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LIFE IN KOREAPosted by Daniel 🇩🇪 Germany · 1 month ago
How do you avoid ending up only with other foreigners?
at language school everyone around you is also learning, so you all speak english by default.
how did you break out of that? feels like the main risk of the whole plan
how did you break out of that? feels like the main risk of the whole plan
10 comments
OFFICIAL ANSWER
EvanALLO TEAM
English desk · Seoul
You have identified the real risk correctly. Most students who finish a year disappointed with their Korean did not study badly — they lived in English.
Why it happens: your class is international, your classmates are the people you see most, and English is the shared language. That is not a failure of discipline, it is the default that the situation creates. Breaking it requires deliberately building at least one part of your life where Korean is the only option.
What actually works:
1. Housing. The single biggest lever. A share house with Koreans or a dorm roommate changes your daily input more than anything else. Living alone or with other internationals guarantees the bubble.
2. One recurring activity where Korean is the working language. A gym, a church, a hiking club, a part-time job, a university club. Not a language exchange — an activity where the Korean is incidental. The relationships last longer because they are not about you practising.
3. A part-time job after month six. Repetitive, functional Korean every shift. Students consistently rate this as the fastest improvement they made.
4. Leaving Seoul regularly. In Gangnam and Hongdae people will switch to English out of kindness. In a smaller city or a neighbourhood restaurant, they will not.
5. University clubs. Many accept language program students and this is the most natural way to meet Korean students your own age.
One thing to be honest about: your international classmates are not the enemy, and the friendships you make in that class are a real part of the value of the year. The goal is not to avoid them. It is to not have them be your only source of human contact.
A test students use around month three: count how many hours a week you speak Korean outside class. If it is under two, the bubble has formed, and no amount of homework will compensate. Fix it structurally — change where you live or add a fixed weekly commitment — rather than by resolving to try harder.
Why it happens: your class is international, your classmates are the people you see most, and English is the shared language. That is not a failure of discipline, it is the default that the situation creates. Breaking it requires deliberately building at least one part of your life where Korean is the only option.
What actually works:
1. Housing. The single biggest lever. A share house with Koreans or a dorm roommate changes your daily input more than anything else. Living alone or with other internationals guarantees the bubble.
2. One recurring activity where Korean is the working language. A gym, a church, a hiking club, a part-time job, a university club. Not a language exchange — an activity where the Korean is incidental. The relationships last longer because they are not about you practising.
3. A part-time job after month six. Repetitive, functional Korean every shift. Students consistently rate this as the fastest improvement they made.
4. Leaving Seoul regularly. In Gangnam and Hongdae people will switch to English out of kindness. In a smaller city or a neighbourhood restaurant, they will not.
5. University clubs. Many accept language program students and this is the most natural way to meet Korean students your own age.
One thing to be honest about: your international classmates are not the enemy, and the friendships you make in that class are a real part of the value of the year. The goal is not to avoid them. It is to not have them be your only source of human contact.
A test students use around month three: count how many hours a week you speak Korean outside class. If it is under two, the bubble has formed, and no amount of homework will compensate. Fix it structurally — change where you live or add a fixed weekly commitment — rather than by resolving to try harder.
Was this helpful?Updated 1 month ago
10 comments
Sign in to join the conversation.
You can still post anonymously after signing in.finished a year, my korean was mediocre, and it was entirely because i lived with two other europeans and spoke english from 6pm to 9am every day. class was fine. life was in english.
33
this is precisely what i'm afraid of. thank you for being blunt
10
the 16 hours outside class matter more than the 4 hours in it. that's the whole thing
8
part time job at a cafe from month 7. my korean improved more in 3 months there than in the 6 months before. repetitive functional language every single shift
22
seconding this hard. work korean is limited vocabulary repeated until it's automatic
7
join a university club. we're used to foreign members now and it's much more natural than an arranged language exchange. everyone is there for the activity
17
the month 3 audit is a good idea. i counted and it was about 40 minutes a week outside class. that was a wake up call
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counting is brutal but it's the only honest measure
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don't cut off your classmates though. those friendships were half of why the year was good. it's about adding korean, not removing english
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in hongdae people switch to english to be nice. go two neighbourhoods out and they won't. that's where you actually practise
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