Noun Town is a language learning game on Steam that lets you build Korean vocabulary through gameplay. You explore a virtual world, interact with objects, and pick up over 1,000 words and phrases through mini-games and spaced repetition. The town starts in black and white and fills with colour as your Korean grows.
Part of the Noun Town series, which has won three awards and been shortlisted for seven more. No subscription, no ads.
Korean has become one of the most popular languages to study in recent years, driven largely by interest in Korean music, film and television. It is spoken by around 77 million people in South Korea, North Korea and Korean communities worldwide. For English speakers, Korean sits in the more challenging category -- the grammar works quite differently to English, and the vocabulary shares almost nothing with European languages.
The writing system, Hangul, is a different story. It is one of the most logically designed alphabets in the world, and most learners can get to grips with it in a few hours. That means you can start reading Korean words in the game fairly quickly, rather than having to rely on romanisation throughout.
1,000 words gives you a solid vocabulary base to build on. Korean grammar takes time to absorb, but having vocabulary in place first makes structured grammar study considerably easier.
You explore a virtual world and interact with objects to pick up vocabulary in context. Testing and practice run through spaced repetition and mini-games built into the world, so learning happens as part of playing rather than as a separate activity. Words you know well come back less often, words you are still working on come back more.
You can play with speech recognition to practise speaking out loud, or use selection-based input if you prefer. Speech recognition works across all 12 languages in the game. Progress shows up in the world itself -- every word you learn restores colour to part of the town.
Korean uses the Hangul alphabet, which most beginners can learn to read in a few hours. Once you know the letters, you can start reading Korean words in the game straight away rather than relying on romanisation.
No existing knowledge needed. The game focuses mainly on vocabulary and nouns, with some basic phrases and sentences. It introduces words in small sets and only moves on once the previous ones are solid. Over 200,000 people have played Noun Town across the game series.
Buy on SteamUsing Noun Town in a school or university? The game is used in classrooms worldwide, with dedicated tools for teachers and group licensing available.
Noun Town for EducationNo. Noun Town is built for beginners. The game introduces vocabulary gradually with no prior knowledge needed.
Korean vocabulary can feel unfamiliar at first for English speakers, since it shares little with European languages. The spaced repetition in Noun Town is built for exactly this -- it brings words back at the right intervals until they stick. Hangul, the writing system, is one of the more learnable scripts and most people get comfortable with it quickly.
Yes. The Steam version runs on both Windows and Mac.
No. Noun Town is a one-time purchase on Steam with no ongoing fees or ads.
No. This is the desktop version for PC and Mac -- no headset needed. A VR and Mixed Reality version is also available separately on Meta Quest and Steam VR.
See all languages: Noun Town language learning game