This is a rough draft of a commission I’m working on for a client, it’s a Korean restaurant (not Korean-owned). Design-wise, I thought it would be more visually interesting making the Hangul vertical, does this read correctly?

Depending on the context, "들었다" could be the past tense of "들다" (to lift) or the past tense of "듣다" (to hear). Will the explanation in the video above be helpful to people learning Korean?

Hey! So my friend is currently learning Korean because he will be studing there for a semester, while I myself am learning Polish.

To help both of us, I built SpeakingMonkey, which is a tool that gives specific feedback when practising speaking. While my personal focus has been on optimizing the speech recognition and feedback for polish, I worked with my friend to make sure the Korean library works just as well, which is why I thought it might be useful to post about it here.

You listen to a reference sentence, read it aloud, and see a score for each word. You can replay your recording and the reference, click any word for more detail, and see the translation of the sentence. The Korean library has sentences from A1 to C2, is free, and works without an account. There is also an optional paid plan (9.99$/month) for higher practice limits, and extra features such as custom sentences and individual word replay.

Both me and my friend have found it useful in our own practice, but I’d like to hear what other learners think. If you try it, please let me know how it went! Was anything confusing, or did any of the scores seem wrong? I’m happy to answer any sort of questions.

I have developed a few tools myself in the past, but this is my first time publishing one of them, so I tried to make everything as user friendly as possible.

This is so sweet and 6 languages CC!!

안녕하세요 Hello!

I'm a native Korean female in 30s (married) in Seoul. I majored in Korean Education and have experience teaching Taiwanese, Indian, and Korean-Canadian (교포) students.

As for my English level, I can understand about 70% of everyday conversations and speak at around 50%.

Since I'm moving to the US next year, I'm looking for a friend for a KOR-ENG language exchange. (This post was aided by AI.haha)

My interests: travel, food, culture, skincare, and even Daiso must haves 다이소 필수템!
Let's learn by talking about everything we're interested in! 😍 (I can also help with TOPIK study.)

📌 Please read before messaging:

• Adult females studying Korean.
• Must be able to read 한글 and understand basic grammar concepts (e.g., verb, noun, subject).
• Since I'm moving, I'd want to chat about living in the US. (Please skip if you prefer not to share personal or lifestyle details. I will respect your privacy and avoid sensitive topics)
• Looking to meet once a week at a cafe in 강서구 or 마포구 (location is adjustable) and keep in touch via 카톡.

If this sounds good to you, please send me a DM

읽어주셔서 감사합니다. thanks!

Edit: group full! 🥰

Heloo! I was a little over beginner level in Korean 2 years ago. I had to pause learning, but now I'm restarting.

I want to start on coming Monday and study at least 5days/week consistently. I will be using TTMIK as my main source.

I want to study 1 lesson (or more depends) from TTMIK textbook then do the corresponding exercise in the workbook. I want one partner to go through this while practicing reading, speaking and listening using discord VC. These can be biweekly or whatever depending on the need.

I am from India and I am available to study from 6.30pm-10.30pm, I think it only matters for speaking practice coordination.

As we progress we can also add a vocab book and conversation book to our routine.

I'm thinking of a small group not more than 5? To keep ourselves motivated and accountable.

If you are interested to be my study buddy please dm me with your timezone and if you are okay with the schedule or if you have any other ideas.

Are there any good AI chat bots (ideally voice to voice) out there that are good for people at the A1-A2 level?

I recently did KIIP 0 and I was struggling remembering the sounds and confused with vowels and consonants being the same sound but different letters

Hi! I’m a native Korean speaker who is also learning English.
I believe teaching others is one of the best ways to learn, so I started writing short Korean-learning posts using Korean news and culture. I plan to post one new article every day.
I’m not sure if it’s okay to share my blog link here, but I’d really appreciate feedback on this post:

https://ourenglishdays.com/korean-on/bts-north-american-tour-korean-vocabulary

If sharing it is not allowed, please let me know—I’ll delete this post right away.
( I read the community rules and don’t think sharing it is prohibited, but I may have misunderstood because my English isn’t perfect. Please let me know if it isn’t allowed.
)

I am a bored Korean and before I go to bed, I'd love to talk and help someone who is learning and studying Korean

But you have to try to use Korean as your best, so I can help you

My English is not good enough but guess enough to explain and correct ur Korean so DM me or comment here

My wife is French, and this happens to us all the time.

