Product Description

Customer Reviews (8)

Didn't love it
There are so few books in korean/english, that i bought it! However, as excited as I was to read it to my child, i was unhappy with the graphics and storyline that didn't seem to target children. At least not one less than 4 or maybe 5 yrs old. I am going to shelve it until maybe when she's 6-8, so she can understand it more (symbolism, looking for the happy ending, etc).

waiting for mama
This book was a simple and welcome addition to my collection of materials for learning Korean.I not only had the enjoyment of reading it in Korean but my grandson loved the pictures.

Wonderful!!
Deborah DF

Waiting for Mama (English and Korean Edition) by Lee Tae-Jun, Kim Dong-Seong
If you want you child to cry then read them this book. The momma never comes back! The artistry make it look like it is for small children, but in my opinion-it is not.

I too was excited because of the dual languages I would love to see more books with dual languages - depressing children's books. Not so much. While I think it is important to keep things in perspective, I also want my child to be raised knowing there is a hope and a future. Not that I am going to leave them and not come back. I also want them to know that they are never totally alone. God is always with them. That there are angels awaiting for our call for them to help. This book does not portray that in any way. While I don't expect every book they read to have those undertones, I think this book is just too depressing for little ones.

After reading the other comments I see more of what it is supposed to be about. A very sad time indeed.
If that is it's intention, to remind people of history so it won't be repeated and help people tell their story, a historical excerpt is needed.

So cute!
Love this book!I especially love how there is both Korean and English text and can be read by myself and baby's grandparents.A simple, endearing story!

Allegory about a lost nation
One should bear in mind the situation Korea went through when the story was published: At this time the Korean peninsula had already been occupied by Imperial Japan for over 30 years with no ending in sight (a rebellion had been put down brutally in 1919). Since 1905, the Japanese invaders were eager to erase any form of Korean traditions and assimilate the people to become second class Japanese. The Koreans had to take Japanese names and perform the Shinto rites. Korean was forbidden as an official language. Moreover, in 1938, Japanese began to compel Korean men to work in the factories located on the Japanese mainland and women as "comfort women" in military brothels.

The Korean intellectuals invented folk songs (e.g. Ommaya Nunaya - Mom Sis) and children stories in order to to circumvent censorship and demonstrate subtly the will of the people to sustain any hardship.

Seen in this light, the ending of the story is not so clear: Has Mom finally arrived to pick up her boy or is it just the boy`s dream? - Anyway, in Korean thinking snow is a symbol of hope. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a pocket version of "Easy Way to Korean Conversation," but amply revised and supplemented to better meet the needs of talking to Koreans in various situations. Part I deals with the basic words and expressions which are most frequently used and can be easily applied. Part II covers practically all the topics that may interest learners. It would be good to have helpful friends beside you in learning the dialogues and expressions used in this book, and to use the material as a basis for discussion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not worth $14...
Let me explain why this book got 3 stars.

First of all let me tell you how happy I am to have not bought this book for the amount that Amazon posted up. It really isn't worth it. I bought it used for only $2.60, but then with the shipping added to it, mind you what a rip off since the shipping was stated to be $3.99 and when i received the package the shipping was only $1.65!

The condition of the book cover was horrible, the exposure to the sun was intense, and there was a lot of rips on the cover.

The book is pretty much backwards. If you want to know about how to pronounce the words, you have too flip all the way to the back of the book to the appendix section. I see no reason to why something that important should be stuck in the back. I started to learn to read the book starting from the beginning without flipping to the back, and it was hard to do because I was sitting there and wondering why is there no indications to tell me how some of the vowels sound like?

Other then that, I am extremely happy that this book has both English text, Korean characters and pronunciation of the Korean characters.

I was extremely surprised at how small the book was! it seems no bigger then a pocket dictionary! when I thought it would be a little bigger. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great exercises
Help develop your Korean even further.Chapters deal with daily life situations related to college life, travel and general.Chapters are divided into

Grammar Exercises
Speaking Activites
Reading Comprehension
Reading Activities
Writing Activities

I like the lay out, and feel its a very valueable resource.

