What are some basic tips to learn Korean quickly?

Korean is an East Asian language spoken by approximately 77 million people, of which 5.6 million regards it as their heritage language. It is the official and national language of both Koreas: North Korea and South Korea, with different standardized official forms used in each country. Goryeo is considered to be the first Korean dynasty known to Western nations, and the English word “Korean” is derived from it. Modern Korean is understood to have descended from the Middle Korean, that emerged from the Old Korean, which itself, culminated from the Proto-Koreanic language, that is suggested to have its linguistic homeland somewhere in Manchuria. Korean is the 13th most widely spoken language of the 3000 languages currently in use. It is a recognised minority language in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County of Jilin Province, China. It is also spoken in parts of Sakhalin, Russia and Central Asia. Korean people in the former USSR refer to themselves as Koryo-saram and/or Koryo-in and call the language Koryo-mal. Korean is classified as a language isolate by both historical and contemporary linguists.

Listen to as many relevant audio resources as you can to build familiarity of the language; the way the words sound, intonations used, pitch, speed, where different words end and start and so many technical aspects of the language. You can’t speak what you can’t hear. So make listening to your prime focus. You should soon be able to hear correct words spoken by the speaker. Use an audio transcript to help you ace this further after a couple of times of listening to the audio. Use Korean radio, youtube videos, Spotify playlist, Korean songs, talk shows, documentaries all to your benefit. 

Read a lot and read aloud. Identify the characters used. Korean is an agglutinative language. Step up your learning by learning to read Korean proficiently. 

Speak a lot. Use the Shadowing technique to repeat dialogues from Korean movies aping the right accent, speed, tone to get this right after adequate listening practice. Speak to yourself in the mirror to your pet to plants etc. Find native speakers to converse with, online via Tandem helloTalk, Italki etc if you can’t find someone around you. 

Practise writing the Korean script. This will seal the deal on your learning. 

Put flashcards to best use. You could use decks available on Koreanclass101, Anki, Quizlet, Memrise to learn or create your own in apps such as Anki that allow you to create one.

Write a journal or a diary to capture the newly acquired vocabulary of Korean phrases, not just words, conversation connectors, fillers to help you build your first conversation. 

Enjoy learning. Making mistakes is natural while you are learning. But don’t let it deter you; instead, walk over the mistakes taking corrections in your quiver.

Practise as much as possible. Use the Pomodoro technique to study a few minutes at multiple intervals in a day rather than studying at a stretch on weekends. 

The Khitan language has a heavy Korean presence or influence. A lesser-known Dravido-Korean languages theory proposes a connection between Korean and Dravidian languages in India. Related vocabulary is one of the similarities between the Korean and Dravidian languages. Owing to some similarities in vocabulary and similar grammatical characteristics that have been expanded on by a few scholars, Korean has also been debated to be related to Japanese. Korean is unmistakably similar to Chinese, but only in the script! Having said that, the cultural birthplace of Korea is thought to be in Manchuria.

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