| First and foremost, congrats on shipping! I am completely self taught. My wife is Korean and I am not. We lived in Korea for 5+ years (but in the USA now). We have two children that speak English and Korean. My Korean comprehension is quite good. We are close to the Korean side of our family and we're surrounded by Korean all the time (even in the USA). All of that is to give some context for how I learned Korean and what has worked (and didn't work) for me. What has worked wonderfully: 1. Learn Hangul (Korean alphabet) immediately. You simply cannot learn or study Korean with romanization of any kind. 2. Deliberate textbook study with an emphasis on grammar (for example, Korean Grammar in Use by Darakwon). 3. Learning vocabulary in context of the grammar from #2. For example, take a noun/verb out of a new grammar structure and replace with new ones. Always study in the context of grammar and structure. 4. Listening comprehension through transcription. Given some Korean audio, listen and transcribe what is said in Korean. This certainly helps train your ear to pick up native Korean. Korean you hear from textbook audio is very easy and doesn't help in real life. What did not work for me: 1. Using Anki to cram words in my head. Sure-- everyone can grab a 2k or 6k deck of words and memorize them, but you won't know how or when to use anything. You also won't be able to recall much of it. 2. Watching drama or reading webtoons. It's tempting to call this "studying" but it's really low bandwidth. What you get out of it is in no way at all related to the amount of time it takes. You'd be better off with 10 minutes and a textbook than a 50 minute drama that takes you 600 minutes to get through looking up words and grammar. 3. The cult/following of "total immersion/no output" which was born out of the Ajatt method of learning Japanese. It's baloney. Sorry if this includes your tool :) |