Korean is the official language in South Korea and North Korea and an official language in two regions of China (Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County). Korean is spoken by more than 80 million people worldwide.
The Korean language first used Chinese characters called hanja, but in 1443, King Sejong established a new writing system called Hangul. The origin of Korean is debated, with some scholars claiming it to be an isolate language while others say it belongs to the Altaic language family, along with Turkish, Mongolian and Japanese. Interestingly, Korean has incorporated several thousand Chinese words making up over half of Korean vocabulary.
South Korea is a fascinating place to visit between the booming, modern capital city of Seoul, mountains and forests offering incredible climbing, hiking, and skiing opportunities, alongside ancient Buddhist temples, coastal towns, and tropical islands, not to mention the cool pop culture scene and trendy K-pop craze.
Free Resources to Learn Korean
Free Learning/Studying Apps
LingoDeer – iTunes – Google Play – This app is a fantastic and structured introduction to Korean, featuring HD audio by native speakers. Users can learn using Hangul and Romanized letters, and it works offline.
Duolingo – iTunes – Google Play – Duolingo has become a leader in the language learning world and for good reason. It’s fast, fun, well designed, suitable for all ages, and turns learning a foreign language into a challenging and pretty addictive game.
Memrise – iTunes – Google Play – Memrise is a really fast, fun, and free language learning app/website that is sure to get you hooked. There is a visual flashcard component that also incorporates audio from a community of native speakers. Memrise uses spaced repetition and is really effective at drilling vocabulary and phrases into your memory.
Drops – Learn Korean – iTunes – Google Play – This simple but powerful app is entertaining, educational, and free. With a focus on visual learning and 5-minute lesson limits, this app is easy to integrate into your daily language learning regimen and is very effective.
Learn Korean – Phrases & Words for Travel – iTunes – Google Play – A handy little app to have on hand when traveling to Korea, which helps you to easily access basic phrases and vocabulary.
Learn Korean Phrasebook – iTunes – Google Play – This useful app will help you learn Korean words and sentences with recordings made by native speakers. The free version has 400+ practical phrases.
Learn Korean by 50 Languages – iTunes – Google Play – This app is great for beginners (A1-A2) to increase practical vocabulary which is useful for managing everyday situations (at a store, restaurant, bank, doctor, etc). With the free version, you will have access to 30 complete lessons.
HelloTalk – iTunes – Google Play – HelloTalk is a global language learning social network that connects you with native speakers of other languages so that you can practice your speaking and listening skills with native speakers via text/audio messages and free audio and video calls. The free version allows you to choose one native language and one target language.
Internet Polyglot – iTunes – Google Play – This free app uses lessons, games, and pictures to teach foreign languages to beginners. Although Internet Polyglot is far from a standalone language learning tool, it is a useful supplement to help you to learn and retain vocabulary.
Start From Zero Korean – Google Play – This app will boost your vocabulary skills by helping you learn thousands of the most commonly used Korean words and phrases. It also offers quiz and flashcard functionality to test your progress.
Beginner Korean – Google Play – This app is based on the “learn a word a day” concept and uses a simple and direct approach to teaching Korean to beginners.
In 24 Hours Learn to Speak Korean – iTunes – Google Play – Whether you are preparing for an upcoming trip to Korea or you are a student learning the language, this app will help you learn the basics and set you off in the right direction.
Talk to Me in Korean – iTunes – This free app is brought to you by the Talk to Me in Korean team and offers a wealth of fantastic Korean language lessons. The app allows you to easily and conveniently access the free lessons from TalkToMeInKoreans.com (grammar & PDF lesson files), along with additional audio and video instruction to help you learn Korean.
Dongsa – iTunes – Google Play – Simply enter a verb in its infinitive form into this Korean verb conjugation app and the results will show all of the different conjugations of the verb with explanations.
Hangul Korean Alphabet by TenguGo – iTunes – Google Play – This app will teach you everything you need to know about how to read and write Hangul. It is organized into chapters with quizzes and flashcards for review and features audio examples from Korean speakers.
PopPopping Korean – iTunes – Google Play – This app aims to teach Korean in a fun and easy way.
