Learn Korean Online - Simple Explanations in PLAIN English

Hey there, I’ve got some more videos and an mp3 download for you!

A student just asked another question. The sentence has asked about is REALLY useful as it’s something that we will ALL have to say at one time AND another during our Korean-learning journey, and probably not just a couple times, probably quite a bit if you’re actually using Korean (which as I always say, you should be if you actually want to improve your ability).

The sentence he asked how to say is…

“I’m learning Korean but I don’t know that much yet so I don’t really know what you’re saying.”

Now taking a closer look at this sentence and the main structures, it can actually be broken up into three smaller chunks, “I’m learning Korean but…”, “I don’t know that much yet so…”, and “I don’t really know what you’re saying.”

Below are some videos showing how to say this. The first video just tells exactly how to say it without any explanation of it. Then the following videos show the structures at work and how you can change the sentence by using different verbs, etc. Each video will explain each of the 3 structures at work.

So check those out, and if you find them useful at all, feel free to hit the “like” button (it’d sure help out a ton!).

Thanks!

Rob…

p.s. Click here to download the mp3 file of this sentence being said by a native Korean speaker.

Video #2: The breakdown of “I”m learning Korean but…”

Video #3: The breakdown of “I don’t know much yet so…”

Video #4: The breakdown of “I don’t really know what you’re saying.”

p.s. if these videos are way over your head because you’re just new to Korean, then you want to start here. Here you’ll get 4 hours of free videos taken from the full online course here at LearnKoreanOnline.net, and goes over the most important aspects of the basics, including how to read and right (can honestly be learned in a day!) as well as the basic sentence and how to form questions and answers using one of the most common verbs in the language. So check that out and when you’re ready for it, you can come back here. Thanks!

If you really want to learn Korean to a point where you are conversational and can actually form your own sentences and questions from understanding, not just memory, then one skill you absolutely HAVE TO learn is how to conjugate verbs.

Conjugating verbs in Korean is not terribly difficult to understand, but it will take some time and practice to actually be able to do it with speed and accuracy. But once you have it down, you will have moved yourself into a position where you can really start to SPEAK Korean and from there it’s only time and practice to where you’re really, really good at speaking.

These next 5 videos are made to show a couple things…1) exactly how to conjugate verbs in Korean, and 2) why it is an absolutely necessary skill to have if you want to take your Korean to the next level and become a conversational ninja.

So give these videos a watch, and if you find them useful (and don’t mind doing so), please click over to the Youtube page hit the “like” button just below the videos (or whichever one you found most useful). It’d really help out a ton!

And any thoughts you have on these videos or any questions these videos may lead to, feel free to leave them below in the “comments” section.

Thanks, and happy learning!…

Rob…

A very common question from people when they first start learning Korean is which to use, ㅔ or ㅐ, ’cause as I say in the videos, they both sound virtually the same.

The answer to this is that it is virtually the same as learning how to spell in any language, which basically just requires experience and practice. For most words in Korean, they can generally just be sounded out and spelled phonetically, but in this case, because it’s going to be more difficult to hear the difference, you more or less just have to remember the spelling, more specifically which words use ㅔ and which use ㅐ.

I wish I had a “magic pill”-like answer that would make it much easier, but unfortunately I don’t. The bright side of it is though, is that there are not so many cases of this sort of thing in Korean. However, a few other cases that are like this are…

When to use ㅗ and ㅓ. For a lot of words, it can be easy to tell the difference, but there are still a significant number of words which are more difficult. I remember when I first started learning Korean and I tried to spell the word “where”. I wrote 오디 (’cause that’s what it sounded like to me) and my boss at the time just laughed and corrected it to 어디. That’s how I learned that word, and I never forgot it.

Another case: when to use ㅚ, ㅙ, or any of the other ones that look and sound like these. The same thing applies (just experience and practice), but I will say this, that those two are definitely the most common and if you were going to just pick one, pick one of those two, not the others.

Hope that helps. Happy learning, and I’ll speak to you soon!

Hey!


Here’s the next set of vids in the “How-to Korean series, going over some basic (and some not-so-basic) things you can say in different situations around Korea. Below each video, there’s a list of what expressions that particular video goes over. So check those out and watch the videos for basic explanations and pronunciation of each one.


I hope you find them useful, and if you have any questions you’d like answered, or any expressions you’d like to know how to say, just reply to this and let me know.


And one other thing, in the videos you’ll notice that I NEVER use English phonetics to write Korean. I personally think it’s a waste of time and creates more confusion than actually helps. So if you don’t know how to read and write, then I highly suggest that’s the first thing you do. And if you would like to, well you’re in luck! Check out this page. You can get the first four classes (just under 4 hours of videos of videos) of the online class here at LearnKoreanOnline.NET totally FREE. Classes 1 and 2 will show you everything you need to know to be able to read and write.

Rob…

Hi,

Another question was asked, this one about consonant clusters (if you don’t know what those are, don’t worry, they’re explained in the video) and whether or not they are worth learning.

Check out the video to find out what I think!

