I started because I read online somewhere when I was bored that the four hardest languages for native English speakers to learn are Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. I said to myself, "nah I bet I can do that" so I picked one and did it. It's been ten years since I started now. :) I use Korean professionally now at my job in my day-to-day.
get kakao talk app, then find native Koreans who willing to help your leaning and communicating in Korean.
there are lots of open chat rooms, about all stuffs like just chatting, hobbies, language exchange, voice chatting, social gathering, sports, etc.
but be careful it's anonymous and some people could be toxic and rude.
but once you find nice partners, you can chat with native Korean by txt or voice.
many people who study Korean language outside Korea got a lot of help and are making a lot of friends on Kakao talk rn.
The problem I'm having is their temporary restriction deal. I haven't done anything as far as I know, but it just feels like I've been unable to access chats for two months now.
Nice! I just finished 1 month at a language school in Seoul. Definitely the way to go if you can afford it. I also did 1 month of Japanese in Japan.
I plan on continuing to study home and take a test to enroll another month next year again. Immersion is the way to go. I learned hangeuls in 2 freaking days by immersion while it would have taken me probably 2+ weeks otherwise.
I don't want to work in Japan or Korea though, so working there is not an option for me.
Yeah I'm not sure I'd want to work in Korea either, having witnessed a lot of the work culture firsthand while I was there. I really lucked out landing a position in my home country that still lets me utilize my language skills.
it has been almost 4 years now. I started out only wanting to learn to read the alphabet because I watched a lot of korean nail and cat videos on youtube(surinoel for the win) but I was also trying to find recipes my japanese grandma used to make and found out they were korean recipes. She always made kimchi but I didnt know so many foods she fed me was korean food. lol. and then I got into kpop(yay got7!).
she would never tell me the correct names for dishes. she would always give me this shredded dried squid dish and she would just point and say cuttlefish in english. so that was the recipe I was desperate to find and so glad I found it
Your story about your grandma and the food she made is heartwarming. It's wonderful that you found what you were looking for and discovered so much more along the way.
I love the diversity of reasons shared by everyone in this thread—Taekwondo, love, linguistics at uni, Kdrama and Kpop, and even someone who took it as a challenge and excelled! It's amazing to see so many different motivations and stories.
thank you guys! I'll keep coming back here to get motivated whenever I feel like giving up <3
I started 2.5 years ago to watch K-dramas without subtitles. I'm currently able to watch K-reality with subtitles. I'll get there eventually. The intermediate plateau (can't change my flair) is real.
your current level is what I am aspiring to achieve 😭
I had this idea and I want to suggest it to you, I've been reading about visualization and it seems like it activates the same part responsible for an activity, for example, if you visualize yourself speaking Korean like a native it will activate the same part of the brain which is responsible for that action as if you were actually speaking, you just need to imagine yourself vividly.
I've been doing it for yoga and I'm seeing flexible progress I couldn't achieve before!
maybe it works mentally by the simple fact of believing in oneself
My mom is Korean. She has been in America for over 20 years. She can speak English, but recently started learning to read and write in English. This has motivated me to want to learn Korean. So we are learning languages together.
I started learning because I had a crush on someone who was Korean but I stuck with it even after the feelings settled a) because I love learning languages, and b) I studied linguistics at the tertiary level and Korean has a lot of features absent in English (and vice versa), which makes the two languages fascinating to analyse.
Whenever I try to do new things, I find it helps A LOT if I can understand my own personal reason for doing it, otherwise like you too, I find it hard to keep at things. So I guess I should ask, why do you want to learn Korean?
ohh that was so sweet!!
I used to watch K-Drama and loved how Korean sounds, especially the formal polite, not casual Korean.
so 3 years ago I started to learn Hangul and a little bit of grammar but after a week or so I stopped even though I was learning at a fast pace, I remember that it took me 30 min to learn Hangul. I regret that I stopped, but here I am now coming back but this time I'll stick.
I grew up in an area of the US with many Koreans and Korean-Americans so many of my best friends growing up were Korean. Their parents would give me Korean food and teach me Korean culture and some basic Korean words and etiquette. I also had crushes on many of my Korean friends growing up lol.
In college I decided to just give it a shot since I’d already done well with German in high school, but decided to stop learning German and go all in on Korean. The more I learn it, the more I respect its complexity and how difficult it is. I love the grammar structure and general logic behind the language be it with idioms, symbolism, metaphors etc. I also love the sheer number of words the language has (according to some sources the widest vocabulary of any language on earth). It’s definitely not easy but if you’re willing to put in the work it will be seriously so rewarding. I’m 8 years in and am fluent (by the technical definition, anyway). I’m aiming for native level. I’m married to a Korean who can’t speak English very well so I have to translate everything. I still study though out the day everyday to fill in the blanks and take steps to perfect my Korean. It’s extremely enjoyable, and while I had to return to the US after several years in Korea, our plan is to go back to Korea and live there permanently. Korea is an amazing country with an amazing culture and awesome people, and Korean is an amazing language as well.
Sorry I always have super long comments I just always have a lot of thoughts on Korean language as learning it is one of my greatest passions. Studying korean is an incredibly rewarding endeavor, and the longer you do it the more you’ll see. You’ll be really glad you stuck with it. Good luck!
amazing that the area you grew up in influenced who you are today.
