How Many Vocabulary Words Do You NEED to Speak Korean? | Korean FAQ

[@limiabean]

While vocabulary is important, knowing 6000 words doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know how to make a sentence.

[@NatyNatilla]

That's right!

[@ruptorax6276]

That is what Billy said...

[@MikaelMurstam]

I wouldn't say it means "nothing", but if you want to be understood you are better off learning fewer words, grammar, and common expressions. I guess you could understand a lot of Korean if you knew 6000 words though.

[@ChuckFreeburg]

I think you’ll know how to make sentence by the time you’ve learned 6,000 words....

[@렌아-d1n]

@@ChuckFreeburg I agree.

[@lurvegwenportia]

right now, 2000 words maximum. But knowing them and being able to use them off-hand when in a conversation is two different matters. 🤣🤣

[@KaIubka]

Exactly. "Knowing" a word comprises more than just having memorized it once. The much trickier part is picking it up in a conversation and understanding it instinctively. And knowing 3000 words in that manner takes a loooong time.

[@terra5491]

Billy says he could speak Korean fluently after 1 year of living in Korea. But if I am not mistaken Billy's major is the Korean language. So he didn't need to live in Korea a single day to speak Korean. That's weird if you graduated from university and you are not a specialist in your profession, right?

[@avavago]

@@terra5491 learning a language in school and actually being able to use it in everyday life in its native country like a native speaker are two very different things...

[@tehs3raph1m]

Once you have a grasp of the grammar and a smattering of vocabulary you can just deploy "oh what does X mean" and learn on the fly as needed

[@loganjones8707]

Well, if you watch tv and read books and stuff, or just even talk to locals, I feel like you would start to grasp the words better and better. So if you can’t produce the word easily do not worry about it too much. If it’s important and you immerse yourself a bit it’ll come naturally.

[@sophiaimo_koreanauntie3747]

I agree memorizing 3000 vocabulary is needed to have a conversation! But practicing those in the context is more important!

[@darlabottom-Actor]

Learn 10 words a day 😂 You make it sound so easy. I have been learning for a year, and I have found that remembering these 10 new words each day is a challenge. Retention, retention, retention. If only I could easily retain.

[@BlueCatSW9]

Darla bayliss try the Anki app, free on android and PC. Download deck.

[@shoebkhan2186]

Big relate

[@commie_dog_boy]

try quizlet if you dont have an android

[@RomanesEuntDomus.]

I'm learning 20 words a day using Anki. Right now I know a little more than 2,100 words.

[@aphr0d]

Read the book fluent forever for tips on how to ingrain a new languange into your brain... FOREVER :D

[@anchanri338]

I like your learn hangul in 90 minutes vid it helped me a lot so thanks

[@squishysquish1481]

It also helps me tho.... Just sharing hehehehehe

[@kpoptrash2674]

It helped me so much too!I learned hangul within 2 hours

[@squishysquish1481]

@@kpoptrash2674 jinjja?? I also learned it easily but unfortunately sometimes I wrongly spelled some words.

[@asianworldil292]

@@squishysquish1481 same..😔 Korean can be confusing something

[@squishysquish1481]

@@asianworldil292 trueee😢😢

[@adeletchoffo642]

Thanks, i just bought your book online "Korean made simple" ,i can read and write hangul but i don't understand most of the words. Hope i get better now

[@golden_honey8988]

adele Tchoffo is his book really helpful, because I have one book that is not his but I know how to read Hangul and write it but I can’t understand some words, and I’m thinking of getting a book to help, is it good and has it helped you??

[@adeletchoffo642]

@@golden_honey8988 hello, well so far I think I understand what "base consonants " are and why some hangeul letters get replaced or are silent in a word. The book has a lot of examples which makes it easy to understand. I'm still studying the book. Hope i will be able to watch dramas without subtitles in a few months lol

[@golden_honey8988]

adele Tchoffo ok thank you I think I might buy it then, I’ve kinda wanted to just learn Korean so that I can visit there and watch kdramas without subs, the same goes with Kpop videos, Tehehe, but thank you 😊

[@adeletchoffo642]

@@golden_honey8988 your welcome 미니

[@GoToMan]

@@adeletchoffo642 받침을 쉽니다!

