Best Apps to Learn Korean: What Actually Works (And What's a Waste of Time)

A lot of people now want to learn Korean. Maybe you're binge-watching K-dramas and tired of reading subtitles. Maybe you've always wanted to learn a new language and Korean sounds cool. Whatever brought you here, now you're googling "best apps to learn Korean" and getting buried under 50 different Korean learning apps all promising you'll be fluent in three months.

Here's the truth: most Korean language learning apps aren't going to get you fluent. But understanding what these language learning apps are actually good for—and what they suck at—will save you months of frustration and wasted time.

I spent way too long researching every major app for learning Korean out there. Duolingo, Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, Memrise, LingoDeer, Mondly—all the popular apps that show up when you're trying to learn Korean. Tested them, read what linguists say about their methods, looked at what actually works for Korean learners.

Let me save you the trouble.

The Problem With Korean Language Learning Apps

Before we dig into specific apps, you need to know something: no language learning app is going to make you fluent by itself. Not one of these Korean apps. Not even close.

Dr. Min-Jae Park, a language learning researcher, put it well: "Apps excel at developing vocabulary and fundamental skills, but achieving conversational fluency requires authentic interaction with proficient speakers."

Translation: these apps to learn Korean are great for building a foundation. Learning Hangul (the Korean alphabet), getting basic Korean vocabulary, understanding simple grammar patterns. But if you want to actually speak Korean? You need to engage with real Korean content. You need to watch Korean shows. You need to listen to Korean speakers talking at normal speed.

The app is just the starting point. Not the whole journey.

Got it? Cool. Let's break down what these Korean language apps actually do.

Duolingo: The Most Popular Korean Learning App (For Better or Worse)

Look, Duolingo is free. That's huge when you're just starting to learn Korean. It's got 17.4 million Korean learners worldwide, so clearly the gamification stuff works—streaks, points, that little green owl threatening you if you miss a day.

What Duolingo does well for Korean learners:

Where Duolingo falls apart as a Korean language learning app:

Expert reviewers rate Duolingo 2/5 for actually teaching Korean. But 5/5 for user experience, so there's that.

Honestly? If you're a complete beginner and want to test the waters without spending money, fine. Use Duolingo for the first month to learn Hangul and basic Korean phrases. But don't expect it to help you learn Korean beyond the basics.

LingoDeer: Actually Designed for Asian Languages

Unlike most language apps that just adapt their Spanish or French course for Korean, LingoDeer was built specifically for Asian languages. That's a big deal when you're trying to learn Korean.

What makes LingoDeer better for Korean learners:

The limitations:

If you're a beginner looking to learn Korean with solid grammar explanations, LingoDeer is probably the best app in terms of actual teaching quality. But it's still keeping you in an artificial learning environment.

Pimsleur: Great for Korean Pronunciation, Terrible for Everything Else

Pimsleur is audio-only. You listen to 30-minute Korean lessons and repeat what you hear. That's it. No reading, no writing Korean, just listening to Korean speakers and repeating.

Why Korean learners like Pimsleur:

The problems with Pimsleur for Korean:

If you're an auditory learner who wants to focus on Korean pronunciation, Pimsleur might work. But you'll need another app or resource to actually learn to read and write Korean.

Rosetta Stone: Expensive Immersion That Doesn't Work for Korean

Rosetta Stone's whole approach is "immersion"—you learn Korean by looking at pictures and hearing Korean, with no English translations. This language learning method works okay for Spanish or French. For Korean? Not so much.

Why Rosetta Stone struggles as a Korean language app:

The speech recognition (TruAccent) is genuinely good for practicing Korean pronunciation. But honestly, there are better ways for Korean learners to spend their money.

Memrise: Good Korean Vocabulary Tool, Not a Complete Language Learning App

Memrise uses mnemonic devices to help you remember Korean words. You see a picture of a cheap-looking house to remember that 집 (jib) means "house" and sounds like "cheap." Kind of clever for learning Korean vocabulary.

What Memrise does well for Korean learners:

The limitations as a Korean learning app:

Memrise works best as a supplementary learning tool—something you use alongside other resources when you're trying to learn Korean, not as your main Korean language app.

