What is the best app for learning the Korean language?
Korean is an East Asian language spoken by about 77 million people and 5.6 million consider Korean as a Heritage Language. It is the official and national language of both Koreas: North Korea and South Korea, with different standardized official forms used in each country. It is a recognized minority language in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County of Jilin Province, China. It is also spoken in parts of Sakhalin, Russia and Central Asia. Korean people in the former USSR refer to themselves as Koryo-saram and/or Koryo-in, and call the language Koryo-mal. Of the 3000 languages in use currently, Korean is known to be the 13th most commonly used language. Languages that don’t have their own alphabet and characters have known to have merged in another or vanished over time. Historical and modern linguists classify Korean as a language isolate. Korean vocabulary comprises 35% of native words, 60% of Sino-Korean words and 5% loanwords mostly from the English language. Korean presence or influence is strongly found in the Khitan language. Lesser-known Dravido-Korean languages theory, suggests Korean relationship with Dravidian languages in India.
There are several online resources available to help you learn Korean easily, however, an app whose content is the best out of the other apps is Lingodeer.
Lingodeer may not be as well known as other language learning apps, but it’s actually better and cheaper than most of them. The app has a sleek design that helps learners intuitively track their improvement and progression with each lesson under the ‘me’ section. It cannot have a structured curriculum like Babel or thorough like some of the other courses but it has a great design that uses a fun approach to learning and works really well for beginners.
It teaches everything from the Hangul system to an Intermediate comprehension level. There are currently two courses, Korean 1 and Korean 2. KR 1 covers the basics and essentials. 3/4 of the course teaches a formal honorific form, to get you used to the highest form of respect, where informal polite is introduced at the end of the first course. KR 2 introduces informal, impolite speech which you can use comfortably around friends.
It offers detailed grammar explanation and clear audio recording. While the premium plan is affordable, there is quite a bit of content that is free. LingoDeer’s well-rounded lessons integrate vocabulary, sentences, and culture seamlessly, so a learner can put their new skills to use right away in real life. LingoDeer presents a variety of lesson and quiz formats to keep things fun and engaging.
Another helpful feature of the LingoDeer app is the ‘key points’ option. The app actually explains why things are the way they are, for example with Korean names and titles.
Learners can also practice the language by completing lots of different types of exercises, such as matching pictures to words, Listening, Speaking, Multiple choice, Removing words that don’t belong, Adding words to the correct place, Fill in the blank, Matching, Spelling, Ordering sentences, Writing sentences, besides incorporating plenty of grammar explanations and opportunities to review what you’ve studied.
Unlike the other resources, Lingodeer starts out language training with the alphabets, a section that’s very comprehensive. It goes beyond just the alphabet and looks fairly in-depth at the pronunciation, including things like word stress, exceptions, explanations, how to make the sound, and there are lots of words you can click on to hear the pronunciation. You can take the help of other resources like Speechling or italki to help you with your pronunciation. After completing the alphabet unit, you’ll move onto the topic-based units. It divides lessons into different topics such as family, numbers, food, or health.
The app has special settings for Asian languages, which is an excellent feature as they’re quite distinct from other languages. A neat trophy reward system is great to keep you motivated and the various topics offered are unique.
Lingodeer does not replicate its content hence the order of the units and content of the lessons does seem to vary depending on the language you’re learning. Lingodeer also offers culturally relevant lessons and topic-based mini-units. There are 60+ such units for each language and each unit contains between 2-5 lessons as well as some grammar lessons, called the Learning Tips. Few languages include a story at the end of the unit that consists of a short video with captions to practise comprehension. In addition to this, there is also a speaking exercise that allows you to record yourself as you tell a story and listen to it afterwards.
LingoDeer doesn’t give you a level test first — instead, you just pick the level that sounds right for you. I started by choosing one of the four courses; Korean 1, Korean 2, Fluent Korean, and Travel Phrasebook. The first three categories range in level of difficulty, while the last category is made up of handy words and phrases for travel. Total beginners to the Korean language would benefit from reading over the section labelled ‘Introduction’ in Korean 1’s Alphabet category. This not only takes you through the Korean alphabet character by character but thoroughly explains the nuisances in the language that even native Korean speakers wouldn’t think twice about.
Lingodeer teaches a large variety of question types that test a learner on multiple skills. Lingodeer helps you review content you’ve learnt through flashcard methodology were a learner. hears a sentence, and matches it to the correct answer and quizzes similar to the ones attempted before. The sentences on Lingodeer, are recorded clearly by native speakers. It’s a small thing but hugely important and Lingodeer has done a great job.
It would cost you:
$11.99/mo
$29.99 for 3 months
$55.99 for a year
There’s also a lifetime option for $119.99
All in all, it’s one of the better options for getting started learning a language.
Finally,
Trust me when I say that this is the app that you want and need. It includes lesson notes which explain grammar points in full detail, that are best written to memorize. The lesson notes are the same as attending a lecture on Korean. There’s enough material to make up to a book!
Lingodeer covers everything you need to know.
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