Read Hangul tonight. A six-week plan to your first real Korean conversation.
A self-paced online course: 34 video lessons across 7 modules, from "those circles and lines mean nothing to me" to ordering coffee, asking directions and talking about your day — without a single grammar table you can't use out loud. Six weeks at a steady pace. Or six months: it's self-paced, there are no deadlines, and access is lifetime.
You are not bad at languages. You were handed the wrong order.
Beginners quit Korean in the same five places. Every one of them is a design flaw in the material, not in you.
It isn't thousands of characters. It's an alphabet, designed in the 1440s to be learnable in an afternoon — and it's the very first thing you do here, in four lessons, with the sound changes explained instead of skipped.
Streak apps train recognition, not production. Here every word, letter and dialogue line has an audio button — you listen, then say it back, before the exercise checks whether you actually understood.
One lesson at a time, one idea per lesson, and each one ends with something you can say out loud. Module 1 is five lessons and gets you through a first real exchange. Access is lifetime, so a slow month costs you nothing.
Politeness isn't decoration in Korean, so it isn't an appendix here. You learn one safe register properly — plus the lessons that explain why you never say "you", how names work, and how Korean age changes how people address you.
Because grammar was taught as a chart to memorise. Here you get one master conjugation rule, written out in plain English under the video, then reused in a dialogue you repeat line by line until the sentence comes out without translating.
That reordering is the whole course: Hangul → your first exchange → your own life → numbers → your day → the world outside your door.
Tap a letter. That's how fast Hangul clicks.
Most Hangul letters are a picture of your mouth making the sound. Tap through a few and you've already started Module 0.
ㄱ - Like the shape of your tongue touching the roof of your mouth
Five things in every lesson - plus the part most courses skip.
All 34 lessons are built the same way, so you never have to work out what to do next.
Taught in English with the Korean on screen. One idea per lesson, examples before rules.
Under every video: the grammar written out in plain English, so you can re-read it instead of re-scrubbing the video.
Letters, words and full dialogue sentences. Click, listen, repeat, click again — practise listening and speaking on your own, as many times as you need.
Done right on the lesson page, with instant checking. Plus downloadable homework worksheets and answer keys when you want to write by hand.
Every student gets a private chat with me inside the course. Ask about any lesson, any sentence, any time. Included for everyone — not an upsell.
Korean age, names and titles, 온돌 heated floors, dining etiquette, hanbok, taekwondo, the Korean Wave — eight of the 34 lessons, woven between the grammar where they're needed instead of dumped at the end. This is the part that stops you being afraid to open your mouth.
Don't take my word for it — do a real exercise.
These are pulled straight out of the course. This is exactly what practice looks like inside the lessons.
Six weeks from now, in your own voice.
Including the sound changes that make written and spoken Korean differ. Module 0
Greetings, your name, where you're from, naming objects, ordering, asking where something is. Module 1
Family, names and titles, describing people and things, why "you" is a trap. Module 2
Prices, Korean age, clock time, dates, weather and days — the biggest beginner wall, taken apart. Module 3
Verb conjugation taught as one rule, then irregular verbs, so sentences come out whole. Modules 4–5
Locations, transport, plus a bonus survival module for eating, travel and emergencies. Modules 5–6
All 34 lessons, in the order you'll take them.
Open any module and read every lesson title before you pay.
Module 0Hangul & Foundations4 lessons
You leave this module able to read. Not "recognise a few letters" — read, including the sound changes most beginner courses skip entirely.
Module 1Getting Started: Your First Conversations5 lessons
Greetings, self-introduction, naming objects, ordering, counting and asking where something is — everything you need to survive a first real exchange.
Module 2Your World in Korean6 lessons
For when you can say hello but can't talk about your actual life - family, names, describing things, and the culture rules that sit underneath all of it.
Module 3Numbers: Time, Money & Age5 lessons
"Korean has two number systems, help!" — handled head-on: prices, Korean age, ID numbers, clock time, and calendar time, all in one place.
Module 4Talking About Your Day6 lessons
Grammar stops being isolated: actions, past tense, irregular verbs — woven together with food, dining etiquette and taekwondo.
Module 5Out & About: Directions, Travel6 lessons
Navigate Korea confidently, settle the 은/는 vs 이/가 question properly, and close the arc on past, present and future.
Module 6
BonusSurvival Korean for Travel2 lessons
A phrasebook-style module you can use from day one — even before you finish Module 0. Included, not sold separately.
One payment. Lifetime access. Everything included.
Every student gets the entire course the downloads, the certificate, and the 1:1 chat with me and the bonus module for travel.
My first day in Korea, I ordered lunch by pointing at a photo. The lady tried to warn me.
I'd already been studying Korean for a few years by then - at university, as a hobby, alongside my degree. I thought that counted for something.
Then I landed in Korea for a year of study. Day one, I had to go out and buy the basics, and somewhere in the middle of that I decided I would also eat out. On my own. Confidently.
