r/BeginnerKorean

한국어에 대한 관심이 높아지면서 유튜브에 한국어 학습 콘텐츠가 많아지는 것을 지켜보았습니다. 그러면서 한국인으로서 한 가지 고민이 생기기 시작했습니다. 어쩌면 우리 한국인들이 우리말을 충분히 명확하게 설명해 주지 못하고 있는 것은 아닐까요?

이 문제는 은/는과 이/가에만 국한되지 않습니다. 한국어의 불규칙 활용을 가르칠 때도 초보자에게 여러 목록을 제시한 뒤, 사실상 “불규칙이니까 외우세요”라고 말하는 경우가 많습니다.

하지만 ‘불규칙’이라는 이름 아래 학습자가 외워야 하는 양은 한국인의 관점에서 보더라도 지나치게 많아 보입니다.

또한 문법적으로 설명해야 할 질문이 한국의 문화·맥락·사회에 관한 포괄적인 설명으로 넘어가는 경우도 있다고 느꼈습니다. 물론 문화와 맥락도 중요합니다. 그러나 그것이 언어 내부에서 실제로 무엇이 어떻게 달라지는지를 설명하는 일을 대신할 수는 없습니다.

한국어 문법이 충분히 명확하게 설명되지 않았다고 느끼는 학습자가 있다면, 저는 그분들이 목소리를 내야 한다고 생각합니다. 그리고 한국어를 가르치고, 설명하고, 세상에 알리는 우리 한국 사회에는 그 목소리를 듣고 더 나은 답을 제시할 책임이 있습니다.

어쩌면 제대로 설명된 적이 없는 내용을 이해하지 못했다는 이유로 학습자의 노력이나 능력을 탓해서는 안 됩니다.

솔직히 한국인인 제가 보더라도 일부 한국어 문법과 어휘에 관한 설명이 너무 불완전하고 학습자에게 별 도움이 되지 않는다는 사실에 놀랐습니다. 저는 학습자를 비판하려는 것이 아니라, 학습자의 편에서 이 문제를 제기하고 있습니다.

실제로 한국어를 배우고 계신 여러분은 어떻게 생각하시나요? 충분히 납득할 만한 설명을 듣지 못한 채 외워야 했던 한국어 문법이나 표현에는 어떤 것들이 있었나요?

I've tried quite a few free Korean learning apps and I didn't find them helpful in anything more than learning how to read and basic words. I'm ready to pay, maybe not monthly but for a lifetime subscription. I was going to buy the subscription on bunpo but 36 gbp is a bit much

Hi, everyone! Could anyone please help me translate the text above in Korean? If there is a more idiomatic expression for this in Korean, please share that as well if you don’t mind. Thanks a ton!

A few friends of mine who are learning Korean keep saying grammar is the hardest part

I’m curious what feels hardest for you — grammar, listening, pronunciation, vocabulary, or staying consistent

Also do you use any apps while studying Korean

Which app would you recommend and what part of it actually helps you

I’m mostly curious what people really keep using

I’m looking for Korean videos/audio for shadowing practice. I don’t want super slow learner Korean, but normal native-speed vlogs are often too fast for me to catch and copy properly.

I’m looking for something in between — natural Korean, medium speed, clear enough that I can hear the pronunciation and copy the speaker’s rhythm, intonation, and accent.

I’m not really looking to study vocabulary or have someone teach me. I mainly want to listen and imitate the way the person actually speaks.

Vlogs, daily-life videos, podcasts, etc. are all fine. Any recommendations?

##By “agglutinative,” I mean that Korean builds meaning by attaching particles and endings to words.

Korean is often considered particularly difficult for English speakers.

But is Korean itself the problem? Or have we placed an agglutinative language—with its particles, endings, and context-sensitive meanings—inside a learning framework designed around very different languages?

Just as left-handed people need left-handed scissors, perhaps Korean needs a learning method designed around how Korean actually works.

What do you think?

This has been a really interesting community so far, and as a 40 year old its been pretty fascinating to see the current generation take to korean language and culture the same way japan did when I was a kid (shameless weeaboo and video game/anime nerd for pretty much ever lol).

Dont know how helpful it would be, but just in case wanted to share some of the bigger lessons I learned since I started learning languages. For reference, I started learning Japanese when I was 19. Its rusty as hell now but at my best I was conversational and could play through Jrpgs in Japanese (last ones were probably I am Setsuna and Persona 5), where I could comfortably do gameplay and got the jist of the story (kanji learning will never end...) Perhaps more relevant, I have now lived in Korea for the better part of 11 years. I work at a Korean company but still have 4 days of korean classes a week, as I still have plenty of learn.

As the title states, I wanted to emphasize the importance of "failure," with the quotes meaning to hopefully redefine what that actually means.

In todays world of social media everything and taking everything influencers say at face value, I cant stress enough how little magic there is to language learning. there is no "fluency" at 60 days, or 6 months, or 1 year. There are geniuses, yes, but for even them, Id say, their ability to speak fluent sentences at you on camera does not indicate any level of cultural knowledge or hell, even speaking ability, as the only real magic present there is editing.

I also wanted to define "fluency" in korean here as being able to sound and speak more or less like a korean, and correctly functioning in social situations and acting right in the "korean" way, just as a baseline. When I majored in Japanese in college I heard so many people say "I speak japanese" when they could barely string a sentence together that wasnt written down. You can have your own definition for fluency of course, just wanted to highlight that these words are used much more subjectively than you might think.

