Corgitalk

Learning Korean often starts with isolated alphabet drills, grammar explanations, or long lists of phrases. For a first-time traveler, the urgent question is simpler: “What Korean do I need next?”

CorgiTalk turns beginner Korean into a connected Korea travel journey. Learners follow Bori, an original corgi travel buddy, from the arrival hall to real travel conversations.

What it does

CorgiTalk gives English-speaking beginners eight connected travel missions:

Start reading Hangul at arrivals

Read airport travel words

Find the way into Seoul

Check in at a hotel

Order a first meal

Ask and explore

Handle sightseeing details

Complete a travel conversation

The first playable mission teaches learners to recognize six Hangul vowel shapes inside airport signs, complete a short quiz, and track their progress.

How we built it

We built CorgiTalk with Next.js, TypeScript, React, and Tailwind CSS. The lesson content is structured as local TypeScript data so the learning path remains easy to expand.

The prototype also uses Supabase Authentication and cloud progress for three shared demo profiles. A learner’s completed cards and quiz answers are saved to their selected demo profile.

Challenges we ran into

The main challenge was making Korean feel useful without overwhelming absolute beginners. We avoided beginning with a traditional grammar lecture and instead designed each lesson around a concrete travel outcome.

We also treated romanization as a temporary hint, not the goal. Learners are encouraged to notice Hangul shapes directly in familiar travel words.

What we learned

A strong learning experience needs a clear reason for every activity. Organizing the course around a trip made it easier to decide what learners should learn first and what success should look like after each stage.

What’s next

Next, we plan to build the remaining interactive lessons, expand progress and stage-unlocking logic, add carefully licensed pronunciation audio, and test the learning flow with beginner Korean learners.

Built With

• next.js
• react
• supabase
• tailwindcss
• typescript
• vercel