App Review: Learning 한국어 with DROPS!

Since I started watching Korean and other Asian movies and dramas, I am unconsciously having this ability to do two things at the very same time - watching the actors of the movie and reading subtitles. I am fine when I am unconscious of it but when I get started to be conscious of it, I freaking lost my mind! Yup, I know you can deeply sympathize with me because who in the world in this millennial age don't watch Korean dramas? I love k-dramas so much that I sometimes wonder why am I not born in Korea? *laughs* But being born as a Korean is not the only option to learn 한국어! In this digital age, everything we need is just one tap away! So here's one of my favorite language apps for you to try - the DROPS! *taddaaaaaa*

Photo: https://www.languagedrops.com/#introduction

Drops is a smartphone application that offers a very fun and graphically pleasing experience to learn languages. If you are a visual learner like me, then this app is more than perfect for you. Yup, I can attest that! The app can be downloaded free from Google Play and App Store so everyone who owns a smartphone of any brand can surely download this app. 

Except for mobile services, I usually go with my iPad mini on playing games and using other apps. Good thing that Drops is compatible with iPad and Apple Watch too, isn't it great? It is. 

There are 28 languages that you can learn on Drops ranging from Asian, Western and European languages. Like any other language apps on the market, Drops is limited on teaching you only the basic words and phrases of the language you are learning (it's so worth it though, everything starts with the basic!). But what I really like about this app is its minimalist design, I get to focus more on learning with its less distraction. 

In using the app, you have to first create an account. After signing up for the app, you have to set up some information about your native language, the language you want to learn, and your knowledge or skill level on the language you are learning. Since I am just starting to learn Korean, I chose the beginner level. In my experience, the app has six 'games' to help you memorize and familiarize the foreign words. And mind you, they are all very fun games to play! I don't even feel pressured of memorizing because I'm having a lot of fun on the games or shall I call it quiz games? Words and phrases are categorized based on usage and there is this hierarchy or order of categories so it is like a step-by-step learning, you have to first reach a certain percentage of learning on the first category before proceeding to the other one.

I love everything about this app, except its limited time. Yup, if you are using the free version of the app like me then you only have  5 minutes to learn and have to wait for like 10 hours to learn again. Yup, basically it is just like a daily dose of language lesson for you. 

But if you want an unlimited and flexible time and you have extra money to spend then maybe you can entertain the idea of purchasing their usage plan thingy. They have these three plans that they named curious (the cheap one), genius (the intermediate) and polyglot (the smart one or the most expensive one) which you can pay monthly, yearly, or a lifetime. But since I'm broke *laughs* I'm just gonna stick with the free version.

Well, I guess it's time to wrap all these things up! Overall, I really like this app and I will continue using it until I finish the whole categories for the language I am learning which is Korean (안녕!). Learning foreign languages on apps like this would only teach the basic so I'm not really expecting a miracle of fluency *hehe*. But I do recommend this app if you prefer the fun way of learning different languages!