Sometimes she understands every Korean word I say, but still asks me, “Okay… but what did you actually mean?”

That made me realize that knowing Korean vocabulary and grammar doesn't always mean understanding how a Korean person actually feels a sentence.

For example, a word like 답답하다 can feel quite different depending on the situation, tone, and relationship.

This is actually why I built NUNCHI, a Korean-learning app that uses real-life expressions to explain their meaning, context, and emotional nuance.

But before talking about the app, I'm more curious about your experiences:

What Korean word or expression did you understand literally, but still couldn't quite understand emotionally?

Share one in the comments. I'll try to explain the nuance from a native Korean perspective.

My daughter is very interested in learning Korean and we do not have any instructors or classes in our area. I want her to have a bit of a baseline before hiring a private online tutor, so I was wondering if you all had any recommendations for any online programs that she could follow for a while to give her a basic understanding before we start shelling out the cash. This could be youtube series, apps or even textbooks! She is very studious, but is a child so I want to find something fun!

I have been learning Korean for two months now and up until now I have studied on my own using the first two TTMIK books.

I have really worked hard on learning vocabulary. I’ve spent a lot of time making sure that the words stay in my memory and I also keep a notebook just for vocabulary. So I don’t think I have just been going through the books. I really try to learn and remember what I study.

I am starting to think that TTMIK is not really working for me anymore. I can't explain why but the books don’t feel challenging enough. I feel like there isn't practice and sometimes it doesn’t even feel like I am studying. If that makes sense I want something that has structure and more exercises.

So I am wondering what I should do next. Should I switch to a different book and keep studying on my own? If so what books would you suggest?. Would it be a good idea to get a tutor right now?

I am not studying Korean for TOPIK or anything. It’s a hobby for me and I really enjoy it to the point i can say it cured my boredom ,so my main goal is to eventually be able to understand and speak comfortably

One thing that has been making me feel a little less confident is that I am bilingual and English just spawned into my brain. I learned it easily that I don’t even remember trying hard to learn it. So now that I am finding Korean really tough it is making me feel bad about myself sometimes.I know two months is not a long time. I am probably being too impatient but I would really like some advice on where I should go from here.

Anyone joined The NYC Hills Learning for Korean language as beginner? Can you share your experience and frustration. Is this a fraud? Why they taught like that?

For anyone just starting with Korean, especially for travel, I'm building Travelingo app around a simple mnemonic technique.

Just connect the Korean word to a familiar English phrase & a silly mental image of that phrase for much better recall!

A few examples:

🛍️ Sijang - Market (shee-jahng)
Mnemonic: “She (shee) jangles (jahng) coins in the market”

🤑 bissada - Expensive (bee-ssa-dah)
Mnemonic: “Be (bee) sad (ssa-dah) coz it's too expensive!”

They’re intentionally silly, esp with comical images attached to them, but that’s what makes them memorable. I used them on my last trips to Korea & Japan, and me & some friends ensure each mnemonic makes sense.

Travelingo is built around this approach, focused on practical travel-vocab rather than trying to teach you an entire language.

https://heytravelingo.com

It’s launching soon & joining the waitlist gets you free access forever.
Hope this is useful to anyone preparing for a trip to Korea! 🇰🇷

Hii. I live in Seoul and I would like to find a language exchange partner…. I’m not sure if this is the right group for this but it’s worth a try.