[@Simmercross]

I'm a language teacher and speak 5 other languages, so I have to concur with the points you've made! It's a fascinating topic, really. As for me, I'd guess that I probably have between 250 and 400 words of Korean. Not enough to hold a conversation; I usually get stopped in my tracks in the middle of a thought because I don't have the word, or I don't know the grammar for what I want to say. But as for surviving in Korea, getting by, ordering in a restaurant, making an embarrassingly simple phone call... it works. 노력하겠습니다!

[@skitt42]

I think I know around 4,500 - 5,000 words and my speaking is still really not good. And I really feel like vocabulary is a big part of the problem. Those common words make up the bulk of any conversation, but the meat of the conversation is in the outliers. Add to that the fact that lots of my vocab is passive (I know it when I see it but don't use it conversationally yet) and it means my reading skills are far better than my ability to have a conversation. I'm trying to work on it though.

[@4mydearlady]

Are you sure that you're probable lack of fluency isn't just due to a slight lack of confidence? Or perfectionism? I hope I don't offend you by asking this. I'm just trying to help. Part of speaking fluently in a foreign language is being confident in your ability. 4,500-5,000 words is impressive! Also, although you may feel silly doing this, practicing on family and friends helps even if they have to ask you, "What does that mean?" or "What did you just say?" This will have to do if you don't have Korean friends, who actually speak Korean, to practice with. I state this because, of course, not all Koreans are fluent in Korean - especially in America and the UK. Lastly, in my line of work, I'm around people from all ethnic backgrounds that are in America. Not all of them are fluent in English but they are employed in America, they drive, shop, make transactions, etc. You may never be perfectly fluent.

[@skitt42]

@@4mydearlady Yep, you hit the nail on the head! When I'm going to bed at night and I'm relaxed, I have long fluent conversations in my head. But put me in a front of a real person and I get instant stage fright. I have had some successful long conversations, but it is hit and miss.

[@isabella-1796]

This is a whole mood

[@isabella-1796]

@@4mydearlady for me, my problem is being able to understand others, but then I can't make complex sentences for myself (I can make simple ones, but the longer they are the harder of a time I have)

[@Mort7an]

Same here. I'm at about 3,500 - 4,000 words, but my conversation and levels of comprehension feel way below that unless I slow everything waaaaaay down. :(

[@4mydearlady]

This video makes me feel less frustrated and overwhelmed about learning Korean. Nice to know that it's not going to be 5 years or something before I'm fluent!

[@thomaslodger7675]

Im using your Korean Made Simple book along with your beginner course series, and i would say that according to my anki deck i know around 250 words. I have 297 in my deck, but I'm not confident on about 40 of them.

[@dovehart90]

Hi Billy. I very recently (as in a few days ago) officially subscribed to your channel and started watching more of your videos. I've been passively studying Korean for over two years now. I'm actually going through the process of compiling all my notes, and PDF's I've collected to figure out how many words I know, and hand-writing Everything to work on my writing and spelling at the same time. My guess is that I can recognize and read around 700 words. I can probably understand in a conversation, 500 of those and speak confidently, roughly 350 words. I've only scratched the surface and I'm almost ready to beg to learn more and go deeper. Perhaps your videos can help me break through the 'beginner plateue' I seem to be stuck at.

[@alliahrose2878]

one of the lesson i learned through this is you need to become confident too in order to speak fluently even though you are not yet learned that much vocabulary. thank you for this again.

[@robroman6453]

On the realm of 1650 words in 5 months, finish your first book. Now i notice speed of learning has dramatically increase plus pronunciation is way better cause my ears got used to the sounds and i can read at a higher level of proficiency also. Looking forward to keep on learning! But I agree, choosing the right words to learn, 3000 is a good number.

