Just a list of My Top On-line Learning Resources for Korean and Why-for Anyone Who is a Beginner
I know there other people out there other than me, trying to learn Korean free on-line. I kept telling myself I that I was going to post some of the links/websites that I am using to learn Korean, but with everything going on with my health/life, I just never got around to it. So I have finally decided to do so. (If this is not allow, please delete this post)
This is not my entire list (trust me, I have a huge list) and most of them have probably been posted by others, but in the 6 months that I have been struggling to self-teach myself Korean, these are the resources that I have been using.
I have also been watching on-line the Korean dramas and movies-first with no sub-titles and then watching them a second time with the subs to see if I have gotten any of it correct-which I am starting to do (Hurray!!!). So, here are my web resources.
#1 link is Talk to Me in Korean
I really can't say enough about this website. It is fun, quick and really good at explaining the complexity of Korean. Yes, it can be a bit corny and the girl laughing/teasing the other individuals gets a bit old. But they make everything bite size. Perfect for Miss Flightly (Me) whose attention span seems to be shrinking with each hour that passes. Plus, you can download the podcast from iTunes along with the PDFs, so it is on your iPhone/iTouch at no cost.
Anther key factor why this is number one, they are really good at answering questions left in the comments. I tend to listen to a postcast a couple of times and then go to the comment section to see what questions people have been asking and the answers supplied. Generally, any questions I had with the lesson will have already be asked and answered there. If not, I can ask my question there, and generally, someone will answer it. Love this component.
They also have a store that offers some supplementary lessons for a price, but those prices are pretty cheap. The money raised from the store purchases and from donations are to keep the site running-I like to donate since I use them constantly and I plan on purchasing from the store. One of the cool lessons to purchase is the 200 phrases from Korean Movies 2009-Right now Vol.1 is available-I definitely need this one for my collection with me addiction to Korean Movies and at $4.00-that's not a bad price. Heck-they need to make catchphrases from Korean dramas too.Right now they only have two things to purchase, but I am sure they will be offering more items. Plus they have multiple people working on these. (I just wish they had something similar to this for Mandarin Chinese-the other language that I am learning, oh well.)
Honestly, if you have only one website you use for learning Korean, then I recommend using this one. It is very user friendly. Here is the link:
www.talktomeinkorean.com/
Here is also use YouTube video for some of their lessons:
#2 is for Learning Hangeul-It's Important and this is the best
This site is promoted by Talk to Me in Korea and I recommend it too. It is the Hangeul on Korean Wiki Project. It is one of the easiest and best ways to learn Hangeul. It still under construction, but most of it there. The nice thing about this site is that it has very nice and clear audio that offers the sound of each letter in male or female voice (Trust me that is a really nice feature). All of the audio is clear and crisp. They also give nice examples of the letters you have learn and combining them. Again with audio. Plus, at the bottom of the page is directions on how to properly write the letter, which I have found to be very useful.
If you are wondering why learning Hangeul when you could just use an English breakdown of Korean, then here is the reason why it is very important. Once you learn Hangeul, you can pronounce any Korean word, which will come in handy. Especially if you use my next learning resource. Plus, an English equivalent is not fully correct when breaking down Korean words. I truly believe if you are going to waste your time learning to speak a language, especially with Korean alphabet being so bloody simple, you might as well learn to read and write it at the same time.
Here is the link:
www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php
At the same site, is a section of Korean Slang. My favorite is the Internet and Text Messaging codes which may come in handy once you find yourself a Korean Language friend on-line to talk to. Here is the link for that page:
www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php
Here is a funny video explaining what OTL means in text messaging-I ROFL when I first saw it.
3rd Resource-Great for gathering Vocabulary words and knowledge about Korean life
The Korean Learning Page from Korean Times-this is where I go to gather more vocabulary words that are all related to a certain subject. There are 214 learning sheets for you to choose from. Everything from Greeting and Counting to Movies and Receipts. They are colorful, nicely illustrated, a few key words/sentences and some key facts that is related to the subject that is being covered. There is no audio for these, but it does have some great subjects covered.
