Billy Go's Blog

I asked Koreans in Seoul what Korean dramas they’re watching.

You’ll hear how Koreans actually speak – the words and grammar they use, the speed they speak at, and their pronunciation – in my series “Easy Korean Speaking.” Let me know if you have any requests for questions I should ask next!

It takes a long time for Korean to finally “click” and make sense… or does it ever actually “click” at all? And what is “natural” Korean anyway? We share how long it took for Korean to click and feel natural, as well as what habits make someone’s Korean sound and feel more natural.

Leveling up from Intermediate Level to Advanced Level is a giant step – larger than going from Beginner to Intermediate – so we share all of our tips for how you can do it more quickly and easily, as well as what you should expect.

껏 appears in many words such as 마음껏, 힘껏, and more. In this episode I break down what it literally means and how to use it yourself.

Have you ever heard someone talk about you in Korean… but you secretly could understand? Well I certainly have, and so has Gwen who lives in Daegu. Find out what we did, as well as you’ll hear some of our experiences being able to speak and understand Korean as non-native speakers.

Korean intonation can be tough – it’s nothing like we do in English. Typical Korean intonation sounds much flatter, but it’s not actually completely flat and monotone. Korean speakers add intonation on sentence connectors, at the start of their sentences, and also at the end depending on the type of sentence (statements or questions). We share tips for how you can improve and fix your intonation to sound more natural.

A lot of the Korean I learned before I went to Korea wasn’t the Korean I ended up hearing there. Not just the pronunciation and the dialect (which was completely a mystery to me), but basic grammar and words too. I share some of my frustrations with learning Korean as a beginner, and talk with a fluent Korean speaker about his experiences with the language.

You’ll occasionally see ~대다 attached to the end of a regular Action Verb – it’s the same verb with an added meaning. It shows that something is happening repeatedly and too much.

Let’s do some more street interviews! I asked Koreans what they think learners should know before they start studying Korean, and got a wide variety of answers. Here’s what they said (with minimal editing).

People have told me they’re too nervous to speak Korean, and wonder what they should do. Well I used to have this same problem when I was a beginner, and even later on after I started improving. In this new episode of my podcast “Into Korean” I share my own experiences with feeling anxious to speak Korean, as well as chat with a guest (Sami from Australia) who shares her experiences with language anxiety.