How to study Korean?: Realistic advice from a Malaysian Korean learner!

- Author: Lyn Tan (Malaysia)
- Editor: Good Job Korean team 

 I believe in having fun when learning languages. When something is fun, I tend to spend more time doing it.

 I started watching videos on Instagram, learning for leisure with no pressure. As my interest towards it grew (not just hoping that I don’t get lost when I travelled to Korea), I decided to take it more seriously — that is to spend slightly more time and effort. Just 🤏🏻 slightly.

 “Having a set goal, it is much easier to decide what kind of method to use and how intense I want to set my learning journey to be”

 Personally, I felt it was crucial to set realistic goals. Why am I learning Korean? Is it because I want to sit for TOPIK exams for career advancement? Or is it because I want to master it conversationally so that I am able to speak comfortably and understand Korean better? Or is it purely for Korean entertainment such as k-dramas and K-pop?

 Having a set goal, it is much easier to decide what kind of method to use and how intense I want to set my learning journey to be.

 For example, if my goal was to sit for TOPIK exams, then it is a no brainer that I learn patiently from a structured syllabus, such as from textbooks like Talk to Me in Korean, or to engage a private tutor for lessons.

 However, if my target was solely to be able to converse naturally, then I believe putting more effort in speaking and listening would help me more. Since I decided this is my goal, I chose the less stressful way which is to use the informal learning platforms of Instagram videos, posts, watching dramas etc.

 With that being said, having formal curriculum would set the foundation better. Good Job Korean was a great fit for me because I used to have irregular schedule and was never able to commit to a set time for classes. I managed to complete the course, thanks to its bite-sized lessons which compressed the important formulas and sentence patterns in an easy-to-understand way. I could learn at my own pace and it was stress-free for me since I was going through the lessons alone, I could repeat however many times I needed.

 “I did not fret all that much if I did not sound like a native Korean”

 Next, similar to how I learnt English in preschool, reading aloud was really, really important to me. It helped me recognise words so I could gradually read Korean faster, and listening to myself pronounce the words helped with my speaking and listening. Accents are inevitable just like how people in the world speak English so I did not fret all that much if I did not sound like a native Korean. I felt as long as I am pronouncing the words right with the correct structure, I am speaking good Korean. 😏

“Practice, practice, practice!”

 Quoting Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours rule, it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to master a skill. It may be a myth but it is undeniably true that it requires time and effort to master a language. So setting aside time everyday to practise is a must.

 I used to set aside 15 minutes every night fiddling on language apps like Duolingo, Teuida and Eggbun. When I had more time, I tried spending an hour reading and translating sentences from Korean books (this takes effort, really. So I got myself a pretty illustrated book to make myself happier studying).

 I also had video calls with other Korean learners in Good Job Korean community to practise Korean. It is fun to have a friend or two to practise. It also motivated me because they are so good at Korean.

 One more thing to note is that… I am pretty lazy to think a lot. So I tend to absorb information as it is given like a sponge, and try not to question too much about why is the Korean sentence structure like so and so.

 As the Korean language is entirely new and very different from the five other languages and dialects I speak, I try not to think too much into the why’s of a sentence structure. Instead of fighting it with the logic I thought I knew from other languages, I accepted Korean the way it is.

- Author: Lyn Tan (Malaysia)
- Editor: Good Job Korean team