WOOOOO
TALK ABOUT AN A GRADE BABY, THIS WORKBOOK IS VERY HELPFUL, AND THAT, I AM NOT A NATIVE KOREAN.

all of the products i recived
i would like to thank you for the time it toke for my delivery it was faster then what i thought. i would like to say all of the produts come to me very nicely packed and wraped. im very happy with the products and i have told many of my friends about this web site and company. thank you again. ... Read more

Product Description
Includes a wide variety of up to date expressions and slang. Covers the Korean language. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Ok as an Educational Material, Priceless as a Gift
I had purchased this booklet almost 2 years ago for my girlfriend then.She still casually reads it on occasion for basic references and for fun.

The appeal of the book is that it has the right mix of educational and entertainment value to actually teach her how to read basic hangul and speak some Korean phrases as painlessly as possible from a book.Hearing her reading the later chapters is a treat in itself.Making out in Korean, indeed...

The romanization is a bit off at times, requiring me to correct her.But even I have to admit I learned a few slangs myself that I was previously unaware of (I'm a 1.5 generation).

I have to conclude the book was perfect for us, and it set out to do what I hoped.Not to make my (now fiance) fluent in Korean, but to increase her appreciation in Korean culture and bring us that much closer.She's even taken to wanting to wear a hanbok (traditional Korean dress) for part of our upcoming wedding.

at the very least its hillarious
I have yet to learn if the phrases from this book are truly effective at disguising the foreigner aspect of book learned Hangul, but I have yet to hand this to someone to browse that is not laughing and combining phrases in fun ways withing in minutes of reading it.
The double set of romanization was also helpful to try and understand the pronunciation while reading.

Book
This product was in perfect condition and exactly what I expected. It arrived very quickly!

Pretty hilarious
I originally purchased this book because I was working with a Korean firm in a Korean neighborhood. Boy, the stuff I overheard when people didn't think I understood what they were saying!
With that said, this book is handy for people with a basic understanding of Korean and definitely not for someone with little to no knowledge. The Romanization in the book it really sketchy to me as well as my Korean friends. As we all went thorugh the book, that one complaint came up over and over. My advice is to learn how to read Hangeul, that will help your pronunciation a lot more than the sketchy Romanization would.

More fun than useful
My friend, who grew up speaking Korean, laughs when she reads this phrasebook.The phonetic pronunciations given are deplorable.Ignore them; learn hangul.
The phrases themselves are fun, but (I'm told) the language used is quite childish.It's sort of the equivalent of calling your lover "snugglewums".If you're using this phrasebook with someone you've just met, you're not likely to impress them.If you're already close, they're likely to think you're cute - after they stop laughing.
For fun-factor alone, the book is worth the price - but definitely don't make this the only Korean phrasebook you buy. ... Read more

Product Description
The Korean alphabet, commonly known as han'gul, has been called one of the greatest intellectual achievements of humankind. Experts agree that few writing systems can match its simplicity and efficiency, its elegance and intelligence.

The only alphabet completely native to East Asia, han'gul distinguishes itself among writing systems of the world with its scientific qualities and unusual linguistic fit to the Korean language. Most strikingly, the theoretical underpinnings of the language, as well as the time and circumstances of its creation, are clearly known and recorded. Han'gul was invented in 1443 and promulgated in 1446 by King Sejong (1418-1450), sage ruler of the Yi dynasty (1392-1910).

This volume, the first book-length work on han'gul in English by Korean-language specialists, is comprised of ten essays by the most active scholars of the Korean writing system. An instructive commentary by eminent linguist Samuel Martin folows, offering perceptive comments on the essays as well as a discussion on Martin's own research findings on the script. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Exactly what is needed
This is a fantastic work, covering exactly the subjects of interest to a person wanting to know details about one of the great cultural achievements in Asian history.In the case of the Canaanite alphabet that lies behind nearly all the alphabets we are familiar with, little is known about the thinking that went into the invention nearly four thousand years ago.Not so in the Korean case.Same remarkable achievement, but with considerable historical record covering the event.There are nevertheless myths attached to it, and this book among other things helps one to sort out carefully fact from fiction.A superb achievement in its own right!

