Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bish]

Anyone who knows where I can get BEGINNERS Korean lessons around Seoul area. Bucheon would be best.

How much do lessons usually cost?

[Ilsanman]

Koreans lessons are a stinky one. There aren't enough students to have any good number of schools spread out. They are a bit few and far between. They don't open b/c of lack of students and there aren't many students since there aren't many schools.

There is that free Saturday class, but that's only 1 1/2 hours a week. If you want more, YBM/ECC in Jongno might be the closest one to Bucheon.

[R. S. Refugee]

Free here:

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

[yingwenlaoshi]

Just study on your own. The world is your classroom with millions of teachers.

[some waygug-in]

There are also over 200 "lessons" posted on youtube, though they are not the most effective (they spend way too much time chatting and far too little presenting the lesson) at least they are something.

The good thing about them is that they explain a lot of informal Korean, whereas most of the textbooks I've used always focus on the formal forms.

Some good books for beginners:

Survival Korean - Steven Revere - a good basic introduction to Korean.

Korean Made Easy- I forget the author - a good beginner level course book. (it has a pink cover)

Another free site: http://rki.kbs.co.kr/learn_korean/lessons/e_index.htm

[The Hammer]

[agentX]

Here's what I do. This may or may not work for you, seeing how you live in Seoul. I don't. Different folks, different strokes.
I think that dude called whatever told us something about this.

Step 0: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Korean Learn Hangeul here. Yes its Hangeul, not Hangul. The Koreans were arguing about this in the Korean Times (English) this week. Hangeul, Hangul; Tomato, Tomatoe.

Step 1: Get one of those English-Korean conversation phrase books at the local bookstore. Look for one that's not like a dictionary but has a Korean phrase next to an English phrase. You can find one for as little as 5k won. Sometimes they got 'em at Ministop.

Step 2: Take the book and a pen and go out around 10:30pm or later. Look nice.

Step 3: Find a quiet bar. I don't know how easy that is in Seoul, but in the areas I operate out of, like Jeollabuk, quiet bars are like stars in the sky.

Step 4: Order a drink. Duh!

Step 5: While the bar lady is standing there, try and say one of the Korean phrases in the book. Don't worry about saying it right. She'll be confused, so show her the phrase in the book. She'll say it right for you. You write down in romanized Korean what she says. Y'know, annyeong haseyo, ye, ne, stuff like that.

Step 6: Say thank you. Then try another phrase. Repeat until
a) she walks away.
b) you feel you've done enough tonight.
c) the bar's closing and she has her legs wrapped around you. If so, why are you reading this???

Step 5b: In case she doesn't want to help you, try another bar. Thru trial and error you will get lucky. This goes back to the thread with the guy who was hitting on every chick in the Seoul subway station (the spray and pray method).

Conceivably, you could make this into a drinking game. Gather up a few buds, go from bar to bar, learn some Korean. Repeat steps 1 thru 6 until
a) you're too sloshed to walk
b) y'all been kicked out of every bar in the neighborhood. In which case, try another town.
c) the book is full.

Look at it this way: they get a somewhat loyal customer, you get to drink and get a free conversation Korean class all at the same time.

The guy who came up with this is a genius.