If i have 1 꿀팁 to give to my past learning korean me it will be : VOCABULARY ! Sutdy vocab, eat vocab, breath vocab, sleep vocab, watch vocab. Of course basic grammar point but if you know the word in the sentence, even if you don't know the grammar they used, with the context you can understand what they want to express.
I've been studying Korean very vocabulary-focused by using Anki with 5-20 words per day, amounting to 30-60 minutes per day and it helped a lot. Most flashcards are just comprehension, Korean on front, native language on the back. I also added some sentence cards and also grammar cards. Other than that I admit I've done relatively little, some grammar podcasts and conversation podcasts while jogging and some textbook lessons, but compared to just flashcards I was not consistent with those. I was busy with a PhD thesis and job applications, so I lacked the time to do multiple hours a day of Korean study, but Anki was something I felt I "have" to do. It alone is of course never enough. I was lucky that even though I live in Germany I have a Korean girlfriend, we don't speak Korean a lot but that little (and her occasional corrections) still help. Anyway, I felt like knowing words had really helped so far, example sentences in textbooks and grammar videos seem much easier when you know all used words. Also I started recognizing more and more words when listening to native Korean conversation (e.g. when girlfriend Kakao-talks with her mom). Often I don't know some grammar and word ending, but can guess the gist from recognizing some key words. The one thing that I think I would profit from would do a lot more reading, since I have the vocabulary basis know that I could call beginner books "comprehensible input". Also I got into email exchange with a native Korean which is also useful, since we both write in our native languages and practice comprehension. But in the end that's also a form of vocabulary practice, just more in context then isolated flashcards. My output is a bit lacking, so that should also do more dedicated practice for that. But you can't really practice output if you don't know the words (which you learn through input) and you can't reply if you don't know what the other said, so I feel like input builts a basis on top of which you can practice output, not the other way round.
I came to Korea for 3 months to have a lot of time to experience the culture and tried to feel it from a different perspective than only touristic. It gets lonely if you don't know anyone and you're not coming for educational or work purposes to be in that certain environment. But I believe there's always a way to make friends online, even catch up with some other foreigners. About my personal experience - I got used to some of the culture difference, they were not that hard to follow and it's hard to blend in, so even if you make a mistake they are understanding. Personally, I think 2 weeks are not enough to get to know the culture to be sure you want to move there for a longer time. So I would say a month is a minimum, then all the new things are getting a little less exciting and you can face the reality that some things are only great for some time. But despite all the things, after spending there almost 3 months, my heart was broken to let it go.
안녕하세요! Thank you Billy for this video. As for me I live in Stockholm Sweden. Trying to learn Korean mostly on my own. It´s a hobby but serious about my studies. Taken a few evening classes, watching K-dramas and watch ALL kinds of information on RUclips, Instagram and FB savning clips and what not. But realized that I´m not organized! It´s all over the place not really having a good plan or structure of what and how I´m going to learn. So I strongly recommend everyone whos trying to learn Korean on their own, not studying at a University/school to really set goals and targets of how much time you´re willing and can set off to study everyday, week and so on. It makes your studies so much easier and you can see your progress moving forward if you have a good plan! As you´ve also said it´s important to be consistant, review and repeat. 모두 감사합니다 화이팅! 🙂
I would have started reading much sooner. Whether that's a kid's book, a comic book, or even English books translated into Korean. It wasn't until after I started reading that I noticed an improvement in my Korean. It made everything that I learned through textbooks and videos come together. Some of the books I'd recommended are 마법의 시간 여행, 흔한 남매 (만화), 뚜식이 (만화). Also, the webtoon 감자마을. The books were obviously made for children, but they're entertaining enough and approachable for Korean learners.
What a great follow-up video. 😄 I like to see someone not completely fluent work his way through answering your questions. You can see the wheels turning in his head, much like me trying to make a sentence, and I appreciate your corrections too. The other tips about visiting/living in Korea are great too. I haven’t visited yet but hope to go soon.
If I could go back to the beginning, I would tell myself to better organize my notes. For instance, index the pages in my notebooks! My early notes are ragged from having to flip through the entire notebook to find what I want to study. Similarly, have different notebooks from different learning sources. Reviewing similar topics from different perspectives can give a more rounded understanding. Most importantly, keep going….for motivation, keep the notes and look at how much you have learned!