I opened the menu and understood not one word of it.
So I did what everybody does. I pointed at a photo. Rice, and something in a red sauce. I love tomatoes. This was obviously tomato.
The lady was lovely about it. She also kept saying something to me - twice, maybe three times, looking right at me, clearly waiting for an answer. I smiled and nodded, because that is what you do when you have no idea.
It was squid. In hot pepper sauce. And I cannot eat spicy food. At all.
You can guess what she had been trying to tell me.
I sat there with my mouth on fire, still hungry, faintly traumatised, and I did not order anything red again for a very long time. That was the afternoon I stopped assuming I would absorb this language just by being surrounded by it. I was going to have to study it properly to survive an ordinary Tuesday.
But here's the part that actually stayed with me. Someone was trying to help me. She gave me the exact information I needed, out loud, more than once - and I couldn't receive it. Years of hobby study had left me with words I could barely recognize on paper and nothing I could catch at a counter.
Closing that gap is the reason I teach in the order I do. Reading first, properly, including the sound changes - because spoken Korean doesn't match written Korean, and that is precisely why I couldn't hear her. Then one conversation you can finish end to end. Then the words for your own life. Then numbers. Then your day. Then the world outside your door.
That's the whole course: 34 lessons in that sequence, with the culture explained where it's actually needed, audio on every letter, word and sentence so you can hear it as many times as you need, exercises so you never have to guess whether you got it, and a chat with me for every student - because the one thing a video cannot do is answer your specific question.
I love spicy food now. I still can't eat it. But I can ask them to make it less spicy - which they never do.
You are not bad at languages. You were handed the wrong order. Remember that.
Do Module 0. If you can't read Hangul, ask for your money back.
Start with the four Hangul lessons, do the exercises. If the course isn't teaching you — for any reason, or no reason — email me within 14 days of purchase, while you're still under 25% of the way through, and I'll refund you in full to the card you paid with - no forms, no questions.
Still deciding? These are the real questions.
I'm a complete beginner. Do I need to know any Korean before starting?+
That's exactly who this is for. Lesson 0.1 assumes you know nothing — not a letter, not a word. By the end of Module 0 you're reading. Nobody is behind here.
How long does it take to finish?+
The course is self-paced, with no schedule and no deadlines. If you're consistent, about six weeks is realistic for all 34 lessons. Some lessons are longer than others and several are culture lessons, so the pace varies — and since access is lifetime, taking three months instead costs you nothing.
How is this different from free YouTube videos?+
Free videos are individually fine and collectively useless — no order, no checking, and nothing telling you what to do next. This is one sequence, 34 lessons deep, with written grammar notes, audio on everything, graded exercises, homework with answer keys, and a teacher you can ask. You're paying for the path and the feedback loop, not the information.
Will I actually be able to speak, or just read?+
Speak. Every letter, word and dialogue sentence has an audio button, so you can listen, repeat, and replay as many times as you need until it sounds right. You won't have live conversation partners inside the course — what you get is the pronunciation model and the practice loop.
Can I really ask you questions?+
Yes — every student gets a private 1:1 chat inside the course, at no extra cost. If a grammar point won't click or you want to check a sentence you wrote, send it. I reply within 1 business day. It's a text chat for course questions, not scheduled live lessons.
Do I need to know Hangul before starting?+
No. Module 0 teaches it from scratch, including the sound changes that trip people up when written and spoken Korean don't match. If you already read Hangul, skip ahead — nothing is locked.
Is there homework, and do I get a certificate?+
There are downloadable worksheets with answer keys for every lesson, plus Hangul writing practice PDFs, so you can work on paper if you prefer. Doing them is optional. When you've completed all 34 lessons, the course issues your certificate of completion — it's a TopKoreanAcademy certificate.
Does this prepare me for TOPIK?+
This is a beginner conversation course. It builds the foundation TOPIK I rests on, but it isn't test preparation and doesn't promise a score.
Is it a subscription? Does access expire?+
One payment, no subscription, no expiry, nothing to cancel. Every future update and added exercise for this course is included at no extra cost.
What if it isn't right for me?+
Email [support@topkoreanacademy.com] within 14 days of purchase, with less than 25% of the course accessed, and you get a full refund to your original payment method. No forms, no explanation required.
Why is the price lower right now?+
Because this is the launch group. The course price is $297; there's a $100 early-bird discount for the people who come in first. In exchange I'd like your honest feedback as I add more exercises and explanations — and when that work lands, you'll have all of it at no extra cost.
The free Hangul writing practice sheet
Every letter, its real sound, a memory hook for the shape, and stroke order to trace. It's one of the practice PDFs from Module 0. Take it, spend an evening with it, and see how you feel about Korean afterwards.
A year from now you'll either speak some Korean, or you'll have meant to.
Every student gets the entire course the downloads, the certificate, and the 1:1 chat with me and the bonus module for travel.