어서 오세요!

Welcome to SofieToKorea! Here I blog about my Korean language journey, my favorite Korean dramas, my favorite Korean beauty products, and my favorite Korean stars. Hopefully, by following along you will feel motivated to stick with your Korean studies, maybe stumble across a new drama, or just feel entertained by my Korean ramblings for a few minutes.

So, who am I?

My name is Sofie (my Korean name is 소희) and I work as an economist at a university in Denmark, where I teach economics and do various economic research. As a way of counterbalancing all the number crunching, I have a strong passion for languages, foreign cultures, performing arts, and above all: Korea.

I’m a polyglot speaking a number of languages aside from my native Danish including English, German, Swedish, Italian, and now Korean. I study Korean through self-study with great help from all the free resources at Talk To Me In Korean. I further rely on Italki to have regular Skype lessons with native Korean speakers to improve my conversational skills. You can read more about other useful and highly recommended resources for self-studying Korean here.

I started learning Korean in July 2014. Since then, I cannot believe how far I come, or how far I have yet to go depending on how you look at it. I made my first trip to Seoul in December 2014, and my ultimate goal is to someday live and thrive in Korea.

Stay tuned for more posts, and don’t give up on studying Korean.

26 Comments »

    • Hej M 🙂 Hvor hyggeligt, at du kigger forbi min blog! Den er stadig ret ny, men jeg synes det er sjovt at dele mine koreanske erfaringer med andre. Siden jeg begyndte at lære koreansk sidste sommer, har jeg været en flittig læser og beundrer af din blog! Du skriver utroligt levende og jeg er dybt imponeret over dit drive. Ligesom du har jeg en hverdag langt fra det koreanske. Jeg har netop fået min ph.d.-grad i økonomi fra Aarhus Universitet, hvor jeg nu er ansat som adjunkt. Sprog har dog altid været min store hobby og lidenskab, og jeg er virkelig blevet bidt af koreansk, som jeg synes er både smukt og ofte meget logisk opbygget. Efter at have læst din anmeldelse har jeg for nogle uger siden købt “Useful Chinese characters”, og den er simpelthen så god til at hjælpe med at opbygge mit ordforråd.
      Jeg har generelt hentet utrolig meget inspiration og lærdom fra din blog, så tusind tak og keep up the good work! 화이팅! 🙂

      Like

      • Tusind, tusind tak for de fine ord! 🙂 Jeg er virkelig glad for, at du har kunnet få gavn af mine skriblerier 🙂

        Det er fantastisk, at selv de uregelmæssige verber er regelmæssige på deres egen måde. Det er så struktureret.

        Tillykke med PhD’en og jobbet! Hvad siger du til at undervise? Jeg endte med at takke nej til mit tilbud, så jeg “nøjes” med 2x MSc, men begynder dog nu at blive lidt mere angst omkring jobtilbud efter jeg bliver færdig. Den nagende fornemmelse forsvinder nok først, når jeg får et reelt tilbud på hånden.

        Jeg ser frem til at læse flere indlæg på din blog! 🙂

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  5. Wow, kudos to you! 🙂 I have lived in Korea for five years, but my I keep losing the motivation to study the language more. Sure I can speak Korean, but if I weren’t my lazy self, I would have been fluent at it. How do you get yourself motivated to learn all those languages?

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks for stopping by my blog. I guess I just find language learning extremely fun. Since it’s so far from my regular job I also find it quite relaxing 🙂 And when you are as interested in a culture as I am in Korea, the language learning process also gets a lot smoother 🙂 How did you learn Korean? Did you study alone or were you attending classes?

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  6. I used to attend classes in Seoul and had a tutor once. The lessons were all free. I have a couple of books I purchased, but I never finished. I am thinking of studying by myself this time. I hope I’ll be able to stick to the plan. ^^

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  7. Hello Sofie! I just found your blog after stumbling over your video at “Motivate Korean” on YouTube. Very inspiring, and I think its very impressive what you achieve in just one year! Very cool!

    I am about to seriously learn the language myself, with self-study to begin with. I am actually living in a Korean bubble here in Sweden 🙂 I don’t have a clue what they show on Swedish TV anymore because I have only been watching Korean TV-shows for the longest time now. But here I have no one with same interst actually.

