Korean is an East Asian language that is spoken by about 77 million people worldwide. It’s the official language of both North and South Korea, but you will find many Korean speakers when traveling anywhere in Eastern Asia. Korean is considered to be one of the more difficult languages to learn by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), but it is definitely possible, even if you don’t know any other languages beyond your native one.
There are many reasons why one would want to learn Korean, including to travel to a Korean-speaking country, to teach English in a Korean-speaking country, to pursue business ventures in Korea, to speak with other Korean-speaking friends, or just for the fun of learning a new and exciting language.
Language-learning is one of the most enriching ways to open up your mind and really get you thinking about something new, so there’s a lot to gain from learning Korean. Additionally, when you learn Korean, you’ll also be able to learn about Korean culture and etiquette, which is helpful to know if you ever decide to travel there. If you’ve ever wanted to learn Korean quickly and effectively, keep reading to see ten of the best free course selections that will help you do just that!
1. First Step Korean
Hosted by Coursera, offered by Yonsei University
Seung Hae Kang, an associate professor from Yonsei University, is teaching this course from Coursera so you can take your first steps in learning to speak and write Korean. Coursera is a great place to learn a language for free as they are a highly-rated and respected MOOC (massive open online course) platform that often partners with highly-regarded universities like Yonsei University. This course will take you about 18 hours to complete and you will earn a shareable certificate upon completion, which you can share with your employer or on your LinkedIn profile.
This Korean course is at the elementary level, meaning that you don’t need any prior knowledge of Korean to begin. The course contains 5 lessons with 4 units, each of which covering a few skills. By the end of the course, you will know how to read, write, speak, and listen to Korean effectively at the elementary level, understanding expressions about things like daily life, how to introduce yourself, talking about your family, and greetings. You will complete quizzes and role-play activities alongside these lessons, allowing you to practice your skills.
Cost: Free
Certificate: Yes
Time to Complete: Approximately 18 hours
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Learn how to speak, read, write, and listen at the elementary level
- Earn a free shareable certificate upon completion
Cons:
- Longer course, takes a while to complete
2. Korean For Absolute Beginners 1
Hosted by Skillshare, offered by Keehwan Kim
Skillshare is a great place to learn new skills, both professional and creative. The site’s name comes from its ability for instructors to share their personal skills with students, uploading and organizing their own course materials. Skillshare typically operates on a premium, subscription-based fee system. You pay a flat amount each month to access all of the site’s content, and you can take as many courses as you’d like. Luckily for new users, however, you won’t have to pay at all! Skillshare is currently offering a 14-day free trial for new sign-ups, and that’s plenty of time to get started on this Korean course.
During this nearly 6-hour introductory course, you will start by learning Hangul, the Korean alphabet system. This will set you up for success when learning Korean and act as the baseline for the rest of your learning. You will also cover other important topics like syllable formation, how to write Korean, honorific language, and Korean sentence structure. By the end of the course, instructor Keehwan Kim will have helped you to feel completely confident reading, writing, and speaking with some introductory Korean phrases.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: Approximately 6 hours
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Learn how to speak, read, write, and listen at the elementary level
- Taught by a language professional with more than 15 years of experience
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
- Content locked behind paywall after free trial
3. Korean for Beginners – How to Read, Write, Speak
Hosted by Udemy, offered by Kristin Lee
Udemy, like Skillshare, gives instructors a lot of freedom as it allows them to upload and organize their own course materials. Unlike Skillshare, however, Udemy also allows instructors to price their own courses based on its length and skill level required. This is a very good thing for students as it makes it easy to only choose courses that are free! Udemy is free to join and students have the option of filtering courses by price, meaning you never need to sign up for a free trial or buy a course when you don’t want to spend money. This introductory Korean course will take you less than an hour to complete and it has a 4.6 out of 5 star rating on the site.
Instructor Kristin Lee will be teaching you all about the Korean alphabet during this quick crash course, including how you can start reading Korean letters right away. Lee believes you’ll need this foundational understanding of the alphabet in order to learn any more Korean, and her course is a great place to start if you’re interested in better understanding your favorite K-pop songs or K-drama shows.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: Approximately 1 hour
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Quick crash course, easy overview of the alphabet
- Learn how to read Korean letters
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
4. Learn Korean from English
Offered by Duolingo
Duolingo is often thought of as one of the best, most innovative, and most fun ways to learn a language. Duolingo is a multi-platform application that allows users to spend only a few minutes every day practicing their language skills in order to eventually become fluent. Duolingo practice activities include fun games and fill-in-the-blanks, as well as speaking questions and pronunciation practice. Duolingo also allows students to test their knowledge of a language to see how much they already know before starting, which is incredibly helpful for those who already have some background in a new language, as they won’t need to start from the beginning. Duolingo’s Korean course goes all the way to level 5, so you won’t run out of material until you’ve reached a high level of understanding.
