Don't make these 3 mistakes as a Korean learner!

Please leave comments if you have any thoughts about these 3 pitfalls. Also, please share if you have any potential pitfalls or useful tips in learning Korean! We'd LOVE to hear them! 💜

0:00-0:40 Intro
0:41-2:09 First Mistake
2:10-3:53 Second Mistake
3:54-5:14 Third Mistake
5:15-5:53 Outro

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Song: 부럽지가 않어 Envy none
Artist: 장기하 Chang Kiha

Song: 서울의 잠 못 이루는 밤 Sleepless in Seoul
Artist: 10CM
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#LearnKorean #TTMIK #한국어

[mochipjamas]

Now that I can read Hangeul, Romanization looks like gibberish. I would honestly say THE most important first step in learning Korean is to learn Hangeul!

[SSJBen]

I will add a No.4: Being afraid to make mistakes because you think it's shameful.

I think most beginners fail to go forward in a language they're learning beyond the beginner stage is because they're too self aware of the mistakes they'd do. I encourage beginners of any language (not just Korean) to make as much mistakes as possible, because that really is the FASTEST and most efficient way to learn a language.

What's the worst that could happen? People would just laugh at your grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary? So what? At least you made that person's day by giving them a something to laugh at right?

[sorrybutnotreally]

Yeji쌤’s English speaking visibly improved a lot! I’m impressed! She was already good but now she’s even better. A very good example of practice makes progress👏🏻☀️

[auricia]

Great tips! I never used romanization, it actually makes things harder! Not everyone uses the same pronunciation of the Latin Alphabet, so it's like learning a new alphabet altogether...and the words end up being so long and hard to read!
It's way better to learn Hangul right away 😁 plus, it's so cute so why wouldn't we?
It did help to make some association with latin letters in the beginning, but one that I chose myself, to match the sounds that I'm used to in my native language.

[msantiago]

Thank you! That’s why I think short simple stories (written for kids) help. Beginners learn vocabulary, grammar and practice reading….

[jamggurogi]

Great tips! I quite agree, not that I'm surprised of course :) If I may add some from my own experience, here's 3 pitfalls I might add if anyone is interested:

1) Don't try to learn too much at once. Find a number of words/phrases per day, and stick with that instead. When you learn 10 words, after a few minutes you'll feel like you're done, and that you could do so much more. But the real work load doesn't come from the first time learning something, but reviewing it later once it's gone again (and it WILL be gone again), along with several days' worth of more reviews. If you do too much per day, it will become harder to remember what you are learning, and the amount of words you didn't remember well from the last few weeks will pile on more and more, until you'll get overwhelmed spending hours per day just on reviews that don't seem to help, get demotivated, and may even just give up. Find something that's sustainable, even if it's tempting to "get a lot done" on a single day when you have the time and feel full of motivation! Bonus tip: I've recently discovered (through an app usage tracking app) that I spend about 45 minutes per day on learning new words + reviewing old ones. You could try using this kind of time tracking to see if the time you spend on your current regimen is increasing over time -- if so, you should be patient and reduce the number of words, so that the time you spend per day is constant at a level that works for you!

2) Don't let one area progress too far beyond the other. I found this when for some time I focused solely on TTMIK's main grammar lessons. Although it's excellent, I found myself studying very advanced grammar, while missing so much vocabulary. Bursts of grammar learning are fine, but it's good to then spend some time catching up with vocabulary, or it will be difficult to learn advanced grammar. Bonus points if you reinforce the grammar you've learned with the vocabulary you're learning!

3) Don't worry about sounding natural (at first, by the time you don't need these tips anymore, probably you'll be far enough that you can start worrying about this). Make a million mistakes per sentence, pronounce things weirdly, forget words, it doesn't matter so don't feel embarrassed about it. Practice finding ways to communicate even when all that you've learned doesn't come back to you, and you know you're saying something wrong, but still you can get your point across. For first-time language learners it may feel hard to swallow one's pride like that, but once you've done it, you can start truly using what you've learned, and that's the only way to "learn the language" instead of just "remembering facts about a language". Over time, you'll become more natural. The first priority, in my opinion, should be communication! Flawless communication indistinguishable from natives can come later :) Quick note: it is good to try to learn correct pronunciations etc right from the start, because bad habits are hard to fix, I am talking about the time when you try to actively use learned things, not when you learn them in the first place.

