Korean – The Lunar Treehouse

Korean Reading Resources: A Personal Masterlist

August 14, 2020December 12, 2020

Reading is probably one of my favourite things to do in the world, and I try to read something in my target languages everyday, whether it’s an article, a chapter of my favourite webtoon, or if I happen to have a lot of free time that day, a book. It used to be a lot harder to find reading materials in Korean, but it’s 2020 and these days you can pretty much find anything you need on the internet.

Unless it’s Korean books – but we’ll get to that later.

How I Prepared for TOPIK II

July 23, 2020December 12, 2020

Two weeks ago, I took the TOPIK II test for the first time. I had a year to prepare for it, so I got to experiment with all sorts of exercises – reading news, listening to radio, writing articles – with varying degrees of success. In this article, I’ll be talking about the ones that I found the most effective.

I also wrote an article on the test-taking strategies that I used during the exam, which you can read here.

Hacking TOPIK II

July 15, 2020December 12, 2020

Two days ago, I sat for the TOPIK II exam. It was my first time taking the test, so I was pretty nervous, but to my surprise, I was actually better prepared than I’d thought. I wish I had more time for the essay writing section, but other than that, I think it turned out pretty okay.

This article is a compilation of the techniques and strategies that I found effective, as well as things that I wish I’d done differently.

8 Korean Channels for Intermediate Learners

April 21, 2020December 12, 2020

It really is a blessing to be learning languages in 2020. There are interesting, entertaining videos in all sorts of languages on Youtube, and never has it been this easy to access native content in our target languages. The tricky part is finding the ones that suit our needs. This is especially true for intermediate learners, who find themselves in a position where they’ve outgrown the boring textbook dialogues, but are not yet advanced enough to understand content targeted at native speakers without some help.

A Review for Real-Life Conversations: Intermediate

March 14, 2020December 12, 2020

As the title of the book suggests, this is an intermediate version of Real-Life Conversations: Beginner (click here to see the review for it). It follows a similar format – natural dialogues with audio clips, transcripts as well as exercises and explanations on grammar points.

I think this is probably my favourite book from Talk to Me in Korean. If I have to pick just one TTMIK book to keep, it’ll probably be this one.

A Review for Real-Life Korean Conversations: Beginner

March 1, 2020December 12, 2020

This is one of my favourite books from Talk to Me in Korean.

It’s a compilation of natural dialogues, complete with audio clips, transcripts as well as exercises and explanations on grammar points. It’s beautifully illustrated, and carefully organised in a way to ensure that the information is presented clearly and concisely.