[@baraadaod8749]

You helped me a lot in Korean thanks a lot

[@elizabethb7550]

I really appreciate all the research you're doing for each video

[@poookkkeeeemmmoonn]

I know probably 100+ words (maybe a few hundred) from my Integrated Korean Beginning 1 book alone (that I just re-read), and a few other words scattered here and there from Korean music, videos and a bilingual Korean folktale book and Korean picture dictionary I'm studying. On May 28th, I'm starting my Beginning Korean 2 class after a 2-year gap due to the availability of the class, and the fact I took Russian as well. I remembered and reviewed everything in the textbook, and I understand all the grammar, and hopefully, the pronunciation rules. I just have trouble remembering how to pronounce the Korean dipthongs. So, I'm pretty excited, and more reassured I'll do well in the class.

[@Valentino016]

This is a pretty interesting topic in language learning. I was confused as to how to learn vocabulary as a beginner. This made learning Korean and italian vocabulary so easy and less stressful.

[@isabella-1796]

감사합니다~ I lost count of how many words I know😂But last time I counted I had around 1,500+ words. I think the main thing too is to learn words that you say the most in English (or which ever language you speak), don't learn anything that doesn't serve you at all👌

[@ishathakor]

it's a big range but i put myself somewhere between 2k and 3k words. i can understand anywhere from 80% to 100% of the dialogue in a given kdrama scene depending on what they're talking about. but a lot of these i can only recognize in context and can't recall so i estimate my active vocabulary at something even lower around 1k words. i can actually have conversations about some topics (especially cooking) very easily because i talk about them so much that it's much easier to recall the related vocabulary. vocabulary is my biggest issue in korean so i'm working on slowly increasing my vocabulary

[@dulcerhz]

"i've been studying korean over 13 years" wow... 🥺

[@AmbiCahira]

I know that I know more than I think I do and I've gotten my ear really well trained because I'm starting to see the word written in my mind when I hear one new one that stands out to me, at least ones on the shorter side. I also saw a livestream this morning that was like 95-98% English and 5 or so % Korean and it was not many words that I did not understand and one which I ended up learning and because of the emotional response I know the word will never be forgotten!

[@cloudwatcher608]

I just took an online vocabulary quiz and got 82 correct out of 100, and probably 15-20 of my correct answers were educated guesses. I bet I know about 1000 total.

[@chaerszs]

I love these videos because I'm trying so hard to learn korean and this has helped a lot. :)

[@izzamga]

I'm not sure how many words I know but i've learned 3,000 phrases so far. For me it's more effective to learn a word in a sentence than memorize random words. And when you learn a word, especially a verb, they conjugate it in many different ways so just knowing 3,000 words without knowing how to use it in a sentence will not make u fluent.

[@alliswell44596]

I know about 1000 words. I am training now with the app Dialogo Korean to learn to actually use them in active convetsation cuz maaaaan learning to speak is a whole different matter. Uffff tried Duolingo and LingoDeer . Good for vocab and grammar but doesn't help much with using it. At least didn't help me.

[@annetak693]

I agree .I also trained with dialogo. Made huge progress. But best to start when you have some vocabulary. Not for complete beginners. Duolingo is best for that.

[@georgesomb3897]

Great job Billy. Really appreciate the research and the information you brought us!