[aileenoliaei]

I highly highly agree with the 3rd tip.
I remember my English teacher told me about this tip a couple of years ago and in that time it really didn’t make sense to me.
But a few years later I started to think in English in order to speak in English, and now when trying to speak in Korean I try to think in Korean. It takes time to think this way but once you start doing it, it makes the whole process a lot more easier

[liyan]

Hangul is so useful even if you don't plan on going further than that (or lose momentum in learning Korean) because it helps with reading video titles, finding names (e.g. music show who-is-singing label, any fancam where idols are name labels, etc.), reading logos which can't be copy-pasted (aka embedded into the video), etc. Hangul is very easy to learn and very memorable even after a year or two without actively reading it. It personally took me a day to learn the basics and then the rest of the week just writing the alphabet over and over again for it to become part of my long-term memory. Now I want to actually learn more and the 3rd mistake is something I still struggle with, but I've gotten into conlang and artlang so I think I'm more equipped to not fall into the think-then-translate problem.

[sorrybutnotreally]

I recommend Epik High’s songs because Tablo is a lyrical genius😍

[snehasharma_]

She is giving such a cutest expression in thumbnail 🥺

[gelaiana]

When I started learning Korean I relied on romanizations but now it just distracts me from memorizing well. Mastering 한글 is indeed the most useful step in learning Korean ♡

[ximenakokoro]

Kpop is the reason that I started trying to learn Korean, and I definitely agree with the second tip. Even though I'm still very much a beginner, I can tell a bit of a difference between song lyrics and the way idols actually speak. But it's also great because I can practice speaking while learning lyrics and also get a better feel for the language through variety shows and similar things

[nitalishii]

I prefer reading hangul/한글 because it is honestly so much easier and I feel very comfortable reading hangul instead, which is why I don’t rely on romanized English, thank you very much TTMIK for letting us beginner and higher learners know! :)

[beaaaa]

For people wanting to learn Korean, I suggest to start with the alphabet, consonants, vowels and double consonants, after learning this it’ll be more easier when pronouncing and learning hangeul!

[Sum_mers]

I have to be honest that watching variety shows helped me learn more vocub words and natural phrases. Watching Run BTS And TXT's To Do really reallly helped me a lot than kdrama ❤️

[michaelcorbett]

When I started learning other languages especially Tagalog and Korean, I realised that English ( and especially English spoken where I originally come from - Belfast in Northern Ireland) has way more complicated phrases than is necessary. Maybe it's an Irish thing in that everything has to have a tinge of humour and colour but you cannot translate any of it. You just assume it's the same in other languages (or even in other English accents) but then you forget that the culture is different and the context is different. Simple things like numbers and dates have a different history. But even "this" and "that". How do you translate "Who's yer man?" properly? They don't even say that in other English speaking places.

[nikosaronim]

I agree! I always wanted to learn a new language but was having trouble choosing which. My love for Korean variety shows kind of pushed me to pursue it. I've begun to unconsciously learn it so much that I understand basic stuff without formal learning. I feel like compared to dramas or songs they are better source of learning for us beginners. I also watch a lot of online content like Turkids and other Korean content creators to learn more slangs lol. Good luck to us hehe

[Verbalaesthet]

Usually it is best to start learning Korean by learning Hanguel (Korean alphabet). It can be learned in less than half an hour. Avoid the transcription all together. It is not even useful in many cases but confusing. However I think that the Korean sounds are not easy and that using Hangeul won't prevent you from making mistakes like da-ri. It comes automatically from reducing the complex Korean sounds to simple foreign sounds.

[Pokephosgene]

Guilty of number 3, but the alternative for me is even worse: switching to English. I am a person who doesn't easily talk in simple structures. I am a court translator for English, but my Korean vocabulary doesn't match up well with what my brain thinks up. At least grammar wise, I can often make usable sentences by thinking in my mother tongue- Croatian. It works for particles at least. Sometimes there is a stark difference that's pointed out to me, but if I am in doubt on how to correctly formulate a sentence, use a noun/verb/adjective, I default to "copying" the Croatian and not English solution.

[Fiona-oqdn]

감사합니다 선생님! I used to do these mistakes but a few months ago, I realized I was doing something wrong. Now that I'm sure, I won't make these mistakes again! 💗