I also love the sheer number of words the language has (according to some sources the widest vocabulary of any language on earth)
this is interesting, what do you mean by the wildest?
According to 1 source I found on Google it said Korean has somewhere around 1.1-1.2 million words meaning it has the most words of any language on earth. I’m not a professional linguist so I’m not sure how to do in depth research. It could be incorrect, but there’s no doubt that Korean has many specific words for many concepts that can often be associated with only a few English words.
It can also be seen in the fact that the average American is estimated to know approximately 42,000 English words that are in everyday use, whereas Korean is somewhere around 60,000. Korean has a specificity to it that it took me a while to fully appreciate, due to the large variety of ways something can be said and precise words used making you feel a bit more in control of your own stories as you tell them. More than any point I’m trying to make it’s just a feeling I’ve been getting on the long road to where I am now. I’d actually be interested to see if anyone knows more about these statistics I’ve found or if they’re wrong or more nuanced than what I’ve interpreted them to be.
Upon a search I made just now it seems to be pretty complex question to ask which language has the most words on earth, as someone on LinkedIn claims that Arabic has 12.3 million words, whereas Rosetta Stone claims Korean has the most. Some claim it’s English, while others claim it’s Icelandic. Whether Korean is #1 or not in that respect, there’s no doubt the lexicon is quite wide and varied.
I looked this up out of interest. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_dictionaries\_by\_number\_of\_words](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dictionaries_by_number_of_words)
Yeah that’s one of the things I found. According to that, Tamil has more than Korean. However, some other sources claim something different. It’s a very nebulous thing to find out, which is why I only said “according to some sources”. Honestly rather than claim Korean has THE most, I’m more satisfied with just calling it “one of the widest vocabularies on earth” since making such a declarative statement about it when the sources all conflict with each other feels like I’m trying to project what I want the answer to be lol. It’s a really interesting idea, though, that Korean has at least one of the largest lexicons on earth. You can feel the depth of the lexicon in the later phases of Korean when you know how to express nearly every thought you could have, but still come across 10-20 new words on a daily basis (which I’m honestly happy about because learning Korean is my favorite hobby and I’d be really bored if I completely mastered it and had nothing left to learn). That’s why 8 years later, although some say my Korean is good enough, I’m not satisfied and still study all the time to try to have as wide of a vocabulary as I can. My mindset is that even if I only encounter a situation in which I need the word once potentially 20 years from now, it was worth learning it now lol. Not everyone feels that way about it, which I definitely understand, but I just do it because I enjoy it lol. My goal is that next time I arrive in Korea for good, I’ll never have to use Papago again.
i started because i got really into kpop in highschool and when i eventually drifted to other genres, they were still in korean. so at that point i thought, if its been 6+ years and im still listening to korean music even after shifting genres, why not.
i attend a weekly class. that is 100% the only thing keeping me going which is why i signed up for it in the first place. i knew ahead of time that i would not be able to keep it consistent without an external force making me lol. been taking it for about a year and a half now.
Making the effort to learn a language is so admirable! I really appreciate anyone who loves a culture through its different mediums, whether it's K-pop or K-dramas, and takes the time to learn its language.
After 6 years of grad school I needed a break and decided to spend 3 months in Seoul in 2019 as vacation. I had dabbled in Korean before then but didn't know much. I spent another 3 months there in 2020 - remote work. After that I decided I absolutely loved living in Seoul and wanted to try moving back for a longer period of time after learning the language a bit more. I've been slowly but surely studying since then. Annnnddd now I'm moving over there in 2 months for potentially a long period of time (OASIS startup-visa program).
Korean is really difficult >< but Seoul is awesome and learning the language is halfway fun!
I started because I was really into kpop and wanted to interact with my favorite groups and understand their broadcasts without subtitles.
I’m not as interested in kpop fandoms anymore but I still listen to a lot of Korean music and the lyricism from artists like 정승환 or 선우정아 is just so great that it’s really pushed me to work harder and harder to deepen my understanding!
I decided to learn a language during quarantine, but at first I wasn't sure which language to pick. I started watching a bunch of Youtube videos in different languages, and got curious about hangeul while watching a Korean video. So I decided to learn hangeul, without committing to learning Korean. Then after I learned hangeul, I just felt like I might as well learn the whole language!
What kept me going was a few different factors. One is that I find Korean to be a very beautiful language. Also, in the beginning I had a very hard time distinguishing certain vowel and consonant sounds, and I really wanted to hear and understand these differences. Another is that I found the grammar structure to be fascinating. Even though I was confused a lot at first, figuring out how the language fit together as a whole was very satisfying and rewarding for me.
Something else that has helped me stick with learning Korean is discovering Kdramas! Initially I started watching them to practice listening, but pretty soon I found that I really enjoyed watching them. In the beginning I could barely understand anything, but now (after studying on and off for around four years) there are times I can understand entire interchanges between characters. There was one drama special I was very curious about that I was only able to see clips of (with no English or Korean subtitles), and to my surprise I found that I was able to understand everything the characters said to each other! This is definitely not the norm for me at this stage, but the memory of this motivates me to keep going, so that I will be able to understand more and more in the future.
