★ Do it in your own time
All these advice are just that; advice. Follow your gut feeling and keep the training wheels for as long as you need them, but in the end, it’s just a language - what could go wrong?
★ Get rid of romanization as fast as you can
Romanization is great for learning hangeul and getting familiar with it, and it’s pretty awesome for those who aren’t planning on learning Korean properly, like if you’re going on a trip or wanna impress a friend. However if you want to learn Korean to the full extent you need to stop relying on what you’re familiar with, because as long as you go straight to the romanization you’re not getting better at reading hangeul.
★ Stick with the formal language in the beginning
Yes, banmal is totally awesome there’s so much emotion and nuance, but here’s the deal: In Korean culture, the level of politeness is an important part of everyday life. It’s very rude to speak banmal to someone who is “above you” so generally speaking you always start off by speaking formally to people you meet except for children. On the other hand, it can also be considered rude if someone asks you or tells you that you can speak banmal to them and you continue to be formal, so it’s important not to disregard any of the levels.
Also, as a new student don’t mix them together, you’ll probably get confused or maybe you’ll get used to talking banmal and it’s really hard coming back to having formal Korean as your default after that.
Now, if you’re a foreign looking type, like me, they probably won’t take as much offense if you mess up, but if you look Korean or are Korean but didn’t grow up Korean you’re still expected to know these things.
★ Write, watch, listen!
Surround yourself with Korean, it doesn’t have to be in every aspect of your life, but listen to some music or watch a movie, get a feel of the language. And if you haven’t been until now then I’d suggest you start writing. It doesn’t have to be original sentences because Korean grammar is super hard, but find a song, a poem or a small bit of text and copy it. If you want you can make an art project out of it.
★ Speak up
As we grow older it gets harder for us to learn new languages, and pronouncing them too, but a big part of that is all about muscles. If you want to sound natural you gotta send your tongue and the rest of your mouth to the gym and the only way to do that is to speak and try to mimic the sounds of the language. If you have a friend to work out with that’s awesome you can motivate each other, but if you don’t, talk to your cat, the people inside your TV or even just with yourself, it’s all about practice.
