Learn Korean on your own

Hangul: a week for the script#

The Korean script, Hangul, was created in the 15th century under King Sejong as an alphabet that would be easy to learn. Letters stand for individual sounds, but they are not written in a line — they are assembled into syllable blocks: ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ make 한. The word 한국어 "Korean language" is three blocks.

There are twenty-four basic letters: fourteen consonants and ten vowels, plus double consonants and combined vowels. The difficulty is not memorising the shapes but the sounds. English speakers struggle with the three-way series of consonants: plain (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ), aspirated (ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ) and tense (ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ). English has only two — the "k" in "kit" is aspirated, the "k" in "skit" is not — so at first the three blur together, and you need to train them with word pairs. Another feature is sound change where syllables meet: the written 합니다 is read roughly as "hamnida".

The stage is done when you can read any unfamiliar word aloud, however slowly, and write simple syllables from dictation.

How a sentence works#

The word order is subject, object, verb: "I bread eat". The verb always comes last, and the whole meaning of the sentence — tense, politeness, question or statement — is packed into its ending.

A particle after each word shows its role, the job English does with word order and prepositions:

• 은/는 — the topic ("as for…"): 저는 "as for me";
• 이/가 — the subject;
• 을/를 — the direct object;
• 에 — direction and time, 에서 — the place where something happens.

The form of the particle depends on whether the word ends in a vowel or a consonant: 저는, but 책은. The difference between topic and subject is one of the longest topics; do not try to close it in a week.

Speech levels#

The verb changes its ending depending on who you are speaking to — something English handles only with word choice. For a self-learner it is sensible to start with the polite informal style in -아요/-어요: 가요 "(I) go", 먹어요 "(I) eat". It fits almost any everyday situation. The formal style in -습니다/-ㅂ니다 is needed for news, announcements and written texts, and the casual 반말 is used between close friends. Learn to recognise all three early; actively use one first.

Vocabulary: Chinese roots and English loanwords#

A large part of the vocabulary is of Chinese origin, so roots repeat: 학 appears in 학교 "school", 학생 "student", 대학 "university". Notice such roots — your vocabulary grows faster. There are also many English loanwords reshaped to fit Korean phonetics, which are a gift once you learn to hear them: 컴퓨터 "computer", 커피 "coffee".

Typical self-learner mistakes#

• Learning Korean through romanisation. It distorts the sounds and gets in the way of reading; Hangul is learned so quickly that there is no reason to postpone it.
• Carrying over English word order: "I eat bread" becomes "I bread eat", and the particles cannot be dropped where the word's role would get lost without them.
• Learning only from songs and dramas. They are great for listening and motivation, but full of casual speech that is out of place with strangers.

Notes and review#

Write verbs in their dictionary form in -다 and right next to it in the -아요/-어요 form, because that is where the irregularities hide. A separate section for particles with examples from what you read. For listening, short dialogues with a transcript work well: listen, write it down in Hangul by ear, compare. New words go into a spaced repetition deck; how to build the cards is in how to memorize vocabulary.

Benchmarks and checking yourself#

The TOPIK exam is split into TOPIK I (levels 1–2) and TOPIK II (levels 3–6). Its past papers are good for self-testing even if you never plan to sit the exam. Korean is in the hardest category for English speakers in the US Foreign Service Institute ranking; with daily study many people reach a level good enough for TOPIK I in six months to a year, but the timing depends heavily on how much you listen.

Step-by-step plan

1. Week 1 — HangulLetters, syllable blocks, the three consonant series; reading unfamiliar words aloud.
2. Weeks 2–6 — the sentence and particlesSOV order, the topic, subject, object and place particles; the polite style in -아요/-어요.
3. Months 2–4 — tenses and irregular verbsPast and future, negation, irregular stems; recognising the formal style.
4. Months 5–6 — listening and a TOPIK I sampleDialogues with transcripts, dictation in Hangul, a TOPIK I past paper.

Check yourself

Sources

• TOPIKOfficial exam site: levels and past papers
  free
• Talk To Me In KoreanGrammar lessons in English by level; some materials are paid
  free
• Naver DictionaryKorean–English dictionary with examples and pronunciation
  free

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