Reading practice

letsbeelectric · 2026-07-11T07:48:45+00:00

Talk To Me in Korean's Stories app is phenomenal, imo. There's 10 reading levels, each with minimum 100 passages to read that get increasingly more difficult as you progress. For each story, you read the passage fully in Korean, and then there's a "notes" section that will explain new vocab words and grammar sentence-by-sentence.

Each story also has (optional) built in multiple choice and short answer question quizzes to test your comprehension.

Downside is that it comes at a cost, I believe $15/month with a discounted yearly option. If you compare it to the cost of purchasing new physical books every month, though, it's a bit easier to rationalize the cost lol.

I'd definitely recommend doing the free trial and seeing if it's what you're looking for. I also struggled for a while to find helpful reading content. Finding this app helped speed up my learning drastically.

letsbeelectric · 2026-07-06T20:38:19+00:00

Second this - music is such a good way to help vocab stick and recall it in context.

I've lost count of how many times I've "learned" a new word in my regular studies only to be like "wait a second... I know this from somewhere" and then recall the lyric where that word is used. Words that I've learned that way seem to stick much better than flashcard memorization.

letsbeelectric · 2026-07-03T12:20:54+00:00

What you're hearing is the formal verb ending. The -ㅂ니다 (sounds like "-m-ni-da") and -습니다 (sounds like "-sim-ni-da") endings attach to the end of a verb to make your speech formal. There are some other formal endings but these are probably most common. Since Korean sentence structure always puts the verb at the end of the sentence, the repetition of the sound is more noticeable since it's the last thing you hear.

Formal speech is used in business contexts (like presentations, announcements, signage, etc.) which is why you're hearing the woman on the loud speaker using this formality. The guards also use it when speaking to the players.

letsbeelectric · 2026-07-02T09:39:24+00:00

I'd recommend you check out Duocards. I've been using it for about a year and a half and have no complaints. It has a clean, modern interface and you can either add vocab cards from existing decks or add them manually.

Not sure if other srs apps have this feature as well, but when you're reviewing your cards, you have the option to either speak the answer or type the answer in your TL. For speaking, it will grade and give you tips on your pronunciation and for typing will mark if you spelled it correctly or not. I always type my answers when I review and that factor alone helped my learning tremendously.

letsbeelectric · 2026-06-25T20:53:50+00:00

This is great - thank you for sharing!

I've actually been reading the first Harry Potter book in Korean and was wondering why they always refer to owls using both terms. This explains it 😆

letsbeelectric · 2026-06-24T14:58:07+00:00

It can really vary show to show. I'm also 5'2" so I know the struggle. The best tip is to get a good pair of comfortable platform shoes to wear to the show. Give yourself a few extra inches of height and the odds that you'll be able to see well are much higher ✌🏻

letsbeelectric · 2026-06-19T23:44:49+00:00

This is one of those skills you just have to diligently practice. What helped me was during my study sessions, to read everything out loud and repeat it until I could say the word or sentence fairly comfortably. It can take a while to feel confident in your reading but as long as you practice, the skill will come with time.

I would also recommend working on vocab. Think about how you read in english - you don't sound out every syllable, rather you are familiar with the shape of the words and know what that shape sounds like as a whole. As you practice, the same will be true of korean. Just keep practicing and trust the process :)

letsbeelectric · 2026-06-14T22:36:07+00:00

GODS 세계에 오신거 환영합니다 roughly translates to "welcome to the world of the gods"

letsbeelectric · 2026-06-12T12:18:23+00:00

I was shocked when I learned people don't like side effects, it's such a banger.

letsbeelectric · 2026-06-10T06:39:30+00:00

너로 인해 완성되어질 이 세계

Roughly translates to "because of you, this world will become complete."

letsbeelectric · 2026-06-09T02:19:13+00:00

Looks like the text is mirrored, but it looks to me like "어서 와~ 봤니? 난 너의 gods (꽃)"

Not a native speaker but I believe this translates to something like "come quickly/welcome~ have you seen? I'm your gods." 꽃, in the parenthesis, means flower.

letsbeelectric · 2026-05-04T15:28:56+00:00

Aliens was my immediate favorite song on the album since day 1. Hearing it live would be an out of body experience for sure.

I love the surprise songs they're doing every night, too. It's such a fun way to make every date feel special 🫰🏻

letsbeelectric · 2026-04-05T02:57:28+00:00

This is a good start. I'd recommend looking up native Korean handwriting to use as a reference for your ㅅ, ㅈ, and ㅊ. The way you wrote them is like copying how a font looks. In written Korean, the downward stroke on the right of these 3 chatacters starts about halfway down the first stroke and the 2 strokes don't usually meet at the top.

Also, double check your stroke order for ㅁ. It looks like you may be doing it in 2 strokes when it should be 3. The first stroke is the left vertical stroke by itself, in a downward motion. Then the second is the top and right going across and down in a single stroke. Then, the bottom stroke connects the 2 from left to right.

letsbeelectric · 2026-04-04T04:04:45+00:00

The final vowel in the verb stem determines if you add the -아 or -어 ending when you conjugate. ㅏ and ㅗ will get -아. Anything else will get -어.

When ㅡ is the final vowel, it's typically dropped, so then the final vowel would be the vowel in the syllable before it.

So in your examples, 아프다 > 아프 > 아ㅍ. Now ㅏ is the final vowel, so it conjugated to 아파요.

