TenguGo Hangul: A beginners-only app, TenguGo Hangul mainly illustrates the pronunciation of the Korean alphabet through audio and animated demonstrations of mouth and tongue position. Though the content of the app is rather limited, the animations are clever and clear with the added bonus of having a cute monster theme! The “Secrets of Hangeul” section also provides valuable information on the basis for the creation of Hangul and might help learners to solidify some of the concepts.
Learn Korean Phrases & Words: This app offers practical words and phrases neatly organized into categories such as Romance (“Can I have your number?”) and Shopping (“What kind of colors do you have?”). For each piece of vocabulary, you’re given the usual Hangul/Romanized spellings and audio clip in addition to the option to listen to the audio at a slower speed or to record your own voice for comparison.
Talk to me in Korean Lessons+: If you’ve been studying Korean for any length of time, you’ve likely heard of the website Talk to Me in Korean (TTMIK). The app is a must-have as well, bridging access to lessons from that site and allowing users to easily access grammar listening lessons and YouTube videos. If you prefer to learn your Korean with a fair bit of English explanation, ample examples, and witty banter between presenters, TTMIK is a good option for you.
NAVER Korean Dictionary: Naver, Korea’s most popular search engine, has developed what is arguably the most accurate and comprehensive Korean dictionary around. Available in 33 languages—which is very convenient if English isn’t your mother tongue—this free app will change the way you learn Korean vocabulary. It features a wealth of examples and model sentences to show you how to best use words, popular Korean idioms and even grammatical structures in context.
Topik One: For those interested in taking the actual TOPIK exam, this app presents you with a real previous version of the test split into the former beginner, intermediate, and advanced test levels. Within each, you can practice the four sections of Vocabulary and Grammar, Writing, Listening (requires downloading extra files), and Reading by clicking on the appropriate answers. For some, seeing and trying just this one version of the test might be useful enough.
Learn Korean - Phrasebook for Travel in Korea: Learn Korean Phrasebook delivers what it promises: a mobile Korean phrasebook to help you learn and look up useful sentences in Korean quickly. The app uses high quality audio recordings of native speakers to get you practicing and understanding authentic Korean pronunciation.
Mango Languages: The sweet and simple language learning app, this app is geared towards teaching you practical phrases and having you use them in everyday life. The content is very auditory-heavy, with clear voice recordings of every phrase and prompts to repeat and record yourself. Vocabulary and grammar lessons are combined together in units called “getting around”, “asking opinions”, and similar phrases. We loved the timer feature on the lesson quizzes, which added a competitive edge, as well as the option to download lessons offline.
DuoLingo: This app mainly focuses on fun games that are tailored to improve your reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. Users will start off by learning basic phrases, verbs, and sentences from a daily selection. Also, you may improve your vocabulary and grammar abilities by completing lessons and quizzes. With each lesson that is completed, you will be promoted to higher levels of learning.
Drops: Full of fun and attractive visuals like animation and illustrations, Drops is a great way to learn Korean for beginners. All the new verbs are 100% illustrated which reduces the chances of you using another language to identify and then translate. The short duration of each gamified session is both fun and addictive which is key in learning a new language. You do have to remember that Drops only offers verbs. There aren’t any grammar or expressions. So if you want to expand your vocabulary and know more words, this is the ideal app for you.
Memrise: Memrise is a free app that has tons of user-created courses. These can be anything from characters to restaurant items to slang words. It’s sort of a gamified flashcard system that you can use to learn new characters. It also uses mnemonics but the quality can vary significantly on a course by course basis.
FDLP Library
