Korean Resources
Learning resources I have collected over the years. Categorized, and with comments or mini-reviews.
I’ve used almost all of these at least a little throughout my studies. Share the link to this content to anyone who may find this useful!
DISCLAIMER: I won’t claim these are definitive, top resources. I may praise some of them but there could be better sites out there. These are simply what I’ve come across and have indeed found useful and worth keeping.
PLEASE REPORT BROKEN LINKS!
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Top Resources
My YouTube Playlist – Mostly random videos I’ve encountered that teach Korean, but put into order from basic to advanced. First, learning Hangul – the alphabet.
- The girl doing the first 3 videos doesn’t explain things too well (“it’s not like k, but like double k” doesn’t explain the concept of tense vowels at all), but she gives a good overview of the pronunciation, one by one.
- The next 3 videos get more involved, cover the complete alphabet, its writing with some example words, and better explains pronunciation, especially if you know some linguistics.
- The “Korean hangeul vowels” video is to show that while Professor Oh said there are 3 diphthongs all pronounced as “wae,” this guy says 1 of them may actually be a bit different.
- The final Hangul video goes over some random basic vocabulary as examples of how letters come together to form words.
Talk to Me in Korean – This is the best Korean podcast I’ve found, and in fact, it may be the best language podcast, challenging my favorite series of JapanesePod101. Although the usage of some plans and script is obvious and necessary, it’s relaxed and has an unscripted feel. Words and grammar structures taught are repeated multiple times, usually at least 3 times in a row, sometimes over 5 times, not including repetition throughout the lesson. There is also a tendency for many of those repetitions – as well as full phrases and sentences – to be said at a natural speed, which is great for your listening practice. PDFs are also included as notes – only notes. You can’t really learn well from them, but there are a few cases were the PDFs say something or clarify something not covered in the audio lesson. Having said this, Talk to Me in Korean is grammar-focused so it can be light on useful vocabulary to plug into your grammar structures and can be slow to teach you phrases for a good conversation (As of the end of 2013, I’m on Level 5, over 100 lessons in, and they have not taught “How are you?” even though they say it to each other a few times). This may be because the English stays relatively heavy; if they would slowly replace the English with Korean in accordance to the lesson completed, I think you would notice and thus teach some of these glaring oversights. In fact, TTMiK is not dialogue-based at all – lessons are usually based on grammar structures but there are are few lessons on vocabulary based on a certain root – usually from a Chinese character. You should never use a single source anyway, so TTMiK may not be the Podcast to cover all your learning needs – but it’s more than good enough to be your primary resource and/or serve as structure for your learning.
My Korean Music playlist on YouTube (heavy K-pop not included)
My East Asian Pop playlist on YouTube (K-pop included)
General Resources
Which are the “7” levels of speaking Korean? – Little breakdown on the different levels of Korean – the most expanded look at least.
Korean Grammar Dictionary – The lists may seem overwhelming, but I guess that’s why it’s called a dictionary. Very simple layout; you click the beginning letter of whatever you’re looking for. There is also a search, though I’m not sure how useable it is.
Hangul and Pronunciation
Beginners Lesson One – Learn Hangul – A decent article to get you to read hangul from scratch, beginning with a quick look at the structure of Hangul, and continuing letter by letter with guides for pronunciation.
Dictionaries
Vocabulary, Verbs, and Conjugations
Structured Lessons / Courses
Random, Unstructured Lessons
MyLanguages.org: Korean Pronouns – I would actually call this a list of ENGLISH pronouns, with their Korean translations. Although the particles are not explained, I think this table works pretty well.Good for a quick reference when you’re just starting out, as well as something to get back to and study after you’ve learned some basic grammar. The site as other articles I haven’t looked at yet, but may be useful.
Yahoo Answers: How to say “I have a question” – As the title says.
italki.com: Different ways to say “anyway” – A Question and Answer on the topic.
MorningLands.com – Direct Quotations – How to directly quote someone. Note that it explains both plainly quoting what someone said vs. quoting someone in the same way that they said it.
Practice Listening, Reading, etc.
http://ithetimes.wordpress.com/ – [DEAD LINK, kept in case of future replacement] – Korean variety shows; including Wonderful Outing, Star King, Adam Couple, Flower Bouquet
133133.com – [Korean site] – Superstar K4 episodes (may have previous seasons too)
global.mnet.com: [Full ver.] `Superstar K4` – Superstar K4 full episodes at MNET TV
EastAsiaStudent: Putting WordPress into Chinese, Japanese, or Korean – If you use WordPress for your personal website, here’s how to change the language.
HangukDrama.com: Documentary on Korean Dialects – A blog post sharing a documentary on various dialects in Korea. Links to a YouTube video. The video is nearly completely subbed in Korean, no English, but may definitely still be a good choice for listening and/or reading practice. NOTE: That site also has two small lists for Korean and Japanese language learning resources, and a few drama and movie recommendations – things much like what I’m doing with this site!
Korean Vitamin – Seems to make at least a few posts of short videos and provides the Korean.
Korean IME (Input) Setup
“MyLinguistics” Blog: Installing MS Korean IME – How to set up Korean typing in Windows Vista / Windows 7.
Flashcard Collections
Un-reviewed Resources and Other links
Software and Other Learning Programs
Daum Dictionary (listed above), has apps for Android and iOS. Highly recommended.
In Other Languages
Japanese
AllAbout.co.jp: [韓国語] All About|ハングルの書き方から日常会話まで – Main Page of Korean info, “From Hangul to everyday conversation.”
AllAbout.co.jp: 韓国語の挨拶・自己紹介 – Some sample sentences of self-introductions. I really like it because it includes a few (even relatively silly, to me) phrases you may want to say, such as I’m studying Korean, I come from __, I am __ years old, I arrived in Seoul yesterday, Korean people are nice, etc.
Ken’s Room – 韓国語, あいさつ表現 – Some very common, set, and/or polite expressions, such as goodnight, I’m going, welcome back, nice to meet you, thank you, you’re welcome, it was fun, and more.