MEET YOUR TEACHER
I built TodayKorean from real Korean lessons.
I’m Hyunku Lee, a government-certified Korean language teacher and the founder of TodayKorean.
For more than seven years, I’ve taught Korean through thousands of one-on-one lessons with learners from around the world.
TodayKorean grew out of those lessons - from seeing what helped students understand Korean, where they got stuck, and what helped them start building sentences on their own.
6,000+ Lessons · 50+ Countries · Korean Language Teacher Certificate Level 2
FROM DESIGNER TO KOREAN TEACHER
I started as a teacher, not a course creator.
I originally studied design and began my career as a designer.
Later, I started teaching Korean online. What began as individual lessons gradually became thousands of hours spent explaining Korean, answering questions, correcting sentences, and finding better ways to help learners understand.
I didn’t begin with a teaching formula.
The method developed through the lessons themselves.
Over time, I learned which explanations students actually remembered, where beginners tended to get confused, and how much practice they needed before a grammar point became something they could really use.
LEARNING A LANGUAGE CHANGED HOW I TEACH ONE
When I started teaching Korean, I could barely speak English.
In my early lessons, I often used Papago while teaching.
I would type what I wanted to explain, check the English translation, and use it almost like a digital whiteboard. Students could immediately see unfamiliar words and meanings without stopping the flow of the lesson.
At the same time, I was learning English myself.
I kept seeing translated sentences, remembering expressions, and using them again. Gradually, I became able to communicate without depending on translation in the same way.
That experience changed how I think about language learning.
Understanding an explanation matters. But language becomes usable through repeated exposure, practice, and actually putting it together yourself.
That idea still shapes the way I teach today.
WHAT I KEPT SEEING IN MY STUDENTS
Understanding Korean and using Korean are not the same thing.
A learner might understand a grammar explanation.
They might recognize hundreds of words.
They might even understand a sentence when it appears in a textbook.
But when I asked them to make a similar sentence about themselves, they often stopped.
There was a gap between recognizing Korean and producing Korean.
That became one of the main ideas behind TodayKorean.
I wanted students to do more than watch explanations and move on.
I wanted them to keep using what they had already learned.
THE TODAYKOREAN APPROACH
Understand → Practice → Build → Use
First, make the grammar and sentence structure clear.
Then practice using them.
Build sentences yourself, bring previous grammar and vocabulary back into new lessons, and gradually combine more Korean as you progress.
The goal isn’t to memorize one perfect example.
The goal is to understand the pattern well enough to make another sentence yourself.
That is the teaching approach I brought into TodayKorean.
WHY I BUILT TODAYKOREAN
I wanted self-study to feel more like a real lesson.
A self-paced course can never be exactly the same as a live one-on-one lesson.
But it can do much more than simply give you videos to watch.
That is why the A1 course combines separate Grammar Lessons and Practice Lessons.
The Grammar Lessons help you understand new Korean clearly.
The Practice Lessons ask you to use it through reading, speaking, review, and step-by-step sentence building.
Previous grammar and vocabulary continue to return as the course progresses, so each chapter adds to the Korean you already know.
TodayKorean is my attempt to bring the teaching approach I developed through real lessons into a structured course you can work through independently.
Experience
Government-Certified Korean Language Teacher
Korean Language Teacher Certificate - Level 2
7+ Years of Teaching Experience
Online Korean education with learners at different ages and levels
6,000+ Lessons Taught
Years of one-on-one teaching experience applied to TodayKorean courses
Learners from 50+ Countries
Experience teaching Korean across different language and cultural backgrounds
START LEARNING WITH TODAYKOREAN
Don’t just learn more Korean. Start using what you learn.
If you’re completely new, you can begin with Hangul.
If you can already read Korean, the A1 course will take you through essential beginner grammar, vocabulary, reading, speaking practice, and sentence building step by step.
Or try selected A1 lessons free and see how the teaching method works before you decide.
EXPLORE THE A1 COURSEDO NOT MISS IT
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