Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JFuller317]

I'm looking to really improve my Korean skills. I did some google searching, but a lot of the websites that turned up are organized in the manner of a Lonely Planet phrasebook rather than a real language-learning educational system. I'm hoping to find a website where one can study Korean in the same way you would learn it if you took Korean 101 at a university. Does anyone know of a good site for this?

Please don't post here if you're going to sarcastically refer me to the "Learning Korean" sticky in the FAQ section that is chock-full of dead links and information that isn't really tailored to what I'm after.

[The Goalie]

The best one I know of is here:

http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/

Likewise, if it's not what you're after, please refrain from casting me into the purple halls of Hades.

[JFuller317]

That looks pretty good. Thanks. I may just suck it up and buy a textbook, but this should be good for now.

[UknowsI]

I like LiveMocha.com. I'm not sure if the sentences there are so natural, but I found at least the Korean 101 quite good to memorize vocabulary and to become more comfortable at saying simple sentences. But you would probably want to use both sites. Livemocha assumes that you know hangul and you should know the sounds too.

[Lynns]

I think koreanclass101.com is the best. The Sogang site is good, but at the beginner level the sound is terrible and you don't hear natural speech. When you get up into more intermediate levels Sogang site gets better. I think koreanclass101.com has more natural sounding podcasts. You can listen to some of the content for free, and I think you can have a free trial before you have to pay. I have never paid anything, I just use the free content.

[the oak llama]

i personally like / need to have a physical book to study and write in and so on.

if you are considering a text book, i will recommend Integrated Korean: Beginning I

It got me off to an excellent start before I came over here. It explains everything you need to know about pronunciation of what you're reading. works in vocabulary and useful basic grammar patterns.

They start your lessons in hangul right of the bat so you can't use the romanized korean as a crutch.

it's the only book i've used but it's pretty solid. there's an online audio component as well but if you're in korea you'd be better off getting a korean to help you with listening / pronunciation.

I wouldn't recommend the supplementary workbook bc there's no answer key fot it.

[JFuller317]

Thanks so much for all the suggestions. These websites are great. I wish I had known about them when I started my first contract. I could probably be much better at Korean than I am now. Better late than never though.