Korean study blog for my help and yours. Korean grammar and vocabulary posts as well as interesting cultural knowledge!
When you are just starting out there are a lot of different beginner Korean mistakes that can catch you! Some of these mistakes can limit your learning and slow you down or make it harder and others can make it hard for you to communicate in Korean clearly.
Kim is everywhere as a surname in Korea, Koreans named Kim make up millions of the population! It’s almost guaranteed that you have come across this name enough to wonder “Why are so many Koreans named Kim?”.
The percentage of Koreans named Kim in South Korea is around 20%, which ends up being above 10,000,000 people! While 20% is not the majority of people, that is a huge amount. Conversely, Smith (which is the classic American name) has around 2 million people with that last name. There is a saying that references how popular the surname Kim is similar to “like finding a needle in a haystack”
Let’s get into some quick vocab rundown of clothes in Korean. I’ll go through it all “머리부터 발끝까지” head to toe! Also with some terms and verbs to describe clothes, and sentences to tie it all together and help you start putting together some yourself.
Podcasts can make a great resource for learning Korean and practicing your listening no matter what level you are at! Using podcasts to learn Korean is a great option because you can do it while doing chores, menial tasks, on the bus or train, or in many other situations. If you are alone you can also have the added benefit of repeating what you hear back for extra speaking practice, not so fun to do on a full bus though haha.
First up for beginners, you’ll probably want simpler grammar and sentence structure or podcasts that are a mix of English and Korean. Some great options for beginner podcasts to learn Korean are:
Looking to travel or move to Korea? South Korean nature is beautiful and there is a lot to choose from; from mountains to rivers and is surrounded by multiple seas, as well! Let’s get into what Koreas landscape is like with some bonus nature vocabulary
South Korea’s natural environment is mountainous but it is very stable, without active volcanos unlike nearby China or Japan, and without the threat of strong earthquakes. It is pretty humid, with multiple large rivers flowing throughout the country. (more…)
Spring in Korea with its beautiful landscape brings flowers, warmer days, cherry blossoms, and many beautiful things! But there’s something to watch out for too; Korean fine dust can ruin your plans and the beautiful sky, even with warnings from officials to limit time outside. I talked a little bit about 미세 먼지, or fine dust, in my last post about Korean weather vocab and now today since we are right in the season I want to get more into it!
미세 먼지 is translated literally as fine (미세) dust (먼지) but if you have heard about it before you may have seen it referred to as yellow dust or Asian dust. 미세 먼지 is brought over from the northern area of China and the dry areas of Mongolia which spread over Korea and Japan. (more…)