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| Photo Courtesy of Rookie Korean |
How many of us have tried to learn Korean? We’re on the apps, we get the books and learn the basics - but why do we do it? Perhaps it’s to try and understand our favourite K-pop lyrics, enjoy K-dramas without the subtitles, or just be able to navigate South Korea.
From this want, plenty of incredible content creators have emerged to help us out on our learning journey. On this installment of The K-Wave, we’ll be highlighting one teacher in particular who’s dedicated to helping all Korean-learners out in a fun and creative way by using lyrics, videos, and even reading to us in the same manner as a native speaker.
Meet Fulya, also known as Rookie Korean, who - although her journey has only been a few years in the making - started an Instagram platform after enrolling in a Korean language school to share educational content with followers. Her efforts and endeavours have taking her far, landing her to even help translate behind-the-scenes meetings with K-pop groups such TRENDZ as they visited Istanbul, Türkiye (her native home), for the team at View of The Arts.
KpopWise: Let’s start from the beginning. Many people start learning a new language for a specific reason, be it the culture, K-dramas or K-pop. Your journey has been a little different since you first started learning Chinese. What made you want to learn Korean? Can you share a bit about your language journey?
Fulya: I don’t know why, but I love talking about this. During the pandemic when we were all “stuck” in our houses, I randomly came across a cheesy Chinese drama and started watching it to pass the time. And then I was visited by my language-learning fairies and downloaded Chinese on my Duolingo. It was all fun in the beginning, but very quickly self-studying became difficult because of all the different ways to emphasise letters, and TikToks I saw made me doubt I could ever properly speak Chinese.
By that time, I had finished watching all the Chinese dramas on Netflix and was recommended Korean dramas. While watching them, I noticed the credits written below the screen and how they were always similar shapes, unlike Chinese. And thought, "What if this is easier?" and added Korean on Duolingo. Fast forward to today, I can safely say that the alphabet may be easy, but the language is not.
KpopWise: For you, what is the most beautiful aspect of the Korean language?
Fulya: As I mentioned, I started my journey by trying to learn Chinese, and not long after, I quit. So, one of my favourite aspects of the Korean language is the easy alphabet; shout out to King Sejong. I also love that grammatically it is similar to Turkish; it really proves to me we are brother countries. And last but not least, I like the intonations of Korean. I like that the same sentence can have different meanings according to how you tone it. Korean is music to my ears.
KpopWise: What is the best way to learn? What learning methods do you find work best for you? I know you attend an online Korean language school that includes exams – how has that helped in your learning?
Fulya: I think everyone has their own “best” method to learn, which is discovered along the way. For me the issue with learning any language is that without realising, I always focus on one aspect more than the others; in Korean it was the grammar, and then I realised other skills had been left behind. I think the hardest aspect of Korean is that it has a lot of vocabulary (I googled) with over 1.1 million words.
So, my suggestion would be focusing on all features of Korean while learning – grammar, of course, but also vocabulary, along with listening, writing and speaking. And a classic, but for a language skill to evolve, we must always, literally always, practise. But not to worry, even listening to K-pop songs, trying to understand the lyrics or listening to a podcast in Korean helps our development. As for my language course, after self-studying very slowly for 2.5 years, starting Sejong Hakdang helped me focus on all the points I mentioned above. Meeting friends who learn Korean just like me and having native teachers teach the language are my favourite parts of attending the language school.
KpopWise: You’ve spent time in Korea. Did you feel that your learning helped you navigate and communicate more confidently? (Your speaking skills are very good even if you’re modest about them!) Do you feel your confidence is growing no matter how perfect your Korean is?
Fulya: Yes, I have been to Korea a couple of times as a tourist, and I noticed that each time I was there, I had gotten more comfortable with speaking. I did struggle (surely), but each time my understanding and speaking had evolved (slowly), which became a great motivation for me to continue with my learning. One of my dreams is to spend a couple of months there to get used to using Korean in my everyday life. But before I achieve that, I want to get as good as I can with it.
KpopWise: You often feature K-pop songs to help break down vocabulary, sentence structure, and grammar. Do you find music is a good way to help familiarise oneself with new words? What Korean song do you feel most connected to by either the use of wordplay or message?
Fulya: When I first started to listen to Korean songs, I was not understanding much except some basic words, but as someone who loves singing along to songs (despite my terrible voice [laughs]), I wanted to do this even when I didn’t understand the lyrics, and my first aim was to be able to sing along reading the Hangeul lyrics. And later in time, while I kept learning new Korean grammar points and vocabulary, I realised I started to understand more and more lyrics while casually listening.
