How to Learn Korean From K-Dramas at Your Level

With English subtitles on, you can enjoy a drama and still understand very little of the Korean, because your eyes follow the English the whole time. Working through one short scene at a time gives you time to listen to the Korean itself.

Pick scenes where you can follow what is happening and only a few words slip by. Korean like that is called comprehensible input. Find the level that sounds like you.

1. Absolute Beginner

   I can't read Hangul yet.

   Learn Hangul first, so that Korean subtitles make sense. Until then, watch with English subtitles and listen for the sounds you are learning to read.

2. Level 1

   I can sound out words but not much else.

   Watch scenes of about a minute, such as a greeting or an order at a cafe, with English subtitles.

3. Level 2

   I can handle simple exchanges.

   Pick everyday scenes of two or three minutes, like a family meal or a chat at school. Friends and family there often talk casually, as the speech levels below explain.

4. Level 3

   I follow conversations on familiar topics.

   Move to scenes of three to five minutes from modern dramas about everyday life, and try short interview clips with one guest. Bring English subtitles back for any scene that still loses you.

5. Level 4

   I understand most content but miss some nuance.

   Watch an episode with Korean subtitles, then work through the scene you liked most. Save hospital and courtroom dramas for later, because they bring in many specialist words.

6. Level 5

   I read complex topics but rare words slow me down.

   Turn the subtitles off. Hospital and courtroom dramas work now, and so do historical dramas once you can recognize the older endings below.

7. Level 6

   I can read almost anything.

   Pick shows for the story and keep the subtitles off. Turn Korean subtitles back on for fast arguments and for characters who speak a strong regional dialect.

Move up when you can follow the Korean on a first watch and only a few words slip by. Move down when you cannot tell what is happening.

Kimchi Reader is made only for Korean, so try it first once you can read Hangul. The other tools work for many languages.

Lingopie has its own Korean shows and movies. Every one comes with Korean and English subtitles that you click for a translation, and you can try it free for 7 days.

1. 1
   🎬Choose One Short ScenePick a scene from a show you like, at the length your level suggests. One clear situation, like a meal or a phone call, works best.
2. 2
   👀Watch It for the StoryWatch the whole scene once without pausing, with the subtitles the table below suggests for your level.
3. 3
   🔤Watch It Again With Korean SubtitlesPause on any line you almost caught and read it twice, so you can match what you heard to the written words.
4. 4
   📝Write Down Three LinesWrite down three short lines from the scene that you would like to say. Look up the few words that stop you, and save them.
5. 5
   🔁Come Back Without SubtitlesWatch the scene with no subtitles and say your three lines out loud with the actors. Watch it once more in a week.

Korean subtitles help you learn the most words, and English subtitles help you follow a story you do not know yet. A 2022 review of 34 studies found that video with captions or subtitles helped learners pick up words, and captions in the video's own language helped the most. Which subtitle languages you get depends on the show and the service, so check the subtitle menu before you pick one. Kimchi Reader, Language Reactor and Lingopie can show Korean and English together.

Modern dramas use the same speech levels as everyday Korean. Historical dramas and big emotional scenes are the exceptions. Korean has speech levels: the end of a sentence shows how politely and how formally you speak to the listener. Here is one sentence at three of them.

Listen for the missing 요. When a character who said 먼저 갈게요 (I'll go first) later says 먼저 갈게, the two have grown closer, or one has stopped being polite. If close characters suddenly go back to formal endings, expect anger or distance. A boss or an older relative can also talk casually to a younger character from the first scene, and that character answers with polite endings.

In your own Korean, stay with the polite endings until the other person asks you to speak casually. Casual endings with someone older, or someone you have just met, can sound rude.

Historical dramas, called 사극, use older endings. 하오체 and 하소서체 are almost never spoken today, and 하게체 is used by some older speakers. You only need to recognize them.

Dramas also use big, loud lines that people rarely say over dinner.

Bubblegum has no K-dramas to watch. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes Korean lessons at your level about a show you pick, so you can talk about an episode with friends and, at higher levels, learn the casual speech and slang that dramas use.