Thinking about studying Korean but can’t go to formal classes? Thankfully with the right strategies and resources, learning Korean by yourself is possible. In this guide, we walk you through practical steps, tips, and tools to help you successfully learn Korean by yourself.
Is It Possible to Learn Korean by Yourself?
Yes, it’s entirely possible to self-study Korean and make significant progress fast. Many Korean learners around the world have been able to learn Korean by themselves.
The global popularity of Korean cultural institutes like K-Pop and K-Dramas now means that there around loads of resources out there to learn from (significantly more than ten or twenty years ago!).
Why Learn Korean on Your Own?
Learning Korean independently offers several benefits:
- Flexibility: Study at your own pace and on your own schedule.
- Cost-Effective: Avoid the expense of formal classes and textbooks.
- Customization: Tailor your learning experience to your personal interests and goals.
How Can I Learn Korean Through Self-Study Fast?
In order to learn Korean fast, you’ll need to choose the right resources, stay focused and motivated (or disciplined), set clear goals, and organize your study plan. Follow these steps to set yourself up for success.
1. Set Clear Goals
Studying any language, especially Korean, which is one of the hardest languages for English natives to learn, takes years of consistent work.
You can set yourself up for success by starting off by setting clear and achievable goals. Having specific objectives will help you stay focused and motivated.
Of course, it’s completely understandable if you’re aiming for fluency in Korean, or to be able to speak comfortably in the language for half an hour with a native speaker. These types of visionary goals are incredibly motivating, but when you’re studying it can be really easy to lose sight of these big overarching goals.
It’s a good idea to set smaller goals to help you achieve your big goal.
For instance, if you’re just starting out and don’t know Hangeul (한글) yet, you could set the following goal:
“I will learn all the letters in the Korean alphabet by the end of the week.”
You could create a study plan with all these smaller goals in them with deadlines, or plan each week in advance so you know what to focus on next.
2. Learn Hangeul
If the previous section’s goal example wasn’t a big enough hint, learning Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, should always be the first step when you’re starting to study Korean.
Whilst many resources include romanization (i.e. the sounds of the language spelled out in Latin letters), studying the pronunciation of Korean characters and being able to read them without romanization is infinitely better as it’s more accurate than trying to decipher romanization (which tends to be confusing).
Plus, being able to read a completely different script is so gratifying.
Thankfully, Hangeul is really easy to learn. In fact, it was made to be picked up in a few hours or a couple of days. I’d highly recommend it.
3. Get A Decent Korean Textbook
Whilst you can get by with only free resources, a Korean textbook will help your study sessions remain structured. When you’re just learning the language, knowing what to study first after learning Hangeul can be a little overwhelming, but a textbook helps alleviate this stress.
I’d recommend an accessible textbook with plenty of quizzes and tests. Try to find one that focuses on teaching you practical words and phrases so you can get speaking or writing as soon as possible.
Korean Textbook Recommendations for Beginners
Korean Made Easy
I would highly recommend Korean Made Easy for Beginners (preferably in paperback form if possible), which is the first of a set of Korean textbooks. They’re highly accessible, explain everything clearly, break things up with lots of images and examples, and don’t overcomplicate things.
The textbook is relatively old, but all of the content in the first textbook is useful and not outdated in the slightest.
Ewha Korean Textbooks
The Ewha Korean textbooks are also a good option, but there are quite a few in the series so this can get expensive. For each of the main textbooks in the series, you can buy a workbook and study guide.
The Ewha series were originally created to be used in a classroom setting, and sometimes you can tell. For example, instructions in the workbook are completely in Korean.
Whilst there are new versions of these textbooks which removes these issues (released at the end of 2023), they are difficult to get your hands on in countries outside of South Korea.
Even without the new version, the original textbooks are still an excellent resource.
4. Learn And Apply Basic Korean Grammar
Even if you don’t want to spend money on a Korean textbook, you can still learn a lot online. It’s a good idea to learn basic grammar before you dive into vocabulary so you can start forming sentences as soon as possible.
The structure for Korean sentences is a lot different compared to the structure in English, so start there. Learn how to conjugate verbs too and this should be enough to start learning vocabulary and forming your own sentences.
Complete grammar exercises online or in workbooks to reinforce your learning.