Hardly Korean...try gibberish
This book was a gigantic disappointment. I expected it to provide me with insight into the beauty of the Korean Language. I was entranced by a comment describing wonderful articles and distinct chronologies. Overall, however, I found myself angered and annoyed with what was a rude awakening to one's woman's desire to embarass a rich culture with trite. I think Ms. Kim-Reneau needs to spend less time boring the reader, and more time researching her material.

Great Book on Hangul
This book is a collection of interesting papers on the history and construction of hangul.Most of these are really interesting to read, as they go into depth on current and past debates about the origins of hangul, and the history of its usage up to the present day...There is everythingfrom explanations of the consideration of classical chinese linguistics andtaoism in the structure of hangul, to the differences in spellingconventions between the north and south, and how they have come about... Very interesting book for anyone who thinks hangul is an amazing writingsystem, and simply wants to know more about it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A very poor English to Korean dictionary
The use of the "Wordbook" in the title intrigued me, so I spent $2.00 and got a copy of this book. My copy is dated 1972, 1st edition. It is pocket sized (about 5" high x 3" wide x 1/4" deep).

I cannot imagine that anyone would find this book of use.

It has a brief introduction to Korean pronunciation and grammar (5 pages), and then has a very small English to Korean dictionary (144 pages), with all Korean words given in phonetic English ( NO HANGUL IN THIS BOOK ANYWHERE!!! ).

There is an Appendix which contains:
(1) a compendium of "useful phrases" (16 pages),
(2) Numbers and counting (6 pages).

There is no Korean to English section, and no introduction to the Hangul alphabet. In so far as any book can be considered useless, I would suggest that this one is. Far better resources exist for anyone interested in Korean.

Aunt Stevie
This is my aunt I can't review this book but wilol be buying a copy to speak with my Korean patients. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Really Functional
I have bought almost a dozen books on Korean.This is probably the best one.Most of the other books are not for daily conversation.Learning Korean is like learning 3 languages, because of the politeness level you have to speak at. The biggest hurdle I have in learning Korean is transforming the words from the dictionary form to Formal, Polite, and blunt forms.This book will list both the Formal, and polite form next to each other, so you don't get confused.The english used in this book is also easy to understand.The authors lived in the United States and thus I found it easier to understand.Most of the other Korean language books were written by non native english speakers and they are more like technical books. Most of the other books used too many uncommon english words to teach.I have never written a review for any of the other books before.I felt so good about this book, that I just had to write one.Not only that, I lost this book on an airplane yesterday, and I ordered a second one right away.I'm halfway through the book and I just wish there was a 2nd book. ... Read more

Product Description
Gain insights into Korea's culture through idioms, slang and proverbs. If discussions gets heated, stand up and say, "You die! I die!" You will be able to experience wit and humor of Korean. Looking for a Mr. Kim in Seoul contains Korean, romanization and English equivalent and can be enjoyed by anyone interested in Korean language and culture. It is also recommended for anyone learning to speak Korean. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

If you're learning Korean, interesting read
This does exactly what it purports to do.It provides you a extensive list of Korean idioms and expressions, and provides background on where they originated.Very valuable for understanding things that native Korean speakers take for granted.

Looking for Mr. Kim in Seoul
This book is useful, insightful and entertaining. As an intermediate beginner in learning Korean, the book supplements my study with a long list of common expressions and the explanations of these expressions provide tips into the Korean mindset. Glad I found it. Worth the very competitive price.

Buy it and hold on to it!
Man oh man is this book hard to find. If you have the chance to pick it up, buy it and don't think twice. I have no clue why it is so rare but I know that Amazon is the only major online retailer that I can find it on. Moving on.

This book has much to laugh about. It ties in language, culture, and storytelling. You might read this book cover-to-cover and only take away a few memorable stories. I can guarantee you that some Koreans won;t even know the etymology of some of their own words/phrases but you sure as hell well.

It's endearing, funny, and entertaining. It's not exactly appropriate for language study as many of the proverbs and idioms don't exactly make their way into everyday conversation but the history behind these expressions will make you smile if nothing else.

The authors know what they are talking about and are not afraid to share some quirky information with you. Well done!

