For years Bridgette and I have said that someday, we would go to Korea together. Things have been progressing in that direction, and I’m hopeful it that might actually happen!
But it’s still some time away, and I thought, maybe instead of playing stupid games on my phone, I could find an app to teach me Korean. A friend is using Duolingo for French, so I started there.
Keep in mind, my memory sucks, so anything that just throws a word at me and expects me to remember it is not going to work well.
Also, I’m cheap. I’m willing to watch some ads. I’m not willing to pay $70+ for an app.
After trying Duolingo for a few days, I thought maybe I’d branch out. So I went to the App Store, and started downloading apps. I gave up at 37, because it was time to eat. But there were more.
So I thought I’d share some thoughts here as I work my way through these apps.
Just in case you decide you want to learn Korean.
Drops: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/learn-korean-language-by-drops/id1227950973
This app has a matching game approach, and after a week, I’m still playing it everyday. The free version gives you 5 minutes a day, which is actually perfect for me, since I’m currently using about 10 different Korean apps. It is based mostly on memorization which I have a hard time with, but because it repeats the stuff SO much, I find myself remembering much of it. Right now I’m working through a foods section, but it looks like there is also a foundations section, travel, and other topics.
Learn Korean! Hangul: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/learn-korean-hangul/id1415558658
It lists 3 lessons, and the free version let me do 1 level out of 12 in the first lesson. It’s $1.99 to unlock the remaining levels. Now, I’m cheap, but I’m willing to pay $1.99 for an app. So why didn’t I? Well, it wasn’t clear if the $1.99 only unlocked the remaining lessons in the first lesson, or if it unlocked all the levels in all the lessons. I read reviews, I read the description, and I really didn’t see a definitive answer. So I thought I’d try other apps, and come back to this one if I felt like I needed to. After a week of trying other apps, I don’t feel like I need this one, but I’m no gonna delete it yet, in case I change my mind. Each lesson gives you basic characters, and shows you the correct way to draw it and pronounce it. It’s pretty straightforward, and looks like it would continue to build on that first level adequately. But it also looks like that’s all it does – shows you how to write and pronounce letters.
Write it! Korean: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/write-it-korean/id1268225657
This is one of the reasons I haven’t been willing to pay for the previous app – it does almost exactly the same thing. It shows you the correct way to write the characters, pronounces them, and then tests you on it. It has 20 lessons, I’m on #8, and I haven’t found any limits to the free version.
Enough for now. I’ll come back with some more soon.
Might As Well Laugh 
I am so proud of you! Although, do not worry – SO MANY Koreans now speak English so you will be fine. But learning some phrases will be fun. My husband and his parents bought me a very expensive language software called RosettaStone. Because I went to school in Korea for 5 years the first MANY lessons were painfully boring and then I got busy with kids and as some software will do, it would no longer work on my current system. So yeah, do not spend $600 on Rosetta Stone. Just use the apps and YOUTUBE has a ton of helpful tutorials too. My eldest daughter has been learning Korean and Japanese with Duolingo and she loves it.
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I’m with you…like what if I pay for an app and then I don’t even like it? And there’s plenty of fun free stuff. Write It! and Drops were two of my favorites, also! Drops is low key so much fun –
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I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve really slacked off on trying to learn Korean. Maybe when the trip starts to become a reality, I will do better.
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