About Tokki Talk

Why we built Tokki Talk

안녕하세요!!

My name is Adair, the creator of this app, and I’ve been learning Korean on and off since middle school. So why am I not fluent, ahem, 15 years later? Honestly, every time I’ve become obsessed with learning Korean, I’d get stuck learning the same boring scripts about ordering at a cafe, checking into hotel, or “easy-to-remember” words like 아이스크림 (looking at you, Duolingo…. and LingoDeer and Rosetta Stone and literally every language app out there). This sucked; I gave up.

Then 갑자기, I met Caty (who is half-Korean by the way) and we decided to self-study, hard. And not following any curriculum, but rather learning how to talk about our mutual interests, like playing the oboe, developing apps, and playing Catan. (Of course, I have ADHD so what I want to talk about changes every 10 mins but that’s beside the point). When you are interested in what you’re learning, the rest of the language just falls into place, and clicks! “Ooooh how do you say that in Korean?” must be the most common phrase my girlfriend Caty hears out of my mouth (she’s lucky she doesn’t hear how many times I think it).

Along with my self study came the realization that full immersion comes not from just reading howtostudykorean.com articles and trying to memorize everything, but also talking, listening to native podcasts and music, repeating phrases, and reading. All of which you could do yourself, though then how do you track all your vocab and phrases? Anki? No shade, but wow. I do not like using Anki. As soon as I would see or think of a word I would want to get it in Anki and allow it to run its time-tested retention system, which works for all of 5 days until you’re drowning in due reviews. What about all the times I read the word? Or used it in speech? Or in a convo with a friend? I can’t believe how many hours I spent “curating” and editing my decks, all to just … memorize vocab?

I built Tokki Talk to solve these problems. Tokki Talk allows you to learn how to speak in Korean about what you want and when, providing structure around those interests. Instead of following a strict curriculum explicitly tying boring vocab and grammar together, it injects the grammar principles alongside the vocab you choose to learn. Tokki Talk does this through multiple mediums, including:

• Interactive flashcards, to see, hear, and feel how words are used, using spaced repetition
• audio lessons, short or long, to listen and repeat phrases with those words
• short stories personalized to your level to contextualize those phrases
• role play, using AI to give you real-time conversation practice and guide you
• journaling, to talk about your day in Korean, privately
• and AI chat anywhere so you can ask questions when you have them

Most importantly, any time you see a word, you can “peek” it to get its root definition, and save it directly to a list for later so you don’t forget it.

The grammar schedule and teaching principles come directly from Korea’s own King Sejong Institute, so no, you’re not getting AI slop. These can be introduced on an optimal schedule based on your level, or any time you feel like adding on a challenge. And trust me, the audio lessons can definitely be difficult if you want them to be.

There’s a lot more, like being able to use Tokki Talk while watching YouTube or Netflix, and seeing your vocabulary in augmented reality (yes I have a demo, though that’s the gist.

And on the name: 토끼 (tokki) means bunny in Korean, and the little mascots for the app are real little bunnies my girlfriend and I have to keep each other company. Here’s a picture of us 4 :)

I hope you enjoy using Tokki Talk, and I’m always happy to take feature requests.

— 아데어 (Adair), founder

The bunnies

RESIDENT BUNNY

스퀴시 (Squish)

Brown with white spots, one ear down. She's the bunny walking this trail, and she doesn't do streaks.

RESIDENT BUNNY

굽 (Goop)

The grey one. He turns up in the stories.