Excellent Korean learning reference
If you are interested in Korean language, this is an excellent resource. It offers a long list of practical expressions, proverbs and idioms along with their historical background. If you are a non-native speaker, nothing is more powerful than using proverbs to make your point, especially if they have some historical basis. Highly recommended.

Excellent introduction to the Korean way of looking at the world.
Pulitzer prize-winning Associated Press team member Sang-Hun Choe and former Associated Press of Korea bureau chief Christopher Torchia present Looking for a Mr. Kim in Seoul: A Guide to Korean Expressions, a solid guide to Korean idioms that reveals how inextricably close Korea's language and culture are linked. Teaching the reader about explanations of famous characters, myths, and aspects of culture throughout Korean history, Looking for a Mr. Kim in Seoul is enthusiastically recommended as supplemental preparatory reading for anyone planning a trip to the Land of Morning Calm. A total of over 800 expressions grouped into 14 themes fill this excellent introduction to the Korean way of looking at the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Integrated Korean Intermediate 1
Once you get used to it; this textbook is very helpful.
- This text is the first book in the second level (of four successive levels: (Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced Intermediate, and Advanced).
-- Of special note; the grammar 'boxes' in each chapter focus the student on ways to 'solve the puzzle' of putting the grammar into use. Bolded areas in the boxes show 'key' pieces of the puzzle.
--- These grammar boxes can serve as quick references for later review.
- The English/Korean Glossary at the end expands on those glossaries given in preceding texts at lower levels.
Overall useful text.

A professional approach to language teaching
This has got to be an example of how to produce a series of books taking a student from ab initio level through to an advanced level.
The books a set out in a logical manner and carry enough explanation of grammar points to make learning solo possible, not that that is the best way of course.
The dialogues are now available on the University of Hawaii website as free MP3 downloads.
The workbooks that accompany the texts are also excellent, even if you don't like conjugating verbs, you have to learn to do it! It's just part of the process. I have found some of the exercises stimulating as well as challenging.
All in all this series has to be considered excellent.

Solid
This series teaches pretty useful grammar.I've been living in Korea for the past seven months so I constantly pay attention to how Koreans really talk.I was kind of disappointed with some of the topics in this book and accompanying vocab.I'm just not real interested in knowing detailed post office or clothing vocabulary.My wife has found the workbooks helpful.The listening comprehension has been pretty helpful--there's a correlated link with the University of Indiana's Korean language program.I wish they'd speak a little more colloquially, but it hasn't been that detached from reality.Overall, I've been pleased with this series.This book was my least favorite so far, but still overall helpful in teaching useful grammar, providing good listening comprehension, and teaching some good vocab.

KLEAR Intermediate Korean Level 1 & 2
Good clear grammar and vocabulary explanations.I've studied three or four different texts at this level, and this one provides the clearest explanations I've seen up to this point.

... Read more

Product Description
Especially recommended for the traveler and student, the Concise English-Korean Dictionary offers the most commonly spoken English words and phrases and their Korean equivalents. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Best ever
I have owned a hard-bound copy of the dictionary in the past and lost it. It is simple, concise and gives the Korean equivilent in both Korean characters (Hangul) and romanized pronunciation. It is the best and most convenient dictionary I have found.

AWFUL BOOK!
Worthless!You would thing that if you publish a book, it would be accurate.This book is awful.Terrible romanization, too.

Inaccurate, to say the least.
We bought this book prior to our moving to Korea.We have tried to use it on a number of occasions.More than half the time, the romanized pronunciation is way off.And frequentlyly the entire word is wrong.Onoccasion, Koreans don't even know what the word is written in Han-Gul orromanized.I think a person coming to Korea should have a book like this,but it should be one that helps native english speakers better inpronunciation.Also, the words themselves should be accurate.Sometimesthe word written is the OPPOSITE of what you're trying to say.Forexample, the word given for a definiton for the word 'delicious' wasactually an equivilent to their word for strange.You can imagine whatkind of problems that would make in a restaurant or a person's home.So becareful!