[@satimy5695]

I know 1090 right now but when I hear Koreans speak, I mostly just pick out the words they're saying, but can't make connections between them :(

[@aperkins07]

Take at least two semesters of intensive Korean like enough to get you through to an intermediate level and learn the vocabulary like you’re doing or as this guy suggests. I grew up exposed with English and Korean, but I realized despite being at an “intermediate” level, the reason I struggle to get from speaking simple conversations with strangers or making phone calls or orders I’m able to do now to discussing news or more complex topics with friends and family is my lack of vocabulary or lack of effort in that area. You can learn the grammar and make connections once you have the foundation from those initial classes

[@tchernaluna]

That’s why it’s more important to pick up sentence’s sens and ont try to learn all the words, believe me, I’m Suisse and I learn 3 ôter language st school, as french speaker I had german & italian & english, however poeple in Switzerland don’t speak really german but many different swiss german depending on area where they live. If you just pick up few words in a sentence you’ll be able to guess the whole meaning by their tone of voice or situation. Be confident to ask if you have well understand by repeating with your own words, they will tell you quickly 😉💪🏼

[@정도령-f4z]

축하드립니다 선생님! 한국어를 마스터 하셨으니 덩달아서 세계에서 가장 어려운 산스크리트어도 습득하셨습니다. 그 이유는 한국 지역 곳곳의 사투리가 산스크리트어에서 변형이 거의 안된 언어입니다. 산스크리트 = 크샤트리아 = 사투리 , 크샤트리아는 왕족이 사용하던 언어였습니다. 강상원 박사의 강의를 더 참고하시구요. 수메르어도 쉬울 겁니다. 수메르어는 은, 는 , 이 , 가 등 조사가 똑같습니다. 어순도 똑같구요. 그리고 아메리카 원주민 언어도 일부 습득하셨습니다. 맨허튼 = 많은 땅, 토론토 = 토론하는 터, 시애틀 = 수염털, 나이아가라 = 네 갈래 , 오시오(체로키부족 방송국 이름) = 오세요 = welcome , 호피족 = 호랑이 가죽 부족, katawaba = 갔다와봐, 미시건(프랑스발음) = 미치가마나 = 물고기가 많아( 미 = 물(예 미나리) , 치 = 물고기(예 꽁치, 쥐치, 갈치) , 가= ()()가(조사), 많아 = 많다)

[@omkimberly]

This video was awesome and transfers to all* languages.

[@MrCway89]

Thank you so much. I love your videos. I'm trying to learn as much as I can now as I want to go to Korea this summer.

[@seoul_mate]

Very useful video as usual. Thank you.

[@johneyon5257]

a speaker using Basic English (developed by CK Ogden) - can speak fluently on most everyday topics with 850 words plus prefixes & suffixes - (it could be that words with prefixes or suffixes might be considered new items in a vocabulary - so the word count would actually be much higher) Ogden recommended augmenting the list - which brought the vocabulary up to around 2,000 words - closer to your 3,000 words whatever Basic English's merits as an international version of english - its identification of basic concepts needed for communication can be valuable when tackling a new language - find a core set of words that aren't synonyms (don't overlap) - that roughly coincide with Ogden's basic words - this might be the quickest way to fluency - i had a french-canadian coworker who learned Basic English - she was so fluent that i forgot - i wasn't careful talking with her - and used words that she needed to have defined

[@kgty1295]

I know so many words I use words I don’t know I knew in English. I want to be like that in Korean and I’m getting in Spanish

[@jztouch]

I’d love to see your list of words you , as well as the girl you mentioned, most commonly used when you analyzed your, and her, conversation. I’m staying with a Korean family right now and many of the words they use I’ve never heard, even after two years of online lessons. 😅

[@shin1719]

I think I know 30 words 😂

[@taekookisreal7987]

I think I know maximum of 5 words 😂😂😂

[@eugene1317]

I think I know zero still learning the alphabet... very excited to get started

[@suugarush2555]

Same 😂

[@hoseokshope]

I don't know how many I learned....I can read Korean (not very well tho) so I kinda learn words from like Kpop😅

[@antoine8306]

@@eugene1317 Same for me, where are you now ?

[@ЕваЧибизова]

I know about 9k words in English. Most I know passively, thus my writing/speaking is more restricted than my comprehension. Still have problems with some vocab, but can read almost anything freely. I’m not sure though if I could make a good translation: sometimes you really just pick the definition from the context

[@seajames1690]

Don't forget 김치. Kimchi is a well known Korean performance-enhancer.