PopPopping Korean Conversation – iTunes – Google Play – This app teaches Korean conversation skills using animations and role-playing. By listening, repeating, and answering the questions posed by the characters, you will gain an understanding of sentence patterns and vocabulary.
Anki Flashcards – iTunes – Google Play – This app allows you to make your own flashcards or download a premade “deck” from a selection of over 80 million.
Free Korean Dictionary/Translation Apps
Korean English Dictionary & Translator – iTunes – Google Play – This free app works offline and provides detailed definitions, example sentences, and pronunciation guidance for Korean & English words, as well as flashcards for learning.
Naver Korean Dictionary & Translator – iTunes – Google Play – This Korean Dictionary is the app version of the very popular Naver online dictionary. The app provides fast and accurate results and puts words in context with sample sentences.
Greenlife Talking Korean English Translator – iTunes – Google Play – The Greenlife Talking Korean Translator can be used offline and in many languages (ex: Italian, French, German, Chinese, Japanese). It introduces a new “word of the day” to increase your vocabulary, offers corrections to sentences, and saves your translation history for your reference. It uses voice recognition, so you can speak a sentence and hear the translation. The translation can then be sent by email, SMS or copied and pasted into another app
iTranslate – iTunes – Google Play – iTranslate is a leading free translator and dictionary app that provides translations for text in over 100 languages. Other functionality includes transliteration, sharing, favorites, history, and audio in both male and female voices. Voice to voice translations and the use of offline mode is not available with the free version.
Klays-Development Korean-English Translator – Google Play – This free app translates words and complete sentences instantly. It features a favorites list, history, voice input, and a user-friendly interface.
Google Translate – iTunes – Google Play – Google Translate offers online text translation between 103 languages by typing, offline translation for 59 languages, camera translation for 38 languages, image translation for 37 languages, conversation translation in 32 languages, and translation of handwritten characters in 93 languages. The app also has a phrasebook that allows you to save translated words and phrases for future reference in all languages.
Word Reference – iTunes – Google Play – The Word Reference app allows you access to the world’s most popular and powerful dictionary translation website, including forum discussions.
The Apps Castle Korean English Translator – Google Play – This Korean English translation and dictionary app can be used offline and has built-in audio.
Learn Korean with KoreanClass101 – This is a fun and helpful set of videos to add to your regular Korean language learning regimen.
Easy Korean – These YouTube videos are the work of a non-profit project which uses lighthearted street interviews as a method to teach languages. Each video has a topic and the host asks questions to native Korean speakers on the street based on the theme. Each video contains subtitles in both Korean and English.
Talk to Me in Korean – The Talk to Me in Korean YouTube channel features hundreds of high-quality instructional videos to help you learn the Korean language for free.
SEEMILE – Since 2010, the SEEMILE team has been creating quality Korean language learning video content with the goal of helping people all over the world to easily learn Korean. They have created well over a thousand educational videos which have been viewed over 100 million times, and many videos are also available for Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese in addition to English speakers.
Sweet & Tasty TV: Korean Travel, Culture, and Language – Mina Oh’s entertaining and educational YouTube channel offers Korean language lessons, travel tips, cultural insight and much more about Korea! She releases a new video every Wednesday.
Margarita Korean – Margarita has a fun and upbeat YouTube channel which centers around her love of all things Korean, including study and learning tips shared from her own personal perspective as a learner of Korean as a second language.
Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean – Bill is a native English speaker and fluent Korean speaker who lives in Korea. He creates great Korean language learning videos and since he is self-taught, he has a great perspective on independent language learning.
Conversational Korean – Suntai Kim’s YouTube channel offers a ton of really helpful and concise Korean language learning videos.
Korean Culture Series & Quick Korean – This is The Cyber University of Korea’s YouTube Channel which hosts videos for the entire Quick Korean Course as well as its Korean Culture Series. There is a wealth of very well produced, educational and inspiring Korean language learning material here.