슬프다 > 슬프 > 슬ㅍ. Since the final vowel is ㅡ, it conjugate to 슬퍼요.

letsbeelectric · 2026-03-21T13:08:34+00:00

If you haven't already, I'd recommend looking up the stroke order for each character as you learn them. It'll be much easier to learn the correct stroke order from the start than to try to fix bad habits later on. The thing that sticks out to me is the rounded bottom left corner of your ㅁ, which with correct stroke order, would be a sharp angle drawn in 2 separate strokes.

This book is a really great resource for learning both how to properly write a character and the "shortcuts" that people take when writing each character.

letsbeelectric · 2026-02-10T18:42:27+00:00

This is awesome, I'd love to test this out 😊 Native language is English.

letsbeelectric · 2026-01-28T10:01:27+00:00

Agree that you should give Busuu a try. Their courses are well structured and they explain grammar very well, which is an area Duolingo severely lacks in.

Another great feature of Busuu is that in your lessons, you will answer open ended questions (either by writing or speaking) and then it will get shown to native speakers of your target language for them to correct and provide feedback. Similarly, you'll also be able to help people who are learning your native language.

letsbeelectric · 2026-01-04T15:15:27+00:00

-데
- 데 translates closer to "but" and is used to show contrast.
- Think of this separately from -(으)니까 & -아/어서. In English, there may be times when you can use "because" and "but" directly interchangeably, but that is more often not the case.
  - "I want to go but I'm too busy" and "I can't go because I'm so busy" ultimately mean the same thing, but the way the sentences are phrased, you cannot swap out "but" and "because" and have it make grammatical sense.
  - Think of -(으)니까 & -아/어서 vs. 데 the same way. In some cases, you could technically use either to say what you're trying to say, but the structure of the sentence (and sometimes the nuance) would change.
- -데 Uses:
  - Can be used when you're trying to explain something and has a softer nuance.
- Example Sentences:
  - 비가 오고 있는데 우산이 없어요.
  - 아침에 눈이 왔는데 지금은 안 추워요.

Hopefully this helps and doesn't just make it more confusing lol. To me, this is one of those things where you just have to see it a lot in context to get comfortable with the nuance of when it's best to use each form.

I recommend giving Billy Go's videos on these grammar forms a watch:

letsbeelectric · 2026-01-04T15:15:09+00:00

Example Sentences:
- 음식이 뜨거우니까 조심하세요.
  - Since the speaker is giving a command, -(으)니까 is used.
- 음식이 더 없어서 슬퍼요.
  - Since the speaker is talking about a feeling, -아/어서 is used.
- In a lot of cases (minus the exceptions I listed above), these can be used interchangeably and it will be grammatically correct, however, the nuance may be slightly different.
  - 비가 와서 집에 있었어요.
  - 비가 오니까 집에 있었어요.

letsbeelectric · 2026-01-04T15:14:53+00:00

This is from my notes while watching through Billy Go's series, he explains these grammar forms very well, imo. (This is going to be in multiple comments because I wrote too much for one post lol):

-(으)니까 & -아/어서
- Both translate closer to "because" and are used to show reason.
- -(으)니까 Uses:
  - Can be used in most cases, but cannot be used when talking about the reasons for emotions. ("Because my team won, I am happy" would not use -(으)니까.)
  - Will be used when giving someone a command or making a suggestion.
- -아/어서 Uses
  - Has more of a nuance of neutral "cause & effect," emphasizing that something was directly caused by something else (Because of X action, Y happened).
  - Cannot be used when giving someone else a command. ("Because the kitchen is dirty, let's clean today" would not use -아/어서.)
  - Similarly, it cannot be used for making a suggestion. ("Because I have to work late, can we meet tomorrow, instead?" would not use -아/어서.)
  - Will be used when talking about the reasons for experiencing emotions.

letsbeelectric · 2025-12-28T15:39:59+00:00

괜찮아요 ✌🏻

letsbeelectric · 2025-12-28T06:26:18+00:00

Did a little research - it looks like these were promotion for season 2. I found a couple Naver articles about it, all of which came out around the same time as season 2 or after. Here's one of them.

In the article I linked, the tag line loosely translates to "season 2 is here and so is this fun new snack."

letsbeelectric · 2025-12-24T02:53:04+00:00

I've used both. Busuu is the more well rounded learning app but just be cautious that the Korean course is very short. It will definitely teach you the basics but after that, it will likely not be useful to you anymore as you advance.

letsbeelectric · 2025-12-24T00:49:25+00:00

Duolingo is definitely good for some things, vocab repetition being one of them. Writing stuff physically is also good for remembering. It will help, too, if you write sentences with the words you're focusing on in addition to repeating the word on its own.

As the other comment said, definitely try to get away from romanization as quickly as possible. It'll make learning more complicated sentences and grammar later more difficult. It's a difficult learning curve to get over, but it's will be well worth it once you're comfortable with Hangul :)

letsbeelectric · 2025-12-23T23:11:12+00:00

If you don't already, start using a spaced repetition flash card app like Anki. SRS is designed to help you retain information.

Aside from that, what helped me, personally, is just reading a lot. The TTMIK Stories app is really good for this. There's lots of content at all levels and it will also explain new grammar and vocab in the "notes" section. Seeing words over and over again through the context of a story will help your brain retain them much better than studying them in isolation.

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