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Friday, April 13, 2012

Learn Korean Apps - Part 1

I don't know how many parts there will be...
This one focuses on learning Hanguel.

Korean Handwriting Lite
(한글따라쓰기)
HyongA

Really intended for children learning Korean writing, it's unintended but perfect for anyone learning Korean writing! The first level, seed, teaches you the name of the letters, and how to draw them stroke for stroke. Associating sounds with the Korean alphabet is difficult for me, but on level two, bud, of this lite game, they do just that, in addition to hand-writing. For the 3rd level, stem, they build words for the family, school and animals. There is the promise of more levels in the plus version. (The third level needs to be downloaded additionally the first time you play, but at no extra cost.)

There's an additional 'memory game' available under each level, but offers not much more than a vocabulary lesson when you match two cards. Also adorable is that the app says 안녕! when the screen sleeps or you exit the app.

Playing the lite version has convinced me to get the Plus version. It costs $2.99.

HyongA also offers other learning games, for ABCs and Hanja, as well as some mysterious stop-watch apps whose names are in Korean, and a doodle game to teach shapes.

Korean Letter Writing Hearing Practice HD Lite
Korean Letter Writing Hearing Practice Lite
Creem

These two apps are the same on the iTouch, but I think they make a difference when you're playing on the iPad.

It places the same emphasis on writing the letters and hearing their sounds, although this one has a more confusing menu to click around on. If you don't have 'ask for my password before purchases are made' set in your iTunes account, you might download the add-on accidentally.

I'm not sure when the main menu song is saying, but an quickly irritating instrumental comes on when you enter the practice modes (letters, numbers or syllables) but clicking the volume icon on the menu page will shut off all music, but not the handy speaker.

The ad-free add-on costs 99¢ but I'm not sure I'm going to purchase it, the other app has much more promise as a learning method. Beneficial to this one, is the fact that you have to swipe slowly to draw the letters and syllables, if you don't the chalk won't register and you have to go over it. Really forces you to be thorough.

I think the main song is the Korean Alphabet song--that might be handy to know. As you learn the letters, this will become easier for you when you hear it every time you open the app. Not bad.

This app also has a sister for learning the Roman Alphabet.

Train Hangul
RGP

A very boring alternative for learning to read Korean letters. You enter the game trying to remember what each letter is called and sounds like, if you turn your iTouch upside down, it will force you to recall what they look like based on sound. However, several users, myself included, are unable to hear the sounds.

There is no plus version, I'm deleting this app from my iPod for the intense boredom it causes.


Any great apps I missed? Please let me know!
(More than anything, this review has made me realize that I really should get a Stylus for my iTouch. )

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

MOT

I don't know much about MOT, aside from the fact that they are considered both Rock and K-Indie. I like them because they have a similar feel to Vienna Teng, my favorite singer-songwriter.
A detailed description of the CDs and a link to the group is below the cut.


They've released 2 studio albums as of this date, and I first bought Vol. 2, which is subtitled as 이상한 계절(Strange Season). I went for the second first, because I was introduced to the song 'Electric' by a K-drama blog titled 'Electric Ground'. The following video was uploaded by the aforementioned website.