Glitzy, Glossy Language: Learn Korean with These 6 Magazines
As it turns out, glitzy, glossy magazines are the perfect gateway to discovering the Korean language.
They make reading Korean more fun and motivating, as they can help you keep up with topical events, lifestyle trends and whatever topic you enjoy most.
Here’s how to learn Korean with magazines and our favorite glossy resources to fast-track your Korean studies.
Contents
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
6 Resources to Learn Korean with Magazines
보그 코리아 (Vogue Korea)
Fashion lovers, unite. 보그 코리아 (Vogue Korea) is a perfect choice if you love fashion and are always looking for inspiration to achieve that sophisticated, edgy runway look. There’s a big focus on art and photography, and the articles are rich in content.
In addition to a roundup of Korean fashion trends and designer news, this is the ultimate Korean magazine to educate yourself on Korean beauty and find juicy celebrity gossip. And if you still can’t get enough of the magazine after reading articles back to back, you can always tune in for fresh video updates on Vogue Korea TV. This is the best magazine to acquire specific terminology on fashion and art along with lots of descriptive adjectives.
코스모폴리탄 (Cosmopolitan Korea)
Expect to learn a lot about Korean fashion and beauty with 코스모폴리탄 (Cosmopolitan Korea), but that’s not all. This is a great magazine for reading about love and relationships, body issues and even life on campus, including study tips and college lifestyle from a Korean perspective.
The writing is friendly and accessible, making it easy to understand the topics and really immerse yourself in the stories. It’s perfect for acquiring the vocabulary to discuss everyday issues and hold a conversation with your Korean peers.
지큐 코리아 (GQ KOREA)
In line with the GQ brand, 지큐 코리아 (GQ KOREA) offers classy articles for the modern gentleman. The articles are typically clever and witty and discuss a variety of interesting topics.
Written for a sophisticated, educated Korean male audience that won’t settle for anything less than the best, this is the magazine you need for great style, grooming and dining out. And because boys love their toys, you’ll also find lots of fascinating articles on high-tech gadgets, such as watches and cars. You’ll find plenty of colorful idiomatic expressions and useful action verbs along with advanced terminology on Korean tech.
LEON KOREA
This is a popular lifestyle magazine among the Korean hipster community, which turns to Leon Korea so they can discover the “it” items before everybody else. Accessible and packed with information, this magazine does a great job curating interesting articles and photography.
Aside from exciting travel and style tips for men, you’ll find hot news about luxury cars and watches along with interesting special columns about fashion and trends. You’ll particularly appreciate that all articles expertly combine text and images, perfect to facilitate learning and acquire key vocabulary on a range of lifestyle topics.
Mountain Korea
Are you a lover of the outdoors? There is a Korean magazine for you, too! Mountain Korea is a great place to share your passion for nature and sports while reading rich, well-written Korean articles.
This authentic magazine specializes in mountain climbing, so look no further if you wish to educate yourself on Korean mountains, foreign mountains and mountaineering news. In addition to learning proper Korean geography names and terms, you’ll acquire advanced vocabulary on outdoor activities, hiking and nature.
럭셔리 (Luxury)
For those who only care for the finest things in life, Korea’s 럭셔리 (Luxury) magazine is a must-read. The articles have a strong storytelling component and include plenty of artistic shots to help you visualize the elements discussed on paper.
Keeping with the traditions of high-design glossy print magazines, this gem does a great job highlighting the Korean epicurean lifestyle, with articles on designer brand news, beauty and health, weddings and stylish design. This is a great magazine to familiarize yourself with Korean designers and tastemakers along with very nuanced, rich descriptive adjectives.
How to Learn Korean with Magazines
If you want to get the most language learning out of your Korean magazine reading, it’s important to keep these tips in mind:
- Opt for content that genuinely interests you. That’s right, you need to make sure that the magazines you read focus on topics that you want to read about. Opt for your hobbies, passions and subjects that you want to discover. Your favorite Korean magazine doesn’t have to be highbrow as long as you read it regularly and consistently!
This will help you to become more familiar with Hangul and Korean vocabulary so that you can ultimately read at a faster, more natural pace.
- Bookmark your favorite magazine sites. This quick productivity hack will make it a lot easier for you to check out your favorite Korean magazines’ sites. You’re more likely to incorporate them into your reading routine if they’re in front of you every time you open your browser. No excuses.
- Look up new words and review them regularly. Korean magazines discuss a variety of topics and unusual subjects. This makes them ideal for expanding your vocabulary and learning constantly if you take proactive steps to remember new words. Accompany your reading with a Korean dictionary app and search for and take notes of unknown words.
- Read articles and ads out loud. This will help you to practice your Korean pronunciation, intonation and speaking skills. If you can, record yourself while doing this fun exercise to spot problem areas and improve. Better yet, use Vocaroo while reading a section of an article out loud and upload it to the subreddit r/JudgeMyAccent to ask Korean natives for brutally honest feedback!
If you’re not familiar with Reddit, this great Wiki will guide you through the process of registering for an account on Reddit.
- Create collages and display them on your wall. What better way to immerse yourself in the Korean language than to surround yourself with Hangul and authentic Korean content? With lots of art and inspiring visuals, Korean magazines are the best resources for your homemade posters.
Simply print and cut out your favorite Korean magazines’ ads, headlines, articles and columns. Highlight words you’d like to remember and assemble them together on poster board using glue and glitter. Head over to your favorite craft store for art supplies, if you don’t already have them.
- Create a Pinterest board of your favorite Korean magazines. Boards are where you can save your pins, or favorite articles, images and other resources on Pinterest. You can do so from your profile and “create a board” where you can gather your favorite Korean content. This quick tutorial from the Pinterest site guides you through the process whether you’re using a desktop or mobile device.
To get started, download the Pinterest clipping extension and start pinning any content you like on the web. The link should automatically identify your browser.
Make sure to mix magazines with other types of mass media, like K-pop and Korean dramas. Or you could use an immersion program like FluentU.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
Now that you know how to learn Korean with magazines, all you need is to get started. We hope you have as much fun reading these exciting Korean magazines as we do!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And One More Thing...
If you enjoyed this post, you're already halfway to having the time of your life learning Korean with FluentU!
FluentU makes it possible to learn with K-pop videos, funny commercials, entertaining web series and more. Just a quick look will give you an idea of the variety of FluentU videos on offer:
FluentU really takes the grunt work out of learning languages, leaving you with nothing but engaging, effective and efficient learning. It's already hand-picked the best videos for you (which are organized by level and topic), so all you have to do is simply choose any video that strikes your fancy to get started.
Each word in the interactive captions comes with a definition, audio, image, example sentences and more.
Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab, and easily review words and phrases from the video under Vocab.
You can use FluentU’s unique Quiz Mode to learn the vocabulary and phrases from the video through fun questions.
FluentU keeps track of what you're learning, and tells you exactly when it's time for review, giving you a 100% personalized experience.
Review sessions use video context to help embed the words in your memory.
Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