[@Nathillien]

You are forgetting about forgetting words. Learn ten words a day and after few days the ten from the first day are gone ...

[@mrfluffypaws7885]

Relatable

[@sabrinbgrb5221]

Right

[@captaink2250]

SRS like Anki(I used that for 2 years for learning everything), Quitlez... will solve that problem for you

[@TheRainbowDragoness]

Maybe 50 or 60 right now but I'm working on it.

[@left_chicken]

I think that many words that you learn come from grammatical structures as seen in 4:35, I think that it is not only about how many words you know, but also how many words you know that is used in the context that you are. English is my second language, I can understand a lot of conversations, but I stil don´t know a lot of words, like scientific words or business words or even colors. I am learning Korean and i have come across a lot of "school" words (like 급식) that I think I don´t need right now (because I am not at a school or something). Am I wrong?

[@raffina1259]

Wow me actually noticing that i learn 20 words a day cause almost the whole day i just practice those super hard😅

[@kodysamnanveth7304]

I know about ~550 - 600 words. I learned the majority of them from your books and some more from other sources.

[@Neky_Hina]

Maybe, Korean names would be more special soon later. It's because the birthrate of South Korea is now reached down below 1.0 that children are not that many compared to the past. When I was in my elementary school from 2000 to early 2006, there were 7-8 classrooms in a grade and each had 35-40 students. However, now, the same school has only 2-3 classrooms in a grade and only 20-22 students per a classroom. It means children became much more precious. I believe this tendency naturally would lead people to name their children more special but not too strange at the same time.

[@wolf-bass]

I can learn 10 words on the first day, but on the second day, when I learn 10 more, I’ve already forgotten two from the day before and two others sound almost exactly the same (like 가지, 같이, 까지, 가치), so I can’t tell them apart! Oh well…

[@fluffysugakookies9580]

learn like 3-5 words a day and write them down... if you learn 10 words you'll forget everything fast.

[@Shiraori999]

Well, I just started couple of weeks ago and I'd say I know 100-200 words.

[@KoreanLetsGo]

being a Korean, I want to know how many vocabs I know but there is no way to count all of them lol

[@happytrails1963]

Maybe about 900 words and only recently trying to learn hangul. Of course had hangul earlier but really making an effort to be much better at it recently. Would say that I'm at kdrama level which maybe means not even at 1st grade level of speaking. At first doubted I could learn another language so main thought was to really retain words I learned after all it would not be a benefit to go over 3000 words but not retain much of them so I am probably going much slower although my enthusiasm is good. Its fun to spell korean words that I know in hangul now. Maybe I fill in gaps in korean going forward. For me not mind if not ever fluent but as long as can communicate ok then would be perfect. Would maybe like to learn japanese next maybe after I get ok at korean conversation

[@aline21o85]

It took me 10_12 year to become fluent in English I hope korean won't take that long 😢😢😢😢😢

[@ryanpolicarpio6811]

Aline 21o same i hope too. I was fluent in english after 6 years (elementary 6th grade) of immersion to english language (no studying) my brain just flipped and now I can speak fluent english. english is not my native. it just worked like magic. I dont think I know a lot of english vocabs but I can speak and understand every conversation, movies, vlogs, news. I think for korean, it’ll probably take years for me to be fluent like english. If I can go to Korea, it will take lesser years. LOL I really hope it would take that long for korean.....

[@veronika3119]

right now I'm at 1000 and I know how to use all of them in sentences (conjugations, particles etc.) so I'm kinda proud of myself :) I still have long road ahead of me tho

[@MrBobitchouk]

If you store in the Anki app each new word you learn (with your professor, in textbooks, etc.), you'll be able to easily count how many words you know. 10 words a day is unrealistic if you're working full time and have a normal social life (rather plan on about 30 a week).

