By Stevie Tan Last updated: April 24, 2024

Intermediate Korean Courses

According to the TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean)—Korea’s answer to the European CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages)—being an intermediate Korean learner comes with a unique set of skills and knowledge.

At this level, you should be able to do the following in Korean:

give clear descriptions

express viewpoints on most general topics

construct grammatically-sound sentences and self-correct if necessary

speak Korean at a fairly even pace

understand the easy parts of news broadcasts and newspapers

understand and use idiomatic expressions

navigate Korean public places with relative ease

The courses listed below are designed to build upon these abilities.

How to Study Korean (Units 2-4)
FluentU
17 Minute Languages (Intermediate Korean)
Berkeley Online Intermediate College Korean
Core Korean 3 on Udemy
Sogang (Intermediate Korean I-III)

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How to Study Korean (Units 2-4)

The How To Study Korean site aims to take you from the “beginner” to the “advanced” stages of study. And you’ll be happy to know that it has a rocking “intermediate” learner component found in Units 2 (lower intermediate), 3 (intermediate) and 4 (upper intermediate).

The program has a healthy grammar focus and you’ll learn skills like working with irregular conjugations and complex sentences. You’ll discover how to construct complex sentences and inject them with shades of meaning. For example, you’ll find out how to express uncertainty in your statements, and how to indicate that an effort/attempt has been made. Knowing things like this will really add a more textured richness to your Korean.

The lessons come with relevant vocabulary words so that you’re not only really working on your grammar but also filling up your treasury of Korean words and phrases. There are also accompanying workbooks that test your grasp of the lessons.

And, there are short stories offered that align with the vocabulary and grammatical level of folks who’ve gone through units 2-4. If you think you can now handle more than just sentence examples, then have a go at the stories. The online course itself is free (though you need to pay extra if you want PDFs and workbooks) and the short story sets are $10 a pop.

FluentU

As an intermediate learner, you’re at that stage where content for beginners and learners might not be hitting the spot anymore, but authentic, real Korean is still too difficult to keep up with.

FluentU is built to bridge that gap by pairing authentic Korean content with learning tools. The program uses authentic videos like movie clips, music videos, vlogs, inspirational talks and more to teach the language naturally.

Videos are categorized by skill level (as well as topic and format), so you can easily find videos at or slightly above your level.

Once you find a video that interests you, the program sets you up for success with a key word list and an interactive, translated transcript. Browse these to prepare for the video, so you’ll know what to expect and improve your understanding before you even start.

You can turn English and Korean subtitles on or off, though I recommend leaving the English translations off at the intermediate level. If you struggle to understand what you’re hearing and reading, FluentU can help you thanks to the interactive subtitles: Just hover over a word for a quick peek at the translation, or click on it to see a full flashcard.

This flashcard can be saved to a deck right from the video, and consists of audio, text, image and even video examples of the word in use—and this is all contextual, so that there’s no confusion over which meaning of the word is being used.

After each video, you can complete a comprehension quiz. Flashcards can also be reviewed through quizzes that adapt to your learning and present you with questions based on previous sessions. These include multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, translation and more—and even speaking questions for pronunciation practice.

FluentU can be used right in your browser, or through the iOS or Android app.

17 Minute Languages (Intermediate Korean)

If you have 17 minutes to spare during your day, then get this course. It promises to make you fluent in Korean in four months.

The program builds on the vocabulary and linguistic skills harnessed in its beginner course. The intermediate program has been updated for 2018, and you’ll meet around 1,800 words related to a whole bunch of topics, like settling differences of opinion, expressing feelings, writing a complaint and understanding instructions.

The program is unique in that the lessons come in interesting contextual stories. You join the program’s two main characters as they go through common experiences, like choosing an apartment, receiving delivery of a TV to go with a new apartment, writing a letter of complaint to a product manufacturer because the TV didn’t come with a remote, cooking for friends who show up for a visit and so much more!

You’ll have access to dialogues recorded by native speakers that you can listen to and repeat after. If you want, you can also print a written text of the dialogues.

The program also comes with plenty of interesting, effective and relevant exercises including multiple choice, fill-in-blank, word jumble, etc. Printable flashcards are another bonus!

The intermediate course can be yours for $29.95 (price may change depending on current offers).

Berkeley Online Intermediate College Korean

This course suggests that after going through the 27 lessons, you’ll be able to do things like browse those K-Pop websites with comprehension, write simple essays, converse in Korean and understand TV ads and newspaper articles intended for native speakers.

The lessons include a short paragraph that serves as context for an oncoming dialogue. So, for example, maybe you’ll have a set up about a baby crying on a plane, followed by a dialogue about an apologetic mother and a fellow passenger. Certain parts of the texts come with audio components, which allow you to hear how a native speaker might go about saying them. They really make the lesson come alive.

The dialogues are followed by intermediate grammar and vocabulary lessons, which analyze and explain the dialogue in greater detail. Think of it like going behind the scenes. The lessons are bolstered with plenty of examples, exercises and even homework so you can really get the hang of the grammar points being pursued.

Plus, this course is free.

Core Korean 3 on Udemy

Udemy is a convenient site for learners because it allows you to purchase courses based on exactly what you need, whether it’s a full course to take you through a whole language level or just a short one to practice a certain skill. So you can certainly dive in and look for courses that are more tailored to your specific needs, but this particular course is 16 hours of video spread over 17 lectures and 83 practice exercises that will make you so proficient with the language you’ll be speaking Korean on the fly.

The course, of course, assumes that you’ve gone over Core Korean 1 and Core Korean 2, and can read Korean.

This is a grammar-oriented intermediate course that doesn’t make you memorize generic lines. (Because what happens when your dialogue partner gives an answer not taught in the “Hello-I’m-fine-thank-you” class?)

Instead, Core Korean 3 makes you understand Korean that enables you to basically create your own expressions, phrases, lines and dialogues. The course will teach you how to construct sentences so you’ll be able to express what it is you really want to express. It’ll teach you gradations of meaning and explain how words relate to each other so you can communicate more naturally with native speakers.

Prices for courses on Udemy may fluctuate according to special deals. This one is officially marked at $199.99, but has been offered for as low as around $10-11. Seems like a pretty good deal to me!

Sogang (Intermediate Korean I-III)

No, “Sogang” is not some famous Korean boy band. (That’s Big Bang!) It’s a prestigious Korean university at the forefront of promoting the Korean language.

The online component of this mission is reflected in the Sogang Korean Program, which gives absolute beginners a place to dive into Korean.

But it doesn’t just stop there. The Sogang program has three sections dedicated to intermediate language learners eager to progress beyond novice level.

And if multimedia learning tickles your fancy, then you’ll take a liking to Sogang’s lessons for sure. They’re flash-enabled cartoons that provide you with different contexts for how the language is used. So it may be a conversation about marital problems in one lesson and a live news reporter relaying updates to an anchor the next. If you have difficulty following the dialogues, you can look into a text version of the conversation written in both Korean and English.

The cartoons are followed by vocabulary and grammar sections that further explain key phrases and points. Also, there are exercises that get you to do some work like filling in blanks or pairing words. If you get the answers wrong, you hear a “toink” sound. (So try again!) But if you get them right, there’s the sound of a happy bell that just makes your day.

So what are you waiting for? These programs are yours for the taking.

Take that next step in your Korean journey and go beyond the beginner level.

Korean is a beautiful language and it becomes more so the more you get into it.