Good, but needs to be updated
This is a good little dictionary listing essential vocabulary, but it needs to be revised from its original 1954 vocabulary.A lot of words have changed in the Korean language since then, and a native Korean I showed thedictionary to said many of the words are only ones his grandparents woulduse.Use with caution. ... Read more

Product Description
By one of the leading scholars of East Asian languages, this is the first comprehensive book on Korean grammar in English. With a detailed analysis of modern Korean as it’s used in both North and South Korea, Professor Martin provides explanations and translation tips for virtually all puzzling grammatical structures. In addition, modern usage is traced back to the fifteenth century, making this book essential to anyone reading older Korean texts.
Including character tables and an appendix of the radicals and their names A Reference Grammar of Korean will prove indispensable to students and is the definitive reference work for all those involved in Korean studies.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Just baffling...
This should be one of the most useful books in my entire language learning library, and it's not, and here's why: While this book covers every possible aspect of Korean that you could want, and is a thorough and accurate reference guide to the language, most of the book was written not in hangeul (Korean script) but rather was romanized.And not only was it romanized, but it was romanized using a system invented by the author rather than either of the two commonly used systems.This, for me, makes the book very nearly impossible to use as it's such a chore to look anything up.Sure, I could learn the system, but why should I have to?I should think anyone who's into Korean enough to want such a tome would have learned the Korean script long ago.

If another edition of this book using hangeul or, at the very least, an accepted system of romanization, comes out, then it will absolutely be worth buying.Until then, I'm afraid it's been more useful as a doorstop than for studying Korean, and I'm sorry I wasted my money on it.

The authoritative reference grammar for Korean
As other reviewers have noted, this is not a useful tool for beginning or (most) intermediate learners of Korean.However, if you are looking for an authoritative guide to modern Korean grammar, there is no English-language work that compares to Martin.The lack of hangul is regrettable, but common in technical linguistic publications, of which this is one.

I have searched long and hard for authoritative treatments of Korean grammar in both Korean and English.Not only does Martin's work have no peers in English, it has few peers even in Korean.

Again -- do not buy this book if you are looking for something that will help you learn Korean. Buy it only if you are looking to work on the Korean language that is the functional equivalent of Smyth for ancient Greek, or CGEL for modern English.

Thank goodness for Amazon's Previews...
...because I would have regretted buying this book. How can you discuss a language in such great depth without using its proper alphabet? With such an in-depth exploration into the language, it would be safe to assume that one who is interested in this book would already know how to read Hangeul. Latin characters in inadequate in expressing the Korean pronunciation.

Echoing the opinions of others, not targetted at Korean learners
As others have said, the content is thorough, however, the layout is awful, and the romanisation impenetrable for Korean students.This seems to be designed to be a field guide for a linguistics student.

I don't know much about linguistic texts, but it would seem that the hangeul is just as relevant to grammar as the phonetics, and having both hangeul and standardised phonetics would make this a much more broadly useful reference than it is.

If you want a grammar reference for self study, check outKorean Grammar for International Learners from Yonsei University and Using Korean: A Guide to Contemporary Usage

Don't quit your day job, Samuel E. Martin
This book is a huge repository of Korean grammar. As far as I have been able to deduce it is very thorough and has good appendixes. The main problem of this book is that it's not written in the Korean script, which turns out to be a big problem. It's apparently written in some romanization this guy "the author" made up. This makes this book completely useless to a practical learner of the Korean language. And it is in very bad taste if it is intended for serious scholars of the Korean language, since most of them would be using the Korean script or one of the three generally accepted romanizations for the language. I mean, the romanization doesn't even resemble IPA. To be honest, it doesn't even make sense and instead it ends up looking like Vietnamesea lot of the time. This guy must have some sort of ego problem if he thinks I'm going to learn his cryptic personal Latin alphabet for Korean just to read this book, because I know Tuttle Publishing is better than this.

Another problem that this book has is the layout within chapters. You'd think a complete guide to the grammar and history of a language would be bigger than the 1000 pages offered in this book, right? Well, you'd be right. It turns out that the layout within the book is atrocious and the grammatical information tends to be bunched up in haphazard blocks which really makes this book look more like a mad professor's undecipherable chicken-scratch personal notes rather than the polished textbook it purports to be.