5. Start Learning Vocabulary
If you’re using a Korean textbook, you’ll learn new words naturally, but for those who aren’t, make sure to invest some time into learning vocabulary words.
6. Start Forming Your Own Sentences
Reinforcing what you’ve learned and putting everything into practice is the most important thing in any language learning journey. Nowhere is the saying “if you don’t use it, you lose it” more relevant than learning a language. If you don’t put into practice what you’re learning, you will struggle to speak or write in the language. Take a break from learning and the progress you’ve made can decay fast.
Combat this by applying what you’ve learned by forming your own sentences or even keeping a journal.
Get Corrections From Native Speakers
The subreddit /r/WriteStreakKorean is a fantastic way of staying motivated, and it’s incredibly gratifying to keep building on your streak. Essentially, you have to write in Korean each day to build up a streak. You don’t even have to write a lot; a sentence is enough.
What’s even better is that native Koreans check the sentences you post and give you feedback and corrections. This is an incredible resource even when you’re early in your Korean language learning journey as it’ll help ensure that any mistakes you make won’t be reinforced but will instead be caught early.
If you’re not a reddit user, HiNative is also a great option as you can ask questions and get corrections by native speakers.
Mix Speaking With Writing
Writing down your sentences is great, but speaking is a completely separate skill so you’ll need to start forming sentences out loud. You can do this by yourself in the safety of your own room or with native speakers – either way, every little bit helps.
If you decide to start by speaking to yourself in Korean, you might want to record yourself speaking and play it back to hear what you sound like as this will help you pick up on any mistakes more easily. It’s also a great idea to keep these recordings and play back your old recordings once in a while as you’ll undoubtedly improve over the coming weeks and years. Hearing these improvements is a great motivational tool.
There are some brilliant apps that allow you to connect with native Koreans. This includes HelloTalk, where you can hop on a call with someone in Korea in a matter of moments. Alternatively, you can send people voice notes to practice your Korean.
Another option is italki, though this isn’t free. If you’re willing to invest some money into your new hobby, this, along with a solid textbook, is the thing I’d recommend buying most. Lessons don’t even have to be too expensive; you can get a lesson with a community teacher for a few USD. A class with a professional teacher (who will usually provide more structure to the lesson) will cost upwards of $10 USD.
Alternatively, you can often find local Korean language group meetups in your area, though this will depend on where you live. These are generally very supportive environments and it can help you make some Korean friends along the way!
7. Immerse Yourself In Korean
One of the best things you can do on your language learning journey is to immerse yourself in Korean. K-Pop, K-Dramas, variety shows, Instagram and TikTok reels and posts from Korean celebrities, YouTube videos, children’s nursery rhymes, children’s story books, listening to Korean radio… there’s an incredible array of content out there for you to explore, most of which is free.
Immersion allows you to get a feel for the language in the most natural way possible. Communication isn’t just about finding the right words, it’s also about expressing yourself through body language, tone and gestures. Watching and listening to content in Korean will help you pick up on this hidden level of communication.
Immerse yourself enough and you’ll probably be able to tell when a sentence you’ve formed in Korean doesn’t sound quite right.
Plus, it’s fun and doesn’t feel like studying at all! When you do it, chances are your subconscious mind is picking up on a lot of language patterns and making connections in your brain that you might not even be aware of.
So do you have to take the next flight to Korea and live there for a year to do this? Absolutely not. In fact, some people travel to the country and end up living in a bubble of English speakers, which is the furthest thing from language learning immersion possible.
Immersion is really a mindset, and you can definitely do this wherever you are in the world. Think about all the content we consume each day in our native tongue, and the hours we spend immersed in that language. Now think about if you shifted even 25% of that time to consuming Korean content instead.
Chances are that even 25% is more than enough time for you to start feeling the benefits of immersion.
Tips For Korean Immersion
Pick topics you’re interested in
Think about the content you consume in your native language. Are you interested in beauty? Animals? Day-in-the-life content? Movies? Game shows? Sports? Gaming?
Use a Korean dictionary to translate a topic word you enjoy watching (e.g. 고양이; goyangi, or cat in Korean) into Korean and copy and paste that word into YouTube, Instagram or any of the platforms you usually frequent.
Then start watching the results until you find a channel or creator that you enjoy watching. Follow them for more content, rinse, and repeat!