Duolingo will have you start by learning the Korean alphabet, and then moving onto simple phrases and words. You’ll then talk about things like food, family, pronouns, politeness, greetings, and more as you become more proficient in Korean. By the time you reach level 5, you will have learned about more advanced topics of discussion like feelings, geography, emergencies, traffic, sports, cooking, and more. Duolingo is free to download on the app store or view on your browser, so get started right away!
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: As long as needed
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Get all the way up to level 5, offers advanced learning
- Play fun games and activities to learn
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
5. Billy Go’s Beginner Korean Course
Hosted by YouTube, offered by Billy Korean
YouTube might not be your first thought when pondering where to find a great introductory Korean course. However, contrary to popular belief, YouTube is actually a great place to look for online courses because any video you find on YouTube is free to rewatch or review at any time, so you can always go back to it to take notes or review. Many instructors want to offer their course materials for free, and YouTube is a great open-source platform where users can upload and watch virtually anything. This course from Billy Korean is comprised of nearly 100 short video lectures, each only taking a few minutes to complete.
During each one of Billy Korean’s short videos, he covers important topics like how to read and write the Korean alphabet, introducing conjugation, the object marker, using “I” statements, likes and dislikes, going places, and more. By the time you’re finished watching his informative videos, you will feel comfortable speaking in Korean by using elementary-level phrases and words, and you will be able to do things like introduce yourself, talk about your family, and talk about things you want.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: As long as needed
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Material is easily digestible in short lecture form
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
- Not a live course, instructor does not oversee
6. Learn to Speak Korean 1
Hosted by Coursera, offered by Yonsei University
As previously mentioned, Coursera is one of the best platforms to learn a language on as the courses are highly-trusted and typically created in collaboration with preeminent universities. The last Coursera course on this list was also created by Yonsei University, but it was more focused on reading and writing rather than speaking. This class from Sang Mee Han is focused completely on speaking and pronunciation, allowing you to feel comfortable talking to Korean speakers. The course will take you around 32 hours to complete, and you can earn a free shareable certificate when you finish that can be shared with other professionals when you’re networking.
Yonsei University is the oldest private university in Korea, and professor Sang Mee Han is more than qualified to teach you all about how to speak Korean. Before you take this course, you should already be familiar with the Korean alphabet, so you know fundamentally what you’re reading. This course covers speaking on several topics including introducing and talking about friends, talking about your hometown, talking about food, talking about shopping, and how to speak when you’re actually making purchases.
Cost: Free
Certificate: Yes
Time to Complete: Approximately 32 hours
Curriculum: Intermediate
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Offered by the oldest private university in Korea
- Instructor is highly qualified
Cons:
- Assumes you already have some knowledge of the Korean alphabet
7. Learn Korean Pronunciation in 30 Minutes
Hosted by Udemy, offered by Miss Li Carman
Similar to the last course on this list, this course from Udemy is focused specifically on speaking and pronunciation rather than reading and writing. As mentioned earlier, Udemy gives instructors a lot of freedom in terms of uploading and pricing their courses, and instructor Miss Li Carman has made this pronunciation class free. It takes only 30 minutes to complete, and one unique thing about the course is that Miss Li Carman has worked as a K-pop interpreter for several years, interpreting for major stars like EXO, SHINEE, TVXQ, and SJ.
In only 30 minutes, you will gain a firm grasp on what it means to pronounce Korean letters well, and Miss Li Carman has even designed a fun and easy way for you to memorize all of these letters. In your pronunciation practice, you will learn how to master the vowels, consonants, end sounds, and even the pronunciation rules of Korean language. Miss Li Carman also draws a lot of pictures during her vocabulary lessons, which helps students to associate these sounds with something and remember them better.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: Approximately 30 minutes
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Offered by a highly-respected Korean language interpreter
- Master vowel and consonant sounds
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
- Focuses on pronunciation, not reading or writing
8. Learn Korean Fast At Home
Hosted by Skillshare, offered by Korean Girl
As previously mentioned, Skillshare is an amazing place to learn both creative and professional skills online. This introductory Korean course implores students to learn Korean from the comfort of their own homes in only about 4 and a half hours. Instructor Stormi Kim is a native Korean speaker who was born in Busan, and has been teaching Korean for more than a decade. As mentioned earlier in the article, you can currently get a free trial of Skillshare for 14 days, which gives you quite a bit of time to complete this Korean course.
In the first few sections of the course, you will learn all about Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Alongside these lessons, you’ll also learn about Korean vowels and syllables, allowing you to become a master of pronunciation. You’ll also learn about Korean consonants and final vowel sounds, nationalities, jobs, sentence structure, and expressing existence and experiences. BY the end of the course, you will feel confident about listening, reading, writing, and speaking, which are the four fundamental skills of any language.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: Approximately 4.5 hours
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Taught by a native Korean speaker from Busan
- Begin by mastering pronunciation and alphabet
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
- Content is locked behind paywall after free trial
9. Learn Korean in 4 Hours
Hosted by YouTube, offered by KoreanClass101.com
If you want to speak real Korean from your very first language lesson, this course on YouTube could be the one for you. As we mentioned previously in the article, YouTube can be a great place to find free online courses because any video you can find on YouTube is completely free to watch and rewatch anytime. Getting a YouTube account is completely free, and you won’t even need to make a new account if you already have a Google account. KoreanClass101.com wants to teach you how to really speak Korean like native speakers do, so this course is a great place to start.