Also, things are hard to find in this textbook. The glossary and the table of contents are neither intuitive or easy to read. From the segments I've read of this book, it's got a lot of valuable information, but to have any luck accessing most of it you have to read it like a novel - from beginning to end. I expected to easily find the exciting tidbits advertised on the cover and the description easily, but I just couldn't.

All-in-all, this book is a huge rip-off and a let-down. It turned out to be worthless to me because its several problems with presentation and layout make it illegible. I think it would actually take less time to be accepted to a Harvard PhD program in Korean linguistics, do the field research in Korea on the language, write a complete reference grammar to Korean, and start your own publishing company to surmount the fact that this book was so bad it gives Reference Grammars to the Korean language a bad name for life than to actually sort through this jumbled mess.

This book had heroic ambitions, but ultimately couldn't overcome its fatal flaws. ... Read more

Product Description
Readers may feel that the sentence "Learning Korean Structure in 40 Minutes" is somewhat exaggerated. But the focus of this book is to know the structure of Korean alphabet with the unique methodology.
Some principles must be kept in mind when you learn Korean with this book. In Chosun Dynasty, confucianism influenced the life style that woman hide inside her home and the culture was driven by the man. Man and labor was the most essential aspect of their industry(agriculture). As a result, a son was held as being much higher than a daughter. Original approach of Korean alphabet was the symbol of heaven, human and earth combination which is the basement of oriental philosophy. However, in this methodology, Korean alphabets are based on the social structure that backs to the past, especially social life of Chosun period. The male character(consonant) comes first and the female letter(vowels) always follows the male letter. But it isn't to imply that the man is better or worth more than the woman.

This book shows the simple and easy approach to understand and memorize the order of Korean alphabet. It's not an academic approach but a very practical one. You can easily acquire the basic concept of Korean language structure in 40 minutes and also communicates with others in Korean. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Unique Method
First the author points out in the introduction that the intention is not to learn to read and speak Korean - put rather to help recognize the consonats & vowels, which comes before the other or structure of charaters, and therefore the pronuciation, as an aid to your studies - and it does.I picked this book up at an Air Force base in Korea about 8 years ago and it is the gem that has helped me recognize the pronuciation of Korean characters where ever I go.The bigger print and different method was refreshing.While it gives some phrases and words to know on the last couple of pages - that is not the purpose of this book.The unique method will stick out as it uses the power of association by using Korean relationships.I lost this book (a blue cover then) in a recent move and was searching online for it to help my husband.He is trying to learn thru traditional methods (books, audio, repetition, recordings, etc) and having a hard time understanding the pronuciation that the audio wants of him and recognizing the characters or their sound. If your looking for grammer "meat" or something to build vocabulary then this book is not for you.If you are a beginner and want to be able to recognize the basic consonants, vowels, sounds, and have it stick using simple explanation and excersise, Or if the traditional methods are hurting your head, then pick this up.If your an intermediate reader or speaker - forget it, its a waste of time for you. Good book to pair with First 100 words in Korean.

Get it from the library.
I won't lie, the title is misleading. That's why I only gave it 4 stars. On the other hand, the book is excellent if you understand what it will and will not do: The book WILL help you learn the Korean alphabet. The book will NOT help you do much else. ^_^ That's a bit of hyperbole but there's very little reading material here so you'll have to look elsewhere for that.

I would recommend this as a first step for a complete newbie to the Korean language. In my case, I checked the book out from the library, read it a couple of days on the treadmill, made some flashcards, and was done with the book. I wouldn't necessarily buy it unless you've got some money to burn or just like having an extensive library!

In fact, if you actually have Korean friends/relatives to help you out, you may just want to skip on over to the New Sogang Korean series. It's an import but a good place to start as a beginner. Good luck!

Buy a better book - don't waste your money on this.
I was excited to receive this book. From the publishers description I thought that it would help me to understand Korean sentence structure. It didn't.

The author explains that this book grew from course notes. That is exactly how it reads - as notes for a course, that would be explained and illustrated by a lecturer. I think if this book were used with a teacher, who could explain and make the appropriate sounds, then it could be of some use. I think it is essentially useless for self-study.

