I’ve taught over 200 students in 1:1 lessons, and while there are many ways to learn a language, private lessons are typically the most expensive and effective. If you’re looking for how to learn Korean fast, this is often the first step.
However, there’s one crucial thing to remember: lessons alone aren’t enough to improve your Korean skills significantly. The most effective ways to learn Korean involve what you do after the lesson. The greatest progress comes when you take the time to practice what you’ve learned on your own.
Among my students, those who showed remarkable improvement in their Korean skills followed certain strategies. These are the best ways to learn Korean, and I’d like to share them with you in this post.
1. Consistency: The 5-Minute Daily Habit (The “Fastest” Way to Learn Korean)
Whether it’s language learning or any other skill, consistency is key. This is the most important of all Korean study tips.
It is far more effective to study for 5 minutes every day than to cram for an hour once a week.
Why? Because of habit formation. An hour-long session feels like a big commitment, and it’s easy to skip (“I’m too busy today”). But 5 minutes? Anyone has 5 minutes. By doing it every day, you build an unbreakable study habit and signal to your brain that this knowledge is important.
My student, Elen, took 51 hours of lessons with me over 1 year and 3 months. Despite being extremely busy with her job, she dedicated 5 minutes each morning before work to studying Korean. She thoroughly reviewed what she learned in each lesson before the next one. She didn’t cram; she just showed up every day. As a result, she eventually became fluent in Korean.
This consistency is, ironically, how to learn Korean fast.
2. Personal Relevancy: How to Practice Korean with Your Own Sentences
This is how to practice Korean in a way that makes it stick.
Textbook examples often don’t resonate because they aren’t personally relevant.
“이건 우리 할머니의 부채야.” (This is my grandmother’s fan.)
This sentence is grammatically correct, but it’s not your sentence. You might even wonder if you’ll ever use it in real life.
During my lessons, I encourage students to create their own sentences—not just random ones, but ones that reflect their personal experiences or stories.
- Textbook: “The weather is nice.” (날씨가 좋아요.)
- Personal: “It’s raining in my city today, so I’m sad.” (오늘 우리 도시에 비가 와서 슬퍼요.)
This personal connection creates a “memory hook.” The new grammar point is now tied to a real emotion or memory, making it far easier to remember and use in actual conversations.
When I was learning Thai, I asked my teacher to teach me this sentence:
“I have one Thai friend.”
I really did have one Thai friend. Though the sentence seemed simple, the word order was entirely different from Korean or English (more like “I have friend Thai one”). I practiced this single, personal sentence until I could say it perfectly, and it turned out to be incredibly useful whenever I spoke with Thai people.
3. Active Recall: Using Flashcards for Repetition
Once you’ve created sentences that reflect your own experiences, it’s important to practice them repeatedly. This is the third and final key to the most effective ways to learn Korean.
This is not passive review (just re-reading your notes). It is Active Recall.
- Passive: “Ah yes, I remember learning that.”
- Active: “How do I say ‘I want to go to the park’ in Korean?” (You force your brain to retrieve the information.)
The best tool for active recall is a flashcard system.
- Put the English sentence (your personal one) on the front.
- Put the Korean translation on the back.
- Test yourself.
Adding audio to these flashcards is crucial. If you have a native teacher or friend, ask them to record the sentences for you. I used to ask my teacher to record what I learned during the last 5 minutes of each lesson.
Having these audio flashcards allows you to practice anytime, anywhere. Even if you have just one minute of free time, you can review multiple sentences. As you accumulate around 1,000 flashcards and practice them regularly, you’ll see incredible growth in your Korean skills.
Bonus Tip (How to practice Korean): Don’t just listen to the audio on the flashcard. Shadow it. This means you play the audio and try to say it at the exact same time as the native speaker. This is the single best way to learn Korean pronunciation and intonation.
A Final Thought
➤ The most effective ways to learn Korean are not a secret. They are a simple, three-part process:
- Consistency (a daily habit)
- Relevancy (making it personal)
- Practice (using active recall)
The “Podo Korean” app, designed for serious learners, includes thousands of frequently used sentences recorded by a native Korean teacher (me!). You can easily save your favorite sentences as flashcards with just one tap, making it a great tool to help you with Step 3 of your Korean learning journey.
