I’ve been having fun studying korean on my own for a while now. It was never boring doing it alone. But now that two of my friends have decided to learn it too, I discovered that it is a whole lot more fun when you've got some good company.

Recently, I got together with my two friends and we studied together for a few hours. Warm drinks keeping us company, and a sort of plan of what we wanted to accomplish that day. It was such a great experience for all of us that I wanted to share it with you!

The benefits are endless

It gives you more motivation, more support. It’s a give and receive kind of learning that will only improve our studying experience.

Since they’re both beginners and I’m on intermediate level, I’ve fallen into a sort of teacher role. Not really, though, since there’s so much I don’t know. But I have a better grasp of what it’s like to be a beginner, so I guide them through the process.

One of them, Mari, spent most of the time with her headphones on finishing her hangul lessons on Eggbun (a great app I talked about last week). The other one, Sara, studied with me. We looked into how to say a few basic things in korean she was curious to learn.

She once gave me a list of things she is most excited to learn how to say, and I picked the ones I think she knows enough at this point to understand.

As I said above, the beauty of this is that by “teaching” her these things, I learn too. I found out I’d forgotten about some things, how to spell words… and when she posed me questions, it put my knowledge to the test.

You can still do it even with friends who live far away

The first people I met who were studying korean like me lived nowhere near me. Of course, we couldn't get together in person and study together, and we never really made an effort to regularly study together. But we should have! It's not impossible, nor does it have to be any less helpful.

I learned that first when I joined a group chat for korean learners created by the Bitesizekorean blog on tumblr. Since then, I learn something new almost every day. There are people from absolute beginner to advanced in this chat, so I can seek help as well as help others. I love that so much!

When I recently asked people on tumblr if they had friends with whom they studied korean, I was again proven right. Whilst a few people were lucky enough to have people near them to study with, many have friends who live far away and still study together - through texts and voice calls, mostly.

For those don't know anyone who is studying korean at all ( and those who want to meet more)

You can apply for the Bitesizekorean study group chat (I think it's still open). Alternatively, you can find people on apps like HelloTalk and Hello Pal! Or tumblr, in general. Go through tags like "hangulblr" or "korean studyblr", and just shoot people a friendly ask!

So, you see, there's no excuse not to do this to improve your learning experience. How great is it that we can laugh and share knowledge with each other? Make new friends! Enjoy our time together while learning something new.

Do it now! Do it frequently! Tell me how it goes! 

P.S.: Yes the title is a Fantastic Beasts reference. Sue me.
Pictures taken by Mari, the greatest photographer. You can find more from her here

So you decided to start learning korean. First of all, let me welcome you to the community! It's not an easy journey, but, at least for me, it's a fun and rewarding one. At this point, you might be a little confused as to where you should start. Both on the internet and outside of it, I've been asked repeatedly about what to do when you start, what to learn first, where to go for lessons... 

Since I've been self-studying korean for a while now, I'll give you guys a helping hand. But keep it in mind that I am only speaking based on my own experience, and recommending resources that I have tried and/or love myself. 

Read it all, try them. Then make your own judgements!

1. Learn how to read hangul

There are endless resources all over the internet that teach you how to read hangul. You might be surprised at how easy it is to get a hold of their alphabet, actually. You won't be reading without a flaw after one day, but it won't take you long to learn it at all.

The app I used to learn (way back when) wasn't free. However, recently I tried Eggbun with a friend and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The way it works is that it talks to you like a friend teaching you through texts. It's pretty cool!

2. Practice reading - drop the romanizations 

After you learn hangul, I recommend you stop looking at romanizations altogether. Even if it takes you ages to read the thing in hangul. It's practice! The romanizations will lead you nowhere, if you really think about it. When you don't know how to pronounce words, just try to find audios of them. Even if you have to go with Google Translate's robot voice. Still better, in my opinion!

Trust your ears.

3. The basics of korean sentence structure

Chances are, Korean is very different from your native language. Whether that's English or not. The way they organize words within sentences is basically something completely different. Cooler, if you ask me, but that's just an opinion. 

So start by understanding the basics of this. And then you can go and start learning how to make your own sentences!

The book Basic Korean: A Grammar and Workbook has a chapter on this (Unit 2), and it always comes with exercises! It's free, too, which I think will please you guys as much as it pleased me. I actually use this book (well, the Intermediate volume) to learn and practice grammar too.

But actually...

Once you've learned how to read and understand the basics of how to make sentences, grammar should come next. And it's a whole new world!

My go to for grammar and a whole lot of other stuff is a website called Talk to me in Korean. They have audio lessons accompanied by PDFs, which I love. I can listen on the go and write my notes on their PDFs, which I print out. They also make videos on youtube regularly, answering your questions, talking about culture, quick pop quizzes, etc. Basically they have everything, they teach well, and they're super super nice! Definitely recommend.

Currently, they have 9 levels of lessons on their website. All of them are free. 

Check out their curriculum and just marvel at how much they have on there to teach you!

It comes as a surprise to no one that we need to have a repertoire of vocabulary to put our grammar knowledge to practice. So, where do you go for this?

I will vouch for Memrise until the end of time. If you don't know what Memrise is yet, let me tell you: it's a website/app that teaches you vocabulary through courses. It gives you points and ranking, medals and achievements. It reminds you when you should go back and revise words! You can find vocab on there from korean books, from kpop lyrics, from everything really. 

I use and abuse of this app. It's great for when you're out, bored or otherwise. You can be learning new words anywhere.

Listen to korean being spoken. Ideally, at least a little bit every day. You can watch korean movies, variety shows, dramas, listen to radio shows. And when you do this, pay attention to what you're hearing. Words and expressions will start to stick in your head. Pronunciation will become easier too. Later, when you do your lessons, you might come across something you remember hearing before. It will all click in your head. I promise, this feeling is amazing!

And speak. Say the words you learn out loud. Talk to other korean students, natives, or even yourself. 

Whatever works. Do both! 

I use Myasiantv to watch tv shows and movies. It usually works really well, and you don't have to pay for HD glory.

All in all, I say you should try to find whatever works best for you. As you can probably tell, I'm not big on studying with books. I much prefer the practical approach, and finding fun ways to learn. For you, it might not be the same.

However, I hope that I've at least shed a light on the path that you will take on your new and exciting journey of learning korean.

Got any other recommendations? 

Tell me in the comments bellow what you think!