I am learning Korean and Japanese together. This is the only app that has helped me to learn and remember well all the Japanese Kana and Korean alphabets in 40 days. The creator is a very clever teacher. I am on my 60-hour study, just passed the 100day mark. I supplement my study with 2 extra workbooks for each language. For JPN & KRN, I need to prioritize writing out all sentences of each lesson repeatedly each day. You need to write more, otherwise it is sort of useless if I cannot read signs and notices in the country. I spend at least an hour a day in writing, which was not mentioned on any teaching channel. I love the Yu speak “learned already” tab. You can press the words with the audio playing out while you repeatedly writing the sentences on your notebook. Just so clever to have audio replaying with each press, on the “practice” section. The world needs to know this is the only app to learn JPN and KRN. Haha…. I hope the creator can push out the story app sooner, we need to read and repeat good storylines and short audio stories for adults in order to anchor our fragile retention at this stage. YuSpeak needs more online presence, more people so desperately …. needing to know how to start right in Asian language learning. I highly recommend YuSpeak. After 120 days a new habit is formed.

I got this app to learn Japanese and I really like the way it teaches so I was glad I found it but, after 16 lessons (including 6 for just the alphabets) you have to pay a subscription. Personally, I don’t have any money that I could use for this subscription so I was bummed until I found out if you save up enough coins you can buy a temporary subscription. I really wanted to keep using the app so, I did just that, I saved the required 180 coins for a 3-day subscription. It took a while because I could only get about 6 coins a day (I don’t know if there was a more efficient way) which I mostly get because I know running an app can be really expensive. I got through a fair amount of lesson in that 3 day period but didn’t retain a lot of information because it takes a while before something to sticks in my brain. I thought that I could just keep reviewing those lesson while saving up more coins to get another subscription, but you can’t. After the subscription period ends, you have absolutely no access to the lessons you did, you can’t replay them and you don’t have access to just the singular words for review. Like I said, I get running an app can be expensive but I’d rather just have ads if anything that way those who can pay can have an ad-free experience and those who can’t pay can still learn. Or, at the very least, still have access to lessons unlocked during a premium period.

YuSpeak is actually a great app to learn Korean. I found it really entertaining and helpful for improving my sentence making and speaking skills, but beware that starting with the 11th lesson (“How is my skirt” for the Korean version) lessons are only available upon subscription. It’s too bad, because the level of content taught is actually quite basic and it’s not worth subscribing for someone who’s already at or near an intermediate level. Also, only monthly and yearly subscriptions exist, which means there’s no cheaper one time purchase option that gives you unlimited access forever like some other apps. I would say, unless you’re willing to pay for the subscription or learn everything within a month, stick to textbooks and free websites and save your money in the long run (with content you have unlimited access to). I might have even considered paying for the app if I were given lifetime access for like 30 bucks, but I think a monthly subscription adds up and is too pricey given the content of the app (it’s basically Duolingo, but with actually useful and not nonsensical sentences).

I love Duolingo and have used it every day for over 5 years. I have fully completed the Chinese course in both Duolingo and HelloChinese (YuSpeak’s app for Chinese). I am also currently doing the Korean course in both Duolingo and YuSpeak. Duolingo is great for learning and reinforcing vocab, but it is severely lacking when it comes to grammar and other language patterns. HelloChinese and YuSpeak do a much better job of building a solid foundation without having to rely on outside sources. You can get a decent understanding of the basics of a language using just HelloChinese or YuSpeak, but not with Duolingo. The only reason I don’t give this app 5 stars is because Duolingo is much cheaper with the family plan. If you know 4 other people who want to learn a language, then you can get Duolingo for $2/month per person whereas YuSpeak costs $5/month. That said, if you are comparing the two apps independent of price, YuSpeak is the clear winner. p.s. to the devs of YuSpeak, please consider a Cantonese course!