Korean Unlocked
16 units, 160 everyday words in mind maps: hanja roots, word pieces and a little real-life slang.
人 인님生 생꿀 · 찐
Korean with 혜리쌤
Learn one piece, unlock ten words.
Korean words are built from small, reusable pieces. Learn 人 (person) once and 미국인, 외국인, 인간 and 인생 stop being four words to memorize. They become one idea with many faces.
혜리쌤Hailie Chun · Korean teacher, Orange County, California
One root · many words
人person
The approach
Mind maps, memory hooks, and play.
No rote lists and no grammar-translation drills. Every word is met inside its family, written by hand, used in a real situation, and met again later.
根
Roots and pieces
Well over half of Korean words come from Sino-Korean roots. Native pieces work the same way: add 집 to 빵 and you get 빵집, a bakery.
憶
Hooks that stick
Some memory hooks are strange on purpose. An odd picture is processed deeply, and words processed deeply move into long-term memory.
情
Connection first
You need the words Koreans really use, like 꿀잼, 최애, 멘붕. Mistakes are not failures here. They show that you are talking.
눈이 높다
- Says
- “the eyes are high”
- Means
- to have high standards; picky
The gap between what an expression says and what it means is the hook. Picture the eyes sitting up high and you won’t forget it. From Korean Unlocked 4, Unit 2 · 눈.
The Korean Unlocked series
Four books, one way of learning.
Three vocabulary books build words from roots and pieces. The fourth turns to idioms: how Koreans really talk.
Korean Unlocked 2
New hanja roots and the word pieces of everyday life, from family words to the chatterbox, 수다쟁이.
家 가쟁이水 수꾸러기
Korean Unlocked 3
Deeper roots plus the living language of texts and comments: 갓생, 최애, 줄임말 and reactions.
心 심최 · 갓좀맨 · 헛
One Word, Ten Expressions
14 everyday words, ten idioms each. Why 밥 means more than rice, and why 정 is so hard to translate.
마음눈손밥정
- Start HereWarm up and meet the piece
- Mind MapSee the whole word family
- Trace & WriteWrite it with your own hand
- Use It!Finish a real text chat
- Read ItA short story to read
- Talk About ItAsk a partner, then dictation
- QuizRetrieve it, and keep it
For teachers
Ready for Monday’s class.
Every unit comes with a slide deck that follows the book page by page, so you can teach it straight from the screen.
- 62Unit slide decks16 units each for books 1–3 and 14 for book 4. Warm-up, new words, quick checks with answers, a text chat, a story, Unlock More and an exit ticket.
- B&WStudent print editionsA black-and-white version of each book, for printing at school.
- ✓Copy for your own studentsTeachers may copy pages for use with their own students.
Teaching Korean and want to use the slides? Get in touch with 혜리쌤.
From the Unit 1 deck (人 인), 31 slides.
About the teacher
Hi, I’m 혜리쌤.
I’m Hailie Chun, a California-credentialed Korean language teacher. I have taught Korean to elementary and high school students and to heritage learners in Orange County, California, and I bring about 15 years of experience in child psychology and play-based learning to every lesson I design.
- M.A. in Psychology
- B.A. in Korean Language Education
- B.A. in Child Studies and Creative Writing
- Doctoral coursework in English Language Education
- California Child Development Director Permit
- Author of the Korean Unlocked series
“Language is for connection, not perfection.”