I've been studying Hanja (한자;漢字), the Chinese characters used in Korea, to help me better remember Korean words borrowed from Chinese, some 60-70% of the Korean language. I recently found a conflict between two reliable sources regarding the stroke order of one of the characters.

Korea uses traditional Chinese characters along with Hangeul.  Well, actually they used the characters regularly some decades ago, but Hangeul is almost exclusively used nowadays.  But the characters still exist nonetheless.  China uses a simplified form of these characters, but the traditional forms are also studied. One of my sources for writing traditional Chinese characters is the USC Chinese Department page. My other source for writing the characters is this section in Daum, which shows the different Hanja included in all levels (급;級) of proficiency tests. For each character, the corresponding syllables in Hanguel, the definition in Korean, and the stroke order are included.

I think it is great when people want to learn Korean. I grew up speaking it and I can read and write, but my reading is a bit slow and sometimes the writing is difficult becuase it's not how it is said--so I am even studying while I am here.

I think there are many good ways to go about this. I know some people have gotten audio online and downloaded them to their mp3 players. Also, there are many great websites that you can see posted in the other forum!

I mentioned elsewhere on the site that you can try to find a YMCA that is doing classes, or, if you are in Seoul, you should be able to find Hawkgwon classes.

Other good ways would be to try and recruit a tutor! Even for just once a week or something for conversation or to learn some phrases. There are many university students who would be willing to do this if they are studying English or teaching Korean. Also, some churches set up some Korean learning services. You'll probably find that most Korean churches are very very helpful. I was lucky to find a tutor who is doing classes and it's really fun.

Does anyone know of any websites for studying Korean? I want to take a Korean class but I live in the countryside and there are no programs around...