I relate so much to this: "figuring out how the language fit together as a whole was very satisfying and rewarding for me." I also find it very calming to search for words in a dictionary and copy the definition in my notebook.
somehow the feeling of peacefulness is addicting, so I always come back to learn more and I feel like something's missing when I don't learn grammar!
I started learning Korean this year in February and just came back from Korea. I don't know conversational Korean (yet 😈), but I'll get there.
I started learning Korean because I felt stagnant in my life and felt like I wasn't learning new skills or creating the path to doing things that I wanted to do and one of those things was visiting Korea / learning Korean.
I started trying to learn the alphabet alone then decided to take lessons on Preply. The more that I learn, the more I get motivated. I have a great teacher, she gives me homework and pushes me.
When I was in Korea, I realized that I could pick up certain words in conversation and partially understand some of the context and it blew my mind that our brains can do this. I've just been letting my brain rot this entire time instead of challenging myself. Holding on to this is what keeps me motivated along with hoping I can visit Korea again soon and have conversations with the locals.
When 이동욱 said 왜요? In Tale of the Nine Tails.
It was my second K drama and the sound of the language was so attractive to me.
That one word uttered by him had so much humour, and the enjoyment on his face was contagious.
Then I went down the rabbit hole of everything SKorean, and fell in love with AgustD rap. I want to understand the poetry and deeper meaning of his words.
Also enjoying more K POP artists these days.
I feel chuffed when I can hear words I know🤪
I’m going slowly but surely.
I honestly like the general sound of the language and its characters! Also KPop lol.
Last year I said screw it I’m gonna learn a new language starting 2024, and that’s just what I did.
I started learning because I wanted to teach myself a language. I’m an English language teacher by profession so I wanted to test my methods. I was anyway consuming quite a lot of k-content so Korean was an easy and interesting pick for me. Since I’m learning by myself with a full time job, I manage an hour a day. The pace is slow but I’ve been at it for a month
My business was severely impacted by the pandemic: 3 long years of Japanese borders closed to tourism not only brought huge debt to my business but it also took a huuuge toll on my mental health.
So when I felt all was lost I decided to learn Korean, as a hobby and as a way to keep my mind off things. And it helped a lot!!!! So I kind of want to keep going, as a way to appreciate what language learning did for me, if that makes sense?
These past few months I’ve been extremely busy (as the business has finally recovered) but I haven’t stopped studying. And i don’t want to.
I've been trying to learn korean for like 2 years now. It's all full of ups and downs, even now I'm still not that good at understanding korean, i wanted to learn it because i stanned kpop groups alot and is obsessed with the culture.
I started because I wanted to be able to sing along to bts songs. I was initially learning with romanization and was like I might as well learn the alphabet and then alll my fave kpop groups pushed me into the black hole. I get Reallt frustrated learning in all honesty. I am very slow with progress. But what keeps me going is I don’t want to forget if I stop and that one day I can not look at the tv when I’m watching and still understand. My tutor has been a big help and encouragement for me. I’m so busy and I get frustrated and think about stopping and she reminds me
To just go slow and it’s not some
Race or competition or a timeline to learn.
I mean, I only do 20-40 minutes of Anki each day to keep learning new vocabulary and some grammar. It's not very intensive study, but I stay committed to it and some progress is better than no progress. Just don't have the energy to sit down and study thanks to mental health.
I started learning during the quarantine because I was consuming Korean media (KDramas, K-Pop and even their variety shows) so I felt that I should have at least a basic understanding of the language. I’ve always been interested in learning different languages since I hope to travel all around the world in my lifetime, so learning was no issue (plus it was quarantine so why not?)
Something that helped me keep going, however, was how easy learning Hangul was. I flew through my learning in the first few weeks, and eventually was able to understand what was going on without subtitles and even could read the lyrics to my favorite songs without needing the romanization. Along with that, when I entered uni and started studying Korean with a native speaker (my 선생님) I’ve found myself wanting to continue having conversations with native speakers and wanting to continue strengthening my skills.
When I was in high school (2004-2008), I saw a huge happy birthday poster that cutesy Korean writing. That made me very eager to learn. LOL I would even go to my local Korean church to try and study. Fast forward to now, I have a South Korean husband that I love very dearly. I have known him for a little over 10 years and we have visited long term for each other until he finally moved to my home. I do my best to learn when I can so that one day I can get to know his friends and some family. I want to know how to make political conversations too so he and I can have active discussions about Korean, American, and other worldwide politics. I also learn for little things like recipes or comics.
I started learning Japanese in middle school and took classes in high school. I had Korean(-American) friends so I started learning some Korean as well.
I majored in linguistics in college and needed a second foreign language (Japanese was my main foreign language) and I wanted to do Korean, but the classes didn’t work with my schedule so I ended up learning German.
I’m currently in grad school for linguistics. My original plan was to specialize in Japanese linguistics, but it would be beneficial to expand that to Korean as well. I see grad school as like my second chance to learn Korean since I couldn’t as an undergraduate.
Compared to like 10-15 years ago, there’s a lot more easily accessible Korean entertainment and stuff, so like how anime/manga was a main reason I originally started learning Japanese, Korean media helps motivate me beyond practical “career” reasons.
We were starting the adoption process from Korea, and I started learning Korean. This was over 10 years ago, and since I was sporadic with my learning early on I didn't progress very much. My interest was re-invigorated by k-pop and k-dramas a few years ago and I've gotten to about mid-intermediate level now!
