Leave a Review TTMIK Stories
Korean stories is a great way to accelerate reading speed and word acquistion
Despite having reservations about the price and the membership being separate from the other TTMIK content, I took the plunge because there really is little other accessible/graded reading available for a beginner/early intermediate learner, and despite studying Korean grammar on and off for a few years nothing every really stuck.
After one month using TTMIK stories and getting most of the way through levels 1-4 my reading comprehension and speed have both greatly improved and my retained vocabulary has definitely also greatly expanded. The in app native audio also really helps link reading/spelling to pronunciation of words for verbal recognition in your brain. It also helps that the stories while short and simple, are generally interesting to read on their own. The stories are a perfect mix of sad, funny, informational and interesting and help convey a bit of Korean culture as well!
Because of the price I don’t think I can ever justify a continuous subscription but I plan on using it until/if it becomes to advanced for my level, and if that happens coming back once I have studied more grammar again. Even once I have completed everything I can see myself subbing for a month periodically just to speed-read and review.
My literal only nitpick of the app itself is I wish the vocab review tool was better. I wish the quizzing order was somewhat random, as it always defaults to the order you added the words in and has little customization. Id prefer an ability to review in random order to better facilitate random recall. And by the nature of Korean verbs any words with 다 that have a english translation of “to X something” should have both answers have that not to make it a giveaway, and vice versa for nouns not having the wrong answer be a prompt of “to do X”. Overall this isn’t enough to reduce the experience and isn’t a main function, but I just focus on not trying to memorize the words and acquire them, but this function being better would make it easier to review the small subset of words that never seem to stick despite knowing I’ve seen them 10-20 times already.
Ill end the review by saying no matter what happens, if I’m ever able to speak to and understand my Korean in-laws in casual normal paced conversation, and listen to and understand Korean radio comedy shows with my wife it will be in large thanks to TTMIK stories and the original grammar courses. 정말 장말 감사합니다!Show lessBrian V.d. Lim
Developer Response
Thank you for your detailed feedback on our TTMIK Stories app. We are happy to hear that you've improved your Korean skills by practicing on this app. We've improved the quiz feature and now you can randomize the order of the vocab quiz whenever you want to! Please check it out on the app :) We understand what you mean, and we will continue to improve the app to provide you with the best learning experience. 정말 정말 감사합니다! We hope you enjoy your learning journey!Enjoyable, Most of the Time
I love the app, and especially enjoy the stories. I think being able to build a reading habit with a good interface, high quality voice acting, and an abundance of content is wonderful.
Please, though, make one small change. Any reading app worth its salt has a dark theme. I find myself opening this app at night to read for a bit and immediately need to turn it off due to the brightness.
Dark mode, please!Show lessNarglesplat
Developer Response
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us! We understand how important it is to have a comfortable reading experience, especially at night. We will keep it in mind and share your suggestion with our team. 감사합니다!Great complement to TTMIK Workbooks/Textbooks
This app creates a great complement to the TTMIK workbook lessons and gives much needed extra practice from those books to solidify understanding.
I think that the vocabulary review features on this app could be improved drastically in order to prevent people from forgetting words they read several days/weeks ago, but other than that the app is very helpful in seeing common idioms and spoken phrases.
One other feature idea would be “script” stories for each level, where all of the reading is dialogue between characters and would allow for more practice with spoken phrases.
Overall, great app for learning Korean!Show lessNac5504
Developer Response
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! We truly appreciate your honest feedback on the app. You can review your vocabulary you've added to your vocabulary list as much as you want, so feel free to use the updated feature. If you have more suggestions, you can also send us an email at help@talktomeinkorean.com. Thank you for your positive feedback! We will continue to provide you with the best learning experience :) Thank you!