(Last updated: 21 October 2017)
안녕하세요 and welcome to Let’s Study Korean!
I’m Vance Wong, the author of Let’s Study Korean (about me) and I want to be part of your Korean learning journey, just as you will be part of mine too.
I believe that by sharing my experiences, understanding and explanations of the Korean language, I can not only learn but also help others like you. Most importantly, I strongly believe that everyone should be given the opportunity to learn a foreign language – for free.
I won’t be charging for any content, not now, not in the future. You’ll probably see a donation link or a Patreon page set up in the future but no, I won’t paywall my content. I would offer exclusive services to donors and Patrons, though :p. But that’s for the future.
Alright, first things first, Let’s Study Korean (LSK) works mainly as a Korean learning resource. But the way LSK works is quite different from other (much more established) sites like Talk To Me In Korean and How To Study Korean.
Both of which are run by native Koreans/someone with the direct help from native Koreans. Think of them as teachers while I’m like your classmate!
Vocabulary and Grammar
LSK provides Korean learners with glossaries of Vocabulary and Grammar, just like the list at the back of most textbooks. You can look at it as something like a Wikipedia of sorts!
Or you could read the latest Vocabulary and Grammar entries.
Here’s a complete list of all the study resources on this website and other resources that I use.
Blog posts
Read blog posts and stuff as I write about my experiences, some tips and advice I can offer (or from others). Hopefully, that could give you some inspiration and motivation!
You will realise that there are two sections to my blog – English posts and 한국어로 쓴 글 (blog posts in Korean). Korean blog posts are mainly my personal practice in writing short essays.
TOPIK past papers
On top of glossaries, I’m working on translating all of TOPIK 1 past papers. I’m currently working on TOPIK 1 papers because learners taking TOPIK I would definitely require as much help as they can in terms of translations of test papers.
My main reason for doing this is the cost of TOPIK preparation classes (at least in Singapore). It is actually quite expensive and I believe there are learners out there who can’t afford classes at this time. And I can’t seem to find translations of TOPIK past papers so I thought, why not!
This is a small side project, which means I would only work on this whenever I have free time. Building up the glossaries is still my top priority!
Future plans
Learning a language is by no means easy at all. Everything you read here is limited to only the reading (duh…) and listening aspects of Korean so I’m thinking of possibly starting a podcast.
I’m not a native speaker so my pronunciation might be off sometimes, so please forgive me!
On top of podcasts, video is something I would want to work on too. But because of budget constraints at the moment, I do not have enough money to buy decent recording equipment.
Maybe I could start recording using my iPhone, who knows! Then we could share each other’s recordings of a specific passage and learn from there.
Literally studying Korean together in this way over the Internet would be one of the biggest goals of LSK. ’til then, Let’s Study Korean! 한국어 공부하자!
Blog goals
Putting some important (blog) goals that I want to attain by the end of 2017, though I would prefer to complete it (way) before that.
1. A comprehensive list of Korean studying resources (here’s an incomplete list – work in progress!) – I will slowly compile with the help of “What I’ve been studying updates”. Here’s an example of one in January 2017
2. A glossary of speaking practices and monthly reviews to track my progress. Would be great if readers could share their attempts and critiques!
3. Complete translations of TOPIK 1 past year papers (the most recent 5 papers; 47, 41 and 37 are all done!)
4. A 30-day (free) daily email course to help beginners kickstart their Korean learning journey without needing to pay any money (and 100 email subscribers)
5. Become affiliate partners with online Korean bookstores (My Korean Store, TwoChois, etc.) to get some commission from referrals (might start with Amazon links :P)