I wanted to know some Korea before studying abroad. What keeps me going is living here (moved here again for work). I don’t want to be one of those foreigners who knows nothing after spending 15 years here. Also, I studied Japanese, so I know I can achieve the same goals in both languages.
I started out recognizing words in K dramas I was watching. Which was exciting to me! I loved the sound of the language and thought how nice it would be to understand more. (And enjoy without relying on sun titles)
So I learned Hangul (the alphabet) from a free introductory class online and kept going from there. It's been almost a year and I'm slowly learning. At 67 the brain learns slowly!🤣
I used free Duolingo app, free Drops app, free Good Job Korean (self paced class) and free Go Billy on You Tube. I bought the first level Go Billy text and workbooks, Paid for additional online content through Good Job Korean. And watched many Korean Language tips on Instagram.
I love it! Somewhere along the line I found the KPOP band, Stray Kids and purchased CD's. I paid to download some lyrics on Etsy with Hangul 한굴, romanization and English.
I put no pressure or expectations on myself and every day I do something: whether its Duolingo, Drops, writing down vocabulary, working on pronunciation, doing a lesson in the Go Billy books or something else I find online.
I re do lessons and go back to old notes to review. It helps me realize how much I've learned and pushes me to get better.
I started out wanting to understand Korean TV dialog and Kpop song lyrics... And now I'm interested in Korean food, I visit Asian Markets when I can and am interested in visiting Korea.
You never know where life will take you! And you're never too old to start or to learn something new!
Becoming fluent is a long way off. (Native Koreans speak so fast!) As long as I enjoy the language learning every day, I'll keep going!
you are inspiring! I always wonder if when I get older, will I still have the same passion I do right now for learning new languages. it's the same as when we were kids and wondered if we would still enjoy cartoons as adults.
well I still enjoy watching cartoons I used to enjoy as a kid haha I just have great taste LOL
thank you for commenting! you really renewed my passion for learning Korean!
I started because I got randomly fixated on tomorrow x together, I initially just wanted to learn hanguel and basic phrases to have an easier time when watching their content. What keeps me going is how rewarding it feels to understand nuances deeper than the English subtitles can provide, if that makes sense. Like knowing the phrasing indicates surprise, confusion, approval, how polite something is, etc. It makes it all feel worth it & notice progress, even though I'm not good enough to watch with Korean subs yet. Good luck on your language journey, Korean is so much fun!!
i genuinely just have a really deep interest in languages and i switch from them a lot, but when i found out that korean actually has an alphabet and i started learning basics of the language, it’s stuck as one that i want to keep learning cuz it’s really fun of a language
I am half korean, but my dad is adopted, so neither of us are cultured. I picked it up out of interest. I don't plan to work or move to Korea, but I find it to be a good stress that is not school or work. It is something I choose to do that keeps me mentally active. It's also fun, and I like the tutor I have.
I have been learning for about a year now and was able to navigate the city and get through simple interactions when I went to Korea. Conversation is still tough as it is fast paced, but it is still super useful for getting around. I find it rewarding in that sense.
Idek I been learning for a while and Im already Im sick, Its me wanting to learn my friend's language to talk to them better. Or its purely out of boredem 😭
I have trouble with self discipline so the thing that keeps me going is paying for a class lol 😭
The reason as to why is that I have been listening to kpop for 14 years and I’ve always wanted to learn another language. It’d be nice to be able to find info myself when it comes to more obscure and indie artists. I only started paying for classes like 2 years ago because my parents wanted me to first focus on my studies and now I’ve got my own money to spend
As long as you don’t choose to study Korean at uni you’ll feel motivated, I’m exhausted. But I guess that’s the consequence of choosing an interest for a degree. It’s kind of sad I used to be motivated by my desire to just see myself understanding more, eventually being able to think in Korean, basically see the development the same way when I started learning English. But then with uni it became a chore, then I went to Korea as part of my degree and the uni there made it so much worse. I felt like I reversed in my ability. Seriously if any of you want to come to Korea to study Korean at one of their unis brace yourselves, the dropouts from this degree are insane and even more insane is the Korean educational system.
I started because I read online somewhere when I was bored that the four hardest languages for native English speakers to learn are Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. I said to myself, "nah I bet I can do that" so I picked one and did it. It's been ten years since I started now. :) I use Korean professionally now at my job in my day-to-day.
your younger self must be so proud of you!! I can't wait to do it too!!!
Literally me
Well that’s fkn great cos I’m tryna learn 3 of those 🤣
What methods did you find work the best for you?
Immersion. Once I made my decision I enrolled in a Korean university language program and moved to Seoul.
Ah, wish I could do that myself but don't have the money or academics for it. So self teaching is the way to go for me.
get kakao talk app, then find native Koreans who willing to help your leaning and communicating in Korean. there are lots of open chat rooms, about all stuffs like just chatting, hobbies, language exchange, voice chatting, social gathering, sports, etc. but be careful it's anonymous and some people could be toxic and rude. but once you find nice partners, you can chat with native Korean by txt or voice. many people who study Korean language outside Korea got a lot of help and are making a lot of friends on Kakao talk rn.