I originally wanted to move to Korea after finishing my Masters, but then a really good job came up and now I'm settled in a new career and feel like moving to Korea would mean having to give up my job. I'm planning on going for a holiday someday though. I'm at an intermediate level and I agree with Andrew that speaking is by far the most difficult skill to acquire, and proficiency in it usually comes last. After 4 years of learning, whilst I can undertsand most of what is said, my pronunciation is good, and I can write pages and pages in my journal, I am still slow when I speak and have to pause often to think. Anyone who is also experiencing that, don't beat yourself up about it. It's a natural process. With practice, we will continue to improve.
This one is very specific so it may not apply to everyone, but if I go back to when I first started learning Korean and change one thing, it would be getting a Korean tutor much sooner. I started in 2019 with Hangeul, then got into basic grammar, studied my first words and then... I kind of got lost. I didn't really know what to study, I bought various books but none of them could keep my attention for long. Now, I am also an kind of lazy person, that didn't help either. But also, just sitting in front of a book and writing in it just isn't stimulating for me. Plus, I live in an area where there are no Koreans at all, and apps like HelloTalk didn't work for me either. So for the longest time, I would learn a bit of this and a bit of that, then I would often have periods of not doing anything until I felt so bad about it that out of guilt, I forced myself to study again. In April of last year, I decided to step out of my comfort zone, because I am super shy ESPECIALLY if I have to speak a language I'm absolutely NOT confident in, and hired a private tutor on italki. Not only is my tutor super kind and patient, she also understood very well my current level and gave me a direction. Some people may be good at this stuff and dont need it, but for me, it was a big help to have a person who told me where to go next. Now, this can be quite expensive, depending on how frequently you study, how long, the rates of your teacher, etc, so it may not be possible for everyone to hire a private tutor. But for me, personally, I would speak Korean at a much higher level if i took this step much earlier. Maybe not right in the beginning, because stuff like Hangeul and basic grammer are fairly easy to learn via self study in my opinion, but after that, as soon as I noticed that I didn't really knew where to go from where I was, I should've reached out for a helping hand.
I totally understand the visa headaches in South Korea. As a Korean American dual citizen gyopo, maintaining all the paper work is not easy to maintain an f visa status.
If I could tell myself one thing to change about my korean learning it would be this: Do not wait a year and a half before jumping into language exchange with native speakers (in this case through language exchange apps). When I did that my Korean ability skyrocketed, and I think that if I had done that even six months earlier, my Korean would be even better than it is now.
Aside from exposure to K dramas and BTS music, I had no Korean exposure. I actually ordered the BTS Tiny Tan Learn Korean package, but without any English reference points, I was lost. I took a community college online class and it started to come together.. still hanging in, but SO much to still learn. I would say to my early learner self to get proper grasp of basic vocab and sentence structure first. Your online segments help fill in the gaps. Thank you.
if I could go back I would definitely tell myself to be diligent when learning the basics, I was teaching myself Korean with just textbooks and listening to Korean music but learning basic grammar wasn’t the most interesting part to me so I’d jump around to topics that interested me instead 😂😂 as a result I still have to go back and study basic grammar points even though I’ve been studying for some time already and all that could have been avoided!! my second tip is be more consistent, I had a favorite Korean restaurant back then and I’d speak Korean there with the waiters and the owner but I wouldn’t really make the effort to continue speaking practice outside of those moments 😭😭 plus the long stretches of time in between would cause me to forget a lot of the grammar and vocab I learned 😔 now im much more consistent and I can actually tell that my Korean is improving and I can understand more abstract topics :3 I’ve come a loooong way haha
Its ok to make mistakes and stop putting so much pressure on myself(it takes time to learn a language)....im still in the begginer phase and i know these are the things i struggle with but yet i cant seem to take my own advice 😅
Why not... I had the same goal and met one. 🙂But be aware that overcoming the culture differences and language barrier requires a huge portion of patience and ability to do compromises. I also recommend to just enjoy the language and just having fun. Be interested also in history, habbits and so on. Because having only this one goal may lead to dissapointment. It's not easy to find a girl who is willing to seriously date a foreigner and also parents are not everytime willing to let their daughter marry a foreigner. But having certain Korean knowledge might be a big game changer as it was in my case. I keep my fingers crossed. I highly recommend to practice as much as you can. On "InterPals" you may find some friends to chat or call. It really helped me.
If i have 1 꿀팁 to give to my past learning korean me it will be : VOCABULARY ! Sutdy vocab, eat vocab, breath vocab, sleep vocab, watch vocab. Of course basic grammar point but if you know the word in the sentence, even if you don't know the grammar they used, with the context you can understand what they want to express.
