The carefully prepared documents and the always encouraging and detailed feedback by the teacher are very helpful. With two texts per week, the pace was ideal for me to concentrate fully on my weak points. I learned a lot and was able to improve my skills and fluency. Thank you very much for organizing this challenge!

안녕하세요! I’ve been self-studying Korean for a while. I developed some bad study habits along the way that I’m determined to fix!

Reading consistently is one. My first reading challenge was February 2025 with Korean Mate. The short, themed stories three times a week worked well. I found new vocab and grammar points I’d forgotten. My reading speed also improved along with my pronunciation.

Going forward, I plan to read short stories or posts from Instagram by Korean news outlets three times a week, building on the habit I picked up from Korean Mate.

That was a useful challenge,I learned new vocabulary and grammar, the teacher was very helpful.

Thank you very much,감사합니다. - Nabila

I joined the free February reading challenge hoping to really make a habit of reading in Korean. There were 3 readings a week that were at the perfect length and reading level. I learned new vocabulary with every reading and even some new grammar points and found that it wasn't that hard to fit this into my busy schedule so this is a habit I know I will keep! Thank you for a wonderful challenge!! - Stacey 

My experience as a member of the January challenge was incredible. I truly had fun, and teacher Sungju was very patient with each one of us. In this challenge, I learned so much, and I became aware of some mistakes I was making while reading in Korean, which I didn't know before, and it helped me a lot with my reading. 

I will continue participating in future challenges because I feel it is 100% worth it!! ❤❤

For me, the audio and the sound guide notes are the most helpful.

I agree with Lisa about the pace. For me, it’s a lot to learn the pronunciation of all the words each day and I feel like having a couple of days with each reading would allow me to focus more on correcting and refining my pronunciation.

Thank you for all of your work to organize the challenge!

-Allison  (January Challenge Member) 

For me, the most helpful thing (other than the audio) is the annotated text showing the flow and emphasis with the curving lines, quotation marks, etc... One thing I have found very helpful is to slow down the provided audio to 80% or so while practicing.  

선생님, 감사합니다! 많은 것을 배웠습니다. 

- Lisa(January Challenge Member) 

Since all the documents were very nicely and thoughfully prepared, it is somehow hard to choose. But in the end, for me, the video with the combination of audio and sound guide notes was the most helpful. Nevertheless, if this were a single document, I would prefer it without additional annotations as it would be easier to go back and re-read/listen to the difficult parts. I also liked to read the plain text at the beginning to see how I get on (and learn my weaknesses by comparing it to the audio) and then read it again after practicing with the video. Although I very much enjoyed the recipes (I love Korean food and these easy to make, everyday recipes are so nice), the interviews were most helpful in terms of use of formalities and spoken languages. Thank you very much for all the effort you put into this challenge.

-Alexia  (January Challenge Member)

What I like the most is the video where they read the text. It really helps a lot to understand the flow of the reading, as well as the image that explains the pauses and how to raise or lower your voice.
I also love the interview readings. They’re very challenging because some are long or have a lot of formality, but as difficult as they are, they help a lot to improve (plus, I learn new words and how to pronounce them).

- Betsy (January Challenge Member)