textbooks, mainly focusing on grammar, since I can’t pick one and wanted to know what are the pros & cons of them. Have you used any? Or just heard that they’re good/bad for some reason? Tell me, please ^_^
Particulary interested in these:
Basic Korean
College Korean
Korean Grammar for International Learners
Korean Grammar in Use
Using Korean
(My answer was too long for the answer box haha)
I have them all actually. (Though only KGIU and KGIL as hard copies.) I wouldn’t say any of them are bad per say, but there are definitely a couple I prefer.
KGIU, Basic Korean and College Korean are like actually studying textbooks, while KGIL and Using Korean are linguistic textbooks; i.e. no exercises, heavy use of linguistic vocabulary, that kind of thing.
KGIU is my favorite of the textbooks, as it covers the most information, and I enjoy the way it’s set up for easy comparison between similar grammar points. (I have an in depth review here)
Basic Korean has nice in depth explanations, teaches hangul (KGIU doesn’t), and has nice exercises, but I don’t feel like it quite covers enough to be a comprehensive “beginner” book. I think you’d need to have both the basic and intermediate book to really cover what is in KGIU or what is tested on in beginner level TOPIK.
College Korean is set up like most classroom books, where each lesson teaches a couple grammar points/notes, you get a list of vocab from the dialogue, and then some exercises. Content wise it falls between the other two, but with probably the shortest explanations (or it makes you refer and flip between lessons, which is annoying with a PDF.) It also teaches several hanja a lesson, which if you have a background in them is fine, but I think is too overwhelming for most beginners.
For the linguistics books, Using Korean is definitely the better all around book of the two. It doesn’t quite have as many points of grammar covered as KGIL, but it also contains a great section on vocabulary that discusses sino vs native, number systems, mimetics and onomatopoeias, as well as similarly used vocab. It also has (it’s first section) dedicated to how Korean is used, including titles/honorifics, satoori, fillers, softening your speech, and how written and spoken Korean differ.
KGIL definitely goes in depth in its explanations of different aspects of Korean grammar, but it is through and through a linguistics textbook, and even if your well read in linguistic terms, it can still be a bit dense of a read in parts. Its well written, but I’d only recommend it if you’re really into linguistics.
This ended up super long but I hope my opinions of them help a bit haha. If you want to look through them all yourself before you throw down any money I have pdfs of them all in my masterlist here, so you can see for yourself too.
Real Korean, beginners listening practice series from Allyfunshow
Sutdy-Korean 