Let’s Speak Korean by Arirang – “Let’s Speak Korean” is a language learning television program produced by Arirang TV, an English-language network based in Korea operated by the Korea International Broadcasting Foundation. It aired for five seasons, with hundreds of episodes, each 10 minutes in length, and aims to help students learn about Korean language and culture.
- Let’s Speak Korean Season 1 – 130 Episodes
- Let’s Speak Korean Season 2 – 130 Episodes
- Let’s Speak Korean Season 3 – 130 Episodes
- Let’s Speak Korean Season 4 – 100 Episodes
- Let’s Speak Korean Season 5 – 26 Episodes
Traveler’s Korean – “Traveler’s Korean” is a language learning television program produced by Arirang TV, an English-language network based in Korea operated by the Korea International Broadcasting Foundation. It aired for two seasons, with 50 episodes in total, and aims to help students learn about Korean language and culture through the experience of traveling to Korean hotspots and being introduced to Korean cuisine.
- Traveler’s Korean Season 1 – 25 episodes
- Traveler’s Korean Season 2 – 25 episodes
Talking To Koreans – The Talking To Koreans YouTube channel is affiliated with the website by the same name that offers two free downloadable textbooks and corresponding learning materials created by In Jung Cho, Young A Cho, and their colleagues. This fantastic YouTube resource is accompanied by PDF practice guides that correlate with the My Korea 1 Video Lessons and My Korea 2 Video Lessons.
LangMedia – LangMedia provides language learning resources, including videos, audio, study guides, etc. LangMedia is run by the Five College Center for the Study of World Languages and their mission is to share examples of linguistic and cultural diversity with language learners. In the “Language by Country” section of the LangMedia website they provide videos which focus on practical aspects of everyday life (For Ex: Basic Communication, Shopping, Transportation, Culture and Social Life). The conversations often include colloquial language and all videos are accompanied by translations and transcripts.
Go! Billy Korean – YouTube – Billy, an American who has lived in Korea for well over a decade and speaks Korean fluently, is dedicated to helping others to learn Korean through his video lessons. He has fantastic playlists like Learn Korean Full Lessons with PDFs, Korean Phrases and Idioms, Learn Hangul, and Korean Language and Culture.
Prof. Yoon’s Korean Language Class – Prof. Yoon offers thorough Korean instruction for beginner and intermediate level students. Students can begin with Integrated Korean Beginning 1 and Integrated Korean Beginning 2 and then move on to Integrated Korean Intermediate 1. Also, check out his Power-Up Korean Vocabulary and TOPIK Test playlists.
Motivate Korean – This YouTube channel provides guidance and support for students learning Korean.
Pit-A-Pat Korean – YouTube – This Korean drama helps learners to acquire vocabulary and improve their language skills.
Korean From Zero – Youtube – The Korean Talk, Talk, Talk video playlist touches on a variety of topics which are helpful to Korean language learners.
Learn Korean with KoreanClass101 – iTunes – This is a fun and informative podcast to add to your regular Korean language learning regimen. Every lesson is free for a period of time; each new audio and video lesson (3-5 lessons are published per week) is free to access for 3 weeks before being locked into their library, which can be accessed only with paid membership.
Talk to Me in Korean Podcast – iTunes – This podcast is produced by the Talk to Me in Korean team and offers a wealth of fantastic Korean language lessons.
Korean SurvivalPhrases – iTunes – These fun and innovative audio lessons teach basic Korean and are accompanied by PDF guides.
Learn Korean by Complete Language Lessons – Spotify – 13 free Korean lessons on Spotify.
Vocabulearn Korean – This free program on Spotify is divided into two parts, each of which is approximately three hours long and teaches about 2500 vocabulary words and useful phrases.
Learn Korean The Easy Way by Language Superstar – Spotify – This podcast on Spotify has many hours of Korean language instruction spread over 9 chapters.
Rhythmic Korean by The Third Ear – These audio lessons teach key Korean vocabulary and phrases in a way that they say is “guaranteed to stick”.
