Billy Go's Blog, page 68

How to Make a Korean Study Notebook

Everyone who's studying Korean has some sort of notebook or system that they use for writing down what they're learning - most of the time it's a notebook or several notebooks. When studying grammar or writing down notes and example sentences, there's no substitute for a good study notebook.

And everyone has their own method for making a study notebook and keeping it organized. This is to be expected, because everyone learns in their own ways. And if you have something that already works, keep using it. However, I wanted to make a video that could give some general tips for making a study notebook, for those of you who might not have one or who want some advice.

These are my own personal tips for how to make and organize a Korean study notebook. This video includes all of the methods that I have used before, and which ones worked well for me.

If you do things differently, do let me know in a comment here or below the video. Thanks for watching!

The post How to Make a Korean Study Notebook appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

How Many Vocabulary Words Do You NEED to Speak Korean? | Korean FAQ

How many Korean words do you need to speak fluently? The answer may BLOW YOUR MIND - just kidding. It's anywhere between three to five thousand... but how I got to this number, and how you can evaluate this number for your own vocabulary is what's more interesting.

I broke down hours worth of native Korean conversations to figure out how many unique words were being used on average, and compared that with how many words I use myself. This was used to calculate a ballpark estimate for how many vocabulary words are actually being used, and let you know how many you'd need in order to speak and understand the majority of what's going on.

How many words do you know? How many more do you need? Let me know your thoughts on my video here or in the video's description.

The post How Many Vocabulary Words Do You NEED to Speak Korean? | Korean FAQ appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

Learn Korean Ep. 107: 아니고 vs 말고

Keykat wants me to take care of a spider in the house. She's really a 'scaredy-kat' at times. I guess I'll take care of it.

This video talks about two similar words - 아니고 and 말고. These have different grammar uses and meanings, but are often mixed up for each other because of their similar sounding English translations. Find out how to tell the difference between the two.

Remember that each "Learn Korean" episode comes with a free PDF which you can download below the video link right in this post.

Thanks for watching~!

Click here to download a free PDF of this lesson!

The post Learn Korean Ep. 107: 아니고 vs 말고 appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

"For" 위해 vs 위한 | Live Class Abridged

위해 and 위한 are two more words often mixed up. This is because both words can be used in the same places in a sentence at times, so it can be confusing to know which one to use and when. In this summarized video I explain when and how to use each one, and what the differences are between using them.

The post "For" 위해 vs 위한 | Live Class Abridged appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

Vowel Harmony - Bright and Dark Vowels | Korean FAQ

Way back when I first was starting to learn Korean I remember hearing about "bright" and "dark" vowels in the Korean language. At the time, it sounded too mystical and far-fetched to be true, almost like some legend or conspiracy. But I put it away in my pocket and kept going, not really looking back at it until a few years later.

Vowel harmony is real, and it influenced a lot of older Korean words which in turn influenced many modern Korean words too. In Korean, vowel harmony is the concept that the vowel used in a word influences the way that it sounds - its connotation or overall feeling when used. By simply changing a vowel from a bright to a dark one, or vice versa, you can effectively change the feeling associated with that word. I wish I'd learned about vowel harmony sooner, because I remember scratching my head over verb conjugation, onomatopoeia, and more - vowel harmony helps many of the strange "quirks" of the Korean language make sense.

This video is my attempt to summarize the concept of vowel harmony, including bright vowels and dark vowels, as well as how you can use them to improve your own Korean.

The post Vowel Harmony - Bright and Dark Vowels | Korean FAQ appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

GO! Billy Korean Fan Meetup (Video)

This past Sunday (yesterday here in Korea) I got to meet several of my fans in real life, at the Han River in Seoul. I admit that before going, I was nervous because it was my first time holding a fan meetup, but everything went great from the very beginning. We had a fun time first talking and hanging out together. Then I held a live Q&A for a half hour, followed by filming two interview videos in English and Korean. I asked some of the attendees why they started learning Korean, and if they had any advice for other learners.

I had a wonderful time meeting everyone who came, and hope to be able to have another event sometime in the future. Thanks again to those of you who were able to make it that day. 감사합니다~!

The post GO! Billy Korean Fan Meetup (Video) appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

What is 갑분싸? | Korean Language Trends Ep. 4

I started hearing a lot more people in Korea using "갑분싸" last year and felt it would be a good time to make a video about it. Here's a newly created word that's gaining some decent traction, and IMO is a safe word to learn for the future (it won't likely go out of style right away). You can use this word in a variety of situations, but it's easy to use and even beginners can add it to their conversations.

Adding new phrases like these to your Korean can help you to sound more like a native. For more words, you can also check out the other episodes in this series (this is episode 4). Let me know if there are any other new words that you've heard and would like me to cover~.

 

The post What is 갑분싸? | Korean Language Trends Ep. 4 appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

Korean Negative Verbs (안, ~지 않다, 못) | Live Class Abridged

Korean negatives can be tricky to learn - besides knowing when to use 안 and ~지 않다. There's also ~지 못하다, negative verbs (없다, 모르다, etc.), and even negative grammar forms and negative adverbs.

I did a live stream last year about how to use all of these, but the full live stream is around 2 hours which is too long for many people to watch. So here's where this abridged version comes in handy. I compressed the full live stream down to its most important parts, and here it is~

The post Korean Negative Verbs (안, ~지 않다, 못) | Live Class Abridged appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

Can He Pass My Korean Quiz? | Tutoring My Brother

If you had only studied Korean for two hours, and then had to take a test, how would you do?

This is what my little brother tried, with a cash incentive.

We wanted to take a break from learning new topics and focus on reviewing what he'd already learned. So to do that, we did a Korean test to see how well he remembered what we learned over the past two classes.

How do you think he did? And what should we do for our next class?

The post Can He Pass My Korean Quiz? | Tutoring My Brother appeared first on Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean.

하는 거예요 or 해요 - What's the Difference? | Korean FAQ

Take these two sentences:

하는 거예요 and 해요.

Or how about 좋아하는 거야 and 좋아해? Both mean "I like (something)," but there's a difference in how they're used and you might prefer one or the other depending on the situation.

What's the difference? In the video I talk about this, but the main difference is the nuance of each form. Both the ~것이다 and the regular ~요 form can be used to have the same meaning, but the ~것이다 form gives a stronger emphasis on the subject while the ~요 form gives more of an emphasis on the verb. Find out more about what I mean by watching the video below.

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