#free language resources
Only two more days until the TOPIK test now and I’m absolutely terrified! I definitely don’t know as much as I’d like to, even though I studied so much. I wanted to share with you all some of the free resources that I’ve found really useful as I’ve been studying, and hopefully they can help you all if you ever decide to take the TOPIK exam!
Min’s Korean Language Class
Min is a certified Korean teacher and her Youtube channel is dedicated to helping people through the TOPIK exams. I found her overviews of all the grammar for TOPIK 1andTOPIK 2 really useful and have been going over them non stop the past few days to make sure that I’m completely covered on the grammar side of the exam.
The TOPIK Guide’s Essential Grammar Notes
The TOPIK Guide provides a list similar to Min’s of all the 150 most important grammar forms to learn for the TOPIK exam. These are moreso for the TOPIK 2, as it covers intermediate and advanced grammar as well, which is unnecessary for the TOPIK 1. What’s really useful about this list is the ‘similar phrases’ column, as this helps to prepare you for the ‘closest meaning’ questions where you are asked to switch out grammar forms.
How To Study Korean
If you’re learning Korean then I’m sure that this site is quite familiar to you. It provides comprehensive guides on most of the grammar forms that are included in the TOPIK exams along with example sentences and audio to make it easier to understand.
Say Hi Korean
This site is less well known than How to Study Korean, but provides the same guidance on grammar forms. Many of the forms that aren’t included on How to Study Korean are available here.
Go! Billy Livestreams and Abridged Lives
Go! Billy is a youtuber who has been studying Korean since 2005 and has dedicated his time to helping other people learn. He has a range of informative videos on his channel, as well as his own textbooks, and a collaboration with Talk To Me In Korean. I find his livestreams really useful, as he makes learning fun and answers questions to make sure that everyone is following along. Patreon members get added perks like like lesson worksheets and priority grammar submissions.
Memrise
Memrise is kind of similar to quizlet but is made specifically for language learners. It has official courses for different languages at different levels, and you can make your own courses too if you prefer to study your own grammar. There are a few quizes that you can take including ‘learn new words’, ‘speed review’, and ‘classic review’, and you can track how many words are in your long term memory too. I really like the leaderboard feature, since it uses my competitiveness to encourage me to learn more.
TOPIK 1 Essential Vocab on Memrise
Technically this is probably copyrighted material, but onemillionlove has shared a list of the essential vocab for TOPIK 1 to learn on Memrise. This list is really useful to make sure that you have the vocabulary side of the exam covered. It only covers the first test, but there’s a useful resource for the TOPIK 2 vocab that I’ll share in my next post.
HiNative
This site is a discussion board where you can ask questions about your target language and get feedback or explanations from native speakers. They’ve changed the site so that some of the question types are restricted for paying users, but honestly I just put those questions awkwardly into the free question posts and I still get answers on them.
I’ve known about Forest as a browser extension, but I recently tried the app version and it’s so much better. You can plant a tree, set an amount of time and as long as you stay focused on your app your tree will grow. The app is really good because you can see your forest, change plants, get achievements, and they also have a new TinyTan feature for BTS fans. There’s also an option to plant a real tree. I’d really recommend getting the paid version of the app, since you can get access to more plants, but the free version is great as well. Side note, but my friend code is 4G84KCVSG if you want to add me on Forest!