- Rhythmic Korean Volume 1 on Spotify – 230 Core Words and Phrases
- Rhythmic Korean Volume 2 on Spotify – 350 Core Words and Phrases
Colloquial Korean: The Complete Course for Beginners – This collection of audio files, each a few minutes in length, provides concise and clear Indonesian language instruction for beginners. These free audio lessons were made to accompany the Colloquial Korean: The Complete Course for Beginners textbook, which is a book aimed at teaching Korean to beginners in a practical way to prepare them to effectively communicate with confidence in everyday situations.
Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Korean Basic Course – The Foreign Service Institute (U.S. Department of State) originally created this and many other language learning courses to train government employees and members of the foreign service in preparation for a post abroad. This course was designed to train participants to speak Korean naturally with native speakers while exuding confidence and using an accurate accent. It focuses heavily on pronunciation and preparing students for real-life conversations. 47 units are encompassed over two volumes and include textbooks in PDF format and audio lessons as MP3s.
- FSI Korean Basic Course Volume 1 – This course is accompanied by an e-textbook with 569 pages and 34 audio files with a running time of 12 hours and 34 minutes.
- FSI Korean Basic Course Volume 2 – This course is accompanied by an e-textbook with 474 pages and 100 audio files with a running time of 42 hours.
Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Korean Headstart Course – The FSI Korean Headstart program will introduce you to Korean pronunciation and teach you basic conversational skills for practical everyday situations. It consists of 9 units of study material which could take between 80 and 160 hours to complete. The FSI Korean Headstart Course includes 2 e-books in PDF format with 530 pages and 34 audio lessons in MP3 format with a running time of 16 hours and 57 minutes.
Defense Language Institute (DLI) Korean Language Basic Course – The DLI Korean Language Basic Course is an intensive program that was created with the adult learner in mind. It is accompanied by 2 e-textbooks with a combined total of 1127 pages, and 109 audio files with a combined running time of 8 hours and 42 minutes. This Korean course is part of the language learning program developed by the U.S. Department of Defense as a means of training employees for foreign assignments. As a result, a portion of the material focuses on military-related content, however, on the whole, there is a lot of value for all.
Defense Language Institute (DLI) Korean SOLT Language Course – This course is for absolute beginners and is divided into 2 parts, each with 3 modules.
- DLI Korean SOLT Language Course: Module 1-3 – Includes 23 e-textbooks in PDF format with a total of 968 pages and 60 audio files in MP3 format with a combined running time of 4 minutes.
- DLI Korean SOLT Language Course: Module 4-6 – Includes 24 e-textbooks in PDF format with a total of 855 pages and 64 audio files in MP3 format with a combined running time of 13 minutes.
Defense Language Institute (DLI) Korean SOLT Language Course: Homework Workbooks – These workbooks contain homework exercises and worksheets that support the teaching in Modules 1-6 of the SOLT Korean Language Course. Includes 7 e-textbooks in PDF format with a total of 315 pages, and 225 audio files in MP3 format with a combined running time of 3 minutes.
Sogang University Free Korean Courses – Sogang University is a top university in South Korea which offers a series of free online courses that cater to all learning levels, starting with absolute beginners. The lessons include text, audio, pictures, worksheets and interactive quizzes.
Sogang University Introductory Korean Lessons – This set of Korean lessons is for absolute beginners. It is divided into 5 sections: The Korean Alphabet, Simple Vowels and Simple Consonants, The Other Vowels and Consonants, Pronunciation and Some Basic Expressions.
Sogang University Novice Korean Lessons – The Korean Novice Course by Sogang University includes three sets of 10 lessons that focus on listening and reading comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar.
Sogang University Intermediate Korean Lessons – The Korean Intermediate Course by Sogang University includes three sets of 10 lessons that focus on listening and reading comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar.
Talk to me in Korean – This website is arguably the most comprehensive, free online resource for learning Korean. Based in Seoul, Korea, and run by enthusiastic language instructors, Talk to me in Korean offers quality content in the form of free lessons, videos, podcasts and a lot of it! All lessons are accompanied by PDF lesson notes and MP3 audio files which can be downloaded.
- Beginner Level Korean Lessons 1-9 – The Beginner Korean Lessons consist of a total of a couple of hundred episodes spread over nine levels.
