Have you ever thought of reading Korean eBooks on a Kindle?
Well, sorry to burst your bubble. Even though you technically can, you'll quickly find that your selection of books are very limited.
Have you tried searching for Korean books on Amazon?

![Korean books search result](/posts/20210810171153-about-korean-ebooks/korean-amazon.jpg)

Yuck, you're telling me that only *these* kind of books are available?
What about interesting books that **real** Korean people read, like these?

![Yes24 Bestseller list](/posts/20210810171153-about-korean-ebooks/yes24.jpg)

In this post, I'll be showing you what options you have for reading Korean eBooks, especially if you don't live within Korea and don't have a Korean credit card.

# Some Background on Korean eBooks

When I reached the intermediate stage of learning Korean, I wanted to find interesting books to read to expand my vocabulary.
I tried buying physical Korean books, but they took up my already diminishing bedroom space, and I didn't always know whether I would end up reading the books.
So I turned to looking for eBooks.
Being the technological giant that Korea was, it should be easy to find eBooks, right?

**Nope.**

It seems like the Korean book industry is dominated by a few big book companies like Kyobo and YES24, and they had made eBook reading inaccessible.
Their eBooks are heavily DRM-protected, which means that you have to read the eBooks on their e-reader (which seem to be overpriced and underperformant).
DRM removal is non-existent for these Korean eBooks because there is simply not enough demand for it.
You most likely need to have a Korean CC or jump through some ridiculous hoops to buy the eBooks, and their propietary eBook reading software is horrible.
Even my favorite of the lot, Millie, has subpar propietary reading software (as compared to something like Moon Reader+) but I overlooked it because of its greater selection of eBooks.

Maybe things will change down the line, but for now, the landscape is pretty limited and you'd do best to just adapt to it.

# [밀리의 서재 (Millie)](https://www.millie.co.kr/)

:::buying{price="9,900KRW / Month"}

::rating{label="Selection" rating="4"}
::rating{label="Value for money" rating="5"}
::rating{label="Ease of access" rating="4"}

:::

:::row

![Millie App Screen](/posts/20210810171153-about-korean-ebooks/millie-1.jpg)

![Millie App Books](/posts/20210810171153-about-korean-ebooks/millie-2.jpg)

![Millie Story Screen](/posts/20210810171153-about-korean-ebooks/millie-3.jpg)

:::

Millie is my current choice for having a wide selection of books
I've made a pretty detailed post about [밀리의 서재 here](/posts/millie) and how you can make use of it to further your Korean learning journey.

If you just want a quick and dirty summary of it, my reasons for picking Millie is that:

1.  It's very affordable at about the same price of a Netflix subscription.
2.  It has a wide selection of Korean eBooks and audiobooks - similar to a bundled Kindle Unlimited and Audible. It's even more valuable when you consider that you probably don't really know what books you can or cannot understand yet.
3.  Their library is frequently updated, including recent bestsellers, as well as localized works like Factfulness and Atomic Habits. They currently boast over 100,000 Korean eBooks.
4.  Their books are DRM locked but you can access them on all major platforms. If you have an Android-based e-Reader like the [Onyx Boox](https://www.boox.com/), they are compatible.

# [Google Play Books](https://play.google.com/store/books)

:::buying{price="Variable"}

::rating{label="Selection" rating="2"}
::rating{label="Value for money" rating="5"}
::rating{label="Ease of access" rating="5"}

:::

![Google Play Books](/posts/20210810171153-about-korean-ebooks/googleplay-books.jpg)

You might not think of Google Play books when buying English eBooks, but it is surprisingly a strong contender for Korean eBooks.
Its selection is quite limited, and it's all mixed up with books of other languages.
However, its strongest point is that it's DRM is easily removable.
All you need to do is to use a *certain* Calibre plugin to remove the Adobe DRM from the book, and you can now read the book on any device.
On top of that, the eBooks tend to be pretty cheap as compared to the other big book sites.

