Korean Job Discussion Forums

[blunder1983]

Hi guys

I'm TRYING to learn Korean, first I bought the Language Plus Korean for Foreigners which sucked majorly, i mean, 6 minutes on the Alphabet

Now I'm using Survival Korean (its the one with a guy with a MASSIVE cheesy grin on his face on the front cover) from it I've successfully deciphered the alphabet (well except for a few blips) but I find the first chapter utterly overwhelming.

Anyone had a book which worked well for them? I'm a COMPLETE novice when it comes to speaking Korean.

Thanks!

Chris

[kprrok]

If you're overwhelmed by the first chapter of Survival Korean by Revere or whatever his name is, you're not gonna survive any book I've seen on the Korean language. His is by far the easiest I've seen for a novice.

I'm over half-way through it and I find it to be a very good guide. I also have my girlfriend help me out when he's being a bit formal to correct it to make it more natural.

KPRROK

[blunder1983]

Guess I havent given it much of a chance. I only listened to the tape once.

Just wanting to see what people regard as "the best" book for learning so I don't devote time to a book which aint as good as others.

[endofthewor1d]

one step at a time, dude. first, learn the alphabet. learn it inside and out. and then learn it some more. you can pretty much get a good familiarity with it in about an hour. then go walk around your neighborhood and just start reading sh-t. even if you don't understand the meaning of it, you'll feel better by being able to read it. but what will really boost your confidence is when you start to notice that a lot of stuff you see (i'd give it a percentage in the double digits) is actually english (or at least attempting to be) written phonetically in korean.

once you can read, get a book that uses the hangul rather than one that romanises it. if you learn via romanisation, you're just going to have to re-learn everything you're inevitably horribly mispronouncing.

the book i did the best on my own with was 'easy korean for foreigners'. crappy title, but the illustrations were entertaining, and the dialogues weren't unspeakably boring. it's got a bright orange color.
another one, with a blue cover, did me some good with the help of a tutor. i forgot the name of it, and i loaned it to someone else. sorry.
the one i'm using now is the seoul national university textbook. the college i teach at uses it as their koren language book. i get to take the class for free, so i jumped at the opportunity. i've completed the first book, and will begin the second one in the fall. i don't have a lot of self-discipline, so i would never be able to get through these books on my own. but in a classroom, they're pretty good. something in particular that i like about them is that while most learning korean books insist on teaching only the super-polite form of the language and nothing else, these books cater to those who intend to talk to people other than emperors during their time here. at chapter 8, they begin dropping the 'supnida's'

anyway... good luck, and don't give up. every bit of korean you learn here will increase the quality of the time you spend here.

[shakuhachi]

Active Korean.

A good book. Check out the reviews in the above link.

[Zenpickle]

I've tried three series of Korean books so far. I forget the name of the first one. I, too, have "Korean for Foreigners." The bad thing about that book is that it teaches you all honorific forms until page 176. So you really don't learn any practical everyday Korean until then.

I'm currently using "Korean Through English." I have a friend who liked the first book but said that the learning curve jumps suddenly in book two. This has been my favorite book. It goes at a steady pace. It teaches one concept per chapter. It explains *why* certain things are done grammatically. It gives good advice on pronunciation. It reinforces previous chapters, rather than give you a vocabulary word once and assume you memorized it the first time.

[Son Deureo!]

This is the best book I've ever seen, with very logical explanations of grammar. However, there are no pretty pictures, and it makes very few attempts to entertain you. But it's thorough and logical. If you're serious about learning the language, this book is the best place to start. There's also a sequel called Continuing Korean, and I understand a third book is due for release soon.

Read more about it here

[Cymro]

[ilovebdt]

I vote for Teach Yourself Korea, I don't think you can get it in Korea but you can get it from Amazon!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0340867000/qid=1121773885/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_11_2/202-1017999-9279053

[chiaa]

[ilovebdt]

Well, Excuse me. In all my fifteen months in Korea I never saw it in any of the bookshops I visited and I visited plenty.

[seoulshock]

Pimsleur just released a Korean program. The used to only have the "sample" program, which came with I think 8 or 10 lessons, but their new program (which came out sometime in the past two months) is the comprehensive program, which includes 30 lessons.

It's a bit too formal, but so is every other book/CD thing out there. It will give you a good idea of how Korean is pronounced though. It's typically about $250 or so, and Amazon.com has it for I think $220. The cheapest place you can get it (and I've researched this well!) is on www.CheapPimsleur.com. It's $154 from what I remember, plus there is a $10 online coupon available on the site (last I checked). Plus they have a $100 buyback program, so your total will only come to about $44 + int'l shipping + customs(?). I just had my sister take delivery in the states, and just send me the CD's in a small case so I wouldn't have to pay any customs.

I have not used Pimsleur Korean, but I have heard two lessons. Again, formal, but it's the best way to work your pronounciation. I have experience with Pimsleur when I studied Russian, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. They've all been great, except for maybe some of the Russian grammar and some of the Japanese pronounciation in the latest edition.

Or, the Teach Yourself series seems to be good. I've never used it, and I did see a TY Cantonese (I think) at "What the Book" the other day. I considered buying it, just to see if their programs were of any value.

However, most polyglots seem to think that the FSI language series are the best. I used FSI for Spanish (which you can get under the name of "Barron's Mastering Spanish I and II" on Amazon.com) which was really great. Most of the ones you'll find on the internet are expensive, old, and look cheap. However, the content in them is invaluable.

The important thing though is that you get audio in addition to any books. Lots and lots of audio. Lots of tapes, CD's, whatever.

[just because]

[the_beaver]

I'm going to chime here because I need a break.

The new Sogang books are okay (I'm a little biased that way) and a lot of people like Steve Revere's book.

But, book aside, if you spend your time learning from a book don't expect great things -- it's a rare person who can learn to use a language that way.

If you want to use a textbook (and I recommend it) think of it as a starting point, and about the best thing you can do with that starting point is get a study partner who has a similar level to you and go through the communicative parts of the book together. Especially for a beginner, the vast majority of time (and I mean vast majority) should be spent practicing listening, speaking, reading and writing. As your ability to communicate improves spend a little more time on the grammar to streamline what you say and to become more accurate.

[The Kung Fu Hustle]