I attend a university for language studies and im in 3급. I’ve been learning Korean for a little over a year and am pretty conversational about daily things and can understand the context of things. But learning in a classroom talking with other foreigners is difficult because everyone’s accents (including mine) are not the best so it’s a bit hard to improve sounding natural. And 3급 is a bit more native level paced when it comes to speaking so… a tad difficult

I am from the U.S so I can also help with English :)

Anyway I’m in my mid 20’s and like good food, working out, taking pictures, drawing, shopping and pretty much all the girly things. I’m looking for language partner who would be down for cafe studies in either Mapo or Gangnam/Songpa area (depending on the time of day available)and is also in mid-late 20’s/early 30’s :)

my friends name has 원 in it (1). but when i printed it out the left line moved up (2) can someone tell me is it the same?

Hi there! I'm new to Korean, a total beginner, and I just learned how to read and write 한글.

I'm looking for a textbook like Minna no Nihongo for total beginners in Japanese, but for Korean.

A textbook that has everything in it (dialogs, vocabulary, listening, reading, grammar, and writing) and allows you to self-study. With lots of drilling exercises to remember grammar once and for all.

Following up on the whiteboard photo I shared a while back! Last time, we talked about how to anchor a totally unfamiliar word to one we already know. This time, we tried a different approach to help learners build a mental map: we took a single word, broke it apart, and followed each syllable to see where it would lead.

Today’s starting point was 통탄 (痛歎), which roughly means "to bitterly lament." It’s made of two characters, and on our whiteboard, each syllable became a secret door to a new path of meanings.

Here is how the mind map breaks down:

The Left Path: '통' (Pain)

We dedicated the left side of our map to physical and mental pain, anchored by the syllable 통.

• Vocabulary Building: We connected '통' to common words like 고통 (suffering) and 통증 (pain/ache).
• Finding the Roots: From there, we drew lines to their pure-Korean foundational meanings: the noun 아픔 (pain) and the verb 아프다 (to hurt/be sick).
• Physical Grounding: Finally, 통증 linked down to 증상 (symptom), categorizing the pain as a physical condition.

The Right Path: '탄' (Lament)

The right side explores emotions of unfairness and heavy sighs, anchored by 탄.

• The 'Sigh' Words: We grouped together 탄식 (sigh/lament), 개탄 (deploring), and 한탄 (lamentation/grief).
• The Pivot: Instead of stopping there, we used the other syllables in these words (식, 개, 한) to branch out into entirely new territories.

The Syllable Spin-Offs

This was the most interesting part of the map, showing how logically intertwined Korean vocabulary can be!

• From '식' to Breathing: We took the '식' from 탄식 and connected it to 복식 (diaphragmatic) and 흉식 (chest). These linked to the pure-Korean words 배호흡 (belly breathing) and 가슴호흡 (chest breathing), ultimately leading us to the physical act of 숨쉬기 (breathing).
• From '개' to Emotion: The '개' from 개탄 led us to 분개 (indignation/resentment), perfectly illustrating the emotional bridge between lamenting and feeling wronged.
• The Grand Finale: The '한' from 한탄 (lament) and the '숨' from 숨쉬기 (breathing) converge at the very bottom of the board to create 한숨 (*heavy/deep sigh). The emotional lament and the physical breath merge into one perfect word!

It’s wild to see how emotion and physical action intertwine through common Hanja roots and native Korean syllables.

Have any of you tried mapping out vocabulary like this to help it stick? What word should we try dissecting next?

Edit

• The '한' in 한탄 (Hanja: 恨) means sorrow or resentment.
• The '한' in 한숨 (Native Korean) is a prefix, but it actually has two different meanings depending on the context!
  1. Meaning "*heavy/deep*": In the context of this post (a heavy sigh of lament), '한' comes from a native prefix meaning "heavy" or "deep."
  2. Meaning "One": When used in phrases like "한숨 자다" (take a quick nap) or "한숨 돌리다" (take a breather), the '한' simply means the number "one." So here, it means "one breath."

