The best free apps for learning Korean on Android

Happy Monday to you! let's spend our time wisely by learning some Korean! And is there possibly an easier way to study a language by using your smartphone? I don't think so, it's that thing that's always in your hand nowadays so why not use it efficiently in your language studies!
If you are interested in learning Korean but have an Iphone. Don't worry, I made this post especially for you. And for those of you who are interested in learning Japanese as well you can read my Learning Japanese on Iphone and Android post.
Now let's get started!

PopPopping Korean;
The first app I tested is called; PopPopping Korean, sounds promising right? When installing the app it does requires you to have Adobe Air. If you don't have Adobe Air you can download it for free in the Playstore as well. If you don't have Adobe installed on your phone the app can't run. The app runs in landscape mode and focuses on learning Hangeul. The app is divided into two sections; Hangeul pronunciation and Rhythm Hangeul. In the Hangeul pronunciation section you find all the Hangeul characters pronounced for you. The cool thing is; there is even a picture in the background on how you should place your tongue and teeth while pronouncing the character. Especially with Korean I found it extremely helpful when my teacher told me how to place my tongue etc. for the perfect pronunciation, so it's really a good feature of the app!
Then comes 'Rhythm Hangeul' which is a game where you can spell out words and sentences with the Hangeul you just learned to pronounce. From standard words such as 사랑 해요 ( I love you)  to 빅뱅 (Big bang, especially for the Kpop fans among us). The app has cute illustrations of funny monsters which guide you trough the app.
Overall I think it's not an app you can enjoy for more than a couple weeks or months. It's convenient and easy for learning Hangeul but since the app doesn't have more features that's about as far as it goes.

Overall rating PopPopping Korean;
visual / layout; 5/5
Information; 3/5

Pro's
- Perfect for Hangeul pronunciation
- Fun layout
- Also good for kids

Con's
- Not suitable for long term use
- Need to install Adobe Air additonally

Learn Korean with Eggbun;
You might think; ugh another app with a cute name, but the Eggbun app is way more than that! It's quite different than any other language app I've seen! It does use mostly Hangeul so make sure you've got that down before starting with Eggbun. Eggbun focuses on learning Korean trough interactive conversations. Your screen looks like a chat screen and you can read the conversation while a native speaker pronounces everything for you. This sound easy, but it's not a sit back, relax and listen kind of app. You need to respond and actively participate in the conversation by choosing responses and typing things yourself. The conversations are quick and convenient and don't last longer than 5 minutes or so. Which gives you no excuse to slack on your Korean learning :) After conversation mode you can choose either review or quiz to check if you really understood everything. Just like PopPopping Korean Eggbun uses really cute illustrations of (you can't guess) a little egg bun-like character and other cute drawings. Overall the app is really easy to use and even though you do need to know Hangeul the app does start off with really basic conversations so it's perfect for beginners as well.

Overall rating Eggbun Convo;
visual / layout; 5/5
Information; 4/5

Pro's
- Unique layout and setup
- Detailed interactive conversations
- Fun quiz mode

Con's
- I know it's a first but I don't have any cons!

I hope this post was helpful! As usual I was not sponsored or asked by these companies to review their apps. If you want me to test and review any particular app please send me a message!

~mei mei

6 reasons why you should learn Korean / why Korean might be easier than you think!

When you think about the Korean it might seem just another difficult Asian language. But don't get scared about what they  tell you, Korean is actually one of the easiest East Asian languages to learn! I will give you six reasons why Korean might be easier then you might think and why you should start learning Korean right now.

1. Korean has one of the most intelligent writing systems on earth. Compare it to Chinese and Japanese and it is looks suprisingly easy as well! The Korean alphabet is called Hangul and consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels. That makes only 24 characters to learn!

2. Hangul is written the same way you probably have learnt. From left to right, top to bottom. And unlike Japanese, it has spaces inbetween.

3. Korean is not a tonal language. The language does have some accents but these don't change anything grammar wise.

4. The grammar in Korean language is very simple and straightforward. For example; you do not have to worry about gender and many verbs are just made out of nouns + the verb 'to do'.