[@GoBillyKorean]

Definitely adjust it to what you're able to do. When I had 8+ hours a day to study Korean, I could realistically do 100 or so words per day (and then retain maybe half of those). But if I were working full time then I'd probably do 10 throughout the day while at work, depending on my job of course. Fewer if I didn't have any time. But the fewer, the slower things move and the longer it takes to improve.

[@saracyndrella5270]

Your math is just amazing😀

[@GoBillyKorean]

Math was probably my weakest subject in school.

[@saracyndrella5270]

@@GoBillyKorean o really i dont think so i mean you solved that quickly 😮

[@saracyndrella5270]

@@GoBillyKorean i have a question i have a korean friend can please suggest me some topics on which i can discuss with him *in korean *

[@auricia201]

I went and found that 6000 vocabulary list, but there are two columns that I don't know what they are, they translate to "parts of speech" and "classification" 🤷‍♀ I don't know if it's that important, but I am curious to what it is and how it can help us use the word the right way. If you find it useful, maybe you could do a follow up video about it? 🙂

[@kwailcamp]

I have a loooooooonnnngggg way to go..... English...easy..

[@constance9628]

i literally know 10 :(

[@취유-n9s]

I know about 1000 words Anyway thanks for this video. It was really interesting!

[@Janyses]

But what about understanding Korean when you hear it? That's all I'm interested in. My research is telling me that many more words are required for listening.

[@Aushaj96]

So the streamer always talks about the Philippines? 🤔🤔😅 4:40

[@foodiegurl6775]

I can write and speak Korean. I just can't speak. Can you please reply what do I need to do to speak?

[@GoBillyKorean]

Sorry I don't understand your question.

[@foodiegurl6775]

I mean I can write and understand some but I can't just speak I only know few. Sorry for wrong question and thank you for replying.

[@GoBillyKorean]

@@foodiegurl6775 That sounds normal for the beginner level. You can start learning for free here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qamTqqyHptCjp9E

[@ris1715]

i only now know 5 words in korean

[@KisaTheGamerCat]

So what were all the common words used by you and the streamer? Or at least the ones that you both used. Really curious if I've learned them yet or not.

[@5분역사-m4h]

My english vocabulary was estimated to be 6500. Do you think it's enough? I still think that i have to improve my vocabulary.

[@klaraciric6282]

at this point, having studied for around 5 months, i think my vocabulary contains about 500 words but it may be a bit far fetched 😂😂

[@cattque1658]

Maybe something around 1000

[@jani74blogspot]

Imho 3000 maybe enough for a casual conversation, but you need to know lots of grammars, dozens or hundreds of expressions. And if you want to do a Topik II exam, 3000 won't be enough.

[@jani74blogspot]

And the most frequent words and words that beginners mostly learn are from two different world. AFAIK the frequency list is based on newspapers, so you'll have a good time if you are interested in economy and politics.

[@langley5809]

Where can we found that 6,000 common words that you are talking about?

[@ranger_hben8657]

i'd say i know somewhere around 1500 words

[@lilym1797]

Loool I got proud I knew around 200 words 🤭

[@noorallawati5390]

I know less than 100 but im in the learning process hehe

[@kaylaglazz]

Wow you amazing

[@shaguftaniazalipanhwarshag2012]

How many total words in Korean vocabulary?

[@GoBillyKorean]

Nobody knows exactly.

[@pandayonn6053]

Some people studying Korean try to learn words that are not average so they can seem unique or special...but that always ends badly and some Koreans learning English try to learn big words so they can sound smarter in English but that only makes them confusing and unnatural lesson of the day go average or go home

[@kpop-lover615]

Hey can someone give me the link to the 6000 most commons korean words plz I can’t find it

[@A-Wa]

6:50 thats true! I know less words than other learner but because of my pronounciation and my grammar, I sound more native :D

[@girlygirl642]

What was that website he said had the vocab list of 6,000

[@sabitmdasad6803]

How to check my vocab bank?

