"Take Your First Step into Korean Learning!"
Sample Lessons
Main topics of the Level 1 course:
- Basic greetings
- How to count numbers in Korean
- Basic grammar for forming your first Korean sentences
- Present and past tense
- How to say "who", "why", and "how" in Korean
Table of Contents
Average lesson length: 8.5 minutes
Lesson 1. Hello. Thank you. / 안녕하세요. 감사합니다.
Lesson 2. Yes. No. What? / 네. 아니요. 네?
Lesson 3. Good-bye. See you. / 안녕히 가세요. 안녕히 계세요. 안녕.
Lesson 4. I’m sorry. Excuse me. / 죄송합니다. 저기요.
Lesson 5. It’s me. What is it? / 저예요. 뭐예요?
Lesson 6. What is this? This is … / 이거 뭐예요? 이거…
Lesson 7. This, That, It / 이, 그, 저
Lesson 8. It’s NOT me. / 아니에요.
Lesson 9. Particles for Topic and Subject / 은, 는, 이, 가
Lesson 10. have, don’t have, there is, there isn’t / 있어요, 없어요
Lesson 11. Please give me. / 주세요.
Lesson 12. It’s delicious. Thank you for the food. / 맛있어요. 잘 먹겠습니다. 잘 먹었습니다.
Lesson 13. I want to … / -고 싶어요
Lesson 14. What do you want to do? / 뭐 하고 싶어요?
Lesson 15. Sino-Korean Numbers / 일, 이, 삼, 사
Lesson 16. Basic Present Tense / -아요, -어요, -여요
Lesson 17. Past Tense / -았/었/였어요 (했어요)
Lesson 18. Particles for Location / 에, 에서
Lesson 19. When / 언제
Lesson 20. Native Korean numbers / 하나, 둘, 셋, 넷
Lesson 21. Negative Sentences / 안, -지 않다
Lesson 22. 하다 verbs
Lesson 23. Who? / 누구?
Lesson 24. Why? How? / 왜? 어떻게?
Lesson 25. From A To B, From C Until D / -에서/부터 -까지
Review What You’ve Learned in Level 1
What you can find in this course:
Lesson notes
Sample dialogues
Review quizzes
Review lesson
Why you'll LOVE our Core Grammar courses
-
All Levels Covered
By simply following our curriculum that covers 10 levels, you can take your Korean skills from absolute beginner all the way up to advanced. -
Short and Digestible Lessons
Each lesson is bite-sized and easy to understand, as it focuses on one grammar point at a time and provides many example sentences. -
Fun Story-based Reviews
You can review the entire course through a fun story! The final lesson of each course features a fun story that allows you to review all the grammar and vocabulary introduced in the course. -
Review Quizzes and Interactive Audio Lessons
You can test your new knowledge through review quizzes and interactive audio lessons, where our teachers ask you questions, and you can respond and check where you need to improve.
Who teaches this course?
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Level 1 Textbook
Level 1 Workbook
Level 1 Textbook & Workbook Package
I am very happy with Talk To Me In Korean. This is just what I needed, when I needed it.
I am so happy! Finally I found a perfect course. I had tried many things before but no success… Now I can actually see my improvement, I finished first level and didn’t make a single mistake on the test at the end! I can’t wait to start level 2. 감사합니다.
This is great! I can’t wait to start level 2! Plus I learned a lot
Annyeonghaseyo ssaem… a quick question… is it compulsory to use eun/neun, I/ga in every sentences? or let say if I don’t really sure about the usage may I drop the grammar? will the sentence sound awkward? Thanks for your time.
could you shard the link for the audio, I have the book Become a hangeul master and references the audio link but the link is not available to open
Hello!
Could you share the LINK for the PDF lessons. Because i couldnt find them.
Thanks
What is the difference in the usage of 였어요, 었어요, and 있었어요?
Thank you for this question, I felt the answer but I had to search for the answer to know the feeling I got for what the exact differences were again. So please correct me if I’m wrong. But it all has to do with time, one relates to anything that states it ‘had’ or ‘was at’, the other tells it “did/were”, while you can also state that it “was an/a” something. Aka the lovely differences and nuances between the past tense, past perfect tense, and the past perfect.
So here’s my finding on refreshing the rules. by adding ~었~, it indicates that the situation in the past is not continuing in the present. But what makes Korean so fun to learn is that often it can be understood that something isn’t happening anymore by listening to the context of the sentences. So sometimes they don’t add the -었- because it is simply implied. Therefore the nuance is watered down, the ‘I had seen’ vs ‘I saw’. In English the Past perfect simple: I had seen VS the Past simple: I saw. In general the past perfect simple is used to sequence events in the past to show which event happened first.
