Korean Tutor Online in Australia: Private 1:1 Korean Lessons

What HaruMeet is

HaruMeet (Haru) is an online marketplace for live one-to-one video lessons with Korean tutors, run by a company registered in Korea. You compare tutor profiles, pick one, pay per lesson and meet on Zoom. It is not a school in Australia, so wherever you live you see the same tutors at the same prices.

Tutors can only open lessons after their profile has been reviewed and approved. Each profile shows the price, languages spoken, student reviews and a weekly schedule. All 19 tutors currently teaching Korean list English among their languages.

Book your first lesson in 3 steps

1. Browse the Korean tutors and open a profile. Compare price, reviews and the languages they explain in, and check the weekly schedule, which is shown in your own time zone.
2. Choose 25 or 50 minutes and select "Trial lesson (50% off)". Sign up with email or Google, then pay by international card or PayPal. You are charged in US dollars.
3. The booking calendar opens right after payment. Pick your time, then join on Zoom from 10 minutes before the start.

Times less than 12 hours away go to the tutor as a request and are confirmed once they approve. You can cancel free while it's pending.

What it costs in AUD and NZD

Tutors set their own prices and lessons are charged in US dollars. The price shown already includes the 10% student fee, and there is no subscription or sign-up fee. The figures below are approximate, at US$1 = A$1.43 = NZ$1.76 (ECB reference rate, 20 October 2026).

Tutors price 50-minute lessons separately; the median is US$22 (about A$31). Packs currently save 5% on 10 lessons and 10% on 20 lessons; a 5-lesson pack has no discount. Because you pay in USD, your card issuer or PayPal may add a currency-conversion fee.

Australian and NZ time zones vs Seoul

Korea Standard Time (KST) is UTC+9 with no daylight saving. South-eastern Australia and New Zealand do use daylight saving, so the gap to Seoul changes with the season. NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT run daylight saving from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April (4 October 2026 to 4 April 2027). New Zealand runs it from the last Sunday in September to the first Sunday in April (27 September 2026 to 4 April 2027). Queensland and Western Australia don't change their clocks.

As of October 2026, Korean tutors had 2,564 open 25-minute slots over the next two weeks. The table below groups them by Seoul time band, converted to each city's time for the daylight-saving months (October to April).

Perth and Brisbane are only an hour from Seoul, so evening lessons are easiest there. In Sydney and Melbourne during daylight saving, right after work (6–8 pm) is 4–6 pm in Seoul, which lines up well. In Auckland, late afternoon to early evening (4–10 pm) overlaps with daytime in Seoul.

Online 1:1 vs local Korean classes

Australia has some low-cost and even free local options. These are the prices each provider publishes; per-hour figures are our arithmetic (price divided by teaching hours).

On price alone, the Korean Cultural Centre's free classes and the King Sejong Institute are the most economical, and group courses mostly sit in the low A$20s per hour. HaruMeet's 1:1 lessons cost more per hour. In return, the whole lesson is your speaking time, there is no term start to wait for, and each 25-minute lesson is a small outlay. You can also combine them: a term-based group course for the basics, plus 1:1 for speaking.

City by city: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra

Sydney. The Korean Cultural Centre's free classes at 255 Elizabeth St and Sydney Community College's Zoom course are the main local options. During daylight saving (October to April) Sydney is two hours ahead of Seoul, so 7 pm in Sydney is 5 pm in Seoul. Straight after work overlaps with Seoul's afternoon, and from 8 pm you're into Seoul's evening, the time band with the most open slots on HaruMeet.

Melbourne. Same time zone as Sydney. CAE's Korean script and pronunciation short course had no dates scheduled as of 20 October 2026, so check before you plan around it. The University of Melbourne was one of the venues for the October 2026 TOPIK.

Brisbane. Queensland has no daylight saving, so Brisbane is one hour ahead of Seoul all year: 7 pm in Brisbane is 6 pm in Seoul. UQ's Institute of Modern Languages runs a 16-hour beginners short course and semester courses (Korean 1A starts in March 2027).

Perth. Perth shares Singapore's clock, one hour behind Seoul. Its 5 to 11 pm is Seoul's 6 pm to midnight, which held 34% of HaruMeet's open slots as of October 2026. Locally, KLCEC lists a four-week Hangul 100 course for A$119.

Adelaide. Adelaide is 30 minutes ahead of Seoul in winter and 90 minutes ahead during daylight saving. The King Sejong Institute Adelaide runs in-person semester courses at Adelaide University City West (A$345 for the Sejong Korean course in Semester 2, 2026).

Canberra. Canberra follows Sydney's time. ANU was a venue for the October 2026 TOPIK. Online lessons work from Canberra exactly as they do anywhere else.

New Zealand: Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch

New Zealand is three hours ahead of Seoul in winter (NZST) and four hours ahead during daylight saving (NZDT, late September to early April). In the daylight-saving months, 4–10 pm in Auckland is noon–6 pm in Seoul, the band that held 29% of HaruMeet's open slots as of October 2026. After 10 pm Auckland time you reach Seoul's evening, which has more slots but is late for you.

Locally, Parnell Community Centre in Auckland lists Korean for Beginners at NZ$150 for 8 sessions of 1.5 hours (Term 4, 2026). Selwyn Community Education near Christchurch lists a Korean Beginners 1 course (8 classes, subsidised fee NZ$50) but had no dates as of October 2026. On HaruMeet, a 25-minute lesson is about NZ$14–37, with a median of about NZ$19.

TOPIK in Australia and New Zealand

In Australia, TOPIK is run by the Korean Education Centre at the Consulate General in Sydney (auskec.kr). In 2026 it held the 105th TOPIK on 11 April in Sydney and the 108th on Sunday 18 October at seven venues in five states and territories. These included Sydney (UNSW and others), Brisbane, Melbourne (University of Melbourne), Perth and Canberra (ANU). Fees for the 108th were A$50 for TOPIK I and A$65 for TOPIK II. Registration ran from 6 to 24 July through the centre's website, with payment by bank transfer. From the 108th onward, Australian sittings moved from Saturday to Sunday.

In New Zealand, the Korean Education Centre in Auckland runs the test, usually in Auckland in April and Christchurch in October. The 105th TOPIK on 11 April 2026 cost NZ$50 for TOPIK I and NZ$70 for TOPIK II. The 108th, planned for Christchurch on 17 October 2026, was cancelled. The centre expects the next Auckland test on a Sunday in April 2027, with applications opening in mid-January 2027.

The next date on the official schedule, the 110th TOPIK on 10 January 2027, is listed for Korea and Asia only, and the 2027 Australian dates hadn't been published as of 21 October 2026. Candidates outside Korea register through their country's host, not on topik.go.kr; results are released on topik.go.kr and are valid for two years. 5 of the 19 Korean tutors on HaruMeet mention TOPIK on their profiles, which is where to start for writing correction and mock-test review.

Frequently asked questions