If you're trying to find new books to read, I suggest not starting that search on Google Play Books.
The search is suboptimal at best and there's no way to filter your search properly.
Instead, I recommend you to first find a book to read on one of the big Korean book sites like [Kyobo](https://www.kyobobook.co.kr/), [YES24](http://www.yes24.com/), or [Aladin](https://www.aladin.co.kr/), and then finally search Google Play Books to buy the book.

If you can buy an eBook on Google Play Books rather than the other eBook sites, you definitely should since you can easily remove the DRM from Google Play Books, making the book that you bought truly your own.

# [Kyobo SAM 무제한](https://sam.kyobobook.co.kr/sbweb/samclub/samInfinityGuide.ink?guideCd=1)

:::buying{price="9,900KRW / Month"}

::rating{label="Selection" rating="3"}
::rating{label="Ease of access" rating="2"}

:::

![Kyobo SAM](/posts/20210810171153-about-korean-ebooks/sam-sale.jpg)

Kyobo SAM 무제한 is Kyobo's take on Kindle Unlimited in Korea.
From the picture above, they currently have ~66,500 eBooks available, a whopping 33,000 less than Millie.

They do seem to have expanded their selection of books from when I last visited them, but it still seems like they are lagging behind Millie from the numbers.

![Kyobo SAM Books](/posts/20210810171153-about-korean-ebooks/sam-books.jpg)

I haven't personally used this service, before so I'll refrain from commenting on how good it actually is.
However, one thing to take note is that you probably need to have a Korean CC for this, as it is subscription based.
I remember trying to sign up for the free trial, but my card got promptly denied and I couldn't even try the service. Boo 👎

This service might be good if you have a specific book in mind that you want to read and it is only available here.
Otherwise, you should look at the alternatives in this post.

# Single eBooks from Kyobo, Yes24, Aladin, or other sites

Even with all these great "unlimited reading" subscriptions, there might be some books that you really want to read but are unavailable on these subscriptions.
In that case, you can consider buying a single eBook from the big book shops.
It can be quite troublesome to do so though, since some of their sites are quite archaic and have a terrible user experience.
You might also find yourself unable to buy the eBook if their payment system only accepts Korean CCs (which is another common pain in many Korea-only sites).
Do think carefully about which vendor you want to buy from, because you'll be locked into their reading platform when you want to read your book.
I suggest downloading their application first before committing to a purchase.

On top of that, some of these big book shops **don't support all platforms**.
If they only have applications for mobile devices, you will not be able to read your books on your computer without the use of an emulator.

Personally, I look at these things before committing to a purchase for an eBook:

1.  Cross-platform: Must at least support Android + Windows, or provide a cloud syncing service for notes and bookmarks
2.  Cloud-based notes and bookmarks so my notes are synced to and from each platform
3.  Quick dictionary-lookup is a major plus

If you're interested in how I rapidly expand my passive vocabulary with eBooks, I'll be making a post on it sometime in the future, so subscribe to the mailing list and get notified!

# Libraries?

Although Korean libraries have a sizable number of Korean eBooks that you can loan, it seems impossible to access unless you have a Korean residency card or something.
It's such a pity...

# Conclusion

Hopefully this post has helped you to understand the options that you have when it comes to Korean eBooks.
Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section below and let me know what are your thoughts on Korean eBooks!


About Korean eBooks: Millie, SAM, Google Play Books, and more!

If you've been around on the Korean part of the Internet long enough, you might have seen these characters floating around.
Unlike ㅋ or ㅎ which most beginning Korean learners see and understand, these ones don't seem to be so straightforward.
When I first came across the multitudes of Korean Slang in the YouTube comment section, I didn't know what they meant, but upon closer inspection they are quite simple to understand.

Let's take a look at these two Korean slang words!

# ㄹㅇ

Hint: Koreans like to abbreviate common words even though they don't seem to save many keystrokes or taps.

Can you guess what this term means using the hint above?
Here's an example of it in the wild in a YouTube video.