The title is mainly a misnomer - you do not learn korean language structure with this book, it is an introduction to the Hangul alphabet (and there are much better introductions available). The final pages of the book do cover some very basic sentence structures.

The description of Hangul letters as depicting the movements of the tongue and mouth (which they are supposed to do), is very poor. Perhaps this could be made clear with photographs of mouth shapes, and good diagrams of tongue position, but none are provided. Alternatively, if a lecturer was teaching this, then the appropriate shapes and movements could be demonstrated (it did grow from lecture notes, and I guess this made sense when someone was standing in front of an audience). What is given here is poorly written and confusing.

This short book (117 pages) is printed in really large type on very small pages (to get it to be more than a few pages long?). It is not good value for money.

I would recommend you learn Hangul alphabet from "My first 100 words in Korean", and learn basic sentence structure from beginning language texts such as "Elementary Korean" by King and Yeong. Also, unless you are friends with Koreans, or living in Korea, you will definitely need a tape or CD of Koreans making the vowel and consonant sounds, in order to get them right. The correspondence to English sounds is not very close.

Surprisingly simple and effective method
Yes, it is true.With this book you will learn to read and write Korean.It breaks down the language structure in a very logical and easy to understand way.It is also filled with useful phrases and other bits of information.I highly recommend this book (along with a good Korean-English dictionary) to anybody travelling on the Korean peninsula. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Very good book
Hello,
I'm new to this language all together. I'm really into learning korean, I watch so many K-Dramas and listen to K-pop. So it was really hard for me to decide what kind of textbooks i should get. After reading so many reviews, i had ended up getting this textbook series. I have to say that i have learned alot in the first book, and i'm ready to for the second. In many reviews people seem to complain alot about the audio not being mp3 format, or the $195 aduio cds that can be purchased. Well i was able to get the audio on my ipod, so im able to listen to theaudio were every i go. (Macbook Pro, it was easy using my laptop)Advice to people who are self-study, this is a must have book. The lesson aren't "Fast" they can become like that if you don't take your time to study the vocab.

Better than Level I Beginner
Out of all the self-paced textbooks available, this series isn't perfect but it does get the job done. This particular textbook (Beginning Level 2) is very useful and contains some of the best explanations of Korean grammar I've ever seen. If you are a native English speaker and want to learn Korean grammar and incidental vocabulary, pick up this book.

Remember this textbook is designed to be used in a classroom; namely the University of Hawaii. It outlines the goals, vocabulary and grammar points quite well and actually fits a self-paced and self-determined student quite well outside of the classroom. The chapters are logically laid out and are never too difficult to follow. This book not only takes it slow, but systemically explains and compares previous grammar points to avoid confusion.

Like the other books in the series, the publication date is dated and needs an update. Almost ten years since the last one. However, unlike the previous book in the series (Beginning Level 1) this book stays pretty natural throughout the text. The situations are mostly quite believable and the appropriate level of speech is used most of the time. I found myself pleasantly surprised at the scripts. It rarely felt like a textbook in that it didn't feel dry.

All in all, it's a relatively cheap and easily obtainable self-study resource for explaining Korean grammar in English. I highly recommend it as an additional if not primary resource for studying Korean.

Using In Class - Good Book!
This book has been very good when combined with an instructor who actually cares about the students learning the language.Our instructor - a graduate student who is an exchange student from Korea - prepares slide shows and other material from the book for a two hour class every Tuesday & Thursday.

Physically, the book is pretty high quality. The pages should stand up to a lot of page turning.

Sentences in this book are not the useless things that you'll find in some other language books.They generally make sense from a conversational point of view, and will do things like:

(In Korean): "I assume that you were born in The U.S.?"
(In Korean): "No, I was born in Seoul, but we immigrated to the U.S. when I was two years old."

This allows you to see how "born" and (paraphrased) "assumed born" are said in Korean as well as making use of other vocabulary.

In short, this is a very good book when used in a classroom with an instructor who cares about their students' learning.It's also inexpensive, which is a major boon for any student.

