How Often Should I Study Korean?

Every day! The simple answer really is every day if you want to see progress.

Obviously you can study Korean less often, you could go to a class once a week and still learn the language but if you want to see yourself progress and actually learn in a reasonable time frame then you want to be engaging with your Korean studies every single day.

This is due to the rate of forgetting. The longer you go without engaging in a subject the more you will forget. If you study Korean every day then what you’re learnt the previous day will still be in your mind and you’ll be able to progress. Where as if you wait and only study once a week, part of your studying will be recapping what you learn the week before as it won’t be as readily accessible in your memory.

But don’t worry, you don’t have to sit down and do ten hours Korean study a day to progress. (Although if you did this your Korean would improve dramatically over a very short period of time.) The important thing is the consistency not the amount you do when you study. Depending on your schedule and how much you can allow for studying Korean daily, we would recommend doing about half an hour a day (more if you can) to see visible improvements week by week. If you do less you’ll find you progress much more slowly and if you do more you’ll obviously improve more quickly.

Even though we recommend a minimum of half an hour if you can’t do that don’t just not do anything at all. Even five minutes worth of studying is better than nothing. And a lot of it is about finding the right balance for you and how to fit it into your life.

How To Study Every Day

It’s not enough to just say you’re going to study every day. It’ll make a huge difference if you can put things in place to ensure you do this.

Study At The Same Time Every Day

If you put aside some time to study every day and always study at that time you’ll build a habit of that is when you study. One you’ve built a habit you’re much more likely to continue doing a certain behaviour. If you stick to this then you’ll notice any day you miss and will be able to adjust your schedule accordingly.

Use The Same Materials

Have a textbook that you always use on a Monday or Tuesday or have Wednesday set aside for language exchanges. Bouncing between too many different materials can actually be quite distracting rather than helpful.

You can use a Korean learning website that you go on once a day and complete an exercise or topic. Or just set aside Mondays as the day you use the Korean website.

If you do this kind of thing every day you’ll progress at a rapid rate working your way through material at a pace that suits you. A big contributor to your success is also knowing where to find Korean resources.