The Korean course also uses romanizations in some of its games, rather than Hangul, while pretty much any other Korean resource gets you away from romanizations as quickly as possible. The app has some supplemental reading exercises (there are flashcards, short quizzes, and a few games), but they’re fairly bare-bones. Pimsleur has a major hole, though - reading and writing. A majority of Korean words I currently know, I learned from Pimsleur. It also teaches you a lot of words very quickly. The first phrases Pimsleur teaches you are common tourist phrases (“Do you speak English?” “Excuse me,” “How much does this cost?” etc.). Pimsleur is also a very pragmatic option if you’re trying to learn survival phrases for an upcoming trip. While this can be boring, it’s invaluable in terms of perfecting your pronunciation. The app forces you to repeat words and phrases immediately after a native speaker over and over. I’m often complimented on my accent in languages I’m working on, and Pimsleur is 100 percent of the reason why. When it comes to pronunciation, Pimsleur is hands-down the best resource I’ve ever tried. As you learn more phrases, the simulated conversations gradually grow more advanced.
The (English-speaking) narrator will sprinkle in new words and phrases for you to learn every so often, which you’ll also repeat a number of times. Your fictional conversation partner speaks to you in the target language, you’ll respond in that language, and then a native speaker will say the correct answer, which you’ll repeat a couple times after them. The track puts you in various roles - a tourist asking for directions, a customer ordering beer at a restaurant, a shopper haggling over a price, a worker scheduling a lunch with a colleague - and essentially has you play that role in a simulated conversation.
Every day (well, you can do it how often you want, but daily is the recommended pace), you play through a 30-minute audio track. Pimsleur is an almost entirely audio-based course. This is one of the few exercises where you can turn off the romanizations. With that, here are some apps I’ve tried. I recommend that you diversify your learning portfolio, at least until you’ve found one option that you’re confident is comprehensive and works for you. Different resources may also skim over concepts that others explain in more detail.
Most languages will have multiple ways to say common phrases (i.e., in English, you might say “Hey,” “Hi,” “Hello,” etc.), and different courses might teach different ones. Not only has using multiple apps at a time helped to reinforce the things I’m learning, but it’s also given me a broader picture than I’d otherwise have. My primary advice for online language learners like myself is to avoid going all-in on one resource (at least, at the start). Reddit can be a good place to find these - many languages have specific subreddits where learners can share what they’ve been using.
Here, I’m going to briefly discuss my experience with each one and whether I’d recommend it for its price. Without easy access to native speakers or in-person classes, much of my early journey involved scouring the internet for resources and trying every one I could find. That’s entirely due to the wealth of apps and online services out there that I’ve been able to take advantage of. Nonetheless, it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience, and I’ve gotten to a point where I can speak, read, and write comfortably much faster than I ever thought I could. It was entirely on a whim - I don’t live in Korea and have no reason I’d ever need to go there. Last year, I decided to start learning Korean.
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