I went to my local library and found a copy of Integrated Korean: Beginning 1 (2nd Edition.) I've checked it out and I'm almost done with it, only two chapters left.

I had heard about this textbook before, but I shied away from it, because I heard it was better used in a classroom setting. Yes, there are exercises in this textbook where they ask you to do things with your classmates, but those can easily be done on your own or just skipped; there aren't many of those.

In addition, KLEAR supplied audio for all the chapters in the textbook here: http://kleartextbook.com/b_beginning/a_audio-files/beginning-audio-lesson-1-5/

The only downside is that there is no answer key for this book, but the problems shouldn't be too difficult and can mostly be checked with examples from earlier pages.

I created a Memrise course for all the vocabulary in this book, found here: http://www.memrise.com/course/965804/integrated-korean-beginning-1-2nd-edition/

There was one that already existed, but some of the audio for it started getting pretty bad. The audio I used for this course is from Naver.

I've taken to doing a lesson a week. Each chapter is divided into two parts, each of the parts introduces new vocabulary and grammar lessons. Monday and Tuesday is the first part of the chapter. Wednesday is the second block of vocabulary and some more grammar lessons. Thursday and Friday are finishing up the chapter, with Friday usually being the "Usage" lessons and exercises day.

You can honestly do more than one lesson per week, sometimes I find myself finishing too quickly, so you can easily speed through this book if you want.

A brief explanation of some of the Korean particles. Particles are suffixes that immediately follow nouns or pronouns.

When I just finished learning Hangeul and was lost on where to go next, I decided to practice reading Korean. Only problem was my vocabulary skills are limited and I didn't really know where to start. I googled "Korean reading practice" and found this page! I found these very useful, but was sad when there wasn't anymore.

So, after lots of searching for Korean-English loanwords, I made my own! They're divided into eight parts, each with eleven words.

Loanwords are words borrowed by one language from a different language. Try to read aloud the Korean words to the left and match them with the English on the right!

This exercise is meant to help you associate each letter with its sound, but you could use it to learn vocabulary. I will warn you though, that these words may not be the most commonly used translation of the word, so I'd recommend using other sources. :)

These eight pages are available in a print-able PDF format which you can download here!
They're also available right below:









Consonant cluster: a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel.

In Korean, there are eleven legal consonant clusters (double final consonants): ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ.
  • If the letter is followed by a silent ㅇ, the last consonant carries over
    • 낡은 → /날근/
    • 앉은 → /안즌/
    • 삶이 → /살미/
  • The final ㅎ turns the following ㄱ,ㄷ,ㅂ, ㅈ into their aspirated forms: ㅋ,ㅌ,ㅍ,ㅊ
    • 않고 → /안코/
    • 싫다 → /실타/
  • Other than those two case above, one of the two final consonants become silent
    • ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㅄ: the second letter is silent (first letter pronounced)
      • 몫 → /목/
      • 값 → /갑/
      • 여덟 → /여덜/
    • ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄿ: the first letter is silent (second letter pronounced)
      • 닭 → /닥/
      • 삶 → /삼/
  • If ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅈ follows a consonant cluster, they are pronounced with their double sound
    • 앉고 → /안꼬/
    • 읽다 → /익따/
  • Consonant clusters are also subject to consonant assimilations.
    • 읽는 → 익는 (ㄱㄴ becomes ㅇㄴ) → /잉는/ 
    • 밟는 → 밥는 (ㅂㄴ becomes ㅁㄴ) → /밤는/
 Many thanks to /u/andresAKU for explaining this so clearly!

Korean words are written from left to right and words in a block-like shape. Syllables are organized into blocks of letters that have a beginning consonant, a middle vowel, and an optional third consonant (as well as occasionally a fourth consonant.)

A syllable block is composed of a minimum of two letters, at least one consonant and one vowel.
What if you only want a vowel? This rule still applies. Remember the character ㅇ? ㅇ is used as a placeholder for the consonant if you only want a vowel, because you must have a minimum of two letters per block.
For example, the vowel ㅓ is written as 어, ㅛ is written as 요, and so on.

You can have words that are C-V, C-V-C, and sometimes even C-V-C-C.

Letters can be stretched and compressed to fill in the block space.
Learned from the Korean Wiki Project.


Based on the positions of some characters, they can change sound. This sounds really confusing at first, and to be honest I still don't know most of the sound change rules, but these rules are actually meant to make Korean pronunciation easier!


Hangeul (한글) is the Korean alphabet. 한국어 is the Korean language.

I learned 한글 through the Korean Wiki Project. I also used an Android app called TenguGo Hangul when I didn't have access to my laptop.
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