![ㄹㅇ](/posts/20210717140141-internet-slang-part-1/real.jpg)

It's an abbreviation that expands into 리얼/레알, which is just the English loanword for "Real".
Its meaning can either be "real" or "really" based on its context.
It can be used on its own to express agreement or empathy towards what someone else said, or can be used to emphasize something like how "really" would be used.

# ㅇㅈ

What about this one? Can you guess what it's short for?

This is an abbreviation for [인정](https://krdict.korean.go.kr/eng/dicSearch/SearchView?wordMatchFlag=N\&mainSearchWord=%EC%9D%B8%EC%A0%95\&currentPage=1\&sort=W\&searchType=W\&proverbType=\&exaType=\&ParaWordNo=72540\&nation=eng\&nationCode=6\&viewType=A\&blockCount=10\&viewTypes=on), which means the acknowledgement or recgonition of something.

It's commonly used to express either a similar sentiment to what someone else said, or to acknowledge what someone else said.

You can see here how a a certain YouTube commenter is using it to agree with the sentiment of the original commenter.

![ㅇㅈ](/posts/20210717140141-internet-slang-part-1/injeong.jpg)

# Using Korean Slang

Korean slang can be quite daunting to a Korean learner, just like how English learners find English slang difficult to understand.
But if you know at least some of these, I believe that you'll be able to connect better to your Korean friends! (Or at least, those in their early 20s and younger)

Just like how English slang evolves over time (Hardly anyone 5 years ago would have used words like "yeet", "sheesh", and "drip" in the way we use it now), Korean slang should and will evolve over time.

Don't get too caught up in trying to master all slang words that you see - who knows, they'll be outdated in a couple months and you'll become a 꼰대 ㅋㅋ

Next time round, I'll be covering a few other abbreviations such as ㄹㅈㄷ, ㅅㅂ, ㅈㄴ.
Subscribe to the mailing list to get notified when my posts go live!


Korean Slang

Korean Internet Slang Part 1: ㄹㅇ, ㅇㅈ

If you're looking for Korean lessons but you don't have easy access to them either because there are no good Korean teachers in your vicinity, or just because it's hard to commit to a fixed timeslot every week, italki might be just the thing for you.
[italki](https://www.italki.com/i/ref/DbHc6a?hl=en) is a platform where you can find teachers for almost every language you can think of.
You get to pick your teachers and timeslots, making it very flexible.
On top of that, they are likely to be much cheaper than regular in-person lessons.
I'll also write about my own personal experience using italki and why I am still using it.

Let's get started!

# What kind of teachers are there on italki?

![italki teachers](/posts/20210709103312-italki/italki.jpg)

italki allows all kinds of teachers on their platform and labels them as either a **community tutor** or a **professional teacher**.
A community tutor is a teacher who does not have any professional qualifications, but still wants to teach.
On the other hand, a professional teacher is one who is certified with some sort of teaching qualification in the language that he/she is teaching.
A lesson from a community teacher is usually much cheaper than one from a professional teacher.

Depending on your learning style, you might prefer one over the other.
From my experience, professional tutors tend to give lessons that follow a syllabus, and community tutors are a bit more easygoing.
Of course, this varies from tutor to tutor so the best way to find out how a teacher teaches is to send them a message on the platform, or simply take one of their trial lessons.

Each tutor usually has a video introduction in addition to an "About me" section, so you can see what a teacher is like before booking any of their lessons.
italki allows you to book trial lessons as well, which are lessons that last for half an hour and cost less than a regular lesson.
This is a good way to get a feel of what a regular lesson might feel like, as well as getting to know the teacher's teaching styles.

# Booking your first lesson

After picking a teacher that you think you can get along with, you can check their availability at the side of the page, like so.

![Teacher availability](/posts/20210709103312-italki/avail.jpg)

The teacher's availability should be shown in your local timezone, so you don't have to do any mental arithmetic! 😂

You can simply then pick the lesson type (which differs from teacher to teacher), select a timeslot, and send the teacher a text message introducing yourself.
The teacher will then have up to 48 hours to accept or deny your request.

All that's left to do is to wait for the lesson to begin!