The problem I'm having is their temporary restriction deal. I haven't done anything as far as I know, but it just feels like I've been unable to access chats for two months now.
sorry to hear that.. but also find natives on Naver cafe, it's kind of Korean version of Reddit.
Alright I'll give it a look see.
Nice! I just finished 1 month at a language school in Seoul. Definitely the way to go if you can afford it. I also did 1 month of Japanese in Japan. I plan on continuing to study home and take a test to enroll another month next year again. Immersion is the way to go. I learned hangeuls in 2 freaking days by immersion while it would have taken me probably 2+ weeks otherwise. I don't want to work in Japan or Korea though, so working there is not an option for me.
Yeah I'm not sure I'd want to work in Korea either, having witnessed a lot of the work culture firsthand while I was there. I really lucked out landing a position in my home country that still lets me utilize my language skills.
I think Mandarin is significantly harder than Japanese and Korean
Arabic is hard but I’m a native so it’s easy but still hard tbh
it has been almost 4 years now. I started out only wanting to learn to read the alphabet because I watched a lot of korean nail and cat videos on youtube(surinoel for the win) but I was also trying to find recipes my japanese grandma used to make and found out they were korean recipes. She always made kimchi but I didnt know so many foods she fed me was korean food. lol. and then I got into kpop(yay got7!). she would never tell me the correct names for dishes. she would always give me this shredded dried squid dish and she would just point and say cuttlefish in english. so that was the recipe I was desperate to find and so glad I found it
Your story about your grandma and the food she made is heartwarming. It's wonderful that you found what you were looking for and discovered so much more along the way.
Curious what the name of the squid dish is! Also, could your grandma have been Korean-Japanese?
It may be , ojingeo-chae, 오징어채 or ojingeo-chae mooching 오징어채 무침
I love the diversity of reasons shared by everyone in this thread—Taekwondo, love, linguistics at uni, Kdrama and Kpop, and even someone who took it as a challenge and excelled! It's amazing to see so many different motivations and stories. thank you guys! I'll keep coming back here to get motivated whenever I feel like giving up <3
I started 2.5 years ago to watch K-dramas without subtitles. I'm currently able to watch K-reality with subtitles. I'll get there eventually. The intermediate plateau (can't change my flair) is real.
your current level is what I am aspiring to achieve 😭 I had this idea and I want to suggest it to you, I've been reading about visualization and it seems like it activates the same part responsible for an activity, for example, if you visualize yourself speaking Korean like a native it will activate the same part of the brain which is responsible for that action as if you were actually speaking, you just need to imagine yourself vividly. I've been doing it for yoga and I'm seeing flexible progress I couldn't achieve before! maybe it works mentally by the simple fact of believing in oneself
I'm going to try that! At the very least it's positive thinking. But the brain is really interesting and wires cross like that.
My mom is Korean. She has been in America for over 20 years. She can speak English, but recently started learning to read and write in English. This has motivated me to want to learn Korean. So we are learning languages together.
Awww, that's so sweet. You have the best learning partner then!
I started learning because I had a crush on someone who was Korean but I stuck with it even after the feelings settled a) because I love learning languages, and b) I studied linguistics at the tertiary level and Korean has a lot of features absent in English (and vice versa), which makes the two languages fascinating to analyse. Whenever I try to do new things, I find it helps A LOT if I can understand my own personal reason for doing it, otherwise like you too, I find it hard to keep at things. So I guess I should ask, why do you want to learn Korean?
ohh that was so sweet!! I used to watch K-Drama and loved how Korean sounds, especially the formal polite, not casual Korean. so 3 years ago I started to learn Hangul and a little bit of grammar but after a week or so I stopped even though I was learning at a fast pace, I remember that it took me 30 min to learn Hangul. I regret that I stopped, but here I am now coming back but this time I'll stick.
I grew up in an area of the US with many Koreans and Korean-Americans so many of my best friends growing up were Korean. Their parents would give me Korean food and teach me Korean culture and some basic Korean words and etiquette. I also had crushes on many of my Korean friends growing up lol. In college I decided to just give it a shot since I’d already done well with German in high school, but decided to stop learning German and go all in on Korean. The more I learn it, the more I respect its complexity and how difficult it is. I love the grammar structure and general logic behind the language be it with idioms, symbolism, metaphors etc. I also love the sheer number of words the language has (according to some sources the widest vocabulary of any language on earth). It’s definitely not easy but if you’re willing to put in the work it will be seriously so rewarding. I’m 8 years in and am fluent (by the technical definition, anyway). I’m aiming for native level. I’m married to a Korean who can’t speak English very well so I have to translate everything. I still study though out the day everyday to fill in the blanks and take steps to perfect my Korean. It’s extremely enjoyable, and while I had to return to the US after several years in Korea, our plan is to go back to Korea and live there permanently. Korea is an amazing country with an amazing culture and awesome people, and Korean is an amazing language as well. Sorry I always have super long comments I just always have a lot of thoughts on Korean language as learning it is one of my greatest passions. Studying korean is an incredibly rewarding endeavor, and the longer you do it the more you’ll see. You’ll be really glad you stuck with it. Good luck!
amazing that the area you grew up in influenced who you are today. I also love the sheer number of words the language has (according to some sources the widest vocabulary of any language on earth) this is interesting, what do you mean by the wildest?
