Don’t know if this is pretty known throughout the online Korean learning community but SAY (which stands for Seniors and Youth) is a new Korean learning platform made for Korean learners wanting to practice speaking Korean. It first started out as a volunteer project for seniors living in Seoul–they tutored students in Princeton and Yale. The project became a success, and SAY was born, now as a company providing students all over the world with opportunities to have 1:1 conversations and learn from a 선생님 willing to share their experiences and knowledge not just about the language and the culture but also about life.
I had the chance to check out the free 30-minute trial earlier today. Prior to that, I emailed say asking if they could place me in a particular level, since I honestly have no idea which level to pick. For the curious: SAY currently offers 5 levels. Levels 1 and 2 are beginner levels (Level 1 is currently unavailable), levels 3 and 4 and intermediate, and level 5 is advanced. As someone who’s never attended an actual class (except for that one time I participated in a Nooma class when it was just starting out) and has never taken the TOPIK, all I know about my level is that I’m somewhere in the intermediate range. I just don’t exactly know where I stand. This is where SAY is still trying to figure out the little kinks, since a placement test was still unavailable and the person who responded to my inquiry just suggested I pick level 3, which is the basic intermediate level.
In each level, there is a list of topics you can choose to talk about. The list for level 3 looks like this:
I don’t think it’s necessary to go from lesson 1 downwards since I had no problems picking lesson 3 (It’s only natural I pick it, being a drama fan). You can pick the time and date you want based on availability, and then wait for the SAY team to pair you up with a SAY tutor, based on your answers to the profile questions. I mentioned wanting to learn more about Korean history since I’m fascinated with it, and they paired me up with my teacher, 이계원 선생님 (tutor profiles can be found here).
Hi^^ I’ve used the Hellotalk app and Sharedtalk – although that has now changed to SharedLingo which I haven’t tried yet. I’ve never used any actual Korean ones. I think there are open chat groups on kakaotalk which you could try and find, I’m sure there are lang exchange groups or groups for something you’re interested in.
Finally using Lang-8 again and I really do love this community. Also there’s a lot of need for Korean learners so I’m recommending it once again.
Lang-8: Practice writing and receive corrections from native speakers, give corrections to learners of your native language, ask questions and get feedback, make friends and meet language exchange partners.
HelloTalk is a really nice app which is geared strongly towards language exchange. The detailed search settings and profiles help you find language partners who will match with you well, for example people who live near you or whose language level is the same as yours.
There are also a lot of helpful features to help your language exchange. You can save messages, provide corrections for each other (which is a really nice way to point out corrections without interrupting your conversation), and translate or hear an audio reading of messages.
They also provide free calls and all the other features of a good free chat app, just with a focus on language exchange which makes it one of the best apps I’ve used.
Sutdy-Korean 