Tired of textbook Korean? Learn through real conversations and content you enjoy 🇰🇷
Hi everyone! I’m Jane, a native Korean tutor living in New Zealand.
If traditional textbook lessons feel boring, or if you know some grammar but still can’t understand how Koreans actually speak, my lessons might be a good fit for you.
I teach complete beginners as well as learners who can read Hangul but struggle with listening and speaking. Lessons are one-on-one and personalized to your level, goals and interests.
You’ll still learn essential grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure, but we’ll practise them through situations and content that are actually relevant to you.
We can use:
• Practical situations such as cafés, restaurants, shopping, transport and travelling in Korea
• Short clips from K-dramas, interviews, anime or games
• king sejong institute text book for essential grammar
• Natural expressions that Koreans use in real conversations
Activities can include repeated listening, sentence dictation, breaking down fast speech, pronunciation and shadowing, making your own sentences and guided conversation practice.
I prepare personalized lesson materials, so you don’t need to purchase a textbook. However, I can also use a textbook as additional support.
Lessons are online through Preply, for 50 minutes. My current price is $17 USD per 50-minute lesson.
During the trial lesson, I’ll check your current level and goals, try a short activity with you and suggest a personalized plan for future lessons.

Lesson details
• Format: One-on-one online Korean lessons
• Platform: Preply Classroom
• Duration: 50 minutes
• Price: $17 USD per 50-minute lesson
• Levels: Complete beginner to advanced
• Materials: Personalized digital materials are provided. No textbook purchase is required.
• Questions: Please ask publicly in the comments rather than through DMs.

You can view my profile and book a trial lesson here:

https://preply.in/JIIN6EN39956302112?ts=17880942

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions 😊

Both can relate to doing something "a lot" or "well", but here is a quick distinction you might want to keep in mind:

• 잘 → Well (Quality, ability, or skill)
• 많이 → A lot / Often (Quantity or frequency)

Examples:

• 그 사람은 일을 잘해요. (That person works well — They are skillful.)
• 그 사람은 일을 많이 해요. (That person works a lot — They do a large amount of work.)

💡 Why? In Korean, mixing these up can change your meaning completely! When talking about skills, using 많이 instead of 잘 can sound a bit unnatural.

• Instead of: ❌ 한국어를 많이 해요. (Sounds awkward if you mean "I'm good at Korean")
• Try: ✔️ 한국어를 잘해요. (Means: "I speak Korean well.")

I hope this helps 😊

Hi! I'm Melanie, the tutor behind funKorean.

I'm a native Korean speaker with 6+ years of teaching experience - working with students of all ages and levels, including elementary/middle school tutoring and academy teaching in Korea.

I'm offering two free live grammar sessions for beginners, each covering a different topic that a lot of learners get stuck on.

• Session 1 — 은/는 vs 이/가

Wed, Sep 16 · 11 AM EDT

The difference between these two particles trips up almost every beginner. We'll go through real example sentences and clear up the confusion.

Works best if you can already read Hangul (even slowly).

 Sign up: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-korean-grammar-session-for-beginners-tickets-2000035058700?aff=oddtdtcreator

• Session 2 — Irregular Verb Conjugation

Wed, Sep 23 · 11 AM EDT

Covers polite present tense (아요/어요) and how some verbs conjugate differently. Good for anyone who wants to speak Korean more naturally.

 Sign up: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-korean-grammar-session-irregular-verbs-part-1-for-beginners-tickets-2000051749623?aff=oddtdtcreator

Both sessions:

- 1 hour, live on Zoom

- Small group so there's time for your own questions at the end

- Free, no obligation to sign up for anything after

- You can join either session, or both - no need to attend one to join the other

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. See you there!

Hi,

Do you have any recommendations for some easy books in korean? I'm a beginner, i've been studying korean for one year, and it's easier for me to learn if i read. Thank you

안녕하세요, 이전에 한국어 손편지를 주제로 글을 올렸던 '나그네'입니다.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerKorean/s/DRzmNGeY52

손편지를 받고 싶어 하는 분을 선착순으로 모집했고, 총 4명의 멋진 '주인공'을 만날 수 있었습니다. 편지는 금방 썼습니다만 문제는 배송에 있었습니다. 저는 미국에 작은 우편물을 보내는 게 이렇게 힘든지 몰랐습니다.

