Audioclip review: best app for Korean listening practice

If you’re a Korean learner looking for good audio, you definitely need to download the app Audioclip. It’s an app by Naver full of podcasts, audiobooks, soft background sounds and music for studies, and much more (INCLUDING bedtime stories narrated by Gong Yoo?!). I can’t express how excited I am to have discovered this app. This post is not sponsored or endorsed by Naver.

Who is the Audioclip app for?

Intermediate to advanced Korean learners. You can have fun with this as a beginner too but it is not an app to learn Korean from. The target audience of the app is Korean, so that’s why there are some podcasts for learning English on there, too. If you understand some Korean, you’ll have a fun time listening to stories and podcasts here.

How best to use the app

Search

Play around with the home page to see trending content and find something you like. You can use the search section to search for something specific, like 디자인 (design), for instance. The search results include audiobooks which you can rent or buy, as well as individual recordings that you can listen to for free.

Use it as passive learning & listening practice

I enjoy listening to bedtime stories by Gong Yoo (because, Gong Yoo). His voice is very soothing and it’s an easy listen with easy enough vocabulary to just enjoy. He speaks slowly and conversationally. 

Personally, I am not using this app as active studying method, but rather a passive way to listen to Korean more and pick up on new words here and there if I have time to write it down. This can be a supplement to your Korean learning immersion, but should not be considered a main method of studying.

Practice your reading and writing

You can also listen to live broadcasts and use the comment section to practice your Korean reading and writing. It’s a good place to learn Korean internet slang and interact a bit with other listeners live.

ADJUST YOUR LISTENING SPEED

If the speaker is too fast for you, you can always slow down the playback speed. If you’re the type of person who likes to transcribe audio as a form of studying, slowing down the speed will help you a lot.

SHADOWING

A useful way of improving your Korean speaking and intonation is by shadowing. You can slow down the audio and repeat what the speaker is saying at the same time. This helps you improve your speaking intonation and pronunciation.

Unique features

CITY TOUR CLIPS

There’s a section for “city tours”. These are clips with sounds from different cities, like Venice, Chiang Mai, Frankfurt, Vladivostok, Taipei, Kyoto and more. These don’t have narrations but are just sounds from around the world. It’s very interesting and can make for nice background sounds when you’re studying! All the titles of tracks are in Korean, so you can learn some new words like 예술가든 (art garden) 극장 (cinema) and other words relating to places and spaces.

RANKING AND COMMENTS

Under the popular clips ranking section, you’ll find a tab for comments. Here, you can practice your Korean reading by seeing what people say about the clips. For example, the person in the image below says “또 잘듣고 갑니다” which translates to “Once again I’m listening to this (and going on my way)”. I saw another comment saying “더 만들어주세여” (please make more). The 여 ending (instead of the correct 요) is a way to sound cuter/softer when texting. As you can see, this is a great way to get used to internet slang and natural Korean writing.

VARIED CONTENT

My favorite Korean podcast of all time, Design Table, is also available here, yay! Design Table is awesome if you’re interested in UI/UX design and listening to stories and ways of working of Korean designers. If you’re not into that, don’t worry, there are tons of other podcasts, like 깊은 밤, 배우 최현욱이 들려주는 한국 영화 이야기 where actor Choi Hyeon Wook talks about movies. You can also learn another language! If your Korean is fluent enough, you can listen to lessons on a series like 가벼운 중국어 (Light Chinese) or 베트남어화화 (Vietnamese Conversation).

Lock screen

Your phone’s lock screen will also change while listening to this app to show the player so you can easily pause or go back and forward a few seconds. (I can’t screenshot my lockscreen though, hehe).

What’s the verdict?

Not to be dramatic but HOW DID I LIVE WITHOUT THIS APP?! I am gonna be listening to this 24/7. Especially now in lockdown when it’s lonely and quiet, I love having the podcasts play in the background softly. A lot of the podcasts have sound effects too, so while someone is narrating a story, you’ll hear sounds like water, people laughing, cafe sounds and more. It’s just BEAUTIFUL and FANTASTIC. Naver should pay me for this positive review, seriously. I can’t stop raving about this app!

Have you used this app? Leave me a comment below!

Looking for more resources to learn Korean? Check out my Korean resources page or my Korean playlist on YouTube!

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