That being said, language learning is nothing but tens of thousands of mistakes back to back to back. your favorite teacher online always gives the image of perfection. The people who show you the "reality" of the process and the downs of it all somehow make it look elegant or romantic. never judge your progress by how much youve learned over X period of time, or how many words you studied/learned, especially compared to however quickly any influencer claims to have done it.

your mistakes will sound ugly, or make no sense, or both, and thats good. Every mistake is a chance to learn it better, and making the mistake means youre not doing whats comfortable. Thus if progress requires "failure," then failure doesnt really exist at all. Mistakes are the only means to progress, and Im positive that anyone you see online made just as many mistakes as you, or are still making them and is just editing them out.

Otherwise, just stay humble in your learning, and if a native korean speaker teaches you anything, that supercedes anything you learn in a textbook.

Finally, ill give a personal example of one of my failures. about 1.5 years (1.5 years!) into living here and actively studying, I moved into an apartment that didnt have trash bins. A sign inside our building said to throw trash away in front of the builidng (건물 앞에). Little dumb me had never lived somewhere where there wasnt trash cans, so as I didnt see one in front of the building, I assumed i understood the sign wrong. the building elevator was also directly in front of the front door, so the next time I got in the elevator with another korean guy, I got the bravery to ask him "건물 앞에 어디예요?" -- "where is in front of the building?" I have never stupified anyone more than this poor man who, with completely dead eyes, just pointed towards the front door.

Long story short, 10 years later, Im on my 6th year in korean gamimg companies translating video games into english. I still have a lot of learn, theres still alot of words I need to learn, I still make plenty of mistakes, i misunderstand crap, and it is still SO HARD to understand groups of people talking all at once. People have learned Korean faster than me, but it doesnt matter. I dont consider myself fluent, but I wont stop until I am. Im not giving up, and neither should you.

저는 서로운 사람이에요
한국어를 배우고 있어요
한국사람처럼 잘 말하고 싶으니까 나에게 어떤 조언을 해 주시겠습니까?

Putting this here because I sort of ramble
TLDR: I would like some easily digestible media that is understandable with basically zero knowledge of Korean.

I am incredibly incredibly new to Korean, just started taking a college class for it today, but I’ve been interested in learning for a while. I know that a really good way of getting familiar with hearing and seeing a language is by consuming its media. However, I’ve run into the issue that if I go too simplistic, I feel like I’m being talked down too, and if I go too complicated (aka basic k-dramas and songs), I know I’m going to get overwhelmed. I was curious if anyone had any recommendations, I’ll take literally anything; a cool children’s comic; children’s shows that aren’t like overstimulating as hell (like many modern western kid shows); short, easily digestible k-dramas; slower songs; absolutely anything. I just want to surround myself with it with some kind of regularity. If you think that I need to just get over myself and work with the slightly frustrating kids shows let me know that too, I just wanted to know if there’s other options. Also also also, I would adore any recommendations on how to develop my writing or if just simple repetition is the best tactic.

That was sort of word vomit sorry

Hey folks, I’ve been offered a fully funded scholarship at one of the decent private universities in Seoul and I’m genuinely grateful for the opportunity. My certificate of admission mentions that the Korean proficiency isn’t required and reason being English taught program. But we’ve got few emails from the co ordinator of the program that the classes will be conducted in Korean and we are required to learn Korean (basic) before arriving at South Korea and we were given trackers and we need to update our Korean reading listening speaking and writing skills daily and lemme tell you - this has started 3 weeks before the program even starts. Just checked a sample lecture on the portal and the lecture was so much in Korean but the slides were bilingual. As someone, whose major was earlier in biology and now shifting to AI, I’ll basically start everything from scratch. So focusing on course and language seems to be tough, I’ve seen a couple of people here who had topik level 6 yet afraid to enroll for a 100% Korean taught program. Now that ive got my visa already and the only the thing left to do is send them my visa so that university could buy my flight tickets but I haven’t done that yet. The program starts first week of September. Am I making a right choice by withdrawing the program? Anyone in similar shoes earlier?

Hey everyone,I want to learn Korean language,and want to give TOPIK next year (aiming for Level 3)but I don't know how to start ..so I want to know where I can learn for free?if anybody can help I would be grateful 🫶🏻

if a native korean compliments my korean and i wanna say "im still only a beginner" how would i say it? papago translated it to "저는 아직 초보자예요". what do you think?

is that even a good reply or is it weird?

안녕하세요!

I was watching a Korean short story just now, and there was this sentence "저는 기다릴 수 없어요". I more or less understand what this sentence means, but I did start to wonder about the meaning of 수 in this sentence. In the dictionary, there are different meanings for it.

My question is, why is 수 in this sentence, and what does it stand for?

감사합니다!

Edit: I got the answer to my question. Thank you, everyone, for answering!

Hello everyone! I was wondering if any of y'all knew of any source online where one could get exercises for grammar? (Vocabulary too, but rn I'm struggling a bit with grammar so prioritising that) I do have the King Sejong app already, but I can't keep doing the same 4 exercises I know them all by heart by now!! ㅜㅜ

Printable sheets are welcome too, I'm so desperate for any kind of homework atp if you have any tips I'd love to hear them </3

Basically I learned that everything is conjugated. Do you learn the base form of the verbs and then all the rules about conjugation separately or how do you do it?