[@liz6735]

"...And that's kind of what I did." 푸하하하하하하하하하

[@Khushijain0903]

ok but isn't he resembling harry potter here🤨🤨😅😅

[@archerart]

I can know exactly how many words I know thanks to quizlet. Only 296 right now but thats better that where I was a few months ago! (0) haha

[@ojastiwari3976]

400.

[@PeterLiuIsBeast]

So basically with 3000 words, vocabulary wouldn't be the main factor impeding my improvement of my Korean skills.

[@dianagbm]

I know 20. Nailed it :V

[@emiliabreaks2519]

I think i know about 1500-2000 words? It’s a wild guess though 😂

[@Xxiroo]

I can hold a korean conversation but what if you never get to use those words? They always ask questions about how I learn n where and things. XDD

[@aline21o85]

since i was able to learn Arabic i can learn Korean

[@heather6671]

Does this apply only to daily conversations, or does it include materials like variety shows and vlogs? According to memrise, which is the only app I use for vocabulary (I make my own decks most of the time), I have acquired over 8,000 unique words. Adding in the words that I've learned from reading books and watching kdrama (none of which made it to my memrise decks), I'd say I probably know around 8,500-9,000 words? But I don't feel like my listening comprehension skills is anywhere near 95%, especially with variety shows and online content. Without subtitles, I can usually understand (confidently) around 70% - 80%. :'( I do understand most of what my language exchange partners say during our exchange sessions, though, but I'm not sure if that's a result of them slowing down for me/ deliberately avoiding complex words to make it easier for me.

[@Xxiroo]

저는 한국어를 공부했어 2년 근데 아직 600-700단어. 14살 그래서 잘하시네요?

[@ashapurna7530]

네.......딩신을 한곡어는 잘 했어요

[@koreanenglish2932]

Thanks for an interesting video! I like the editing! I want to kindly disagree though and was curious what you thought. I think a fluent or even smooth conversation in Korean (probably any other language) requires a vast vast vast knowledge of vocabulary, especially nouns. A fluent conversation cannot be achieved w/ only 3000 words. Smooth conversation? Probably also not realistic really. Sure you can speak with 3000 words for example, but I don’t think you would be able to say a lot of ‘meaningful’ things and most likely wouldn't understand the person speaking. I think for a meaningful conversation you need an insanely immense vocabulary. The way I see it, and of course I may be wrong so don’t think im trying to be harsh please ^^ is basically the “ ___를 좋아한다” example. You can literally put any noun in the blank space and if you don’t know what that noun is you don’t know what the person likes or dislikes. The conversation is most likely stopped in tracks because if you have only 3000 words you wouldn’t have enough words to comprehend the person describing that noun whether it be 찌개백반, 가로수, 우리 시어머니, or 녹즙 and it would be a strain for a native to get their idea across in korean. Since a dialogue between even just 2 people goes back and forth, both people would have to understand each other easily (fluently: without many speed bumps). The issue is that adult natives Korean ‘generally’ have a passive vocabulary of 50,000 (males) & 45,000 words (females) [at least according to this study s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/137749/1/000000146074.pdf page 14 ] and although they are not going through every word in their brain if they said “오늘 진공관 앰프를 샀다!”. A relatively obscure word is used, but most adult Koreans would be able to picture this, or understand a description of it if it was unclear what kind of 제품 they speaker was talking about. Point being that it wouldn’t really impede the conversation because a native speaker (or someone with an immense vocabulary) could decide on the spot, in that moment, if this ‘type’ of amp was really important to the whole backdrop/context of the conversation. If you have like less than maybe 10,000 words even? I don’t know if it be possible to have that ability? I wanted to add this because I’ve been at the point where I thought knowing only 3,000-10,000 was great, but then realizing I can’t understand real life dialogues because people says things like “ 햇반,or 부르스타, 옥상, 짱구, 거침없이 하이킥, 미쓰트로트 etc. and things that you really just have to know to understand. To speak well you pretty much have to understand most of everything of what the person is saying. No way you can meaningfully respond to something you don’t understand. Yet, all you really have to do is build a large vocabulary base and ‘this ‘hurdle is easily taken down ! : ) Also if you want to get a pretty good idea of your current known words list you can take a dramas,novels, movies or whatever where you understand near 100% of the content and run those through scripts/texts through a text analysis tool (I like KH coder - it’s a corpa lingua tool that’s free khcoder.net/en/ ) and you can get a nice organized list! I hope this comment is received well. 잘 부탁해요 ~

