YouTube’s top five English teachers for Korean viewers

Long gone are the days when we had to sign up for early morning in-person English classes to learn from native speakers.

YouTube, which has countless videos with a focus on English education, has emerged as the most useful tool for those who want to outgrow textbook-based language learning.

Offering a wide range of subjects from scripts of US television series to video blogs of daily life in English-speaking countries, many channels target general learners who need a guide to English grammar and usage with detailed explanations in Korean or those who seek fun while studying the language.

Those with intermediate and advanced language skills seem to prefer to visit English-only sites like the TED Talks channel and BBC Learning English.

Here’s a list of English teachers on YouTube prepared by The Korea Herald that you may be interested in checking out. 

1. Oliver Ssaem (Oliver Teacher)

Born and raised in Texas, Oliver Shan Grant is a YouTuber creating content about English and American culture. He used to be an English teacher at an elementary school in Gyeonggi Province and a junior high school in Seoul.

His channel, which now garners over 2 million subscribers, used to focus on helpful tips for English learners such as correct English pronunciation of specific words that Korean people find difficult to grasp. It also dealt with American verbal etiquette.

In a category called ‘Bare face of the US,’ Grant got down to social issues and trends in the country such as the revival of socialism and discrimination against Asian applicants in US college admissions.

Currently, the channel shifted its focus to video blogs featuring his family, including Korean wife, his newborn baby, and Jindo dogs. 

2. Live Academy

Live Academy is run by Korean American Shin Yong-ha, who commonly called by viewers as a red hat tutor.

Based on the experience of working as an English teacher for 10 years after returning to Korea, it deals in depth with subtle differences in grammar and pronunciation, which are often confused by intermediate and advanced learners.

Shin uploads 5-minute videos twice or three times a week. He also goes live for an hour session to follow up on the channel’s latest class and answer questions from viewers.

The most popular video, which has attracted some 2.7 million views, was about the correct use of would and could. 

3. Aran TV

A self-claimed “edutainer,” a combination of an educator and an entertainer, Kim Aran shares her knowhow that enabled her to achieve oral language proficiency.

She seeks to inspire viewers to make a leap through English as she did from being an ordinary university student to a guest speaker at TEDx, UCLA after an intensive one-year study.

The channel distinguished itself from others by uploading videos that Kim covering American pop songs with lyrics she translated into Korean and vice versa. 

4. Wonder 

This channel creates content meeting Korean viewers’ unique demand to see how the world views the county, its people and the culture.

“We produce content focusing on topics that can enhance the pride of Koreans,” read an introduction post of Wonder.

It mainly provides translation of video footage to show how foreign media covered Korean celebrities including BTS, Youn Yuh-jung, Lee Jung-jae and soccer player Son Heung-min. 

5. Guseul Ssaem (Guseul Teacher)

Guseul currently teaches at a language school called YBM and runs a personal YouTube channel.

This channel’s unique feature is that it teaches viewers how to speak softly and politely in English, with its primary focus on daily conversation skills.

There’s a section for business English phrases and expressions for occasions like making a phone call and writing an email to business partners.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)