Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Mashimaro]

Most text books aimed at foreigners learning Korean are rubbish in my opinion. What do you think can be done to improve them? Here are a few from me. (based of course only the books I have seen)

1. Even though we are not kids, a bit of color doesn't go astray..
Well maybe I am a kid, but I like color and it looks more professional and less stingy.

2. Likewise, pictures do help (especially if you can actually recognise what it is supposed to be!)

3. Whilst it's great to know the korean word for Lion, it doesn't come up in everday conversation that much.

4. Whilst it's great to know how to speak very politely to crusty ajoshis and ajummas, it's more practical to know lower levels of polite speech.

5. Just because your book comes out of SNU or Yonsei, doesn't mean you can make it completely dry and boring and foreigners will like it. Korean teachers will probably still use them because they are the 'best' universities, but they may still be crap.

6. I've often wondered the korean words for everday items around the home.. toothpaste, towel rail, etc. etc. but have rarely seen them in books.

7. Having big tables for grammar etc. helps! It saves flipping through the whole book!

8. I know this is way out there.... but perhaps they could ask a foreigner what they'd like to see in a text book... for FOREIGNERS!

9. Whilst trying to make learning korean as boring as possible is an ingenious way of preventing foreigners infiltrating korea, it's not very 21st century.

10. Whilst learning the words for an old korean see saw or funky traditional hat is interesting.. there are much more useful things one could learn about when you are a beginner... yes it's interesting, but save until after I know how to ask where the bathroom is.

11. Someone actually read until the end??

I feel better having vented

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

I'm pretty much in agreement with your anaysis.

I see quite a few books that don't make it explicit that they are alternating between honorific and basic sentences, that's no good. And I don't like the books that go half way through the book before bringing in the "yo" endings. The "hamnida" and "hamnikka" endings are not used much in the kinds of conversations we have.

Also, the vocab approach is pretty insane and doesn't seem to have much logic behind it. I want more words for describing types of people, and every day events, and dating!

[tsgarp]

Now if you could only post this where a publisher just might see it.

[kangnamdragon]

[dogbert]

I disagree that "less polite" levels of speech should be learned first. I agree with the idea that students should first become familiar with the most formal conversational style and learn less polite forms later.

I have seen a couple of English/Korean picture dictionaries and while they are oriented for Korean learners of English rather than English learners of Korean, they still do show you the names of common household objects and the like:

The Oxford Picture Dictionary: English/Korean

New Oxford Picture Dictionary: English/Korean

I do agree that having grammar tables in a textbook would be helpful. They don't seem to be, but you might find this book useful, though:

Korean Grammar for International Learners

[Ya-ta Boy]

Since copyright laws here are not all that sacred, it would be nice if a publisher went through the wealth of materials here and 'stole' the good activities and had them translated into Korean. For example, lots of books teach prepositions of place by having students compare the location of objects in two pictures. It's an obvious way to teach that particular point. I've never seen a Korean text use anything like it.

I'd like to see text books carefully control the vocabulary they use. It is not very helpful to me to have to look up two or three new words just to understand an example.

I'd like a dictionary that was made for English speakers trying to learn Korean. I have two dictionaries and both are filled with examples that do not use the word I looked up.

I would like to see a professionally written text that is accompanied by workbooks with lots of exercises. I think it would be good to also have a reading program that is keyed to the textbook. (By that I mean stories and articles that use the grammar points and the vocabulary from each chapter, plus previous lessons.)

[Mashimaro]

The best book I've found is called "Easy Korean for foreigners" by sisa japanese publishing house. I like everything about it except the predominance of the -imnida / -sumnida verb endings. There is lots of color, pictures, exercises and tables for grammar & vocab. It has both english and japanese translations for words, which I like, as I'd like to learn Japanese some day and it's good to see the connections (korean to japanese) It's quite a hefty book, about 180 pages and it seems to give a good useful grounding in basic korean (unlike most).

[SuperHero]

Obviously you havent' seen the books put out by Ewha. They look exactly like any English text that we teach.

The title is pathfinder in korean. not exactly good for self-study but excellent in the classroom. I used them at Ewha and the teachers were excellent as well as the text.

[mithridates]

My long-term goal is to expand on the material on my home page and turn it into a book. I would ideally like to have:

The first 25-30 or so basic grammar lessons that I have written most of already,

followed by

some ten or so more advanced lessons that each have a theme. One will be the Korean one sees in the newspapers, another will be weird Korean you see on chat groups and the like, another will be Korean that announcers use on the news, etc.

lastly

some 10-15 songs from good bands, with the lyrics deciphered and everything explained. Also an appendix with a grammar reference. -imnida and so on won't be brought in for the first few lessons, which will be concentrated on standard politeness with the yo vs. impolite / casual speech.

The other thing I'd recommend (#12 on your list I suppose) would be writing out the Chinese next to words of Chinese origin. A surprising amount of people know how to read Chinese / Japanese to a certain extent, and that can be really helpful.

[buddy bradley]

I don't know what makes a good Korean textbook, as they all seem vague.

I used a great one for Mandarin in Taiwan where by lesson four you were able to express your basic needs in Chinese.
What a great book. Pity it was too thick and too heavy to take back home with me.

Anyway, I've seen some awful Korean textbooks...

"Lesson two: Essential Vocabulary!" Which would be the names of African countries, mostly using their French names (but for some reason S. Africa was excluded). Call me crazy, but I'd think that being able to say 'hello' and 'thank you' would be more beneficial than walking around saying 'Gabon' and 'Mozambique'...

[matthewwoodford]

The textbooks from Sogang university cover roughly the same topics and skills as most English textbooks and are good on grammar. Yes, they are weak on colour pictures but I suppose that could be to keep costs down.

[Ilsanman]

Quite on accident, I know the word for 'performing a new year's bow'. How useful is that?

[buddy bradley]

[Skarp]

Absolutely rubbish.....

We are spoilt in EFL with the range and quality of stuff available. Even duff books like headway are much better than teh typical Korean offering. ( sae goes for stuff I've looked at for learning French btw)

We tend to forget how much experience teh EFL profession has built up over the years. We are collectively the best teachers/trainers on the planet. This is why it so tragic that there is no recognition or reward for the skills we have acquired. Good teaching looks effortless, like good art or good musicianship - only when you try to do it do you realise how hard it is.

(obviously - there are exceptions, I'm painting with a broad brush here)

It takes time, money and feedback from students/teachers to make teh great leap forward - so good thread - every little helps.


I will look out for the Pathfinder stuff - it looks good. I have to get me finger out and learn some more Korean....


Skarp

[rok_the-boat]

Forget the books - they need a method. The way I was taught at SNU was no different to the way they teach their own middle school kids. Teacher talks all the time, students are supposed to shut up and listen. The 'Test' - their ultimate focus - was multiple choice - and they didn't even change it from semester to semester. And even if you failed it you could still move up a level if you really insisted. A mad system that only works because you are in Korea and can (have to) step out of the classroom to practice.