Well, you should try it!

Learning Korean online is a great alternative to attending an inconvenient class to study material presented at an inconvenient pace. And you might not be able to take a class in Korean in your area if you wanted to, because it is not a common language option in most smaller schools. Choosing your own Korean language program on the internet allows you the flexibility to match the way you learn with the kind of program you want.

But before you embark on learning Korean online, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, the Korean language has many levels of politeness, and in Korea, politeness is essential. For example, the standard greeting in English is hello, regardless of whether we’re speaking to our neighbor or the President. In Korea, it’s totally different. In Korean, you’d greet your grandmother with one phrase, your child with another, and your boss differently still. It’s a lot like the difference between “How do you do”, “Hello,” “Hi,” and “Wassup” – only more so! For this reason, when learning Korean online it’s important to find a course that delves into Korean language and culture rather than just the rote pronunciation of words.

There’s another obvious between Korean and any other language you may have studied. Korean is written in a special alphabet called Hangul or Hanguel. This makes learning Korean difficult for visual learners who depend on reading for comprehension. Fortunately, Korean can also be written using the same alphabet as English (this is called Romanized spelling) and visual learners should insist on this feature when researching ways to learn Korean online.

We hope that by now you’re ready to plunge into learning Korean online, and you’ve chosen a program that works for you – but is there anything you can do to speed up the process? Why not find some Korean-speaking friends? Look for an online language program with a student forum where you can share your problems and successes with other students. These forums are often staffed by native Korean speakers who can help and advise you on any study-related troubles you may have. But just finding other people out in cyberspace who are sharing your experience is often a boost to your own learning.

Hopefully, you now feel ready to tackle the job of learning Korean online. Are you up to the challenge?