Even better, the more you watch in Korean, the more the almighty algorithms will serve you Korean content.
Choose content that’s just slightly above your level as a learner
There’s nothing more disheartening than watching something in your target language and finding that you don’t understand a single word of it or that they’re speaking too fast for you to pick up on any words.
As a result, it’s a good idea to immerse yourself with content that is just slightly above your level. Things like children’s Korean picture books and beginner Korean dialogues are a great place to start without getting too overwhelmed.
Learn words for objects around you
There are some activities we do each day and more often than not we think about these activities in our native language.
Change this up by learning words of objects around you (e.g. notebook, plate, desk, etc.) or activities you perform each day (e.g. brushing your teeth, having a shower, making your bed, washing dishes, studying Korean, etc.) so you can start thinking about these objects and activities in Korean instead.
You could even label household objects with their equivalent Korean noun to help you remember each one.
8. Learn About The Korean Culture
Korea has a rich history (and an interesting modern era too!) full of intriguing rabbit holes you can go down. Think of the topics you’re interested in when it comes to art and culture. Like learning about modern art? Traditional clothes? History and war? Food? Architecture? Musical instruments? Political scandals? Whatever you think up, chances are Korea has it in waves and you can learn about the Korean equivalent.
Learning about different aspects of Korean culture will help you gain an appreciation and deeper understanding for Korean, which in turn can help motivate you to keep learning.
Reading up on key events in Korean history can even help with learning Korean. Did you know, for instance, that Korea was occupied in the past by China, so a lot of Korean words have Chinese roots (known as 한자; Hanja)? Learning some of these root words can even help you learn Korean!
9. Keep Building On What You’ve Learned
So you’ve learned the basics of grammar, some vocab, you’ve started speaking and writing Korean, and you’re consuming content in Korean. Perhaps you’re following a textbook too.
Chances are you’ve stumbled across some words you don’t know, or a sentence structure you don’t recognize. Whenever you do, look it up then try to incorporate it into your speaking and writing.
And, if you’re into flashcards, build you own deck (try not to use any pre-made flashcard decks as you’re less likely to remember these words without an emotional connection to them) and add any new words you come across here. Make sure you review the cards each day if possible.
Anki is a good resource for this, as is Quizlet. Paper-based flashcards work well too if you’re so inclined!
Learning a language is like building a Lego set: each piece you place might not feel like much progress, especially in a Lego set with hundreds or thousands of pieces, but each piece you place is a step forward to achieving your goal.
The more you learn, the more you can increase the level of the content you’re consuming and the complexity of sentences you can form. And this means you’re likely coming across more unknown words and grammar points, which allows you to maintain the cycle until you hit that visionary goal we talked about in the first step.
Make Sure To Focus on What’s Working
With so many resources out there, it’s very easy to go from one resource to another and not really make progress with any of them. As a result, it’s best to focus on the resources that are working until completion. After this, you can start looking for the next resource to level up your language learning even more.
Just make sure you’re putting focus into all four skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking.
Stay Consistent With Your Self-Study Sessions
The key to any skill is to remain consistent, and learning Korean is no different. When you draw up your plan, dedicate specific times each day or each week to study Korean and stick with this.
And if you feel like you’re losing momentum or motivation? Find a Korean drama or movie to enjoy, or learn more about the country’s culture to keep your motivation high. Also look back at old journal entries or writing exercise and see how much you’ve progressed.
You could even tweak your goals so they align more with the activities you enjoy.
And remember to celebrate each goal you manage to achieve, no matter how small it is.
Speak With Other Korean Learners
Whilst learning Korean by yourself can be fairly isolating, it doesn’t mean you’re actually doing this alone. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people learning Korean around the world, and over 75 million native Korean speakers too.
Just because you’ve decided to self-study Korean doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. There are many communities of Korean language learners you can connect with on platforms like reddit, X (Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and more. Share the difficulties of learning the language and your wins and the responses from like-minded people are sure to spur you on.
And connect with Korean natives to have language exchanges, learn more about the Korean culture, and put your knowledge into action. Perhaps even start planning a trip to the country.
Good Luck On This Wonderful Journey
With a little hard work and consistency, you can learn the beautiful Korean language by yourself. Remember: you may be self-studying, but you’re definitely not alone. Happy learning!