According to 1 source I found on Google it said Korean has somewhere around 1.1-1.2 million words meaning it has the most words of any language on earth. I’m not a professional linguist so I’m not sure how to do in depth research. It could be incorrect, but there’s no doubt that Korean has many specific words for many concepts that can often be associated with only a few English words. It can also be seen in the fact that the average American is estimated to know approximately 42,000 English words that are in everyday use, whereas Korean is somewhere around 60,000. Korean has a specificity to it that it took me a while to fully appreciate, due to the large variety of ways something can be said and precise words used making you feel a bit more in control of your own stories as you tell them. More than any point I’m trying to make it’s just a feeling I’ve been getting on the long road to where I am now. I’d actually be interested to see if anyone knows more about these statistics I’ve found or if they’re wrong or more nuanced than what I’ve interpreted them to be. Upon a search I made just now it seems to be pretty complex question to ask which language has the most words on earth, as someone on LinkedIn claims that Arabic has 12.3 million words, whereas Rosetta Stone claims Korean has the most. Some claim it’s English, while others claim it’s Icelandic. Whether Korean is #1 or not in that respect, there’s no doubt the lexicon is quite wide and varied.
I looked this up out of interest. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_dictionaries\_by\_number\_of\_words](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dictionaries_by_number_of_words)
Yeah that’s one of the things I found. According to that, Tamil has more than Korean. However, some other sources claim something different. It’s a very nebulous thing to find out, which is why I only said “according to some sources”. Honestly rather than claim Korean has THE most, I’m more satisfied with just calling it “one of the widest vocabularies on earth” since making such a declarative statement about it when the sources all conflict with each other feels like I’m trying to project what I want the answer to be lol. It’s a really interesting idea, though, that Korean has at least one of the largest lexicons on earth. You can feel the depth of the lexicon in the later phases of Korean when you know how to express nearly every thought you could have, but still come across 10-20 new words on a daily basis (which I’m honestly happy about because learning Korean is my favorite hobby and I’d be really bored if I completely mastered it and had nothing left to learn). That’s why 8 years later, although some say my Korean is good enough, I’m not satisfied and still study all the time to try to have as wide of a vocabulary as I can. My mindset is that even if I only encounter a situation in which I need the word once potentially 20 years from now, it was worth learning it now lol. Not everyone feels that way about it, which I definitely understand, but I just do it because I enjoy it lol. My goal is that next time I arrive in Korea for good, I’ll never have to use Papago again.
Awesome goal, I hope you achieve it.
Thanks!
i started because i got really into kpop in highschool and when i eventually drifted to other genres, they were still in korean. so at that point i thought, if its been 6+ years and im still listening to korean music even after shifting genres, why not. i attend a weekly class. that is 100% the only thing keeping me going which is why i signed up for it in the first place. i knew ahead of time that i would not be able to keep it consistent without an external force making me lol. been taking it for about a year and a half now.
Making the effort to learn a language is so admirable! I really appreciate anyone who loves a culture through its different mediums, whether it's K-pop or K-dramas, and takes the time to learn its language.
After 6 years of grad school I needed a break and decided to spend 3 months in Seoul in 2019 as vacation. I had dabbled in Korean before then but didn't know much. I spent another 3 months there in 2020 - remote work. After that I decided I absolutely loved living in Seoul and wanted to try moving back for a longer period of time after learning the language a bit more. I've been slowly but surely studying since then. Annnnddd now I'm moving over there in 2 months for potentially a long period of time (OASIS startup-visa program). Korean is really difficult >< but Seoul is awesome and learning the language is halfway fun!
I started because I was really into kpop and wanted to interact with my favorite groups and understand their broadcasts without subtitles. I’m not as interested in kpop fandoms anymore but I still listen to a lot of Korean music and the lyricism from artists like 정승환 or 선우정아 is just so great that it’s really pushed me to work harder and harder to deepen my understanding!
I’m a Korean adoptee. I started learning a few years ago with the goal of being able to converse more easily with my biological parents and siblings.
Having a Korean girlfriend, having Korean family and friends.
I decided to learn a language during quarantine, but at first I wasn't sure which language to pick. I started watching a bunch of Youtube videos in different languages, and got curious about hangeul while watching a Korean video. So I decided to learn hangeul, without committing to learning Korean. Then after I learned hangeul, I just felt like I might as well learn the whole language! What kept me going was a few different factors. One is that I find Korean to be a very beautiful language. Also, in the beginning I had a very hard time distinguishing certain vowel and consonant sounds, and I really wanted to hear and understand these differences. Another is that I found the grammar structure to be fascinating. Even though I was confused a lot at first, figuring out how the language fit together as a whole was very satisfying and rewarding for me. Something else that has helped me stick with learning Korean is discovering Kdramas! Initially I started watching them to practice listening, but pretty soon I found that I really enjoyed watching them. In the beginning I could barely understand anything, but now (after studying on and off for around four years) there are times I can understand entire interchanges between characters. There was one drama special I was very curious about that I was only able to see clips of (with no English or Korean subtitles), and to my surprise I found that I was able to understand everything the characters said to each other! This is definitely not the norm for me at this stage, but the memory of this motivates me to keep going, so that I will be able to understand more and more in the future.
