Korean Job Discussion Forums

[djloekee27]

What is the best Korean language book from a univ. for self study? Sogang and Yonsei is out of the question because their books have no English in them and I would have to take their classes in order to use them. I was looking at Seoul Nat. Univ./서울대 because their books and workbooks seem to be self study worthy.

I currently have Seoul Nat. Univ.'s/서울대의 Active Korean books because that is the book that my Korean language hagwon was using (the hagwon closed down on me). I like the Active Korean books but they are more focused on survival Korean. I already have Elementary Korean & Continuing Korean as my grammar books and i like those a lot. But the exercises in them is either too easy or too hard for me; and this is why I like the exercises in the Active Korean books.

I have plenty of grammar books, so I'm looking for some books with really good exercises for me to work through that will supplement the free classes that I'm taking in Kangnam/강남 and Sicheong/시청; I won't be able to go to Sogang/서강 until next year because I'm trying to save money this year.

[joyorbison]

I've been self studying with the Konkuk University books. Level 1-2 have English translations for dialogues etc. in the back.

If you have a lot of grammar books, then maybe you don't really need a book with English in it though. The Konkuk book level 3 doesn't have English grammar explanations so I bought a grammar book and it explains everything.

The Konkuk books have a lot of exercises in them and it's all one book, no seperate workbook/student book.

[djloekee27]

thanks, i'll check out Konkuk books next time i'm at kyobo bookstore. i really do hate it when textbooks and workbooks are separate. my elem. and cont. korean books released a 2nd edition (with pictures this time) 3-5 years after i bought them and they released workbooks along with them this time. but my old books have my first korean teacher's notes in them. my vocab is low but my grammar is high so the sogang book looked over my head. plus i know a lot of advance grammar and what they mean but i can't use it in a sentence (my first teacher went fast, he did a chapter a day because he was only in the states for less than a year before going back to seoul).

[joyorbison]

[Slowmotion]

A lot of the university books aren't meant for self study, especially the SNU ones. I highly recommend the KLEAR series from univ of Hawaii AKA Integrated Korean.

They have good explanations.

[Son Deureo!]

It's not from a university, but I think that Elementary Korean and Continuing Korean by Ross King are excellent. It's a bit short on visual aids, but it has the clearest and most logical explanations for grammar I've seen.

[djloekee27]

[r.]

I don't know why you need it to be a university textbook. It's not like their material is amazing... it is just attached to a university's name. If you are going to Sogang next year and want to use a university's books so badly, why don't you just use Sogang's books?

For each grammar point you are taught, you can just have a Korean friend explain it in plain English (should only take them a minute or two) or look it up in another grammar book.

[nate1983]

[ssuprnova]

The best (beginner) textbook I've used so far is My Korean (there are two volumes) published by Monash University. It's available online for free, has a lot of activities and audio files. It's one of the few books that doesn't teach you super-polite 존댓말 (-입니다/-습니다 and all that cal) and sticks to the everyday polite -요. Unfortunately it won't help much if you can already get a good score on the TOPIK 초급 test.

Also I just bought 2000 Essential Korean Words from Darakwon. It's the best Korean vocab book that I've found so far: the words are organized into groups; also, there are examples, synonyms, antonyms, and mp3 files to help get your pronunciation right.

I'm also thinking about getting their Korean Grammar book as well since the explanations are easy to understand and there are plenty of example sentences.

What I currently use (while waiting for placement results from the Seoul Global Center):
-2000 Essential Korean words (great vocab builder)
-TTMIK (easy bite-sized podcasts)
-Korean Wiki (for reference)

What I used:
-My Korean 1 & 2 (Monash University, available for free from their website)

Books that were horrible for self study:
-5000 most frequently used Korean words (don't remember the exact title)
-가나다 series
-Beginner's Korean (Hippocrene)

[joyorbison]

[oni]

The Sogang student books come with a really useful reference handbook that explains the grammar points and also vocab/expressions used in each unit in English.

[DaHu]

[nate1983]

[joyorbison]