Beginner operating system (Korean)
A1–A2 Korean means Hangul automaticity, a small speech-level toolkit (해요체 first), finishable graded listening, and sentences you invent. Romanization is temporary — retire it once Hangul is readable at a glance.
Week-by-week month
- Week 1 — Finish Hangul with the script trainer; 20 First 500 words/day; one graded clip finished daily.
- Week 2 — Core frames (이에요/예요, 있어요/없어요, 어디에); five spoken sentences/day; typing practice in Hangul.
- Week 3 — Topic deck (food/directions); 45-second voice note of your day.
- Week 4 — Re-listen early clips without romanization; 60-word week paragraph; batch batchim patterns you keep misreading.
Daily 25-minute template
- 3 min — yesterday’s three words aloud
- 10 min — Hangul trainer or First 500
- 12 min — graded listening + 30-second retell
Model micro-paragraph (week 4): 이번 주에 한국어를 공부했어요. 쉬운 음성을 듣고 일기를 썼어요. 새 단어를 다섯 개 외웠어요. 내일 더 말하고 싶어요.
Korean-specific traps
- Romanization comfort forever
- Honorific theory before five memorized 해요체 frames
- K-drama-only input with no finishable graded audio
- Anki graveyards larger than speaking time
Hub: Korean resources. Next: B1–B2 path.
A solid practice day
Finish one listening or reading piece you can actually complete. Invent three new sentences. Record a short spoken retell. If the input is too hard, step down — don’t open another app.