Expanding Your Language Arsenal

There is nothing more exciting than learning a new language. Some are harder than others to be sure. But, with practice and patience you can become almost fluent in any of them. Now, if you wish to learn Korean, here are some hopefully helpful tips for you.

There are many ways you can start your learning process. You can take a class, listen to audio, and thanks to technology you can use a website or listen to podcasts that teach the language. The great thing about the podcasts is that they are updated every day, so you’ll be learning something new all the time.

First Things First

Many will tell you that the first step you should take when starting out learning the Korean language is to familiarize yourself with Hangul. If you can learn to read and identify the characters you are a step ahead in the learning journey. This will also help you if you are planning a trip to Korea. You’ll be able to read menus, street signs, building numbers, and it’ll make map reading easier. Once you’ve mastered the alphabet, you can move on to reading Korean. This will take some time as it is quite a bit harder and will take a lot of practice. Finding someone who already speaks Korean to help you and to practice speaking with is the ideal method, but is probably not at your disposal.

Make yourself a small booklet full of the most used phrases and terms. Write the phrase in English and the translation in Korean. Fill it with common sentences and items such as names of restaurants, grocery items, etc. Repeat them over and over again. It’s like elementary school flash cards all over again. Sounds silly, but it works!

Keep Practicing In Your Free Time

The most ambitious of folks can find and take a Korean proficiency test to see just how far along they have come and what they still have to work on. But, if you are in a time constraint using pictures to associate with everyday objects can help greatly. Word association worked when you were a child and it still works while you’re an adult. Keep a Korean dictionary handy for those tough translations. You never know when you’ll need it.

With all the different ways there are to learn Korean, there is bound to be a method that suits your lifestyle. It’ll take dedication and commitment to master the language. But, it’ll pay off in the end. Being able to speak other languages makes you feel smart, important, and accomplished. It’s no easy task to undertake but ultimately if I need to know how to find the nearest shikdangs so I can order kimchi, I’m coming to you.

Jesse Dugan regularly writes for hundreds of blogs and news sites throughout the web. Follow him @JesseDugan.