For a long time, I have been interested in Korean culture and language. I wanted to learn Korean when I was in high school, but it was not offered at my school. I was planning to start learning Korean in college, but I became impatient, and I started self-teaching myself. I wanted not only to become fluent in the language, but to also learn about the culture of people in Korea.

Approximately, 50.2 people live in Korea. Worldwide, Korean is spoken by about 80 million people.

As I was starting to learn Korean, I needed to learn the Korean alphabet, because the characters used in the Korean language are very different than those used in English.

http://www.linguanaut.com/korean_alphabet.htm

There were  many things that helped me learn grammar, expressions, and vocabulary, such as websites like these:

http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/fluentkorean

https://www.youtube.com/user/sweetandtasty/videos

It also helped to watch Korean dramas and movies from websites such as these:

http://www.viki.com/

http://www.dramafever.com/

By watching famous Korean dramas, I was able to learn a bit about the Korean culture and pick up some words and phrases including slang while having fun. The same could be said for listening to Kpop, or Korean Pop. By listening to many common phrases in pop songs, I was able to pick up a few things. I also sang along while looking at the Korean lyrics to help me read Korean faster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SwiSpudKWI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjnEeYAn4SQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prurE5jKrBg

In addition, I went to a convention last year called “Kcon” which included not only a Kpop concert, but a Korean culture festival as well.

http://kconusa.com/program#program-list

Many booths were set up that taught attendees about Korean food and culture.

Additionally, I am interested in learning how to make Korean food, and this youtube channel helped me out a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/user/aeriskitchen

I hope that someday, I will be able to be fully immersed in the Korean culture by studying abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul. After all, the best way to learn a language and learn about a different culture is to be surrounded by it.

http://www.yonsei.ac.kr/eng/