Mondly Korean: Polished But Surface-Level

Mondly offers Korean courses with a sleek interface and even VR/AR options. It's similar to Duolingo but with a slightly different approach to teaching Korean.

What Mondly Korean does:

The problems:

The Real Problem with These Korean Learning Apps

You know what all these apps for Korean have in common? They treat the Korean language like it's just vocabulary lists and basic grammar patterns. But learning Korean isn't like learning Spanish or French where you can kind of guess your way through based on English.

The Korean language has:

These language learning apps are good at teaching you Korean vocabulary. They're okay at teaching you basic Korean grammar patterns. But they don't teach you how Korean actually works in real life. They don't show you how native speakers actually talk. They don't help you understand Korean culture and the context that makes certain Korean phrases polite or rude.

And here's what really bugs me about these Korean apps: they keep you in this controlled, artificial learning environment. You're matching Korean words to pictures, filling in blanks, repeating after robot voices. But real Korean? Real Korean is K-dramas and YouTube videos and Korean news articles and actual conversations with Korean speakers.

What Actually Helps You Learn Korean

Look, if you really want to learn Korean—actually learn it, not just collect badges in a language learning app—you need to engage with real Korean content. Native speakers talking at normal speed about normal things. Korean shows where you can hear how people actually communicate. Articles and books where you can see how the Korean language works in writing.

That's how immersion learning works. You build your foundation with the basics (Hangul, essential grammar, core Korean vocabulary), and then you jump into authentic Korean content. When you see a Korean word or grammar pattern in context—in an actual show or article or conversation—your brain connects it to meaning in a way that flashcard apps and artificial exercises never will.

This is exactly why we built Migaku the way we did. Instead of keeping you stuck in an app doing artificial exercises, Migaku helps you learn from the Korean content you actually want to watch and read. You're watching a Korean drama? Cool. Our browser extension lets you click any Korean word for an instant definition and pronunciation, then automatically adds it to your spaced repetition flashcards. You're reading a Korean article? Same thing. Look up words on the fly, save them for later, review them when it makes sense.

The spaced repetition system handles the memorization part (like these Korean language learning apps do), but you're learning Korean words and phrases in their actual context. Not from "the turtle eats lettuce" nonsense.

You can use Migaku on Netflix, YouTube, Korean news sites, whatever. The mobile app syncs everything so you can review Korean vocabulary on the go. And yeah, it's optimized specifically for Korean—we spent time making sure the word lookup handles Korean grammar particles and verb conjugations properly, because the Korean language is complicated.

We're not saying Korean learning apps are completely useless. If you want to use Duolingo or LingoDeer to learn Hangul and basic Korean phrases, fine. That's a decent way to start learning Korean. But that's all these apps should be—a starting point. Your actual learning experience should come from engaging with real Korean content where native Korean speakers are actually using the language naturally.

The browser extension makes this approach to learning practical. Without it, trying to read Korean content as a beginner is painful—you're constantly stopping to look up Korean words, you lose your place, you get frustrated and quit. With Migaku, you just click the word and keep reading. The friction disappears, and suddenly immersion learning actually feels doable when you're trying to learn Korean.

And honestly, learning Korean doesn't have to be as hard as people think. It's different from English, sure. The Korean alphabet is genuinely one of the most logical writing systems ever created. Korean grammar patterns are consistent. Once you get past the initial strangeness and start seeing the patterns in real Korean content, it clicks faster than you'd think.

The best way to learn Korean isn't bouncing between different Korean learning apps hoping one of them will magically make you fluent. It's spending time with actual Korean content—shows, videos, articles, podcasts—where you can see how Korean speakers really use the language. And having a tool that makes that practical instead of overwhelming.

If you're looking for a better way to learn Korean than just doing app exercises, we've got a 10-day free trial. See if learning from authentic Korean content works better for you than matching words to pictures. No credit card needed for the trial, and you can cancel anytime if it's not your thing. But I think you'll find it's a hell of a lot more effective than spending another year on Duolingo wondering when you'll actually be able to understand a Korean drama without subtitles.