‘Thus, back to Korean to get the difference sorted out. They’re all linked to our past, or something that hasn’t happend yet.
였어요 = also seen often as 했어요, referring to something that was an/a
었어요 =. this one states something that you did or were.
있었어요 = When something was at, or had, something you “did at” x location.
Examples (keeping it simple) using I eat, ate, haven eaten already.
아까 식사했어요. (I had a meal earlier) (였어요)
아까 먹었어요 (I had a meal)
아까 먹있었어요 (I have just eaten)
What makes Korean so incredibly difficult and easy at the same time, is that I find grammar to be very fluent. Nothing is hard rules, you could mix these up and big changes it would still be correct Korean. While in English if you use the verb “See” in the wrong place it sounds incorrect and wrong. Of course, the other would probably understand the other person, but highly likely it will be corrected to the see, seen, saw versions of that word. I haven’t practiced my Korean since I started working back in April, and I have been longing to get back into it again. I enjoyed this laser focus of trying to figure the differences out again, and as you might be able to see in my explanation; I loath grammar. I learned it by using different words to describe the tenses, and I am also applying this today when learning languages. It can get confusing when someone asks how or why I am using a certain word. in that way, I often can’t explain why it’s the way it is, over time I just learned myself to use it as the ‘correct version’ of speech of what I want to convey. I hope I’ll get that comfortable with Korean too, one day.
P.S. I found these sample sentences and thought the explain is better than I ever could:
예) 3주 전에 일본에 있었어요. // I was in Japan 3 weeks ago. (you were in Japan)
예) 제 꿈은 원래 수의사였어요. // My dream originally was to be a vet. (you wanted to be a vet)
예) 드디어 삼경살을 먹었어요! // I finally ate samgyeopsal! (pork belly). (and you did something; eating)
And I just discovered this website, and it explains the past perfect really well:
https://www.howtostudykorean.com/unit-5/lessons-101-108/lesson-108/
Just wondering for lesson 23 누구 the convo section
: 누구였어요?
B: 동생이었어요.
A: 동생이 있었어요? 몰랐어요.
Why is the third sentence not 동생이 있어요? Why is it asking in the past tense if you have a younger sibling. But translated its in the present tense
In Korean, the use of the past tense 동생이 있었어요? instead of the present tense 동생이 있어요? can imply that the speaker is referring to their knowledge or realization in the past. Essentially, 동생이 있었어요? can be interpreted as “Did you have a younger sibling (and I didn’t know)?” It reflects on the speaker’s past awareness or lack thereof.
In English, it might be translated as “You have a younger sibling? I didn’t know,” which places emphasis on the present state of having a younger sibling, but in Korean, the past tense is used to indicate the speaker’s surprise about not having known this information before. 🤓
Hello… question. Because syllable blocks need to have a consonant and a vowel, can you help me understand why in ma-ja-yo the “j” is written in korean in the first block vs. in the “a” block… I also see this in the jo-a-hae-yo where the “h” consonant is written as a consonant in the “Jo” (silent h/or h not represented in romanized letters) while the “a” is standalone. It’s probably a dumb question but just looking for some clarification.
맞아요 and 좋아해요 are not basic forms, they are combined forms of 맞다 + -아요 and 좋다 + -아하다 respectively.
I wanted to use Hangeul to clarify above question but have no idea how to do so from this computer. Can anyone provide suggestions for settings or something?
Hi all at ttmik!
I just sign up for being a member. I am a masters student in linguistics and korean is one of my target languages for my school work.
So, Grammar is very important for me. What resources do I now have access to as a member? Where do I begin?
Thank you so much!
If you want to learn grammar, I recommend starting from Level 1 of the Core Grammar course and progressing step by step. Also, if you study along with books, it would be good to practice grammar with the Core Grammar workbook! 🤓
I initially learned 한글 and some grammar from Billy who is of course a great 선생님.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I also thoroughly enjoyed countless episodes of Jolly and영국남자 , which actually made me purchase the TTMIK Text and Workbooks for the first few levels.
But subscribing to the website and revisiting the courses really takes studying to the next level.
정말 감사합니다
Keep improving your Korean skills with TTMIK in the future! 한국어 공부 파이팅! 💪
If we have questions on the lessons is there somewhere we can go to ask?
You can just write your question right here!
How can I find a PDF or something else digital to go along with the lessons? Is it free, or do I have to pay for it?
Is there a free version, or do I have to buy them?
We offer grammar books in both print and electronic formats. Feel free to choose between the printed or digital version. Thank you. 😄
I wish there were more visual lessons available. Especially for the harder lessons. The audio is great and I can easily follow along with my book but I am a visual learner. I think I would be able to retain the information more if I could watch the lesson instead of only listening to it.