# My experience using italki

![My italki experience](/posts/20210709103312-italki/italki-exp.jpg)

As you can see, I took over 140 lessons (in Japanese and Korean) in the span of 3 or so years, which may not seem like a lot.
For me, I like to see italki as a supplementary learning tool in addition to my primary method of learning.

The teachers I've met so far are really nice people, and I've even met them in person before!
I find that the more lessons I took, the better the teacher understood me, and the more interesting the lesson content became.
Also, the teachers tend to cover areas that I tend to skip over.

Learning from teachers on italki also motivates me to continue learning, since it feels like wasting money if I don't put in the effort.

The only downside that I can think of is that since the teachers tend to teach many students at a go, they might not be able to always remember specific things about you.
Also, it might not be so good for absolute beginners since some teachers can struggle a bit in explaining some concepts.
If you are an absolute beginner, it might be a good idea to ask if the teacher is comfortable with explaining things in your native language.

Overall, I still think using italki has helped me lots in my language learning journey, and strongly recommend it to people who like 1-1 lessons.

# Signing up for italki

You can sign up for italki by clicking [here using my referral link](https://www.italki.com/i/ref/DbHc6a?hl=en).
Once you successfully complete a lesson, you'll get $10 worth of italki credits for your next lesson!


How to Learn Korean

How To Learn Korean Part 1: The Basics

The Korean-English Learners' Dictionary

italki - Online Language Lessons Without Commitment

Today, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite ways of obtaining access to Korean books: [밀리의 서재 (Millie)](https://www.millie.co.kr/).

To cut to the chase, you can think of it as a subscription to Kindle Unlimited and Audible for a monthly price of ~10 USD.
I think that it's a pretty good deal and is the perfect subscription for an intermediate or advanced Korean learner.

Burning to know how it works? Let's get started!

# What is it?

:::row
![Millie App Screen](/posts/20210708131500-millie/millie-1.jpg)

![Millie Story Screen](/posts/20210708131500-millie/millie-3.jpg)
:::

It's a subscription service where you pay **9,900 KRW (~10 USD)** to access their library of books and audiobooks.
They have applications on iOS, Android, PC, and Mac, making it very accessible to everyone.

In my search for accessible Korean reading and listening materials, I was disappointed to find that there were relatively few services similar to Kindle Unlimited in which you pay a fixed monthly fee to gain access to a library of books.
Other than 밀리의 서재, there are a few other options like Kyobo's SAM, but they tend to have a worse selection of books (I read from a Korean blog somewhere which concluded that Millie had the widest range of books).

![Millie Audiobooks](/posts/20210708131500-millie/millie-2.jpg)

On top of access to their books, you also gain access to their audiobooks.
One thing to take note for their audiobooks is that they are not readings of the full text.
They only read the main parts of the book, which typically runs about 30-40 minutes per book.
Depending on your preferences, you may think this is great (being able to listen to more books in less time) or bad (no full reading of the entire book).
The readers vary from professional audiobook readers to celebrities to the actual authors of the books.
In my opinion, this is one of their defining features - no other service that I know of has this.

The audiobook feature is also great for learners because the words that are being read are highlighted as the audio goes on, so you will not lose track of where you are.

# Why pay for it?

Korean books aren't very accessible.
I live in Singapore, and no major bookstore sells Korean books.
As such, I obtain all my physical Korean books by importing them directly from GMarket Korea.
It's not cheap, and the wait times are long.

As for e-books, they are not really that accessible to foreigners.
Also, most e-book vendors have heavy DRM on their e-books, making it accessible only on their application (which if they were good would be no problem, but that's not the case).
The only exception that I know whose DRM can be easily removed would be Google Play books, but their selection of Korean books is quite limited.
e-Books are also not much cheaper as compared to their physical counterparts for the most part.

As such, having a subscription service is ideal.
Even though it's not perfect, it's good enough for finding new books to read without having to fork out too much money.

