K-Pop

I have a friend who loves K-Pop (Korean pop music). In high school, she used to play it everywhere we went. In the mall, in the car, at the amusement park, and in the student center at school. I had never heard K-Pop before, and I didn't mind it. So she played it all the time. And after listening to it so much, she got me addicted to it.

Nowadays, everywhere we go, we sing K-Pop songs ("Dashi Run, Run, Run!" or "Wow! Fantastic Baby" or "Kno-Kno-Kno-Kno-Knock on My Door"). Our favorites are:

 "쩔어 (Dope)" by BTS

"Knock" by TWICE

and "꺼내 먹어요 (Eat)" by Zion.T

Now I am trying to learn Korean in my free time. When I first started, I was intimidated by the different characters of a whole new alphabet. Luckily, I found the infographic below, and with just an hour or so of practicing, I learned to read and write the whole Korean alphabet. I learned how to write my name in Korean in only 15 minutes! Katie is 케이티 (Keh-Ee-Tee).

My favorite thing about K-Pop is how well the songs lend themselves to Korean-learners. Most of the songs have English phrases, usually in the chorus, which makes them fun to sing along to even if you are a complete beginner.

The lyrics are often pretty simple, and are about basic topics, like school, work, and love. That means if you learn a phrase like, "I love you," "I miss you," or "You are the best," you will hear them in K-Pop songs often, and they will be easier to remember.

To practice writing, I write short posts on a website called Lang-8. You post in the language you are trying to learn, and native speakers correct it for you. To repay them back, you correct what they write in your native language. For example, I wrote this post about diet and exercise, and three Koreans wrote corrections for me.

But my favorite language-learning website is TalkToMeInKorean.com. They have beginner level grammar lessons, available as MP3 podcasts or PDF files. To practice my listening skills, I listen to Iyagi episodes on TalkToMeInKorean.com, which are intermediate level conversations about simple topics, like riding the bus, cooking, or exercise. I stream them from my phone in the car when commuting to work and back.

Nowadays my friend and I are both trying to learn Korean, and we practice speaking Korean whenever we hang out. Since my friend is a full-time student and I have a full time job, we don't have much time to study and practice. And it is a good thing our love of the Korean language stemmed from K-Pop, because we can practice a little bit every time we listen to K-Pop.

I am curious if anyone else was inspired to learn a language through music? Or if anyone else uses music to practice learning a foreign language? I also challenging anyone who reads this to check out the Learn to Read Korean in 15 Minutes infographic and try writing your name in Korean!