The 3 Most Effective Ways to Learn Korean

I’ve taught over 200 students in 1:1 lessons, and while there are many ways to learn a language, private lessons are typically the most expensive and effective. However, there's one crucial thing to remember: lessons alone aren’t enough to improve your Korean skills significantly. The greatest progress comes when you take the time to practice what you’ve learned on your own. Among my students, those who showed remarkable improvement in their Korean skills followed certain strategies, which I’d like to share with you in this post.

Consistency, Even If It’s Just 5 Minutes a Day

Whether it’s language learning or any other skill, consistency is key. It’s more effective to study for 5 minutes every day than to cram for an hour once a week. My student, Elen, took 51 hours of lessons with me over 1 year and 3 months. Despite being extremely busy with her job, she dedicated 5 minutes each morning before work to studying Korean. She thoroughly reviewed what she learned in each lesson before the next one and eventually became fluent in Korean.

Create Your Own Sentences

"이건 우리 할머니의 부채야." (This is my grandmother's fan.)

Textbook examples often don’t resonate because they aren’t personally relevant. You might even wonder if you’ll ever use such sentences in real life.

During my lessons, I encourage students to create their own sentences—not just random ones, but ones that reflect their personal experiences or stories. This makes the sentences easier to remember and more likely to be used in actual conversations.

When I was learning Thai, I asked my teacher to teach me this sentence:

“I have one Thai friend.”

I really did have one Thai friend, and though the sentence seemed simple, the word order was entirely different from Korean or English, making it challenging for me. In Thai, the sentence structure is more like “I have friend Thai one.” I practiced this sentence until I could say it perfectly, and it turned out to be incredibly useful whenever I spoke with Thai people.

Use Flashcards for Repetition

Once you've created sentences that reflect your own experiences, it’s important to practice them repeatedly using flashcards. Adding audio to these flashcards is crucial. If you have a native teacher or friend, ask them to record the sentences for you. I used to ask my teacher to record what I learned during the last 5 minutes of each lesson.

Having these flashcards allows you to practice anytime, anywhere. Even if you have just one minute of free time, you can review multiple sentences, making this method highly effective. As you accumulate around 1,000 flashcards and practice them regularly, you’ll see incredible growth in your Korean skills.

➤ The "Podo Korean" app, designed for serious learners, includes thousands of frequently used sentences recorded by a native Korean teacher. You can easily save your favorite sentences as flashcards with just one tap, making it a great tool to help you on your Korean learning journey.