Wine on Wednesday February 2016

Cool People II
Please tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Hyunwoo Sun. I teach languages for
work, and I breakdance and do acrobatics as
hobbies. I teach languages because I really want
to help other people experience how amazing (as
well as useful) it is to be able to speak a new
language. I travel a lot, make a lot of videos for
my YouTube channel, and generally enjoy
learning new things by finding my own
‘learning hacks’.
You founded Talk To Me In Korean. Could
you share with our readers what TTMIK is?
Talk To Me In Korean, or TTMIK as it’s known
on social media, is a website and online
community (www.talktomeinkorean.com) where
people can not only start learning Korean but
also achieve real fluency and get motivation to
keep learning Korean. I made the website back in
2009 with two other friends, and now I believe it
is the most widely known website in the world
when it comes to teaching Korean.
We have published more than 1,000 free lessons
on our site, and currently have dozens of
textbooks, audiobooks, and e-books that we sell
on our online bookstore. So we generate the
necessary revenue through book and e-book
sales, and try to provide as much free content as
possible. We are currently only teaching in
English, except for one Hangeul book we
published in Spanish and another book coming
soon in Chinese.
You have a huge following on social media.
How did you become so well known?
When we first started the site, we didn't have
any promotional channels or sufficient funds to
place ads anywhere, except for the 2,000
subscribers that I had on my personal YouTube
channel back then. I started by telling them
about this ‘new’ project, and asked them to check
it out. Word spread quickly and thus, it was then
that I learned the real power of social media and
the word of mouth. After that, we just focused
on creating high-quality content and people kept
telling their friends about us. I still think that's
the best way to promote a site – to make it a site
that's worth talking about. Apart from that, we
post our content through various social media
channels, so that whoever is using any platform
has an option to follow us on their favorite social
media site.
“To improve fluency, the most
important thing is to keep
putting yourself in situations
where you ask yourself, ‘How
do I say that in Korean?’
”
a common
English is becoming more of
language in Korea. Why do you think it's
important to learn Korean? Any tips for
improving fluency?
Even though you can see more and more people
in Korea who speak English (to varying
degrees), the majority of Koreans only speak
Korean. Especially when it comes to doing
business and getting a job, speaking good
Korean is, and for a long time will still be,
essential, as Korean companies which are now
hiring foreign employees will rarely consider a
candidate who is not conversant in Korean.
To improve fluency, the most important thing is
to keep putting yourself in situations where you
ask yourself, “How do I say that in Korean?” as
often as possible. When you have curiosity, you
will learn no matter what study method you
choose. The Talk To Me In Korean team will
continue to work hard to help people stay
motivated like that. WoW
32 <strong>Wine</strong> on Wednesday February 2016