I've been studying Korean very vocabulary-focused by using Anki with 5-20 words per day, amounting to 30-60 minutes per day and it helped a lot. Most flashcards are just comprehension, Korean on front, native language on the back. I also added some sentence cards and also grammar cards. Other than that I admit I've done relatively little, some grammar podcasts and conversation podcasts while jogging and some textbook lessons, but compared to just flashcards I was not consistent with those. I was busy with a PhD thesis and job applications, so I lacked the time to do multiple hours a day of Korean study, but Anki was something I felt I "have" to do. It alone is of course never enough. I was lucky that even though I live in Germany I have a Korean girlfriend, we don't speak Korean a lot but that little (and her occasional corrections) still help. Anyway, I felt like knowing words had really helped so far, example sentences in textbooks and grammar videos seem much easier when you know all used words. Also I started recognizing more and more words when listening to native Korean conversation (e.g. when girlfriend Kakao-talks with her mom). Often I don't know some grammar and word ending, but can guess the gist from recognizing some key words.
The one thing that I think I would profit from would do a lot more reading, since I have the vocabulary basis know that I could call beginner books "comprehensible input". Also I got into email exchange with a native Korean which is also useful, since we both write in our native languages and practice comprehension. But in the end that's also a form of vocabulary practice, just more in context then isolated flashcards. My output is a bit lacking, so that should also do more dedicated practice for that. But you can't really practice output if you don't know the words (which you learn through input) and you can't reply if you don't know what the other said, so I feel like input builts a basis on top of which you can practice output, not the other way round.
I came to Korea for 3 months to have a lot of time to experience the culture and tried to feel it from a different perspective than only touristic. It gets lonely if you don't know anyone and you're not coming for educational or work purposes to be in that certain environment. But I believe there's always a way to make friends online, even catch up with some other foreigners.
About my personal experience - I got used to some of the culture difference, they were not that hard to follow and it's hard to blend in, so even if you make a mistake they are understanding. Personally, I think 2 weeks are not enough to get to know the culture to be sure you want to move there for a longer time. So I would say a month is a minimum, then all the new things are getting a little less exciting and you can face the reality that some things are only great for some time. But despite all the things, after spending there almost 3 months, my heart was broken to let it go.
안녕하세요! Thank you Billy for this video. As for me I live in Stockholm Sweden. Trying to learn Korean mostly on my own. It´s a hobby but serious about my studies. Taken a few evening classes, watching K-dramas and watch ALL kinds of information on RUclips, Instagram and FB savning clips and what not. But realized that I´m not organized! It´s all over the place not really having a good plan or structure of what and how I´m going to learn. So I strongly recommend everyone whos trying to learn Korean on their own, not studying at a University/school to really set goals and targets of how much time you´re willing and can set off to study everyday, week and so on. It makes your studies so much easier and you can see your progress moving forward if you have a good plan! As you´ve also said it´s important to be consistant, review and repeat. 모두 감사합니다 화이팅! 🙂
I would have started reading much sooner. Whether that's a kid's book, a comic book, or even English books translated into Korean. It wasn't until after I started reading that I noticed an improvement in my Korean. It made everything that I learned through textbooks and videos come together. Some of the books I'd recommended are 마법의 시간 여행, 흔한 남매 (만화), 뚜식이 (만화). Also, the webtoon 감자마을. The books were obviously made for children, but they're entertaining enough and approachable for Korean learners.
Enjoyed your interview. My students also date here and learn a lot about the culture.
What a great follow-up video. 😄 I like to see someone not completely fluent work his way through answering your questions. You can see the wheels turning in his head, much like me trying to make a sentence, and I appreciate your corrections too. The other tips about visiting/living in Korea are great too. I haven’t visited yet but hope to go soon.
If I could go back to the beginning, I would tell myself to better organize my notes. For instance, index the pages in my notebooks! My early notes are ragged from having to flip through the entire notebook to find what I want to study.
Similarly, have different notebooks from different learning sources. Reviewing similar topics from different perspectives can give a more rounded understanding.
Most importantly, keep going….for motivation, keep the notes and look at how much you have learned!
I originally wanted to move to Korea after finishing my Masters, but then a really good job came up and now I'm settled in a new career and feel like moving to Korea would mean having to give up my job. I'm planning on going for a holiday someday though.
I'm at an intermediate level and I agree with Andrew that speaking is by far the most difficult skill to acquire, and proficiency in it usually comes last. After 4 years of learning, whilst I can undertsand most of what is said, my pronunciation is good, and I can write pages and pages in my journal, I am still slow when I speak and have to pause often to think. Anyone who is also experiencing that, don't beat yourself up about it. It's a natural process. With practice, we will continue to improve.
