Malsori: Korean for TOPIK

Korean is not read the way it is written. 학교 is said 학꾜. 할아버지 is said 하라버지. 좋아요 is said 조아요. If you only ever see the spelling you say the word wrong, and then you don't recognise it when a Korean says it properly. Of the 6,000 words in this app, 1,692 are pronounced differently from the way they are spelled. Malsori (말소리, "the sound of speech") teaches the script and the words together. START WITH THE LETTERS, IF YOU NEED THEM The first screen asks one question: can you read Hangul yet? If not, you land on the letters — 19 consonants and 21 vowels with their romanization. Press two or three and hear the block they build: ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ = 한. THE REAL SOUND, ON EVERY CARD Each word shows how it is actually said and names the rule behind the change: linking, tensification, nasalization, lateralization, aspiration, ㅎ dropping, palatalization, or a final consonant collapsing into one of its seven sounds. 중학생 → [중학쌩], tensification. A MOUTH THAT MOVES WITH THE VOICE As a word is read, the mouth on the card takes the shape of each syllable in time with the voice, following how the word is really said rather than how it is spelled. Press any syllable in a lesson and it opens into its letters (할 is ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄹ) and is read, and mouthed, on its own. SEVEN FINAL SOUNDS, EIGHT RULES There are 27 ways to write a final consonant and only seven sounds; one screen shows which spelling collapses into which. Another lists the eight sound-change rules, each with an example you can hear. TEN WORDS AT A TIME A book is ten chapters of ten words, laid out on the Today screen: finished chapters sink in, the next one is lit, a bar shows how much of the book you have got, and one button carries on from where you stopped. Finish a book and you can read it again for a second round. In a chapter, each word plays itself as it arrives, with its meaning, a one-line note and an example sentence with its translation. Swipe right for "Got it", left for "Again" — the card takes on the colour of your answer before you let go — or use the buttons. What you send back comes first next time, and a word counts as known once you have got it in two rounds running. "Slow" plays the recording at a gentler pace. 6,000 WORDS, LEVEL BY LEVEL Pick a TOPIK level from 1 to 6 and study what that level needs. Levels 1 and 2 (TOPIK I) have 8 books each, levels 3 and 4 have 10, levels 5 and 6 (TOPIK II) have 12 — 100 words per book, 60 books in all. The Words tab lists what you sent back, every word whose sound differs from its spelling, and the whole level. READ ALOUD, WITH NO INTERNET Every Korean word, every example sentence and every English meaning is recorded into the app. Nothing streams and nothing buffers, so it plays on the subway and on a plane. (The recordings are pre-rendered with AI voice models; single letters are read by your device's voice.) NO ACCOUNT, NOTHING COLLECTED No sign-up, no login, no ads, no tracking, no analytics. Progress is kept on your device and in your own iCloud, so it comes back after a reinstall. FREE TO START Book 1 of every level — 100 words each — and the whole Hangul guide are free, with every feature. A monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime pass, opens all 60 books. Terms of Use (Apple standard EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://jsonpassion.github.io/Malsori/privacy.html Terms: https://jsonpassion.github.io/Malsori/terms.html Interface: English, Korean, Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, German, Turkish. Word meanings: English. Study content: Korean. iPhone, iOS 18.0 or later. TOPIK is a registered trademark of the National Institute for International Education (NIIED), Korea. The name is used only to describe the exam this content prepares for. This app is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by NIIED. All content is original and contains no actual test questions.