Korean Job Discussion Forums

timetotravel · Joined: 02 Sep 2007 Location: korea

I have just learned to read Hangul and want to practice, and learn more Korean....what are some good websites for this purpose??

maddog · Joined: 08 Dec 2005 Location: Daegu

Go to Kyobo and buy a book for 10-20K you cheapskate.

Seriously, while I've seen a couple of very basic phrases on the internet, you need a book (preferably one with a CD) if you wanna make any reasonable progress.

Having Korean friends also helps.

danby_ll · Joined: 06 Dec 2006

Try Sogang University's site. I quite like it, although the animations are hilarious. http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/

robot · Joined: 07 Mar 2006

dude, this site will change your life:

koreanclass101.com

free podcasts, tons of online support, and very reasonably priced subscriptions that allow access to other learning tools (PDFs with transcriptions and translations, etc)

skeeterses · Joined: 25 Oct 2007

I would recommend getting the pink Korean made Easy for Beginners book, the one with a picture of a Korean woman on the front. That will be good for getting the basic survival Korean down.

But after that, if you want to get fluent, you have to do a lot of reading and learn some of the hanjas. And the websites will provide plenty of reading material nonetheless. Writing down some of the words onto flashcards and notebooks is a good way to help remember them. If you decide to do any serious reading, pace yourself and don't go too fast. 10 words a day is probably a reasonable pace to go at a beginner's level.

For listening practice online,
you can either go to a search engine like daum or naver and click on the news. I have to warn you that they speak pretty damn fast. I think you can find episodes of Korean dramas on Youtube. I'm not sure where to get the transcripts. My personal favorite for listening is the online Korean Bible at http://www.holybible.or.kr . Although its not quite like the spoken Korean, they don't speak as fast as the newscasters and it is far more interesting than watching dramas.

Join Me · Joined: 14 Jan 2008

aka Dave · Joined: 02 May 2008 Location: Down by the river

I used this at first.

http://languagelab.bh.indiana.edu/korean101.html

Now I'm about ready to finish this one.

http://languagelab.bh.indiana.edu/korean102.html

Now, this is serious stuff, there are 6 volumes and you really need the textbooks, which you buy at amazon.com (integrated Korean).

However, 200 bucks? The textbooks in this series are 25 bucks and the work books are 20 and you download the mp3s for free. The above posts are just the beginner mp3s, there are four more editions. This is comprehensive Korean, what they teach at the major Unis in America.

It's not perfect by any means, there could be more explanations and they have a weird way of conjugating predicates variously (i.e. they use different forms like ib ni da or i ey yo in the vocab sections without explanations).

But you get massive content. And massive content is what you need.

Join Me · Joined: 14 Jan 2008

cheeriocookie · Joined: 06 May 2008 Location: Busan

koreanclass101 is a really cool site. Thanks!

cheeriocookie · Joined: 06 May 2008 Location: Busan

I enjoy fun sites much more.

Scouse Mouse · Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Location: Cloud #9

that guy · Joined: 29 Feb 2004 Location: long gone

American Foreign Service Institute - Mastering Korean (level 1)

http://outsideinkorea.com/inside/2007/02/a_free_korean_language_course.php

(thank you Stravosthewonderchicken)

sonshine20 · Joined: 17 Nov 2005

I think most of the best sites have been mentioned:

For free stand-alone sites (beginner, intermediate), Sogang's is good. By the way, there is a book available to complement it (although it is definitely not necessary). It only includes the beginner level, and it may not be easy to find, but I've seen it at Kyobo in Seoul.

For a paid site (beginner,intermediate), Korean101 is worth the cost.

For use with a textbook (all levels), the Integrated Korean series with soundfiles at the indiana.edu site.

A few more I want to recommend:

Seoul National University has a good quality, comprehensive site for beginners. It has better video and sound quality than Sogang's site, but only about 20 units. Still highly recommended for beginners. I think their method for teaching Hangul is somewhat better than many of the other sites, too.

http://language.snu.ac.kr/english/pages/SD00023_00.jsp

Teen Korean is designed for overseas Koreans, especially young people, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount and quality of the lessons.

http://www.teenkorean.com/