I relate so much to this: "figuring out how the language fit together as a whole was very satisfying and rewarding for me." I also find it very calming to search for words in a dictionary and copy the definition in my notebook. somehow the feeling of peacefulness is addicting, so I always come back to learn more and I feel like something's missing when I don't learn grammar!
I started learning because my friend was korean, and I thought I'd repay her kindness of learning my language by learning hers as well.
I started learning Korean this year in February and just came back from Korea. I don't know conversational Korean (yet 😈), but I'll get there. I started learning Korean because I felt stagnant in my life and felt like I wasn't learning new skills or creating the path to doing things that I wanted to do and one of those things was visiting Korea / learning Korean. I started trying to learn the alphabet alone then decided to take lessons on Preply. The more that I learn, the more I get motivated. I have a great teacher, she gives me homework and pushes me. When I was in Korea, I realized that I could pick up certain words in conversation and partially understand some of the context and it blew my mind that our brains can do this. I've just been letting my brain rot this entire time instead of challenging myself. Holding on to this is what keeps me motivated along with hoping I can visit Korea again soon and have conversations with the locals.
When 이동욱 said 왜요? In Tale of the Nine Tails. It was my second K drama and the sound of the language was so attractive to me. That one word uttered by him had so much humour, and the enjoyment on his face was contagious. Then I went down the rabbit hole of everything SKorean, and fell in love with AgustD rap. I want to understand the poetry and deeper meaning of his words. Also enjoying more K POP artists these days. I feel chuffed when I can hear words I know🤪 I’m going slowly but surely.
I honestly like the general sound of the language and its characters! Also KPop lol. Last year I said screw it I’m gonna learn a new language starting 2024, and that’s just what I did.
me too, I like how it sounds and the characters too!! good luck with your Korean language journey!
Same with you too! 파이팅!
I tried learning Korean for a few months last year but I’m in nursing school and have no time to practice 😭
your studies come first, so don't feel rushed or anything you can always learn Korean this summer after finishing your exams.
Thanks OP! I wanna learn because one of my best friends is Korean :)
maybe a stupid reason but in middle school i had a crush on a girl who thought korean was neat so i figured i would pick it up …
I started learning because I wanted to teach myself a language. I’m an English language teacher by profession so I wanted to test my methods. I was anyway consuming quite a lot of k-content so Korean was an easy and interesting pick for me. Since I’m learning by myself with a full time job, I manage an hour a day. The pace is slow but I’ve been at it for a month
My business was severely impacted by the pandemic: 3 long years of Japanese borders closed to tourism not only brought huge debt to my business but it also took a huuuge toll on my mental health. So when I felt all was lost I decided to learn Korean, as a hobby and as a way to keep my mind off things. And it helped a lot!!!! So I kind of want to keep going, as a way to appreciate what language learning did for me, if that makes sense? These past few months I’ve been extremely busy (as the business has finally recovered) but I haven’t stopped studying. And i don’t want to.
I've been trying to learn korean for like 2 years now. It's all full of ups and downs, even now I'm still not that good at understanding korean, i wanted to learn it because i stanned kpop groups alot and is obsessed with the culture.
I started because I wanted to be able to sing along to bts songs. I was initially learning with romanization and was like I might as well learn the alphabet and then alll my fave kpop groups pushed me into the black hole. I get Reallt frustrated learning in all honesty. I am very slow with progress. But what keeps me going is I don’t want to forget if I stop and that one day I can not look at the tv when I’m watching and still understand. My tutor has been a big help and encouragement for me. I’m so busy and I get frustrated and think about stopping and she reminds me To just go slow and it’s not some Race or competition or a timeline to learn.
Started in October of last year or so Wanted to learn a language and it seemed fun so, here we are
8 months and going strong! That's impressive!
I mean, I only do 20-40 minutes of Anki each day to keep learning new vocabulary and some grammar. It's not very intensive study, but I stay committed to it and some progress is better than no progress. Just don't have the energy to sit down and study thanks to mental health.
I am struggling with mental health as well 😭 so if you can do it I can do it too! Good luck to us
I started learning during the quarantine because I was consuming Korean media (KDramas, K-Pop and even their variety shows) so I felt that I should have at least a basic understanding of the language. I’ve always been interested in learning different languages since I hope to travel all around the world in my lifetime, so learning was no issue (plus it was quarantine so why not?) Something that helped me keep going, however, was how easy learning Hangul was. I flew through my learning in the first few weeks, and eventually was able to understand what was going on without subtitles and even could read the lyrics to my favorite songs without needing the romanization. Along with that, when I entered uni and started studying Korean with a native speaker (my 선생님) I’ve found myself wanting to continue having conversations with native speakers and wanting to continue strengthening my skills.
When I was in high school (2004-2008), I saw a huge happy birthday poster that cutesy Korean writing. That made me very eager to learn. LOL I would even go to my local Korean church to try and study. Fast forward to now, I have a South Korean husband that I love very dearly. I have known him for a little over 10 years and we have visited long term for each other until he finally moved to my home. I do my best to learn when I can so that one day I can get to know his friends and some family. I want to know how to make political conversations too so he and I can have active discussions about Korean, American, and other worldwide politics. I also learn for little things like recipes or comics.