# It works well on Android e-Readers too!

![Millie on an eReader](/posts/20210708131500-millie/millie-ereader.jpg)

I have an [Onyx Boox Nova 3](https://www.boox.com/nova3/) which I do much of my reading on, and it's perfect for Millie!
Unfortunately, you will not be able to install Millie onto the more mainstream e-readers like the Kindle or the Nook because they are not running Android.

# Okay, I'm sold. How can I start a subscription?

You can start a subscription by downloading their application ([iOS](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/%EB%B0%80%EB%A6%AC%EC%9D%98-%EC%84%9C%EC%9E%AC/id1213788923), [Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.co.millie.millieshelf\&hl=en_US\&gl=US)), signing up for an account, and purchasing their monthly subscription.

If you try to subscribe to the service via their web portal instead of using the application, you'll notice that no matter how hard you try, your payment just won't go through.
This is because Millie only accepts credit cards that are issued in Korea.
This is quite a bummer and I initially gave up on Millie because of this, balking at the 30% cut that the Play Store would make on my recurring subscription.

However, after reading some discussions online, I was alerted to the fact that you could bypass this restriction by paying for the subscription either via the Play Store (for Android), or via the App Store (for Apple).
This does come at the Google/Apple tax of 30% though, so you'd have to pay that much more each month for the subscription service.
However, with no other viable alternative, I think it's a reasonable price to pay for what you are getting.

To do this, you have to start the subscription on your mobile device instead of doing it online.

# Great, I signed up!

Yay, your world of learning materials just increased by a lot!
I hope that you'll gain as much from this service as I did.


밀리의 서재: Kindle Unlimited + Audible for Korean Books

When you're learning a language, dictionaries help you out a lot by showing you a word's definitions, example sentences, and other useful information.
If you're just starting out in Korean, you might not have a go-to dictionary yet.
I'd like to introduce you to my favourite dictionary for Korean learners, and show you some of its key features.
Let's get started!

# [The Korean-English Learners' Dictionary](https://krdict.korean.go.kr/eng/)

![The Korean-English Learners' Dictionary Homepage](/posts/20210707192845-dictionaries-how-to-use-them-effectively/krdict-eng.jpg)

This dictionary is possibly the best learning tool that you will have in the early stages of learning Korean.
Other than providing you with definitions of words, it also provides you with the correct pronunciation for word compounds and plenty of example sentences and phrases.
I found those to be really helpful, especially since Korean pronunciation can be so unintuitive at times.
For example, 깻잎 is pronounced as 깬닙.
I definitely didn't get that right the first time round 😂

# Searching for a word

![Search page](/posts/20210707192845-dictionaries-how-to-use-them-effectively/krdict-search.jpg)

You can search for either a Korean word or an English word, which will result in a page of words that start with your search query.

The search result page is full of information!
Let's try to break it down.

![Search Explanation](/posts/20210707192845-dictionaries-how-to-use-them-effectively/search-explanation.jpg)

As you can see, just by searching for a term, we can glean lots of information immediately just from reading the search entry.

In each search entry, you'll also see a very succinct English translation, followed by its Korean definition, and then further followed by a more lengthy English explanation.
If you only see the English translations, it's most likely the case that your "View Mode" (set on the right side of the page) is set to only English.

The first English translation is the canonical translation of the term, but many times, this is not sufficient.
There are many nuances in Korean that are different from those in English, and the most succinct translation usually fails to capture that.

For an example, if you take a look at this definition, you can see that the English translations are more or less the same, but the contexts in which they should be used are different.

![Search multiple definitions](/posts/20210707192845-dictionaries-how-to-use-them-effectively/krdict-defn.jpg)

As such, the more lengthy explanations are very useful, and should be what you look at when searching this dictionary.

# Word Details

![Word Details](/posts/20210707192845-dictionaries-how-to-use-them-effectively/krdict-details.jpg)

Once you enter into the details page for a word, you'll see a bit more information.

