If it’s a confidence issue, then that’s an even greater reason to start! There are many people that have taught to themselves to speak the English language successfully. There is absolutely no reason as to why that wouldn’t be possible with the Korean language as well.
Here’s why should start learning Korean:
Everything seems difficult in the beginning, until you familiarize yourself with it.
You can still decide to stop, if you end up realizing that it’s not for you. However, at least you have given yourself the chance to enrich your life with something. Learning a new language gives you the ability to have view on the world with different perspectives. As you learn, you also get exposed to people that behave and think differently.
If you stop yourself every time by wondering “whether you should or you should not do something” you could end up with no hobbies and not knowing what you want in life.
This reminds me of Gary Vee saying that you have to do some tasting to figure out before you can have clear idea of what you want.
The beginning is the easiest:
Start with babysteps! I find the beginning is the easiest actually. Why?
Because there is everything to learn for you right now. You could almost start anywhere, which is different for me at the time, later on many people hit a learning plateau. But when you are just starting out, the learning structure often and usually looks like this :
- Greetings
- Introductions
- Ordering food
- Getting into a taxi
- Sharing hobbies
- Meeting people or friends
- Shopping
- etc.
If you can remember, “anyeonghaseyo” (Hello) and “kamsahamnida” (Thank you), then you can do some more too. You just repeat this skill (memorization) learning two or three more sentences day by day and over time that adds up. Sooner or later you will gain the ability to hold longer and longer conversations.
You ask? But can I learn Korean on my own?
Now, if you ask, whether it’s possible to learn Korean on your own! No doubt, it’s all up to you! You are lucky to be an era where there are many public people that have done so. Including me, without actually ever going to Korea.
In fact, even as for the English language. The only time I went to an English-speaking country for two or three weeks. Basics I learned at school, but fluent, I became by using it.
It doesn’t go smooth always, but in the end all that matters is that I didn’t tell myself “ok now I officially stop” because I felt like I was not moving forward.
So to say, I did it twice…
If you want to know more…
As someone who has started learning Korean around 2010, I’m writing a whole series on it. 
This could be your first learning book…
If you are just starting out, I recommend “Teach Yourself Korean: A Complete Course” written by the authors Mark Vincent and Jaehon Yoon. Even if others say otherwise, you are allowed to start learning some basic vocabularies and grammars before learning Hangul.
