Languages

These are apps that I’ve found useful for learning Korean while living in Korea, in no particular order. Many of these will apply to various languages, not just Korean. Please let me know if I missed any good ones! Also, note that there is no “one best app”. Learning a language requires using multiple different resources. Essential Youtube | 유튜브 If you had to have 1 app for learning, youtube is probably the ultimate choice. For beginners, there are incredible channels such as: ...

This post is the first in an experimental series of tracking the progress I make in my journey to Korean learning. My goal is reaching a high degree of fluency: being able to speak at length on many topics, in a sophisticated manner. I have no need to take the TOPIK exam so none of my learning has concerned that. I don’t really know what my “level” is, but I’m advanced enough that textbooks and resources offer very little. I just need to consume way more native material. ...

I recently acquired a Garmin Fenix 6X, currently Garmin’s flagship model. While I did research beforehand, I forgot that my phone was in Korean, and thus the notifications would be in Korean… Silly me. The 6 series is not cheap, starting at $600, with the 6X starting at $750. The solar editions go for $1,000 and $1,150. This specific variant currently retails for $850, so when I found it on discount for $500 I hopped on that. ...

The single biggest change that Anki brings about is that it means memory is no longer a haphazard event, to be left to chance. Rather, it guarantees I will remember something, with minimal effort. That is, Anki makes memory a choice. Michael A. Nielsen, Augmenting Long-term Memory I love Anki, the spaced repetition flash cards app. I’ve been using it in my [[Korean learning journey|korean-learning-journey-update-1.html]] for almost one and a half years now and I’ve written about it before. It’s a good app, but you can have a much better experience by making some modifications to it. ...

There are some common mistakes people make when getting into flash cards and spaced repetition for the first time. Considering that Anki is generally used for years, correcting bad habits ends up paying large dividends. For those unaware, Anki is a free and open source app that implements Active Recall with Spaced Repetition. If you’re new to Anki, the very first thing I recommend doing is reading the manual, or at least the “Getting Started” section. ...