    My Korean backgroud is as follows: Korean movies around 2002 (Il Mare), Korean TV-shows around 2004 maybe (X-men on YouTube, with short parts subtitled by Coolsmurf), Korean music since 2006 (only music I listen to), Korean dramas sometimes (I watched that famous drama “Sorry I love you”, 16 episodes, in just two days. I tell you, I was severly injured!). I shouldn’t ramble on about this, but nostalgia makes it hard not to mention at least this 🙂

    I was starting to learn Korean six years ago, but it was abrubtly halted as I met a Chinese girl and switched to Chinese. Sadly, China doesn’t have nearly as good motivation media wise (the movies I liked is in Cantonese not Mandarin). So my motivation was low, and the result as well. But now I am switching back to Korean for sure! The language I love, but never learn’t 😀

    End of my ramble here! What is your opinion actually about Talk to me in Korean? I see that you recommend it, that you used it. But how good is it? Is it structured? When learning Chinese I used a site Yoyo’s Chinese that was actually very good in keeping things in order, not so messy as many other sites are.

    Cheers
    Ulf

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    • Hi Ulf! Thank you for stopping by my blog 🙂 I laughed when I read that you live in a Korean bubble in Sweden. I do the exact same thing here in Denmark 😀 As for Talk To Me In Korean, I think their lessons are incredibly well-structured and easy to grasp. That said, i highly recommend that you also get a good text book and maybe also a good introductory grammar book to supplement your learning and help you build vocabulary. I have been working with the KLEAR textbooks, which I also link to under “Resources” and I am a big fan of Darakwons Korean Grammar in Use.
      Thank you for sharing your experience with Yoyo’s Chinese. I recently signed up for an introductory mandarin class, which will start in September. I have been meaning to search for a good online resource for learning Chinese. 🙂 Feel free to contact me again, either in this thread or via email throug the “Contact me” page if you have further questions. Happy studying and welcome (back) in the Korean learners’ club! 🙂

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      • Nice advice, I will do that! I actually also really like grammar (I am an economist as well haha). Finding a good grammar book is important, so I will try that one out. Talk to me in Korean does feel nicer somehow than some other sites that actually scared me away instead.
        Welcome to the Chinese learners’ club then 😉 Why Yoyo’s Chinese is so good is because her Enlighs is very clear, and her explainations as well. She seem to be raised and grown up in USA. And her library now with videos are quite a lot. Especially suited I think for beginners to advanced beginners if not a little more. For my part, I really like the video format. And each lesson is short also. If you would try it, try to get it when its discount. I think I got my discount around halloween or something like that.
        Happy study! I’ll come back some day here 🙂

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  8. Hey Sofie, I’m a first timer here and I think your blog is fun & informative! If you don’t mind me asking, what job would you apply for in South Korea?
    I want to live in Korea after I graduate from college and the only job that I see myself qualified for would be an English teacher. Do you think it would be possible for me to teach a subject like science apart from English?

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    • Hey Maria, thank you for stopping by my blog! So happy that you find it helpful. Being a teacher is definitely the number one option for native English speakers in Korea. Depending on your college degree, you may be able to teach other subjects at maybe an English-speaking middle- or high school. Personally, I’m teaching Econ at Sogang University, but they require a PhD degree. I know some other colleges that require a masters degree, and my guess is that middle or high schools would be a great option with a BA 🙂 Good luck!!

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    • Thank you for your kind words. As of this month I’m 34. I’ve been learning Korean for four years now. I’m sure you can do it too. Just stick to it and study a little bit every day. Then you’re bound to succeed!

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  11. Hej Sofie!

    Jag märkte att din profil står att du kan också svenska.

    Jag hittade denna blogg från en YouTube-video av Billy Korean. Trots att lär jag inte mig koreanska, gillar jag att läsa andras erfarenheter av språkinlärning.

    En vanlig myt med språkinlärning är att det är omöjligt för vuxna att lära sig nya språk. Man hör ofta att bara barn som är mindre än 13 år kan lär sig nya språk. Men det är fantastiskt att du som vuxen började att lära sig koreanska och är flytande nu! Du är en inspiration för oss som är vuxna och vill lära oss nya språk.

    I mitt fall är jag en 28-årig kanadensare som började att lära mig svenska för drygt 1,5 år sedan. Kanske en dag kommer jag också lära mig koreanska 🙂

    Ha det så fint!

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