5. There is a huge amount of information (most of the time for free) on the internet. You have lots of dramas with Korean and English subtitles and the amazing podcasts of Talk To Me In Korean are also free!

6. Korean has a lot of English loanwords (Konglish )and many Koreans are eager to learn English.

I hope this post has triggered your interest in Korean language. Read some more information about Korea and you will probably fall in love with it's beautifull language, interesting culture and kind people. If you are a fan of everything Japanese, have a look at my other post which compares the Japanese language to Korean.

Thank you for reading!

~Mei mei

Korean VS. Japanese' Hangul VS. Kana & Kanji' which is easier?

The US government classifies both of them as languages which are very difficult to learn, based on how many hours it takes a native English speaker to gain fluency. How does Hangul stand up against Hiragana and Kanji? I'm going to cover some of that in this post.

Since I have been studying them both for a time I can say this out of experience. If you start with Japanese later on Korean will be more easy and I think it's the same vice versa.  I will introduce both of the writing systems to you.

Korean;

Hangul consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels which are all combined in syllable blocks. As an example 한글 (hangul) is divided into two syllable blocks. The first one is divided into three letters; ㅎ 'h' + ㅏ 'a' + ㄴ 'n'  which spell 한 'han'. The second block 글 'gul' also consists of three letters; ㄱ 'g' +  ㅡ 'u' + ㄹ 'l'.

I can say for sure Korean is more difficult in terms of pronunciation. For example the use of 'ㅂandㄱ.

'ㄱ' or 'ㅋ' is pronounced as 'ㅇ'(ng), when the latter word is started by 'ㄴ,ㄹ,ㅁ'

'ㄱ' is pronounced as 'ㅋ'(K) when the latter started by 'ㅎ',

'ㅂ' is pronounced as 'ㅁ'(m), when the latter started by 'ㅇ', and the latter is a compound word.

'ㅂ' or 'ㅍ' is pronounced as 'ㅁ'(m), when the latter word is started by 'ㄴ,ㄹ,ㅁ'

'ㅂ' is pronounced as 'ㅍ'(p), when the latter started by 'ㅎ

But, you only have to memorize 24 characters. How great does that sound compared to the Japanese writing system which has three alphabets!

Japanese;

The Japanese writing system can be divided into three 'alphabets'

-Hiragana ひらがな

-Katakana　カタカナ

-Kanji 漢字

When I studied Japanese I always explained the Japanese writing system simply like this.

Kanji is based on the Chinese Hanzi characters and is used for nouns. This means every Kanji character has a own meaning and even multiple meanings sometimes. Katakana is used for foreign words adapted in Japanese like ラジオ which is the Japanese word for radio and is pronounced as 'rajio'. Hiragana is used for everything else, for example particles like の.

These three alphabets can be combined  in one sentence. I will give you an example again;

私のラジオ = (watashi no rajio) = My radio

Kanji = 私 (watashi) = I

Hiragana = の (no) = states possesion

Katakana = ラジオ(rajio) = radio

As you can see I used all three alphabets in one sentence. Also 私 means ' I ' but together with の it becomes ' my ' . I think this is what makes the Japanese writing system beautiful but also shows how difficult it can be. 

There are a lot of particles like の and if you don't understand the particles, making sentences can be really difficult.

In comparison to Korean particles I think Japanese has the advantage in easiness. While in Japanese the particle ' は ' is only written as this, in Korean you have to choose between ' 은 ' or ' 는' . For the character ' を ' it can be either ' 을 ' or ' 를' 

Conclusion;

I think they are both equal in terms of difficulty. The downside on Korean is mostly pronunciation and the difficulty of the particles. The upside is you do not have to learn any Chinese characters. Many people say you can master Hangul in a week, I only agree to this concerning the writing part for the pronunciation you need a lot more time.

Then the downside to Japanese is of course learning all the Kanji. Again I hear a lot of people who say the Japanese pronunciation is really easy. I also read this everywhere and I really have to disagree. One of the things I thought was really important while learning Japanese was perfecting my pronunciation. I have seen so many people who studied Japanese for many years and even if you blindfolded me I could hear their pronunciation was not good.

You should not take both of them lightly but it's very rewarding speaking either one of these languages.

I wish you a lot of luck.

~Mei mei