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Seeking feedback on yeonseub: Korean language resources and practice tools

Hey there fellow indies ๐Ÿ‘‹,

TL;DR: Seeking feedback on yeonseub ๐ŸŒธ.

Background

I've been fascinated with Korean language and culture for a while now and have recently started studying Korean more seriously. As a developer, I found myself writing little apps to help me practice the Korean language. I thought, well, why not put the stuff I make for myself into a product. Thus, yeonseub (literally the word "practice" in Korean) was born.

yeonseub is a web app that aggregates Korean language learning resources, provides concise cheatsheets for elements of the Korean language and provides tools to practice different aspects of the Korean language.

I have been working on it in the past 2 weeks, and I am now seeking feedback from friends and fellow builders.

The Opportunity

You may have noticed that Korean culture is on the rise internationally, from K-dramas to K-pop. Interest in the Korean language is growing every year and the Korean government is actively expanding its reach. One of the biggest free resources to study the Korean language, Talk To Me In Korean, has recently completely pay walled itself citing the reason to be a mass of users (over 1.5M) that they can no longer support for free. This is a niche market but with many potential customers.

The Idea

As a self learner myself, I find it sometimes hard to practice the language or find concise references for elements of the language or the best resources to study with. So yeonseub has 2 parts:

  1. A community lead resource table that aggregates Korean language resources as well as concise cheatsheets and summaries of key elements of the language - both will grow over time based on user demand and my own progress.
  2. Practice tools - A combination of "regular" and AI-powered practice tools to practice different aspects of the Korean language (like writing sentences, listening comprehension etc.)

Strategy

As a shy developer, getting myself out there is probably the hardest part but you gotta do what you gotta do. So I was thinking in terms of reaching users I will:

  1. Reach out on reddit in Korean language subreddits. The angle would be to ask for help in aggregating Korean language resources for the website. Hopefully this will draw interest in the website without trying to push it on any one and also help the community resource part grow.
  2. Reach out on Discord in Kpop servers (these usually have a channel for Korean language learning) with the same idea as above.
  3. Reach out and partner with established Korean language youtubers. As I am not a native Korean, partnering with a native can help boost credibility as well as having a native monitor the content (I do have Korean friends that kindly help review yeonseub's content).
  4. Twitter / X - I'll be regularly posting Korean language content from the website on Twitter / X.

Help an Indie Out

This is my first completely solo project. I will very much appreciate any feedback about all of the above as well as general impressions from the website and service itself. Do let me know of any problems or bugs you encounter! Thank you!

on September 5, 2023