[@bubblesoap5592]

That one lonely dislike.

[@madeabdel3736]

how about 1800 HanJa and its CorresPondence Native Korean MeaninG ? ?

[@angel_engene07]

I'm kinda late (seeing this video) but my guess is around a hundred or less than that idk HAHAHAH or maybe more than labdksjelwejkwsj

[@iivjoy]

Okay it’s weird i know but I’m 13 and I’m fluent in English not because I’m a native or i live in a country that speaks English, it’s because of the past 6 years I've been learning English through movies 8 months every week 3 movies I know it sounds unrealistic but that how I learned the majority like school taught me alphabet and maybe 10 words through out 4 years even in 2nd and 3rd grade I didn’t have English classes because. But now, thankfully I’m fluent in English. And i was curious, can i do the same in Korean like just watching movies and boom I’ll be fluent? Or just because i was a kid I learned English faster?

[@GoBillyKorean]

I made a video talking about Korean immersion here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3iYpqSea6p6b5Y In the future I'll also make a video specifically answering your question.

[@jammypeach100]

do you guys know how to memorize korean words and not forget them? i memorize them then the next day i forget them lol

[@GoBillyKorean]

I made some tips about that here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZTShY1nmrWmoKc

[@jammypeach100]

@@GoBillyKorean thankuuuu, i love ur vids btw. and also use got7 as an example sometime lol

[@anamira2908]

I know around 500 Korean words maybe lol

[@KarlShreeves]

Question - I noticed one cloud on screen had 3 forms of 있다. Does that count as 1 or as 3 words? I would expect 1 but software may not think like we do.

[@GoBillyKorean]

Software counts each as a unique word, which is why some estimates for other languages could be around 5k while English was only 3k. But there's no absolute answer for how many words you need, just estimates anyway. The main point being that the exact same "words" are repeated, whether those are forms of another verb or not. 그렇다 can become 그런데, 근데, 그래, 그래요, and a bunch more, but if someone uses 근데 and 그래요 10x more than the others, than those words are still much more commonly used - even though they're just "forms" of another verb. If you ignore those though, and just focus on unconjugated verbs, it'd more likely be on par with results in English - around 3k.

[@KarlShreeves]

Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean That makes sense - thanks!

[@onepiece5586]

I only knew 500words hahahahhahaaha

[@michelleyotprasit6049]

How could you write like that? Is there a glass in front of you??

[@GoBillyKorean]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJ7JYWZ-ndF4bKc

[@markphillips7538]

I probably have 100 or so I know but recalling them is the issue. Though when I was in Korea I found words popping out of my mouth at odd but appropriate times, enough so that some of the Koreans I was with looked at me strangely and didn't believe I didn't know Korean. Sometimes watching K-Dramas sinks words deeper than we may know.

[@madeabdel3736]

THIRD

[@훗-k7r]

will u know this vid make me feel stupid some who😶😂, bcoz my answer is i have known 15 or 20 words and i feel pretty good as if i'm speaking korean so will😂.

[@GoBillyKorean]

There was a time when I only knew like 5 words, before I started studying Korean seriously. You can do it too ^^

[@훗-k7r]

Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean will, i think so, if u can do it then i can thank u for replying to me💙.

[@jazzysk8rgirl]

The thumbnail scared me. I saw more than 3 0's and still has his marker in his hand....I can do this!