You'll see example phrases and sentences, as well as any images or videos that help to explain the term better.
These example phrases and sentences are very helpful in helping you understand what contexts in which the word should be used in.
The example sentences are much simpler than example sentences in other dictionaries (e.g. Naver Dictionary, Daum Dictionary), which make it less daunting for you to read them.
Furthermore, if a word has multiple meanings, each meaning will have its own set of examples, which can help you to learn the differences better. 😎

# Moving On

Now, you're a pro at navigating the Korean-English learner's dictionary! 🎉

This tool should be a staple in your learning journey.
The only downside that it has is that it is quite a bit slower in terms of loading speed as compared to the larger dictionaries.
However, due to how much value it provides, I find myself returning to this dictionary all the time.

When you feel more confident, feel free to use the K-K dictionary instead!
Eventually, I'd like to make a post about transitioning to using K-K dictionaries, and whether it has been helpful or not.

That's all for now, and enjoy your Korean learning journey!


*Last modified: 3rd July 2021*

I know it might not be easy to gather Korean learning resources - especially once you reach the intermediate levels.
That's why I created this **Korean Learning Resources Master List**, which will hopefully provide everyone of all levels with the appropriate learning materials.
My aim is to periodically update this list with more and better tools.

Feel free to contribute in the comments section, or by emailing me at **hello@mykoreanbits.com**!

# Beginner Resources

These are resources that you'll find useful if you're starting out and know only a little amount of vocabulary and grammar.

## 1. [Korean-English Learners' Dictionary](https://krdict.korean.go.kr/eng/mainAction)

![Search page of the Korean-English Learners' Dictionary](/posts/20210702212909-korean-learning-resources-master-list/kr-dict-1.jpg)

This dictionary is really helpful, and I still use this quite a fair bit. Other than providing you with a translation, it also gives you a more descriptive explanation, which tries to follow the Korean explanation.
On top of that, they also provide you with many example phrases and sentences when you go into each definition page.
My only gripe with this tool is that their servers are not very powerful, which can lead to slow load times occasionally.

## 2. [Talk To Me in Korean (TTMIK)](https://talktomeinkorean.com/)

![TTMIK Homepage](/posts/20210702212909-korean-learning-resources-master-list/ttmik.jpg)

Have you really searched for "How to learn Korean" without chancing upon this site? 😂
Jokes aside, TTMIK has been helping people learn Korean in a fun way over many years.
I find their audio lessons a bit slow, but you may find it useful if it suits your learning style.
Some of their more useful resources are now locked behind a paywall, but the free materials can still be pretty helpful in the early stages.

## 3. [How to study Korean](https://www.howtostudykorean.com/)

![How to study Korean Homepage](/posts/20210702212909-korean-learning-resources-master-list/how-to-study-korean.jpg)

The very aptly named "How to study Korean" aims to be a one-stop portal for all matters Korean from pronunciation and the very basics to pretty advanced grammatical lessons.
I used this site extensively earlier on, but I found it to be quite dry after some time.
Each lesson here contains a vocabulary list, an explanation of some grammar, and many example sentences together with audio recordings.
In my opinion, you can get a pretty solid foundation from this site and recommend it strongly.

# Intermediate Resources

These resources will be useful to you once you can at least read 한글 without much difficulty and know at least basic grammar and a good chunk of vocabulary.

## 1. Webtoons ([Naver](https://comic.naver.com/index.nhn), [Daum](http://webtoon.daum.net/))

![Naver Webtoon: Yumi's Cells](/posts/20210702212909-korean-learning-resources-master-list/webtoon.jpg)

Webtoons are essentially web comics and can be really interesting!
It might be somewhat tough to understand initially, as slang, curse words, and slurred words appear somewhat frequently.
That being said, you're never going to become fluent by reading textbooks so why not enjoy some light-hearted comics while you're learning?

Here are some of my recommendations, although I don't read webtoons that much:

1.  [유미의 세포들](https://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=651673)

    This is the only webtoon that I've read through until the end, and I really enjoyed it. This series is rather easy to follow, and each episode is relatively short.

2.  [소녀의 세계](https://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=654774)

    It got popular enough that it got a web drama adaptation, which got me into this series. This series contains a lot of highschool slang, so if you are trying to sound like a highschool girl you could pick up some useful phrases from here.