- Iyagi Intermediate Level Korean Lessons – The Intermediate Korean Lessons series consists of 148 episodes in Season One and a handful of episodes in Season Two thus far.
Introduction to Korean Course – Learn basic Korean and explore Korean culture with this free online Korean course by The Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea. Duration 6 weeks, 3 hours per week.
LearnLangs – This simple and free Korean course teaches students how to read, write and pronounce the Korean script over the course of just 6 easy lessons.
First Step Korean – This is a beginner Korean language course consisting of 5 lessons that teach reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. The goal of the course is to enable students to read and write the Korean alphabet, communicate in Korean with basic expressions, and acquire basic knowledge about Korean culture. This fun and free Korean language course is taught by Seung Hae Kang, a professor at Yonsei University in Korea and is offered online through Coursera.
Learn To Speak Korean 1 – This beginner Korean course requires a familiarity with the Korean alphabet (Hangeul) and teaches essential language skills to prepare students for everyday life while living in Korea. The course consists of six modules, each of which has five units that focus on vocabulary, grammar and expressions, conversation practice, quizzes and more. This fun and free Korean language course is taught by Sang Mee Han, a professor at Yonsei University in Korea and is offered online through Coursera.
How To Study Korean – The goal of this website is to teach you to speak Korean fluently. All lessons are provided for free and when you complete the 6 unit course you will know 9000 of the most common Korean words and 99.9% of the grammar used in Korean conversation. The course starts with the basics and as you progress through the units it will take you through the intermediate and advanced levels.
Quick Korean – Youtube – Quick Korean is a free online course that was developed by The Cyber University of Korea. It teaches Korean through 4 levels, which increase in difficulty from beginner to advanced. After completing all four levels, students will acquire a Level-4 knowledge of Korean grammar (according to the Korean Language scale used for the TOPIK test) and a Level-3 knowledge of Korean vocabulary.
Pathway to Spoken Korean Course by The Ohio State University – This Korean language course was designed for students with no prior knowledge of Korean and consists of 5 units (labeled Unit 0-4) and over 40 units of instruction. It starts with teaching the Korean sound system, core expressions, performances of basic personal interactions, and Hangul (Korean alphabet). This project was developed by the National East Asian Languages Resource Center at Ohio State University with the help of funding from the U.S. Department of Education.
Online Intermediate College Korean – Online Intermediate College Korean is an online course developed by Clair You and Eunso Cho, based on the Intermediate College Korean textbook by Clair You. This course requires the completion of elementary Korean language courses, as it is an Intermediate level course. The goal of this Korean language project is to teach intermediate level college Korean by providing direct access to the audio, visual and written materials accompanying the text. This self-study program aims to improve oral and written Korean fluency through a series of lessons, each comprised of a dialogue, narrative, vocabulary, grammar notes and exercises.
Click Korean – This free Korean language learning program was developed by the Korean National Open University in collaboration with Seoul University. It is intended for beginners and aims to provide students with a foundational knowledge of Korean to enable them to communicate in Korean in everyday situations. The program consists of 20 units, each with 6 sections: Introduction, Vocabulary, Dialogue, Grammar & Expressions, Reading, and Culture. Practice exercises are included with each unit to test comprehension and learning progress.
Let’s Learn Korean by KBS World Radio – Let’s Learn Korean is a free, two-part Korean language learning program developed by KBS World Radio. It is entirely web-based with has text instruction and audio. The program is offered in 10 languages: English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.
- Let’s Learn Korean I – Part 1 of the Let’s Learn Korean program is divided into 3 sections: Understanding the Korean Language (6 lessons), Upon Arrival in Korea (18 lessons) and Living in Korea (10 lessons).
- Let’s Learn Korean II – Part 2 of the Let’s Learn Korean program is comprised of 18 thematic lessons each with vocabulary and a variety of dialogues that are very useful to guide you through everyday situations in Korea.
Nuri-Sejong Hakdang – This website offers Korean language students and teachers a wealth of free information, resources and courses to learn about Korean language and culture. The standard Korean learning curriculum of Nuri-Sejong Hakdang focuses on studying all four aspects of Korean language (speaking, listening, reading and writing). You will need to create a free account and login to view and participate in these courses.
