Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ellamarie]

I would like to have some working knowledge of Korean before I leave to teach. Does anyone know of a good cd package, preferably one that comes with a book to learn reading and writing also? I found one at the bookstore that is supposedly used by the U.S. State Department. It comes with several cds and a coursebook. It also costs about $90. Before I spend that much, I want to find out if anyone has any suggestions on a package I can get that worked for them. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

[out of context]

If that's the Barron's Mastering Korean series, I used it when I was first learning. It's a fairly good jumping off point, but it does have drawbacks. Namely:
- It emphasizes repetition and patterns over comprehension. It makes easy to parrot things back without really grasping what they mean.
- For all its length, the grammar and vocabulary included represent only a fraction of the knowledge you need to be able to communicate at even a basic level.
- It encourages dependence on a (somewhat idiosyncratic) Romanized writing system.
- It hasn't really been updated in many years. It's kind of funny hearing one of the characters talk about jitneys and how he entered the foreign service in 1951.

It's hard to find good study materials, especially outside of Korea (but also within Korea). This package was the best I could find where I was, but I had to find other materials to learn vocabulary and grammar basically as soon as I got here.

[Demophobe]

Pimsleur?

Don't know a lot about it, but heard a couple of people pleased with it.

[ella]

The Rosetta Stone software seems to be really good. I haven't tried the Korea version, although I plan to. I have their "Hindi 1" and it's excellent.

[betchay]

i like the Declan Korean language course... truly fun to use