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Day 1: Learning Korean in 30 Days Using Only AI — A Real-World Start

Today marks Day 1 of my experiment to learn Korean in 30 days using only AI tools. No textbooks. No tutors. No human-led classes. And only 30 minutes a day, because most of us don’t have the luxury of studying languages for hours. We have jobs, kids, responsibilities, and life happening around us.

I wanted to see what’s possible when you put strict constraints around a learning challenge—and whether AI can actually support sustained language acquisition in the small pockets of time most people actually have.

Starting From Almost Zero

I’ve visited Korea a few times and picked up bits and pieces of the language, but not enough to call it real experience. For this challenge, I’m essentially starting from scratch. And today, the plan was simple:
Learn Hangul. The foundation.

Two tools. Thirty minutes. No excuses.

Studying in Five-Minute Bursts

My day job came calling. I was substitute-teaching a room full of loud, restless sixth graders, and halfway through fourth period I already knew the truth:
If I waited until I got home, I wasn’t going to study Korean at all.

So I made a different decision.

Whenever I found a small gap—a five-minute break, a moment between tasks—I pulled out my phone and got to work. And today had no shortage of interruptions: a shelter-in-place drill, helping students through their math homework, shifting between classroom chaos and problem-solving. But even in those squeezed, unpredictable slices of the day, I kept carving out time.

Five minutes here. Seven minutes there.
By the end of the day, those little chunks added up to the full 30 minutes.

If I can start learning Korean inside a noisy classroom full of sixth graders—during drills and homework duty—you can study anywhere too.

Tool #1: ChatGPT

I started by telling ChatGPT:
“Teach me Hangul.”

It broke everything down beautifully:

• Clean explanations
• Clear patterns
• Mnemonics that actually stuck
• Small exercises I could do in the moment

It felt like having a patient tutor sitting in my pocket—ready whenever I had a spare breath of time.

Tool #2: NotebookLM

After working through ChatGPT’s explanation, I took the generated notes and dropped them into NotebookLM, Google’s AI-powered document tool.

This was my first real test of its flashcard feature, and it impressed me.

NotebookLM:

• Turned my notes into targeted flashcards
• Generated a five-minute audio overview in a podcast-like format
• Helped reinforce the letters and sounds through repetition
• Let me “talk to my notes” to clarify specific points

For a tool designed for document exploration, it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite study aids.

A Solid First Step

All told, the workflow—ChatGPT → NotebookLM → flashcards → audio overview—took slightly over 30 minutes. But I got what I came for:

Exposure. Repetition. Progress.

Tomorrow I’ll build on this foundation.
And every day for the next month, I’ll share exactly what I learn, what worked, what didn’t, and how far AI can realistically take a beginner in such a short time.

If you want to follow the journey—or if you’d like updates on the upcoming book Tower of Babbling 2.0: How to Learn Languages in the Age of AI—you can sign up here:

See you for Day 2.

ChatGPT Thread

Absolutely. Day 1 of your Tower of Babbling 2.0 – Korean Challenge begins the same way every Korean child starts school:

Hangul.
The gateway.
The cheat code of the entire language.

Let’s build it in a way that actually sticks — not as memorization, but as a system your brain can apply.

1. What Hangul is

Hangul isn’t an alphabet like English.
It’s an engineered writing system built from:

• shapes based on mouth position
• stacking rules you can predict
• sound shifts that follow patterns, not randomness

This means if you learn the logic, you don’t need brute force.

**2. The Core Idea:

All Korean syllables = Blocks**

Every block =
(Initial consonant) + (Vowel) + (Final consonant optional)

Examples:

• 한 = ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ
• 범 = ㅂ + ㅓ + ㅁ
• 물 = ㅁ + ㅜ + ㄹ

You will start seeing them as LEGO pieces after today.

3. Step 1 — The Basic Consonants (ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅎ)

Let’s learn them in clusters of meaning, not random lists.

Group A — Straight-line shapes (easy ones)

Group B — Special function ones

Just these 10 consonants let you read thousands of words.

4. Step 2 — The Basic Vowels (ㅏ ㅓ ㅗ ㅜ ㅡ ㅣ)

All vowels in Korean come from three symbols:

• Heaven = • (dot becomes line)
• Earth = ㅡ (horizontal)
• Human = ㅣ (vertical)

From these, we get the core six:

You now have the building blocks.

5. Step 3 — Combine into syllables

Let’s practice assembling like LEGO.

Try reading these:

1. 가 = ㄱ + ㅏ = ga
2. 너 = ㄴ + ㅓ = neo
3. 두 = ㄷ + ㅜ = du
4. 미 = ㅁ + ㅣ = mi
5. 보 = ㅂ + ㅗ = bo
6. 사 = ㅅ + ㅏ = sa

You're already reading Korean.

6. Day 1 Drill (Only 5 minutes)

Read these out loud:

• 마
• 모
• 무
• 바
• 보
• 버
• 나
• 너
• 노
• 누
• 라
• 로
• 러

Then try writing a few fake names using the blocks.

Example:
라보나 (ra-bo-na)
무사 (mu-sa)
도미 (do-mi)

7. Want me to test you?

I can give you:

• reading drills
• writing drills
• pronunciation corrections
• speed-building exercises
• micro lessons you can screenshot and practice anywhere

If you’re ready, try reading these three blocks and tell me what they sound like:

1. 보
2. 마
3. 너

Go ahead — that’s your first pronunciation test.

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