I have learned quick a bit with these quick lesson sheets. If you combine them all together, they would be like a small children's book for learning a language but for adults. An example of one of these learning sheets is #19 Relatives that is to the right. Again, very colorful with nice visual break down of the vocabulary that you are learning. There is an English breakdown of word/phrase, but it is not the best I have seen. Knowing Hangeul would be a big help in using these properly.
Another nice factor with these sheets is that these are for non-Korean speakers who are living or going to be living in Korea, so they often add information that will help them in Korea. One sheet I really enjoyed was for Bus Transportation with the breakdown of the different color buses, what they mean (see them in dramas but never knew which was for what), payments accepted and how to purchase cards. A lot of handy facts for living and getting by in Korea are on these sheets, so I find it fun reading them. They help me with my addiction to watching my dramas and movies. I understand more now than I did before.
Here is the link:
www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/art_list.asp
Korean Times has started another series recently and it is called Suryun Lee's Korean Self-Study. This does not have as many lessons as the other previous one, but it is another resource that I am starting to use.
These are learning sheets just like the other one, but these center around dialogues, have a brief explanation of grammar and a small quiz in each sheet. They only started to add these to the site this month. Don't know how long it will continue and how far it will go, but they are pretty nice. As I write this, there are 8 sheets being offered.(It looks like they will be offering online classes/lessons on Speaking Korean soon in relation to these sheets but I suspect at a price for those lessons. It is to be launched in April 2010).
Again, there is no audio for these and I really don't like the English breakdown of the Korean phrases in these-knowing Hangeul is a big help in properly pronouncing them. You again can print these out and make yourself a little learning book. I would use these sheets with the previous lesson sheets being offered. Here is the link to this resource:
www.koreatimes.co.kr/koreatime_admin/LT/common/nInside_list.asp
Both of these resources are free from Korean Times. I highly recommend them for supplementing what Talk to Me in Korea is offering. With just these three resources, you have enough material to get you up to intermediate level of learning without having to spend a dime of your own money which is kind of nice-especially if you are not sure you really want to learn Korean. Me-I am just poor and looking for a cheap way to feed one of my passion.
Again these are my top key ones for anyone beginning to learning Korean. I hope this helps and I am sure some of you have already use these for your learning materials. If not, I really recommend that you try they out.
This is not my entire list (trust me, I have a huge list) and most of them have probably been posted by others, but in the 6 months that I have been struggling to self-teach myself Korean, these are the resources that I have been using.
I have also been watching on-line the Korean dramas and movies-first with no sub-titles and then watching them a second time with the subs to see if I have gotten any of it correct-which I am starting to do (Hurray!!!). So, here are my web resources.
#1 link is Talk to Me in Korean
I really can't say enough about this website. It is fun, quick and really good at explaining the complexity of Korean. Yes, it can be a bit corny and the girl laughing/teasing the other individuals gets a bit old. But they make everything bite size. Perfect for Miss Flightly (Me) whose attention span seems to be shrinking with each hour that passes. Plus, you can download the podcast from iTunes along with the PDFs, so it is on your iPhone/iTouch at no cost.
Anther key factor why this is number one, they are really good at answering questions left in the comments. I tend to listen to a postcast a couple of times and then go to the comment section to see what questions people have been asking and the answers supplied. Generally, any questions I had with the lesson will have already be asked and answered there. If not, I can ask my question there, and generally, someone will answer it. Love this component.
They also have a store that offers some supplementary lessons for a price, but those prices are pretty cheap. The money raised from the store purchases and from donations are to keep the site running-I like to donate since I use them constantly and I plan on purchasing from the store. One of the cool lessons to purchase is the 200 phrases from Korean Movies 2009-Right now Vol.1 is available-I definitely need this one for my collection with me addiction to Korean Movies and at $4.00-that's not a bad price. Heck-they need to make catchphrases from Korean dramas too.Right now they only have two things to purchase, but I am sure they will be offering more items. Plus they have multiple people working on these. (I just wish they had something similar to this for Mandarin Chinese-the other language that I am learning, oh well.)