3.  [여신강림](https://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=654774)

    A formerly (conventionally) ugly girl becomes a goddess due to the power of makeup. 🤔 It's quite interesting.

## 2. Web Drama Series and YouTube

Web Drama series tend to be romance-themed, and each episode runs from 5 to 20 minutes usually.
Some of them can have pretty bad acting, but you can think of it like very light-hearted content that isn't meant to be analyzed deeply.
I prefer watching these over actual K-Dramas because each episode is substantially shorter.
Plus, most of them have Korean subtitles by default, which is great for learning.
Also, some of them can have pretty... interesting themes. And some of them can just be advertisements.
I actually watched a web drama series which was just an advertisement for Subway. 😂

For YouTube channels, there are probably way too many to count. There are some pretty good channels if you look around.
Best of all, they're all free!

Some of my favourite channels and web dramas:

1.  [ShortPaper 짧은 대본](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChgOgRNxrtCcVARDQT_c-Zg)

![ShortPaper](/posts/20210702212909-korean-learning-resources-master-list/webdrama.jpg)

This is a web drama channel, but each episode can be viewed independently of each other.
However, once you get to know the cast and their relationships well, rewatching episodes can be really fun too.
Their videos are so good, and they are really funny! They also have Korean subtitles for all their videos, so that's a plus point.

2.  [Claire Luvcat 크집사](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkuA_gDjISfGgbdp02BUwyQ)

![Claire Luvcat](/posts/20210702212909-korean-learning-resources-master-list/claire-luvcat.jpg)

This channel mostly has vlogs of Claire and her 10 cats. Her fun personality and her adorable 10 cats will keep your eyes glued to the screen.
Also, there are Korean subtitles!

## 3. Games

I like to play games, and I attribute my Japanese fluency to the abundance of Japanese games out there that I played.
However, I feel like there aren't as many games that support Korean and have a good amount of easy-to-understand text.
That being said, there are still quite a few games that I can recommend if you prefer interactive ways of learning.
I definitely think being able to play a game in Korean tests your comprehension more than anything else, because your clues to advancing in the game lies solely on your ability to comprehend the instructions that the game gives you.

1.  [Phoenix Wright 역전재판](https://store.steampowered.com/app/787480/Phoenix_Wright_Ace_Attorney_Trilogy/)

![Phoenix Wright](/posts/20210702212909-korean-learning-resources-master-list/phoenix-wright.jpg)

It's a pretty old game, but it's still good.
The game revolves around a lawyer in Japan who needs to defend his clients, who are usually charged with heinous crimes like murder.
The original game came out in Japan, but it has received a Korean localization, which seems to be pretty good.
My only gripe is that it is not voiced 😔

2.  [Persona 4 Golden](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1113000/Persona\_4\_Golden/)

![Persona 4 Golden](/posts/20210702212909-korean-learning-resources-master-list/persona4.jpg)

Yet another game that was localized from Japan.
It's a pretty good JRPG.

# Advanced Resources

\-- To be continued --


Korean Learning Resources Master List

Want to learn Korean but don't know where to start? Here's a guide that should help you get started!
This guide will contain the methods that I used over the last 2-3 years to learn Korean.
It's not perfect, nor do I claim it to be the best method, so just adopt the methods that you find useful in your own learning journey.

# Why Learn Korean?

Why bother learning Korean when globalization is ramping up every day, and your favourite K-Dramas are subtitled in English anyway?
The answer to this question should vary wildly between individuals - whether you are learning because you want to connect on a deeper level with your favorite idol group, whether you want to watch K-Drama without subtitles, or whether you just think it's fun.
There's no best answer, but your answer will likely change how committed you will be to learning.

And that's fine! Don't make it an obligation to learn Korean, it is something that you get to do in today's information age at a fraction of the cost as compared to decades ago.

Personally, I started learning Korean because I wanted a new language to learn after getting fairly advanced proficiency in Japanese, and continued learning because of the friends that I made.

