About Jireader
Jireader is a Korean graded reader on the web: 403 original short stories in five levels, from complete beginner (TOPIK 1) to advanced (TOPIK 5). Each story has audio narration, a tap-to-learn glossary, an English translation of every sentence, grammar notes and a comprehension quiz.
What is Jireader?
Jireader is a Korean graded reader on the web: 403 original short stories in five levels, from complete beginner (TOPIK 1) to advanced (TOPIK 5). Each story has audio narration, a tap-to-learn glossary, an English translation of every sentence, grammar notes and a comprehension quiz.
The words you meet in stories go into a spaced-repetition review deck, and a two-minute placement check finds the level to start at.
Who makes Jireader?
Jireader is built by Bassel Lawand.
Is Jireader free?
Yes, Jireader is free. The placement check, the Hangul guide and the five Starter stories need no account. The other 398 stories need a free account, and no card is asked for.
What levels does Jireader have?
Jireader has five levels, labelled by TOPIK band from TOPIK 1 to TOPIK 5. Each level teaches one band of a 6,500-word Korean frequency list, and its prose is pitched at that TOPIK band, so later levels have longer stories with longer sentences.
Across the five levels the stories teach 6,206 of the 6,500 words; the other 294 are function words and loanwords that are not taught as new vocabulary.
| Level | Stories | Word ranks taught | Sentences | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 · TOPIK 1초급 | 83 | 1–800 | 13–15 | ~6 min |
| Level 2 · TOPIK 2초중급 | 95 | 801–2,000 | 18–20 | ~8 min |
| Level 3 · TOPIK 3중급 | 94 | 2,001–3,500 | 24–28 | ~9 min |
| Level 4 · TOPIK 4중고급 | 71 | 3,501–5,000 | 36–41 | ~11 min |
| Level 5 · TOPIK 5고급 | 60 | 5,001–6,500 | 45–53 | ~12 min |
Where should I start?
Take the two-minute placement check: it asks which words you recognize and places you at stories where you know about 95% of the vocabulary. Complete beginners can learn to read Hangul first with the 20-minute guide, then start with the Starter stories.
How do the quizzes work?
Every story has checkpoint quizzes between its parts and a final quiz at the end: 5,741 questions across the library. All answers are taps, never typing, in eight question types: word meaning (Korean to English and English to Korean), fill-in-the-blank, comprehension, true or false, sentence ordering, matching pairs and listening.
A story counts as passed at 80% on the final quiz. Below that it goes into review, and a retake counts after 1 day.
How does the review deck work?
Finishing a story's final quiz adds its glossary words to your review deck, and you can add any word from the glossary yourself. Reviews follow five boxes: each right answer moves a word up a box and spaces its next review further out (1, 3, 7, then 14 days), and a miss moves it down one box rather than back to the start.
Two right answers in a row at the top box retire a word as known; retired words come back after about four months.
Does Jireader work offline and on my phone?
Yes. Jireader runs in the browser and installs to the home screen on iOS and Android. Each level page can make its stories available offline, with their audio. Progress is stored on your device and syncs across devices when you sign in.
Which languages does Jireader teach?
Korean. The stories are in Korean; the interface, glossary meanings and translations are in English.
Looking for grammar? The Korean grammar index lists every pattern the stories teach, level by level, with an example from a story.