Exam guides, vocabulary systems and honest learning tips for Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. No fluff.
17 guides
An eight-week schedule for TOPIK I Level 2: the real format, the 140-point pass mark, a weekly routine, listening tactics and the five mistakes that cost marks.
Questions 53 and 54 are worth 80 of the 100 writing points. Here are the templates, the syllable limits, the scoring criteria and a practice loop that lifts both scores.
Every TOPIK II listening and reading question type, what to do in the first ten seconds, and a time budget that gets you to the final passage with room to spare.
One stem, many endings. The vowel rules for 아요 and 어요, the past and future forms, seven irregular groups and the honorific layer, with charts you can copy.
Why the verb comes last, how particles replace English word order, four sentence patterns to build from, and the errors that mark a beginner in the first month.
Why written Korean does not match spoken Korean: the seven batchim sounds, linking, tensification, nasalisation and aspiration, with example pairs throughout.
Roughly 60 percent of Korean vocabulary is built from Chinese characters. Learn the syllables as meaning units and vocabulary stops being a list.
The connectors that separate beginner Korean from intermediate: what each one does, the constraint that trips learners up, and how they are tested in TOPIK writing.
A five-pass method for extracting real language from a two-minute scene, how to use songs without wasting them, and the register trap that dramas set for you.
Two tests that look alike and are not. What EPS-TOPIK contains, how the KIIP levels and tests work, and how to tell which one your situation requires.
Choosing not to do something and being unable to do it are different in Korean. The short forms, the long forms, and the two verbs that have their own negatives.
Learn to read Hangul in a day. A simple step-by-step guide to all 24 Korean letters, how syllable blocks work, a printable chart and a free quiz.
The official Korean proficiency exam — TOPIK I and TOPIK II, the six levels, how scoring works, which level you need for university or work in Korea, and how to choose the right test.
A week-by-week TOPIK II study plan for levels 3–6 — vocabulary, grammar, reading, listening, and the two writing essays, with section strategy and an 8-week compressed option.
Particles mark the role of each word in a Korean sentence. This guide covers the core set, the 은/는 vs 이/가 question, 에 vs 에서, where particles appear in TOPIK, and common mistakes.
Korean encodes respect and social distance into the verb. This guide covers the speech levels (합쇼체, 해요체, 해체, 해라체), the honorific infix 시, the honorific vocabulary swaps, and when to use which level.
Korean has two number systems and a set of counters. This guide covers Sino vs native numbers, when to use each, the common counters, telling time, money and dates, age, and the mistakes beginners make.