I've always wanted to learn an Asian language and I read that learning to read Korean is rather easy compared to Chinese and Japanese. Notice I said read not speak. I'll learn to speak later.
Is there anyone here who's also learning and can recommend some resources? There's a bit but I want to focus on solely reading and writing.
I'd love to learn to read japanese and Chinese in a later future as well.
Sep '20
Feb '22
Reading Chinese will prove hard, since they don't have an alphabet like Korean or syllabaries like Japanese, it's pure characters and you have to learn them by heart.
For beginners, the learning apps you can download on your phone are actually really good. You better also start learning at least some words from the beginning, the basic at least.
Then it's better to start reading some easy texts, like those that are meant for children. If you won't buy books, I would again recommend finding an app or two. I am a beginner in Japanese, for these purpose I've downloaded Easy Japanese News app (Todai) and it's really great, with translating words and there's an audio for the article. You can also translate some songs you like or read manhwa, of course.
Hey 
I learn Korean since a year now.
I learn to read in 30 minutes, when waiting in the waiting room at the doctor XD
I learned it back then with a pdf where every letter was visually compared. That is really easy then Sadly I don't find this pdf anymore 
But this one is pretty similar: https://www.90daykorean.com/how-to-learn-the-korean-alphabet/6
Like CarltonIsaac said, Ryan Estrada ( http://www.ryanestrada.com/learntoreadkoreanin15minutes/4 ) is also really good.
I also really like the site "how to study korean" https://www.howtostudykorean.com/2 and of course "talk to me in korean" ( https://talktomeinkorean.com/6 )
I learn with this books alot.
First I started to learn with a book in my language (german). But this book switch between the formal and informal and never explain it. This is a pretty important part, so you should first learn to read formal. Else its really impolite and nearly all texts are formal. Only when you write with close friends, its informal
and because korean has its origins in chinese, you also have to learn a few hanja.
When you learn normal korean and the hanja words, it's easier to learn chines afterwords.
I cannot recommend sources for learning to read since it's been years since I looked for resources. Decoding Hangul script is easier than Chinese and Japanese script as soon as you master the pattern. (Unfortunately, decoding is the farthest I am at my level, decode, but barely understand. I'd understand the front label of a product written in Korean, but I've got nothing on everything else written on it ).
I watched videos in "Talk to me in Korean" and I found them good especially at explaining structure and the details and nuances between words. Writing the sentences down in English and in Hangul, then comparing the recurring words, and wrting new sentences with the few words I've understood kind of helps. Watching videos subtitled in English and Hangul, sometimes I'd try to identify the words I know. (But I don't know if it will help since I'd want to see how they rescue the cat stuck in the ceiling when I thought I could focus on the subtitles)
Also, Good luck
I learned Chinese the hard way, as I was living 10 years in this country and my wife is Chinese. I can recognize Korean immediately, even if I don't understand anything. It sounds to me as if two beautiful birds are talking to each other. A bit like the Chinese dialect of my wife. If you have the opportunity to learn a new language, learn it! It is the entrance to a new world.
Duolingo has has a section in their Korean course that breaks down how to read each letter and teaches it to you through flash cards.
I am somewhat interested in Korean mostly because a lot of the people where I live speak it. Tho I found it to be a bit harder than Japanese. So the only Korean I know is recognizing some of the letters. I am not sure if I can recommend either the Japanese or Korean courses on Doulingo, I have heard the learning curve can be a bit much for beginners.
Can't speak for Korean, but I'm trying both Japanese and Chinese on Duolingo and they're... doable but far from perfect, I guess? 
The Japanese course has more lessons compared to the Chinese course + a section dedicated to learning hiragana and katakana (no kanji, unfortunately 
) and even stories to improve your reading comprehension skills!
I definitely recommend checking the "tips" section before starting any lesson, though, because more often than not they will include the explanations that the exercises themselves are sorely lacking. For some reason, Duolingo REALLY likes to throw at you full sentences to translate in languages that do NOT use the Roman alphabet (this is an issue with Russian too. Little to no introduction to the language or even basic words, just... BOOM, NOW TRANSLATE "Here is your coffee and this is a pizza" 
).
Speaking of beginner-friendly apps, for Chinese specifically, I found Hello Chinese to be WAY better than Duolingo, at least as a complete beginner. It's 100% free and, unlike Duolingo, it will start with simple words (with pictures) + simple sentences and easy grammar explanations that are presented as you progress, rather than in a separate section.
I found the first units of Duolingo to be MUCH easier to understand after I took a bunch of lessons on Hello Chinese 
other apps I'd definitely recommend are Scripts and Drops, both by the same developer: with Scripts, you can learn how to write characters in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and other languages. With Drops, you get to learn a bunch of words with the help of pictures. The free version only allows you to use the app for 5 minutes a day and you may want to use two different accounts for Drops and Scripts, as the two apps are connected and if you use your 5 minutes in one app you won't be able to use the other... but I found them to be rather useful to learn new words
Oh! And for Japanese I definitely recommend the apps called "Japanese" and "Memory Hint": Japanese has a bunch of flashcards for characters (hiragana, katakana and kanji), while Memory Hint actually comes with two apps (one for katakana, one for hiragana) that let you memorize the characters using pictures. Flashcards to practice also included! (I found Memory Hint to be extremely useful, I've been struggling with hiragana for over a year, managed to learn most of the characters in less than a week thanks to the app XD)
closed Feb 16, '22
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