Honestly, if you have only one website you use for learning Korean, then I recommend using this one. It is very user friendly. Here is the link:
www.talktomeinkorean.com/
Here is also use YouTube video for some of their lessons:
Click to view#2 is for Learning Hangeul-It's Important and this is the best
This site is promoted by Talk to Me in Korea and I recommend it too. It is the Hangeul on Korean Wiki Project. It is one of the easiest and best ways to learn Hangeul. It still under construction, but most of it there. The nice thing about this site is that it has very nice and clear audio that offers the sound of each letter in male or female voice (Trust me that is a really nice feature). All of the audio is clear and crisp. They also give nice examples of the letters you have learn and combining them. Again with audio. Plus, at the bottom of the page is directions on how to properly write the letter, which I have found to be very useful.
If you are wondering why learning Hangeul when you could just use an English breakdown of Korean, then here is the reason why it is very important. Once you learn Hangeul, you can pronounce any Korean word, which will come in handy. Especially if you use my next learning resource. Plus, an English equivalent is not fully correct when breaking down Korean words. I truly believe if you are going to waste your time learning to speak a language, especially with Korean alphabet being so bloody simple, you might as well learn to read and write it at the same time.
Here is the link:
www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php
At the same site, is a section of Korean Slang. My favorite is the Internet and Text Messaging codes which may come in handy once you find yourself a Korean Language friend on-line to talk to. Here is the link for that page:
www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/index.php
Here is a funny video explaining what OTL means in text messaging-I ROFL when I first saw it.
3rd Resource-Great for gathering Vocabulary words and knowledge about Korean life
The Korean Learning Page from Korean Times-this is where I go to gather more vocabulary words that are all related to a certain subject. There are 214 learning sheets for you to choose from. Everything from Greeting and Counting to Movies and Receipts. They are colorful, nicely illustrated, a few key words/sentences and some key facts that is related to the subject that is being covered. There is no audio for these, but it does have some great subjects covered.
I have learned quick a bit with these quick lesson sheets. If you combine them all together, they would be like a small children's book for learning a language but for adults. An example of one of these learning sheets is #19 Relatives that is to the right. Again, very colorful with nice visual break down of the vocabulary that you are learning. There is an English breakdown of word/phrase, but it is not the best I have seen. Knowing Hangeul would be a big help in using these properly.
Another nice factor with these sheets is that these are for non-Korean speakers who are living or going to be living in Korea, so they often add information that will help them in Korea. One sheet I really enjoyed was for Bus Transportation with the breakdown of the different color buses, what they mean (see them in dramas but never knew which was for what), payments accepted and how to purchase cards. A lot of handy facts for living and getting by in Korea are on these sheets, so I find it fun reading them. They help me with my addiction to watching my dramas and movies. I understand more now than I did before.
Here is the link:
www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/art_list.asp
Korean Times has started another series recently and it is called Suryun Lee's Korean Self-Study. This does not have as many lessons as the other previous one, but it is another resource that I am starting to use.
These are learning sheets just like the other one, but these center around dialogues, have a brief explanation of grammar and a small quiz in each sheet. They only started to add these to the site this month. Don't know how long it will continue and how far it will go, but they are pretty nice. As I write this, there are 8 sheets being offered.(It looks like they will be offering online classes/lessons on Speaking Korean soon in relation to these sheets but I suspect at a price for those lessons. It is to be launched in April 2010).
Again, there is no audio for these and I really don't like the English breakdown of the Korean phrases in these-knowing Hangeul is a big help in properly pronouncing them. You again can print these out and make yourself a little learning book. I would use these sheets with the previous lesson sheets being offered. Here is the link to this resource:
www.koreatimes.co.kr/koreatime_admin/LT/common/nInside_list.asp
Both of these resources are free from Korean Times. I highly recommend them for supplementing what Talk to Me in Korea is offering. With just these three resources, you have enough material to get you up to intermediate level of learning without having to spend a dime of your own money which is kind of nice-especially if you are not sure you really want to learn Korean. Me-I am just poor and looking for a cheap way to feed one of my passion.
Again these are my top key ones for anyone beginning to learning Korean. I hope this helps and I am sure some of you have already use these for your learning materials. If not, I really recommend that you try they out.