During this introductory course, you will be able to start having conversations after only 4 hours of learning. KoreanClass101.com also offers users the opportunity to get a free lifetime account so they can learn whenever they want online, building up your vocabulary and allowing you to feel confident conversing with native speakers. The host of the course expresses and talks about herself in simple Korean, so it is never too difficult for English speakers to follow along with her phrases.
Cost: Free
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: Approximately 4 hours
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Offered by a preeminent Korean learning website
- Host expresses herself in simple terms, always easy to follow along
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
10. Talk To Me In Korean – Core Korean Grammar
Offered by Spotify or other streaming platforms
While you might not consider Spotify to be a learning platform, many podcasts exist on the database that connect users to easy-listening languages. Podcasts are a really great way to learn languages, especially when the hosts make their content designed for non-native speakers and talk slowly or in simple terms. This is the case for this podcast from Hyunwoo and Kyeong-eun from TalkToMeInKorean.com, who offer various “levels” of their podcast depending on skill level. If you have no prior Korean knowledge you should start at level 1, and as you learn more you can advance in the levels.
Each one of the level 1 podcast episodes are usually between 10 and 20 minutes long and give users a solid understanding of a few words or phrases. Some of the introductory phrases covered in level 1 include things like: “Hello,” “Thank you,” “Goodbye,” “I’m sorry,” “Excuse me,” and “What is this?” At TalkToMeInKorean.com, you can also find the accompanying workbooks and audio lessons that go alongside each episode, allowing you to get even more practice with your Korean skills.
Cost: Free (With streaming service subscription)
Certificate: No
Time to Complete: As long as needed, many podcast episodes
Curriculum: Beginner
User Experience: Excellent
Quality of Instruction: Excellent
Pros:
- Start anytime and go at your own pace
- Hosts speak in simple terms, easy to understand language
- Levels progress in difficulty as you learn more phrases
Cons:
- No certificate of achievement
- Requires a music streaming service subscription
Frequently Asked Questions About Free Online Courses for Learning Korean
If you’ve read this far, you likely have some questions about taking free online courses for learning Korean. Learning a new language, especially when you’ve never done it before, can be an incredibly difficult and daunting task. Many people might tell you that it’s near-impossible to learn Korean as a non-native speaker, but this is actually categorically false! In fact, there are a lot of websites, like the courses we discussed in the above list, that make this language-learning process a lot easier.
Still, there might be a lot of doubts you have about taking one of these classes. This is why we’ve outlined the following part of the article, which should help you feel much more relaxed and confident about taking one of these classes. Over the next few sections, we will talk about the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions and concerns about free online courses for learning Korean. By the end of the section, you may find yourself wanting to click “start” on one of these classes as soon as possible!
What Will I Gain From Taking A Free Online Korean Course?
Learning a new language can reveal a variety of new opportunities for you, both in your career and your personal life. In terms of personal adventure, you could use your skills learning an East Asian language to travel the globe, going to Korea and immersing yourself in the culture by communicating with locals. Trips can become so much more enhanced when you’re familiar with the language and culture, so this is one option once you’ve completed your Korean studies.
In terms of your professional life, many business ventures and companies have partners or clients in Korea. Learning a new language could help you to communicate with or acquire new partners or clients for your business, or it could allow you to go on business trips where you would have previously felt lost or out of place.
Are Free Online Korean Courses Difficult?
When learning Korean, you will often hear people tell you that it is one of the more difficult languages to learn. While it may be very challenging to learn an East Asian language as a native English speaker, this does not mean it is impossible.
Far from it! Learning a new language just takes time and perseverance, and since many of the instructors from the courses on this list are native Korean speakers, you can always ask them questions if you get stuck.
How Long Do Free Online Korean Courses Take?
There is no one-size-fits-all online course. Everyone learns differently, therefore, online courses all vary in length significantly. Many longer courses can take anywhere from 20-40 hours to complete, especially if the subjects covered are extremely in-depth.
However, with language-learning, you also need to consider the fact that you can never really be “finished” learning a language. New slang terms and jargon emerge every day, and you will always be “learning” a language if you started out as a non-native speaker, even when you become fluent. Learning Korean is a lifelong process, so strap in!
Are Free Online Korean Courses Worth It?
Many people give up on learning languages relatively quickly because they feel as though they don’t have the time or energy to commit to a schedule. Taking an online course eliminates this worry for you, as you can always learn on your own time and without strict deadlines.
Online courses for Korean are great because they allow you to stay extremely flexible with your learning, so they are certainly worth trying if you have ever even slightly considered learning the history and culture behind Korean language.
See Also:
10 Great Free Online Courses For Learning Spanish
11 Great Free Online Courses for Learning French