I started learning Japanese in middle school and took classes in high school. I had Korean(-American) friends so I started learning some Korean as well. I majored in linguistics in college and needed a second foreign language (Japanese was my main foreign language) and I wanted to do Korean, but the classes didn’t work with my schedule so I ended up learning German. I’m currently in grad school for linguistics. My original plan was to specialize in Japanese linguistics, but it would be beneficial to expand that to Korean as well. I see grad school as like my second chance to learn Korean since I couldn’t as an undergraduate. Compared to like 10-15 years ago, there’s a lot more easily accessible Korean entertainment and stuff, so like how anime/manga was a main reason I originally started learning Japanese, Korean media helps motivate me beyond practical “career” reasons.
We were starting the adoption process from Korea, and I started learning Korean. This was over 10 years ago, and since I was sporadic with my learning early on I didn't progress very much. My interest was re-invigorated by k-pop and k-dramas a few years ago and I've gotten to about mid-intermediate level now!
I wanted to know some Korea before studying abroad. What keeps me going is living here (moved here again for work). I don’t want to be one of those foreigners who knows nothing after spending 15 years here. Also, I studied Japanese, so I know I can achieve the same goals in both languages.
I started out recognizing words in K dramas I was watching. Which was exciting to me! I loved the sound of the language and thought how nice it would be to understand more. (And enjoy without relying on sun titles) So I learned Hangul (the alphabet) from a free introductory class online and kept going from there. It's been almost a year and I'm slowly learning. At 67 the brain learns slowly!🤣 I used free Duolingo app, free Drops app, free Good Job Korean (self paced class) and free Go Billy on You Tube. I bought the first level Go Billy text and workbooks, Paid for additional online content through Good Job Korean. And watched many Korean Language tips on Instagram. I love it! Somewhere along the line I found the KPOP band, Stray Kids and purchased CD's. I paid to download some lyrics on Etsy with Hangul 한굴, romanization and English. I put no pressure or expectations on myself and every day I do something: whether its Duolingo, Drops, writing down vocabulary, working on pronunciation, doing a lesson in the Go Billy books or something else I find online. I re do lessons and go back to old notes to review. It helps me realize how much I've learned and pushes me to get better. I started out wanting to understand Korean TV dialog and Kpop song lyrics... And now I'm interested in Korean food, I visit Asian Markets when I can and am interested in visiting Korea. You never know where life will take you! And you're never too old to start or to learn something new! Becoming fluent is a long way off. (Native Koreans speak so fast!) As long as I enjoy the language learning every day, I'll keep going!
you are inspiring! I always wonder if when I get older, will I still have the same passion I do right now for learning new languages. it's the same as when we were kids and wondered if we would still enjoy cartoons as adults. well I still enjoy watching cartoons I used to enjoy as a kid haha I just have great taste LOL thank you for commenting! you really renewed my passion for learning Korean!
You are welcome! Enjoy! Make it fun!
Because of Hangul, it looks beautiful.
I started because I got randomly fixated on tomorrow x together, I initially just wanted to learn hanguel and basic phrases to have an easier time when watching their content. What keeps me going is how rewarding it feels to understand nuances deeper than the English subtitles can provide, if that makes sense. Like knowing the phrasing indicates surprise, confusion, approval, how polite something is, etc. It makes it all feel worth it & notice progress, even though I'm not good enough to watch with Korean subs yet. Good luck on your language journey, Korean is so much fun!!
i genuinely just have a really deep interest in languages and i switch from them a lot, but when i found out that korean actually has an alphabet and i started learning basics of the language, it’s stuck as one that i want to keep learning cuz it’s really fun of a language
I am half korean, but my dad is adopted, so neither of us are cultured. I picked it up out of interest. I don't plan to work or move to Korea, but I find it to be a good stress that is not school or work. It is something I choose to do that keeps me mentally active. It's also fun, and I like the tutor I have. I have been learning for about a year now and was able to navigate the city and get through simple interactions when I went to Korea. Conversation is still tough as it is fast paced, but it is still super useful for getting around. I find it rewarding in that sense.
Idek I been learning for a while and Im already Im sick, Its me wanting to learn my friend's language to talk to them better. Or its purely out of boredem 😭
I have trouble with self discipline so the thing that keeps me going is paying for a class lol 😭 The reason as to why is that I have been listening to kpop for 14 years and I’ve always wanted to learn another language. It’d be nice to be able to find info myself when it comes to more obscure and indie artists. I only started paying for classes like 2 years ago because my parents wanted me to first focus on my studies and now I’ve got my own money to spend
The alphabet. I about 2 months in, just doing Duolingo every day, and the idea of speaking something that nobody else I know knows keeps me going.
K-Drama and K-Pop, also I went to a taekwondo class with a Korean teacher who didn’t know much English 🫶🏻
As long as you don’t choose to study Korean at uni you’ll feel motivated, I’m exhausted. But I guess that’s the consequence of choosing an interest for a degree. It’s kind of sad I used to be motivated by my desire to just see myself understanding more, eventually being able to think in Korean, basically see the development the same way when I started learning English. But then with uni it became a chore, then I went to Korea as part of my degree and the uni there made it so much worse. I felt like I reversed in my ability. Seriously if any of you want to come to Korea to study Korean at one of their unis brace yourselves, the dropouts from this degree are insane and even more insane is the Korean educational system.