We’ll try to create visual lessons. Thanks for the great suggestion!
I desperately miss these lessons being available on Spotify. They were a part of my daily routine, either to review the lesson from the night before or as preparation for the lesson I’d be going into the night of. I often listened to these recordings in the car or in the shower and while I understand the focus has been on the new Stories app, I would love to see the Core Grammar podcast available on the TTMIK Audio app! It would be significantly more convenient then having to listen through a browser. I love these lessons side by side with text and workbooks, as it’s sometimes easier for me to hear it explained out loud as opposed to reading alone. I have a friend studying Japanese that is supremely jealous of all the tools TTMIK has to offer and this was the one I would boast about most, lessons on Spotify that matched the books I bought and the audio app that paired with them as well.
Unfortunately, due to frequent illegal replication and distribution of MP3 files, we regret to inform you that we have discontinued providing them. We are actively working on finding a solution that prevents illegal copying and distribution while enhancing the learning effectiveness and convenience for our subscribers.
We know it might be inconvenient, but please listen to the audio on the website for the time being. Thank you. ☺️
Agreed! I wish they set up a similar subscription system for Spotify that allowed you to still access the Spotify lessons.
i really don’t like the audio lessons. as things get more complex, i feel that that graphic videos lessons would be better, like you did with lesson 9/particles which i had to find on youtube
I love the audio lessons AND the graphic video lessons. Each helps in a different way. Redundancy is a great tool in learning.
Thank you for your valuable feedback. We will try to create it as soon as possible! 🤓
Completed Level 1 and learned a lot! Thank you so much TTMIK for these resources! Can’t wait to start lesson 2!
Congratulations! Surely, you will be able to enjoy studying Level 2 as well! 한국어 공부 파이팅!
This is an amazing course! I’ve been studying Korean through your website for less than a week and am so pleased with how much I’ve progressed. I also think the bite-sized lessons are just the perfect length for absorbing info.
Thank you for loving the TTMIK lessons. There are many other interesting courses available, so we hope you will continue to study Korean diligently through various courses! 🥰
I have been thinking a lot about where to start my journey with Korean and even though I have not so much time because of work and University, this course has been life-changing for me. It is so easy to follow, the explanations totally clear, I can do a lesson even when I am going somewhere from my Phone and I am so happy that in a week I have learned so much. Thank you for your hard work on these courses, I am so happy to have chosen to spend my money with you and I hope to say proudly one day to have learned Korean thanks to you!!
Many thanks for your thoughtful comment!! We are really glad to hear that TTMIK has been helpful. We hope you continue to study hard and become a master of Korean. Hope you enjoy learning with us. 🥰
In lesson 7, you said that 거/것 can be only used for object. But in Lesson 23 – 누구, you make the sentence 이거 누구예요? (Who is this?) instead of 이 사람/분. Please help me explain that
That sentence is sometimes used in spoken language. It’s used when referring to objects. For example, when looking at a figure, you can say, 이거 누구야?.
Can anyone help me to understand why you use “이거 누구예요” instead of “이사람 누구예요”?
The first example is, “Who is this?” and the 2nd is, “Who is this person/man/woman?” so word choice is correct.
Terrible website. Cannot advance lessons. I’ve completed 5 and it won’t mark completed beyond lesson 2.
Also, Audio files for dictation are hard to find.
At that time, there was probably a website maintenance in progress. We apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused. If the issue persists, please send an email to “[email protected]”. 🥲
I can’t access the lessons. I tried clicking on lesson 10 but nothing happens.
At that time, there was probably a website maintenance in progress. We apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused. If you still cannot access, please send an email to “[email protected]”. 🙏
I can’t seem to access the audios to hear the lessons. It worked for me before but it no longer is ☹️
Never mind it’s just not working on my iPhone browser for some weird reason. But I love this site I’m learning so much.
Would LOVE some clarification on this!!!
IN LESSON #9:
Why do they use the example, 이책 for “this book”?’
I thought they would use 이거책 for “this book” since we learned that we learned that 이거 meant “This/This thing” not just “이”.
In addition to what Cora and Daniel said, you wouldnt use 이거 책 to suffice for it is a book, it has to be 이거 책이에요.
네, 이 means “this”, and 거 means “thing, item, stuff”. So it would make sense for this book to be “이책” and not “이거책”.
이거 책 – This is a book.
이책 – This book
이책 is “this book”, in the most basic form, with 이 serving as “this” 이거 is more like “this is”, so 이거 책 is more like “this is a book”