- Sejong Korean 1 Prep and Review Course – An introductory overview of Sejong Korean.
- Sejong Korean Conversation for Beginners Course – An introductory overview of Sejong Korean.
- Sejong Korean 1 Course – A beginner Korean course with Korean 1 Textbook and Korean 1 Workbook.
- Sejong Korean 2 Course – A beginner Korean course with Korean 2 Textbook and Korean 2 Workbook.
- Sejong Korean 3 Course – A beginner Korean course with Korean 3 Textbook and Korean 3 Workbook.
- Sejong Korean 4 Course – A beginner Korean textbook with Korean 4 Textbook and Korean 4 Workbook.
- Sejong Korean 5 Course – An intermediate Korean course with Korean 5 Textbook.
- Sejong Korean 6 Course – An intermediate Korean textbook with Korean 6 Textbook.
- Sejong Korean 7 Course – An intermediate Korean textbook with Korean 7 Textbook.
- Sejong Korean 8 Course – An intermediate Korean textbook with Korean 8 Textbook.
BBC Languages: Korean – The BBC Korean language website is a treasure trove of wonderful resources and information. It is high-quality, comprehensive and provides a lot of intelligently presented and produced materials. All BBC language learning pages were “archived” a few years back due to cost-cutting measures, which means they are no longer adding new information or updating the pages. However, you should have no problem accessing the existing information.
Korean Language Adventure – The Korean Language Adventure lessons were developed by the KTO (Korean Tourism Organization) and center around the theme of travel and adventure, taking learners on a virtual journey to Seoul and other popular tourist destinations nearby. This very thorough and free Korean language learning program includes 30 extensive units, each containing three main parts: Reading, Conversation, and Activity sections.
Korean Learning for Correction Pronunciation – This Korean language website features tutorials and is divided into the following sections: Elementary Korean, Vowels, Consonants, Sound Change and Intonation.
Goethe Verlag – This website offers 100 Korean lessons for beginners, each with words, phrases and corresponding audio files.
LanguageGuide.org – Explore the world of Korean by learning an abundance of vocabulary in a sound integrated, animated guide. After learning the vocabulary you can take part in games to test your comprehension.
Learn101 – This website features free beginner lessons to guide you through learning Korean, step by step, starting with the Alphabet, moving on to grammar, vocabulary, and phrases, and finally offering simple quizzes to test your progress. These lessons are a basic introduction to the language and have images, text, and audio.
Polly Lingual – This website offers some fun games, exercises and beginner level instruction with lessons that include text and audio.
Verbix – Online Korean verb conjugator.
Dongsa – Online Korean verb conjugator. Simply enter a verb in its infinitive form and the results will show all of the different conjugations of the verb with explanations.
Ilanguages – This site is designed to teach Korean with free vocabulary, phrases, grammar and flashcards while focusing on highly used words and phrases necessary for everyday living.
Digital Dialects – This website makes learning vocabulary fun with interactive games.
Omniglot – This site specializes in providing information about languages and their alphabets and writing systems.
Loecsen – Loecson offers a free mini-course consisting of fun lessons that provide a basic introduction to Korean with the help of text, audio, simple illustrations, and quizzes to test your progress. You will learn high frequency vocabulary words and commonly used phrases relating to 17 themes which are relevant to everyday life.
Dom & Hyo – This cheerful website uses colorful illustrations and graphics to teach Korean Vocabulary.
Korean Comics – The Korean Comics website features 24 episodes with comics that can be viewed in Korean, or with English subtitles and annotations, offering a fun way to learn Korean and improve reading comprehension. The Vocabulary section details translations of the words used in each episode.
LP’s Korean Language Learning – This website offers a lot of grammar lessons and solid explanations.
LangIntro – This introduction to Korean was created by J. David Eisenberg, a computer programmer, software developer and college teacher with a background in language learning. It offers an introduction to the alphabet, vocabulary, grammar and simple phrases.
ZKorean – This is a quick grammar and vocabulary reference page brought to you by an American / Korean couple who have been providing quality Korean educational materials online for over a decade.
Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Korean Tutorial – This Language Survival Kit Module for Korean contains basic vocabulary with audio. Both the audio files and the PDF text can be downloaded.
Korean Wiki Project – This wiki page is a collaborative, crowd-sourced project with the goal of providing free Korean language learning materials online. It has a useful tutorial on learning Hangeul among other good resources.
Life in Korea – This website offers quite a bit of introductory Korean language instruction, mostly centered around useful vocabulary, phrases, the alphabet, and writing.
Genki Korean – This site offers beginner lessons, activities and games that make learning Korean fun. You will learn about the alphabet and basic vocabulary and phrases.
Conjuguemos – Conjuguemos is a go-to site for over 14,000 schools that has helped millions of people learn their verb conjugations. Created by Alejandro Yegros, a high school Spanish teacher from the USA, it is described as a self-grading, self-timed conjugating and vocabulary-building program for learners of all ages that offers over 300,000 activities created by language teachers from around the globe.
I Love Languages Korean Lessons – This site provides 17 beginner Korean lessons designed to help you improve your speaking, reading, and writing skills. Supplementary resources include vocabulary, grammar tips, and phrases.
Lang-8 – This free network is a nice tool to support your language learning. Native speakers are available to make corrections to your text and provide feedback. In return, you provide help to others.
HiNative – iTunes – Google Play – HiNative is an app brought to you by the creators of Lang-8 that allows you to ask questions to native speakers from around the world using your smartphone. HiNative was created to be used alongside Lang-8 and is different from Lang-8 in that it focuses on a Q&A type of learning while Lang-8 is a journal writing experience.
RhinoSpike – RhinoSpike is an interesting website that connects language learners from all over the world allowing them to exchange audio files to help improve pronunciation skills. It allows you to submit text that you would like to hear read aloud by a native speaker, and in turn, you receive the audio file. In exchange, and to speed up the process, you can, in turn, provide audio files in your native language for other learners.
MyLanguageExchange.com – This online language learning community connects you with other learners so that you can practice speaking in your second language with a native speaker and vice-versa.
Italki – A community of over 2 million language learners that facilitates free language practice with native speakers. You simply exchange time teaching your native language for time learning a foreign language, making it mutually beneficial and free.
BBC – The British Broadcasting Company provides news in Korean.
Google News – Read the world news in Korean with Google News.
VOA News – Voice of America is an American broadcasting company that creates radio and television news in Korean.
Radio Free Asia News for North Korea – RFA is dedicated to providing reliable and responsible news reporting for countries where accurate and complete news reports are not available. They offer news for China, Tibet, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Burma, always in local languages and dialects.
NHK World News Japan – iTunes – Japanese public broadcaster NHK provides news in Korean via this podcast.
SBS Radio Indonesian Program – SBS is an Australian broadcasting company that targets non-native English speakers and creates programming in many languages. This podcast allows you to listen to interviews, features and community stories from the SBS Radio Korean program, including Australian and world news.
KBS – Korean Broadcasting System is the national public broadcaster of South Korea, offering radio, TV and online news.
MBC – Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation is a top South Korean TV and radio network.
SBS – Seoul Broadcasting System is another leading South Korean TV and radio network company.
EBS – Korea Educational Broadcasting System a South Korean TV and radio broadcasting company that provides educational children’s programming.
Joongangilbo – This newspaper is one of the top three in South Korea. Also, check out the bilingual column
Chosunilbo – This newspaper is ranked as one of the top in South Korea.
Dongailbo – This newspaper is ranked as one of the top in South Korea. Also, check out the kids’ version
Hankyoresinmun – Another major daily newspaper based in South Korea.
Naver – This is a trusted and accurate online Korean dictionary that provides fast results and sample sentences to put words in context.
Daum – This is another popular Korean dictionary and translator.
WordReference – There is no need for a Korean-English dictionary if you have WordReference. Featuring good translations of words and solid definitions, this site also has helpful forums where Arabic speakers from around the world contribute to explaining subtle nuances or more obscure words.
