How To Keep Yourself Motivated When You’re Learning Korean

It can be easy to lose motivation when you’re learning something new, these tips should help!

When you’re learning something new, whether it’s longboard dancing or learning Korean, it can be easy to lose motivation or run out of steam when you’re not picking things up as quickly as you’d like. Hyunwoo Sun from Talk To Me In Korean has provided three simple tips to keep you motivated when you find yourself stuck in a learning rut.

Tip #1: Think about why you wanted to learn Korean in the first place.

Reflecting upon why you wanted to learn Korean can help reignite your motivational fire! For example, Hyunwoo suggests if your original goal is to learn Korean so that you can travel to Korea you can set benchmark goals for yourself.

Alternatively, if you want to be able to listen to and enjoy K-Pop without looking up lyrics translations, he suggests continuing to listen to K-Pop songs and simply learn a new word here and there in order to be able to understand what is being sung.

Remembering why you started learning Korean and setting simple goals can help remove a lot of stress and pressure from the learning process.

Tip #2: Make it part of your daily life.

When you make learning part of your daily life, you don’t have to worry about making time to study. Listen to K-Pop, watch Korean dramas, and when you don’t know a word, look it up!

Also, find programs that make it easy for you to look words up or that can quickly translate things for you. While Siri, unfortunately, cannot do Korean translations right now, you may find a similar program that works for you and use it regularly.

Hyunwoo uses the Naver dictionary app and he keeps it on the front screen of his phone, where he can easily tap it without having to extend his fingers too much, so he has no excuse to look up a word he doesn’t know. Basically, make things easy for yourself so you don’t feel put out when you want to learn.

Tip #3: Make every new word super meaningful.

Find a word that resonates with you and is super meaningful to you and incorporate it in a set amount of sentences. If you’re a vegetarian and you learn the word “vegetarian”, then find five different ways to be able to use it in sentences. When you find a way to practice like this and apply them to your daily life, you’ll be able to remember the word much better!

Using these three tips should help you get excited to learn again as they remove the stress from learning and help you form good learning habits! Remember, it takes 20 days to form a habit, so if you apply these tips for at least 20 days, you’ll find yourself speaking Korean in no time!