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| Photo Courtesy of Rookie Korean |
That put the idea in my head that I should do this reels series where I share parts of songs with the Korean lyrics and English translations, and in the caption, I explain the lyrics in detail so other learners get the joy I do while listening to Korean songs and understanding lyrics. As for a song I feel most connected to, it might be hard to find, but I love listening to and singing along to the song “어쩌다 마주친 그대”. The lyrics are simple, and I first heard it in the K-drama Hospital Playlist. I especially love shouting the part “바보 바보, 나는 바보인가 봐” (fool fool, I guess I am a fool).”
Kpopwise: What has been the most challenging part of learning the language so far that you have found to be a hurdle?
Fulya: I think the most challenging part for me was when I first started learning Korean, and I was studying on my own using online content that I could find. As I mentioned earlier, I started with Duolingo, and sorry for the bad advertising, but that is not the best way to start, let alone using it as the only platform to learn Korean.
So, I started finding new places to learn, which kept widening my learning, but I think until I started learning Korean at Sejong Hakdang from native teachers, I wasn’t even aware how much I was struggling because I was learning, but I was all over the place. Learning there helped me gather the content. Now my biggest challenge is speaking in Korean because I want to be able to speak naturally. Of course, I cannot be on a native level, but my aim is to get my Korean speaking levels to my English ones.
Kpopwise: What made you want to start an Instagram page? Do you find it keeps you motivated, knowing that you’re not just helping yourself but also sharing useful content with others on the same journey?
Fulya: Ah, I love this question. I was at a point in my learning where I felt stuck, and I was so slow at learning because I kept going back to reviewing the things I learnt, scared to move on. Then a couple of close ARMY friends and I thought about opening a WhatsApp group where I would teach them the things I learnt and new topics as I learnt them, and I thought that would help me repeat, and I loved being able to help my friends learn Korean too.
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Photo Courtesy of Rookie Korean
So, while we were doing this, the idea of opening an Instagram account to reach even more Korean learners through my journey popped into my head. Firstly, it was making posts on Hangeul because my biggest first struggle was learning the Korean alphabet and pronunciation properly, and I learnt it through many sources, and I wanted to gather everything on my account to make it easier for fellow learners. And then came the other posts, and especially with my posts where I try to explain certain grammar points, I like the fact that I have the same viewpoint as a learner, which means I try to make those posts according to the questions a new learner might have. Of course I am not a native speaker, and I might make mistakes, but I would love to be corrected and learn through my mistakes.
Kpopwise: Your feed is beautifully and aesthetically pleasingly curated, with a good balance of words of the day to grammar tips. What is the most fun part when it comes to creating content?
Fulya: First of all, thank you for the compliment. Shortly after I created my account, I wanted it to have certain themes, and I am happy with the style I came up with. To be honest, my favourite part when creating the grammar posts is getting to review the topics myself. That was the main goal of creating the account in the first place.
When it comes to the vocabulary posts, I like learning new vocabulary while creating the posts (to be honest, I need to practise my own posts from time to time) and also coming up with sentences to learn the vocabulary better. And I also do “topic” posts from time to time where I explain certain phrases or do some comparisons, etc. Those are also fun to make because most of the time I learn them as I make the posts because I choose the “topics” I am curious about. And to be fair, the Korean community I have found so far thanks to this account is such a nice one I am happy to be a part of it.
Kpopwise: Are there any other Instagram accounts or online tools that you have found especially helpful for learning Korean?
Fulya: Oh, there are so many great accounts I follow and learn from. I would like to mention @oli_saem, whom I started to follow because I loved how she explained things in her videos. And recently I started joining Olivia’s group talk sessions, which are very fun to be a part of. I hope it will help me with my speaking skills.
Kpopwise: Finally, what would be the dream goal to achieve? As you already have such a great mix of travel content as well – what’s the vision?
Fulya: As I mentioned, the reason I opened my Instagram account was to help fellow Korean learners. So, of course, the more people I reach and help, the happier I will be. And I will keep on working to make my account more pleasing to achieve this.
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As for myself, even though Korean is “just” a hobby for me, I want to be good at it. Especially with speaking. I would love to spend some time in Korea attending a language school in one of the universities. I am sure if I am forced to speak it, I will get better at it, so this is a dream of mine.
Follow Rookie Korean