The Korean language has been very popular among the foreigners since the K-wave hits the globe! I believe everyone has their own stories of how they started learning the language.
I wasn’t that into new languages when I was in middle school. As a typical Malaysian students, you have to master at least 2 languages at school, and to make sure you ‘excel’ in school results, I have been quite ‘language’-phobic with all the writing and memorizing. I was learning languages because I was told to do so in school, rather than just for ‘survival’ or ‘interest’.
Korean was the first language that I finally understood how someone can learn the language because of interest. Language is the door to one’s culture. Because of K-wave, I always wanted to feel a type of ‘intimacy’ with the K-pop idols and dramas. Many times we understand them through their music, but as a fan, we always wanted to know more about their personality, their speech, their culture and background. I think that’s the main reason why many K-pop fans started to learn Korean and understand the culture.
To be honest, the main motivation I started learning Korean was to able to read the Korean lyrics appeared at the bottom right during live music shows like Inkigayo and Music Bank. Not sure if it’s only me, I often refer to the lyrics down the screen and sing along with the idols. That’s a really good reason for K-pop fans to learn ‘Hangeul’ and practice it in every music shows!
![GIF] 2PM - Interview + μ°λ¦¬μ§@150621 SBS Inkigayo](https://img1.daumcdn.net/thumb/R720x0.q80/?scode=mtistory2&fname=http%3A%2F%2Fcfile6.uf.tistory.com%2Fimage%2F234C14355586C23B0E20CC)
I started learning Korean around 2010s when I started following 2PM (during ‘I’ll be back’ era). There were not much learning material compared to now in YouTube and social media. The Korean learning website, Talk To Me In Korean (TTMIK) was the pioneer of online Korean learning! The website was already well published with different levels, and most importantly the lessons are all free with notes and recording from teachers!
Self-study can be quite slow in mastering a language because of discipline. But learning basic Korean through TTMIK was very fun, and the teachers Hyun-Woo and Kyung-Eun were very engaging in their lesson recording. I enjoyed all the lessons so much that I can finish 5 to 6 lesson in a day! It was that period I found myself learning and improving the language very fast.
Just some tips to learn Korean as a beginner, firstly you should practice Hangeul and familiarize with it. Practice your reading at first without knowing the meaning. As you’re fast in reading, you can start with basic sentence structure and tenses. I spent quite some time in familiarizing with the sequences in Korean sentences and I am always bad in tenses. Start to get input of vocabulary slowly as you are learning more advanced grammar in Korean.
I still have so many to learn in Korean, especially the grammar, vocabulary and speech! I believe these can’t be mastered without long time practices. Therefore, if you’re demotivated in learning the language, just hang in there and also input language knowledge every time you watching a drama, listening to songs and music shows!
Do you have any stories like Melvin in learning Korean? Submit to us through our email mydaehan2020@gmail.com!
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