They are so cute together. 🎉😊
So many great tips... 좋은 팁들이네요 :)
Jeremy you're doing great, keep at it!:)
This one is very specific so it may not apply to everyone, but if I go back to when I first started learning Korean and change one thing, it would be getting a Korean tutor much sooner. I started in 2019 with Hangeul, then got into basic grammar, studied my first words and then... I kind of got lost. I didn't really know what to study, I bought various books but none of them could keep my attention for long. Now, I am also an kind of lazy person, that didn't help either. But also, just sitting in front of a book and writing in it just isn't stimulating for me. Plus, I live in an area where there are no Koreans at all, and apps like HelloTalk didn't work for me either. So for the longest time, I would learn a bit of this and a bit of that, then I would often have periods of not doing anything until I felt so bad about it that out of guilt, I forced myself to study again. In April of last year, I decided to step out of my comfort zone, because I am super shy ESPECIALLY if I have to speak a language I'm absolutely NOT confident in, and hired a private tutor on italki. Not only is my tutor super kind and patient, she also understood very well my current level and gave me a direction. Some people may be good at this stuff and dont need it, but for me, it was a big help to have a person who told me where to go next. Now, this can be quite expensive, depending on how frequently you study, how long, the rates of your teacher, etc, so it may not be possible for everyone to hire a private tutor. But for me, personally, I would speak Korean at a much higher level if i took this step much earlier. Maybe not right in the beginning, because stuff like Hangeul and basic grammer are fairly easy to learn via self study in my opinion, but after that, as soon as I noticed that I didn't really knew where to go from where I was, I should've reached out for a helping hand.
Holy shit Jeremy grew up quick
한국에 외국인 중에 제레미가 많아요. 비리의 아들이랑, Spongemind의 제레미랑 그것 제레미가도 있어요. 신기해요 🤔
I totally understand the visa headaches in South Korea. As a Korean American dual citizen gyopo, maintaining all the paper work is not easy to maintain an f visa status.
Should say f4 visa.
If I could tell myself one thing to change about my korean learning it would be this: Do not wait a year and a half before jumping into language exchange with native speakers (in this case through language exchange apps). When I did that my Korean ability skyrocketed, and I think that if I had done that even six months earlier, my Korean would be even better than it is now.
Thank You
Aside from exposure to K dramas and BTS music, I had no Korean exposure. I actually ordered the BTS Tiny Tan Learn Korean package, but without any English reference points, I was lost. I took a community college online class and it started to come together.. still hanging in, but SO much to still learn. I would say to my early learner self to get proper grasp of basic vocab and sentence structure first. Your online segments help fill in the gaps. Thank you.
if I could go back I would definitely tell myself to be diligent when learning the basics, I was teaching myself Korean with just textbooks and listening to Korean music but learning basic grammar wasn’t the most interesting part to me so I’d jump around to topics that interested me instead 😂😂 as a result I still have to go back and study basic grammar points even though I’ve been studying for some time already and all that could have been avoided!! my second tip is be more consistent, I had a favorite Korean restaurant back then and I’d speak Korean there with the waiters and the owner but I wouldn’t really make the effort to continue speaking practice outside of those moments 😭😭 plus the long stretches of time in between would cause me to forget a lot of the grammar and vocab I learned 😔 now im much more consistent and I can actually tell that my Korean is improving and I can understand more abstract topics :3 I’ve come a loooong way haha
Its ok to make mistakes and stop putting so much pressure on myself(it takes time to learn a language)....im still in the begginer phase and i know these are the things i struggle with but yet i cant seem to take my own advice 😅
Get a korean friend..😊
I tough josh from jolly had gotten a mullet at first
💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
He's got a straw hat!!!!!
Learn to drink soju?
...to study more consistently.
My goal in learning korean is to get a korean girlfriend. 😂
Why not... I had the same goal and met one. 🙂But be aware that overcoming the culture differences and language barrier requires a huge portion of patience and ability to do compromises. I also recommend to just enjoy the language and just having fun. Be interested also in history, habbits and so on. Because having only this one goal may lead to dissapointment. It's not easy to find a girl who is willing to seriously date a foreigner and also parents are not everytime willing to let their daughter marry a foreigner. But having certain Korean knowledge might be a big game changer as it was in my case. I keep my fingers crossed. I highly recommend to practice as much as you can. On "InterPals" you may find some friends to chat or call. It really helped me.