Korean is a fascinating language with a unique writing system. It's also a language isolate, which means it has no other languages related to it, making it pretty special linguistically speaking.
The Korean language is spoken natively by over 80 million people mostly in North Korea and South Korea. There are also Koreans around the world who speak the language, including some Korean New Zealanders, also known as Korean Kiwis, Kokis, or Kowis.
Whether you're one of them or would just like to learn Korean to travel or speak to people, here are all the different ways you can go about learning the language.
Traditional Ways to Learn Korean
Let's start with the classic ways to learn Korean or any language. The good thing about a lot of these approaches is that we know how they work and how successful they can be.
Most native Korean speakers will learn their language through a combination of immersion (more on that later) and the classes they'll have as part of their compulsory education.
Here we have some of the traditional ways that you can learn a foreign language.
Textbooks
Whether you're attending Korean classes, working with a private Korean tutor, or teaching yourself the language, textbooks are a fairly simple and effective resource.
There are plenty of books on the Korean language and some even include entire courses that you can work through.
In many cases, it'll pay to invest in textbooks and workbooks. Workbooks will include activities for you to do so you can test your understanding of the topics you cover in the textbook.
A lot of comprehensive textbooks will also include multimedia like listening exercises on a CD or DVD or nowadays, online materials that you can use to complement the course and lessons in the textbook.
While we wouldn't recommend textbooks as the only resource you use, they can certainly be used to complement classes or other learning approaches and since Korean is considered a somewhat difficult language, you need to do as much as you can.
Korean Classes
The most obvious way to learn Korean is by taking Korean classes. There are lots of different ways to do this and some children may learn Korean in classes at school.
Adults can also attend classes to learn the language and there are many learning centres and language schools around New Zealand for those wanting to learn the language.
There isn't too much to say about classes that you won't probably already know. You'll learn the language alongside other students using a range of different approaches chosen by your teacher.
For a lot of different skills, group classes can be a disadvantage, but in certain ways, group learning for languages can be an advantage.
For shy students, there are opportunities to practise the language with other learners at their level. It can be sometimes daunting practising your new language with a teacher or tutor, who'll be much better at it than you.
With peer learning, this issue is reduced. However, that isn't to say that you can't learn far more quickly and effectively in one-on-one lessons with a private Korean tutor.
Private Korean Tutoring
As a tutoring website, we couldn't talk about ways to learn Korean without mentioning private tutoring. For us, tutoring offers the most cost-effective way to learn any skill or subject, including Korean.
Tutoring isn't just one-on-one lessons with a tutor, but these are usually the best way to learn. After all, you'll be working directly with your tutor and all their focus will be on you.
They can teach you exactly what you want to know in Korean and adapt the overall course to match your learning goals.
For example, if you're learning Korean for work, you can study business vocabulary, learn to speak formally using Korean honorifics, etc. Students learning Korean to travel to South Korea probably won't need to learn this side of the language right away and would be better off learning how to ask for directions, order in a restaurant, etc.
This isn't to say that private Korean tutoring has to be one-on-one, though. You can also find group tutors, which allows beginners to enjoy the benefits of peer learning while also paying less for their tutoring, which tends to be cheaper when several students are paying for the tutor's time and experience.
With smaller groups, the lessons can't be fully adapted to the individual student, but you can learn Korean with friends and family or just other students.
On the Superpof site, you can search for face-to-face, online, or group tutoring in Korean across New Zealand and around the world.
A lot of the tutors offer their first lesson for free so try a few out before choosing the right one.
Learning Korean Online
We've covered the traditional ways to learn a language and even alluded to one of the ways you can learn online: online tutoring. These newer approaches wouldn't be possible before the digital age and while some of the approaches aren't as tried and tested as the classical approaches, there are still lots of effective ways to learn a language using modern technology.
Here are just some of our favourite ways to learn Korean online or using technology.
Language Apps
Anyone with a smartphone or tablet can download apps to help them learn a language. Popular language learning apps include Duolingo, Drops, TenguGo Hangul, Mango Languages, LingoDeer, etc.
There are plenty of apps and some provide full courses on learning Korean while others offer special lessons or training on things like grammar, learning the Korean alphabet, etc.
If you're driven and resourceful, you could potentially learn a good amount of Korean using language apps, but we'd recommend making them just one of several resources you use to learn Korean.
Online Language Platforms
With how far language learning apps have come along, the line between language learning apps and online language platforms is becoming blurrier.
Online language platforms could include sites like Memrise and Rosetta Stone, which often teach languages more like a course whilst apps tend to gameify the language learning process.
Again, language learning platforms aren't necessarily the only resource you can use and their effectiveness is largely dependent on how committed the learner is and the other resources they use to complement these approaches.
Online Courses
Again, between language learning apps, online language platforms, and online courses, there's a lot of overlap in terms of the resources and teaching approaches used.
For online courses, we're talking about traditional language lessons that are delivered by teachers but online instead of in a classroom.
Thanks to massive open online courses (MOOCs), you can find courses on platforms like Coursera, edX, etc. Some of these courses are delivered by reputable universities from around the world while other platforms allow anyone to pre-record and put together a course.
Online Language Exchanges
You can also use the internet to find a language exchange partner. For language exchanges, you work together with somebody who speaks Korean and wants to learn another language (most likely English if you're reading this).
Through online calls, you can help one another practise your target languages. It's quite common to spend half the time working on and in one language before switching to the other halfway through the call.
This means that online language exchanges are usually free as both participants are getting help with their target language.
Other Ways to Learn Korean
Of all the approaches we've mentioned so far, only a few of them could be used in isolation. Since Korean is a tricky language to learn and will take at least a couple of years of study to achieve conversational fluency, it's a good idea to use as many different approaches as you can.
Here are just a few other ways you could learn Korean.
Language Meetups
Just like a language exchange online, a language meetup is an event that takes place in larger cities (those with larger international communities) where different language learners can meet up and help one another to practise their speaking in their target languages.
Flashcards
Flashcards are a great way to practise important Korean vocabulary, the Korean alphabet, and any other aspect of the Korean language that you need to memorise.
You can buy flashcards, but it's often more effective to make your own as you can tailor them to what you want to learn and have the added benefit of learning while you make them.
Immersion
The way we all learn our first language through immersion. The best way to get better at any language is by living your life in that language.
Moving to South Korea would certainly help you to learn the language as you'd have to use it every day.
Even if you can't move to South Korea, you can also attempt to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible by watching Korean TV shows, listening to Korean music, or reading Korean books.
Once you reach a certain level, you can also do things like change your phone into Korean!
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