One (mis)quote that really stuck with me in my journey was this:

> “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”
> \- Nelson Mandela

I've managed to experience this firsthand in my relationships with people whom I can speak Korean or Japanese to.
It definitely feels like you can connect on a deeper level when you can speak the same language.

I hope that you too, can find a beautiful reason to learn Korean (or any other language, for that matter).

# Getting Started - Hangeul (한글)

The first step to getting started with Korean is most definitely to learn Hangeul (한글) first.
Learning Korean via romanization is something that I abhor because I think that it is nothing more than a learning clutch that will impede future progress.
To make my point, I'd like to challenge you to find someone who's fluent in a language but uses romanization when reading. I honestly think it's impossible.
I understand that you want to get to the fun parts of learning the language, but for Korean, since learning 한글 can take as little as 30 minutes, you have no excuse not to.

Besides, learning to read a new script is pretty fun!
Here's a video that slowly walks you through the learning process.
I haven't actually watched it, but it seems like there are many similar videos on YouTube so just head on over and search for something like "Learn Hangeul in 30 minutes".

::youtube{url="https://youtu.be/85qJXvyFrIc"}

Don't worry if you don't get this down perfectly, with enough time and practice it should eventually get to a point where it feels like reading new English words - you have a good idea of how to pronounce it, but you don't know the meaning of it yet.

You might want to use a tool like [Anki](https://ankiweb.net/), or any other [Spaced Repetition Software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition) to ingrain them into your long-term memory.
I use Anki in my day-to-day routine of committing new words to my long-term memory, and I'll touch on it in a later article as it is a core part of my language learning journey.

# Pronunciation

This is an area that I encourage you to work on as early in your language learning journey as possible for the sole reason that good pronunciation habits and bad pronunciation habits alike are hard to change.
If your ultimate goal is to sound like a native, then you should consider putting in effort in this area early on, as the effort required to change your existing habits can become monumental as time goes on.

There's a 4-part series from FluentForever on YouTube that will help address pronunciation matters in Korean - it's really good and I highly recommend that you go through all 4 parts when you're starting out.
It only takes about 50 minutes and you'll be setting the groundwork for top-notch pronunciation as you go on.
You might have to learn a little about the [International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet) which sounds daunting, but I assure you that you will not be disappointed when you compare your pronunciation to other Korean learners who did not do this simple bit of pronunciation training early on.

::youtube{url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVqJbiSLw-E"}

# Get Some Reading Practice

Now we're finally getting to the fun part! With your new found knowledge, you are now equipped to read almost any Korean article on the planet, although you might still make a few mistakes here and there, or are unsure of the irregularities in Korean pronunciation. (For example, 악마 is pronounced like *ang-ma*, not *ak-ma* like you might initially think)

I recommend that you sound each syllable out loud and clear while doing your reading practice, and have a cheat sheet nearby to confirm that what you are reading is actually correct.
Alternatively, you can make use of [Google Translate's](https://translate.google.com/) text-to-speech function to quickly verify your pronunciation.

![Google Translate TTS function](/posts/20210630220000-how-to-learn-korean-part-1/gtranslate-audio.jpg)

Here are some sites that you can use for practice:

*   [Naver News](https://news.naver.com/)
*   [Naver Webtoons](https://comic.naver.com/index.nhn)
*   [Daum Webtoons](http://webtoon.daum.net/)
*   [brunch](https://brunch.co.kr/)

A reading practice session might go something like this:

1.  Read one line / heading on a page
2.  Check and verify your pronunciation
3.  Repeat until confident

Sometimes, you might see irregular pronunciations like the 악마 example above, but it's not your fault - you just don't know the rules yet.
As long as you verify that you are **correctly practicing character recognition**, it's all good! You can learn about these irregular pronunciations next time.

# I can easily read 한글, now what?

There's still a long journey ahead of you, but I'd like to keep this post short 😂
In the future posts in this series, I will continue to explain my methodology for learning Korean.
Language learning is supposed to be fun and I hope I can make it that way for you too!


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