Forvo – This crowd-sourced site is a great tool to help with pronunciation as it allows you to listen to words and phrases spoken by native speakers.
Bad.La – This “language portal” boasts 44 dictionaries for 28 languages, as well as a wealth of other language learning resources, such as helpful articles, games and quizzes, verb conjugations and phrase books.
Lexilogos – This is a unique concept: just type a word into the search field and then choose from one of several dictionaries.
Tatoeba – Tatoeba is a large, crowdsourced database of sentences and translations. This free resource allows you to search for a word and get results showing that word in sentences with translations.
Talkify – This free, multilingual website is a very interesting and valuable resource that allows you to listen to text in foreign languages. Simply insert a URL into the search field on Talkify and it will automatically detect the language and read the text of that website aloud in a natural sounding voice.
LearnWithOliver – In addition to a dictionary, this site offers games and flashcards to support your Korean Language learning.
National Institute of Korean Language Dictionary – A Korean dictionary from the Ministry of Culture of Korea.
My Korean 1 – Vocabulary Lists by Unit, Practice Exercises and Audio Files for Units 1-6 and Units 7-10 are available as well.
My Korean 2 – Vocabulary Lists by Unit, Practice Exercises, Audio Files for Units 11-15 and Units 16-20 are available as well.
King Seong Institute Korean Textbooks by Sejonghakdang.org – These free textbooks were developed by the King Sejong Institute, a South Korean government organization devoted to providing comprehensive Korean language and cultural educational materials. You will need to create a free account and login to view and download these textbooks.
- Sejong Korean 1 Textbook – A beginner Korean textbook, accompanied by The Sejong Korean 1 Workbook.
- Sejong Korean 2 Textbook – A beginner Korean textbook, accompanied by The Sejong Korean 2 Workbook.
- Sejong Korean 3 Textbook – A beginner Korean textbook, accompanied by The Sejong Korean 3 Workbook.
- Sejong Korean 4 Textbook – A beginner Korean textbook, accompanied by The Sejong Korean 4 Workbook.
- Sejong Korean 5 Textbook – An intermediate Korean textbook.
- Sejong Korean 6 Textbook – An intermediate Korean textbook.
- Sejong Korean 7 Textbook – An intermediate Korean textbook.
- Sejong Korean 8 Textbook – An intermediate Korean textbook.
- Introduction to Sejong Korean – A beginner Korean textbook.
- Sejong Korean Culture 1 – A beginner Korean textbook.
- Writing Korean for Beginners – A beginner Korean textbook.
- Listening Korean for Beginners – A beginner Korean textbook.
- Reading Korean for Beginners – A beginner Korean textbook.
- Speaking Korean for Beginners – A beginner Korean textbook.
- Korean Grammar for Foreigners 1 – Structure – An Advanced level Korean textbook.
- Korean Grammar for Foreigners 2 – Usage – An Advanced level Korean textbook.
Korean Grammar by H.B. Lee – This is a good reference book for Korean grammar and pronunciation.
Basic Korean: A Grammar and Workbook by Andrew Byon – This workbook provides twenty-five core grammar lessons for beginner level Korean language learners.
Intermediate Korean: A Grammar and Workbook by Andrew Byon – This workbook provides twenty-four individual grammar lessons for intermediate level Korean language learners.
500 Basic Korean Verbs by Kyubyong Park – This textbook provides a comprehensive guide to Korean verbs.
Colloquial Korean by In-Seok Kim – This comprehensive textbook provides a step-by-step approach to learning Korean. The book provides practice exercises, concise grammar explanations, practical vocabulary, and a pronunciation guide.
Korean From Zero Book One – This awesome free textbook, the accompanying audio file, and complete Course 1 can be found on the Korean From Zero website, along with other learning materials.
Transparent Language – Free online language level testing is offered by this language learning software company.
Quick Korean Online Test – By The Cyber University of Korea.
Language Trainers – This language training company offers free online language level testing.
What Are Your Favorite Free Korean Language Learning Resources?
We have done a lot of research to bring you the best, free resources that the internet has to offer and we want to make sure our list is always comprehensive. Please share your favorites in the comments below!