How I taught myself Hangul in 90 minutes

I honestly think I want to live in Korea one day. I don't know if I'll stay there forever, but I've become more and more interested in living in a foreign country for a while now. Yes, I watch Korean dramas and no that's not what made me want to live there. I'm fully aware that it's all scripted. Although K-Dramas are what got me interested in learning how to speak Korean. 

I want to travel and explore and do cool shit. That's my life goal. I want to be happy. (As many of us do.) I don't want my anxieties and fears to rule my life and make me regret missing out on amazing opportunities. I want to feel like I've really lived. If this is my only chance in this world, as messed up and broken as it is, I want to make it count.

Tangent aside, I feel like learning the language of a place I want to live, no matter the duration, is a pretty good decision if I plan on adapting well. I've also been wanting to learn a second language, so why not Korean! At the very least I can talk to people right when I get there. lol

I was having a hard time progressing in learning Korean because I'd often see it written in Hangul and my brain was not working with it. You'll often hear people stress the importance of learning how to read Hangul when learning Korean. I searched around for different methods on how to memorize the sounds each character made and I think this one tops all others for beginners.

Can I read Hangul at the speed of light? No. It takes me a minute, I have to remind myself of the sounds each letter makes, but in literally an hour and a half my friend Stevie and I (teamwork) were able to start reading Hangul and actually remember what sound each character made. It's been two days and I still don't need to look at a cheat sheet to remember it. I don't know what the hell is says but I can read it!

How did I do it? Unfortunately, I didn't create this ridiculously smart method and put it into a nice little packet because I'd be making hella moolah. Anyhow, if you haven't heard of 90daykorean.com they have a website, as the name suggests, that give you tools to learn Korean. I haven't used much else besides their 90 Minute Korean challenge so I can't vouch for the rest, but if you've been having a hard time trying to learn Hangul (the Korean writing system) then I 100% suggest trying their 90 minute challenge. (You have to go through a whole email/download thing but I promise it's not spam, I was worried at first too.) 

I say this genuinely; it worked so well for me. It's completely free too! I'm not sponsored or paid to say this either. It's probably not 'the best of the best' all around perfect (because I feel like depending on how/where you learn a language, everyone has a slightly different way of saying something) but it's a concrete starting point to perfecting reading Hangul and in turn being able to really start learning the Korean language (which is what I'm working on now!).

I'm learning Korean and Hangul on my own, so I'm trying out a lot of different websites/apps/etc. to see what works best. If I find anything truly awesome (and either free/affordable/actually worth the money) I'll let you guys know about it! 

If you end up trying the 90 Minute Challenge let me know if it worked for you! Maybe we can be study buddies lol

-Shannana