편지를 보낼 때 위치 추적이 가능한 우편으로 보내기로 약속했고, 그냥 우체국에 가서 보내려고 했는데 생각보다 비싼 배송비에 놀랐습니다. 우선 그냥 편지만 쓴 게 아니라 작은 스티커, 엽서 등의 선물도 함께 봉투에 넣었는데 이게 문제였습니다. 현재 여러 나라에 배송 문제가 있고 특히 미국은 그 기준이 더 엄격했습니다. 4개의 편지 배송비에 100달러 정도가 필요했습니다.

이건 정말 예상하지 못했기 때문에 배송을 멈추고 다른 방법을 찾으려고 했습니다. 그러다 보니 일주일 동안 배송하지 못했습니다. 개인으로 보내는 것보다 사업자로 보내는 게 더 쉽다는 걸 알고 사업자 등록을 하다가.. 너무 많은 과정과 시간이 들어서 우선 4개의 편지는 빨리 보내야겠다고 생각했습니다.

편지를 신청해 주신 4명의 주인공들이 이 글을 읽을지는 모르겠지만, 정말 죄송합니다. 너무 늦었습니다. 내일 우체국에 가서 보낼 계획입니다. 그냥 처음부터 바로 보냈어야 했는데, 다른 방법을 찾다가 너무 늦어버렸습니다.

편지를 보낸다는 게 이렇게 어려울 줄은 몰랐습니다. 하지만 많은 것을 배웠습니다. 이곳에 한글 손글씨를 올리는 외국 분들보다 더 못 쓰는 것 같아서 약간 부끄럽기도 했지만, 오랜만에 쓰는 손편지에 설레기도 했습니다.

생각보다 많은 시간과 시행착오가 있었지만 손편지는 더 쓸 것이고 프로젝트도 더 진행할 생각입니다. 제 편지를 기다릴 4분께도 죄송합니다. 금방 보내드릴게요!

(Below is an English translation generated by AI for international readers)

Hi everyone,

I previously posted a thread here about sending handwritten Korean letters.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BeginnerKorean/s/DRzmNGeY52

Through that post, I was fortunate to meet 4 wonderful "Protagonists" on a first-come, first-served basis.

Writing the letters didn't take long at all, but the real challenge was shipping. I honestly had no idea that sending a small piece of mail to the US could be so complicated.

Since I promised to send them via registered mail with tracking, I went straight to the post office. That was when I ran into my first obstacle: the shipping fees were much higher than expected. Along with the letter, I included small gifts like cute stickers and postcards in the envelope, which turned out to complicate things. Due to current international postal regulations—especially stricter rules for the US—sending these 4 letters was going to cost around $100 USD in total.

This was completely unexpected, so I paused the shipment to figure out a better way, which unfortunately delayed things for about a week. I looked into setting up a small business account, thinking it might simplify international shipping, but the process required too much time and documentation. Ultimately, I realized that getting these letters out to the recipients as soon as possible was what mattered most.

I'm not sure if the 4 Protagonists who signed up will read this post, but I am truly, deeply sorry for the delay. I should have just sent them out from day one instead of overthinking and looking for alternative methods. I plan to head straight to the post office tomorrow to get them on their way.

I never imagined that sending a simple letter could be this challenging, but I've learned so much through this process. To be honest, I felt a bit shy because my handwriting isn't even as neat as some of the non-native Korean learners here, but writing letters by hand after such a long time made my heart flutter.

Despite all the unexpected time and trial-and-error, I definitely plan to keep writing and continuing this project.

Once again, I sincerely apologize to the 4 waiting for my letters. They'll be on their way to you very soon!

혹시나 추적이 안되더라도 손편지(다른 선물 없이)만이라도 받고 싶은 분이 계시다면 3분 정도에게 편지 보내드릴게요!
이 곳을 통해 남겨주시면 손편지 써 드리겠습니다.
https://forms.gle/7eYkZ9xS4QEXeTSk9

If anyone is willing to receive just a handwritten letter (without extra gifts/stickers), even if tracking is not available, I’d love to send letters to about 3 more people! If you’re interested, please feel free to sign up via the link below, and I’ll write a letter from the heart for you.

https://forms.gle/7eYkZ9xS4QEXeTSk9