Happy learning…

I hope that helps, but if you haven’t yet learned how to read or learn anything about the basic sentence and how it breaks down, then I highly suggest you head here to claim your free gift – the first four classes of the online class, just under 4 hours worth of videos along the printable handouts we use in class so you can follow along with everything we do in the videos. If you are new to Korean, then that is where you want to start. Study those videos, then you can come back to these “how-to” Korean videos.

Hey,

This’ how-to Korean’ video is actually an answer to a question by one of the students of LearnKoreanOnline.NET.  The question was about the statement ‘무수 말인지 몰라요’ which translates to “I don’t know what you’re saying”, and actually the question was more specifically, what does the ‘무슨 말인지’ part of that sentence mean?

So check out the video (down below), and if you have any more questions about it or anything else, fire away.

Cheers, and happy learning!

Rob…

p.s. If you’re new to Korean, this video will be a bit over your head so my suggestion would to head here and get the 4 hours of free videos teaching the basics. That’s where you want to start, and you can always come back to this later.

Hi,

Today’s class we got into a structure that is just amazingly common and useful when speaking Korean. It’s something that most native English speakers take for granted, ’cause students of English have a real hard time with it, but going the other direction, learning how to say those things in Korean is actually not that bad once you get the idea of it, and that’s what this class is aimed at doing.

If you have any questions about today’s class – it is a good one to make sure you have clear ’cause it’ll really help you down the road – go ahead and reply to this and ask away.

Cheers!

Rob…

P.S. If you’re reading this and don’t know how to read, write or speak Korean, or would just maybe like to find out what these online classes are all about, then just above this post and to the right, you should see a big red “FREE” sign. Although (at the time I wrote this) it says you’ll only get class #1 of the course, I’ve actually recently changed the system and so by entering your name and email address into there, you’ll actually now get the first 4 classes (a total of almost 4 hours worth of videos) in 5-day increments.

That way, you can learn how to read and write the Korean alphabet, learn how the basic Korean sentence works and how to ask and answer a few of the most common questions using arguably the most common verb, AND you can find out exactly how the online course works. 3 birds with one stone? Who’s heard of it!

Anyways, if you are just a beginner then these videos will really go a long way in helping you understand exactly how basic Korean works, and should make the rest of your Korean learning experience a lot easier to understand.

Cheers!

Hi,

Well, yet another class is down. In this class we took a look at another common way to speak about the future using a style of speech that seems to have been phased out of most styles of English these days, but is still very commonly used in the Korean language.

This class was a bit of a heavy one, and introduced a few new sentence patterns as well, so if you have any questions about the class, please feel free to reply to this post and ask.

Cheers!

P.S. If you’re reading this and are just new to learning Korean and would possibly like to try to learn korean online, if you look just up to the right of this post, you’ll see a big red FREE sign. By entering your name and email under there (although it says otherwise at the time I posted this), you’ll get access to the first 4 classes of my online course (around 20 videos totallying around 4 hours of material) which will cover exactly how to read and write Korean, and get into the breakdown of the basic sentence teaching you exactly how to ask and answer questions using arguably the most common verb there is. Finding decent resources to learn Korean from can be difficult, and those videos should help get you started in the right direction. Cheers!

Hi,

Today was a fairly light class in terms of content, and that was on purpose. The main objective was to just get a bit more practice conjugating different verb forms, as well as give you a bit wider use of the expression ‘주세요 (jusayo)’.

If you have any questions about today’s class, or would like to leave a comment, just reply to this post.

Cheers!

Rob…

P.S. If you’re reading this and are just new to Korean, the first thing I’d do is learn how to read. If you look up to the right of this post, you’ll see a big, red “FREE” sign. Below that will explain how to get over 70 minutes worth of videos explaining exactly how to read and write Korean. And if you’d care to learn more Korean online, although it doesn’t say it now, you’ll also get the next 3 classes of my online course totally free, which will go over the basic Korean sentence and how to manipulate it to ask and answer questions using arguable the most common verb. Cheers..

Hi,

If you’ve just started to learn Korean, then here’s a question that was asked about some basic things to say in Korean. Check out the video for the answer (my apologies for this vid, it’s my first time using youtube and it doesn’t seem to load and play as quickly as the way I normally embed these vids, so if it takes a bit to buffer, or even stops buffering, just slide the cursor back a bit, and it should start buffering from that point again and be fine. And if you’re not in a real rush to watch this vid, I should have it changed back to my usual way in a couple days. Cheers…)

Well, I hope that helps. Keep the questions coming!

Cheers,

Rob…

P.S. If you’re just starting to learn Korean and would like to learn Korean online, then just to the right of this, you should see a big red sign that says ‘FREE’. Put your name and email into there and you’ll get an email sent to you right away with over 70 minutes worth of videos taken from class#1 of my in-class course teaching exactly how to read, write, and pronounce the Korean alphabet.

You’ll also get the exact hand-out we use in class so that you can follow along with everything we’re doing. (And as a tip, if you are looking to learn Korean, I fully suggest that the first thing you do is learn how to read and write. It doesn’t take long and will honestly make it SO much easier in the long run!)