Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Drew345]

I am a low-intermediate (based on TOPIK exams) and I want to up my reading ability.
Whenever I take a test in Korean class, all the other students (Japanese, if that matters) are turning over the first page, and I am about 60 percent through. When we read material together, they all understand it after the first reading, while I spent so much effort sounding out the words I don't comprehend a thing until the second reading. I have trouble passing the "listening" portion of tests just because I can't read the ABCD choices before the next question comes. Anyway, I am a struggling reader.
So I downloaded about 10 old TOPIK tests, and they are great because you can find just the right level for yourself to practice. I find my target level to be about 5 questions (out of 30) into the intermediate (level 3-4) tests. The test level is great, but I want to practice reading with something more than single paragraphs and small fake advertisements.
Any idea where to get low-intermediate Korean material? Children's books might be OK, but I don't want to spend money on books that are mostly pictures. Online material is great because then I can just copy and paste unknown words to google translate.
Thanks for ideas,

[jammo]

Have you checked out the Kyobo website for eBooks?

[jammo]

Also - you might want to check out the parallel text ybm classics series

[laynamarya]

My friend set up a website specifically for TOPIK practice:

http://www.naldaramjui.com/TOPIK

I've been using talktomeinkorean.com, but that is geared more towards listening.

Sogang's website has both reading and listening:

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

Another thing I happen to like is poetry. It's short, it's pretty, and it's printed on the glass walls of every subway platform. I can just stand around and look up words on my phone dictionary while waiting for the train.

[yodanole]

Start at the beginning of Korean literature, perhaps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Gildong

[Son Deureo!]

There are a couple of comic strip collections that might work for you that I read when I was at around that level. You should be able to find both of them at any big bookstore.

One is 광수 생각 by 박광수, a popular newspaper comic strip that ran for years. Here's an example: http://item.gmarket.co.kr/detailview/Item.asp?goodscode=258099055&pos_shop_cd=SH&pos_class_cd=111111111&pos_class_kind=T&keyword_seqno=2273891198&search_keyword=%b1%a4%bc%f6%bb%fd%b0%a2

The other is called 요코짱 한국 살이. It was written by a Japanese woman who married a Korean man and has lived in SK for many years, and it's a series of anecdotes about life in Korea, culture shock, comparisons of life here and life in Japan, etc. There's a lot that a Westerner living in Korea and learning Korean can relate to here. Also, since it's written by a non-native speaker, the Korean tends to be a lot simpler than texts written by native Koreans. Here's a link to a sample: http://ch.yes24.com/Article/View/13187

In both of these collections, each comic strip has an accompanying 1 page vignette that relates to it on the opposite page. Each strip and vignette is a self-contained short story. As a language learner, I found the fact that they were series of very short stories that very helpful because if I had trouble understanding any one story, it didn't hinder understanding any of the rest of the books. A lot of the stories in both collections are very funny and/or insightful about life in Korea.