However, I do not recommend this book for self-learning.You will NEED explanations and someone to go to with questions.That's all there is to it:This is a classroom text book.

Probably the best book out there so far.
This is a well organized series, and follows pretty much the same layout that the Genki series did for Japanese.It's very controlled, with the first dialog or so taking a few grammar concepts from the previous chapters and introducing new ones as well.You get about 7 or so new grammar points, with maybe 20-30 or so new words per chapter.The task/function sections in the chapters clearly had classroom work in mind, but it's not entirely useless for self learners.I used this as my main study material for the KLPT, and with this book (to beginning 2) plus spaced repetition software managed to score a level 1.

Not for self learners
This book might work well in a classroom, but it doesn't work at all for someone trying to learn the language on their own. It moves very fast, and the workbook exercises (particularly the listening comprehension exercises) quickly become so difficult as to be impossible for someone who isn't already used to the sound of the language. Some grammatical concepts are used without being explained, and the grammar index includes references to sections in which the relevant grammar is not explained at all, merely used. All of this is very dejecting, and it surely needn't be that way. The problem, of course, is that there are very few other textbooks around -- in particular, there are very few textbooks that avoid romanization, as this one does. But being the best of a bad lot doesn't make it useful. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Better than the first
funny, embarrassing, and dirty - again. This book is all laughs and a little but of education. Ignore the English romanization is it is the worst I've ever seen. However, the translations and Korean is spot on. If you want to learn some great insults, cuss words, and the worst ways to compliment a women, pick up this book. I can't help but look at it from time to time to see how might I make my buddies crack a smile.

This book gets a lot less dirty and more creepy. Pick up lines, greasy compliments, and "come here often" lingo are packed inside. Having said all that, it does contain some good phrases for totally non-sexual situations like taking photos and getting email addresses from friends.

It's a cheap book (less than 10 bucks on half.com) which is more than fair. Not bad at all. This book is the sequel but doesn't contain any of the other book's material - it's more like "part two" ... Read more

Product Description
Despite the fact that they are spoken by millions of people, languages such as Korean or Turkish are not usually offered in schools or colleges. The Critical Languages Program (CLP) at the University of Arizona was created to meet the need for interactive instruction in these less-commonly-taught languages. In order to meet the needs of a wide variety of learners who wish to gain proficiency in some of these languages, CLP has developed a series of CD-ROM courseware beginning with Brazilian Portuguese, Cantonese, Kazakh, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Turkish. CD-ROMs for other less-commonly-taught languages are planned for the future. Each package contains two CD-ROMs with a total of twenty lessons for the beginning learner, consisting of video dialogues and readings by native speakers, thousands of audio recordings, graphics, and extensive notes. Handy browser features enable users to go back and review words and pronunciations and to access five types of exercises: multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, audio flashcard, pronunciation, and listening dictation. These exercises enable users to test and improve their knowledge of each lesson. Learners with microphone-equipped computers can record and play back their own voices and then compare their pronunciation with that of the native speaker. With the click of a button, learners can hear native speakers pronounce words or phrases, facilitating quick comprehension of these challenging languages. Each package of two CD-ROMs contains the equivalent of a textbook and workbook with audio and video components, making it practical for either self-instruction or directed educational, governmental, and business purposes.





Works on Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7. For more information, visit the UA Critical Languages Web site at http://clp.arizona.edu/cls/ ... Read more

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Incredibly Useful, Invaluable Program
This program taught me Hangul in a way no other program would. The flashcards in the program are a lifesaver. Also, you can click on any word and have it said for you by two native speakers, and you can record your own voice and compare it to the native speakers. The niftiest thing about this program is that unlike books, you can click on any word you see and hear it pronounced, an invaluable tool for self study. If I could, I would give this program 100 stars, and YES you can use it on Vista. I use it on my vista and it runs perfectly. This is an invaluable tool for learning Korean, and I can't recommend it enough. ... Read more

Product Description
The first advanced Korean reading text for non-native speakers, Selected Readings in Korean consists of eighteen lessons on diverse, stimulating topics such as Korean traditions, culture, and society. It is designed for use by students who have completed the fourth-year-level in Korean (approximately five hundred class hours) or the equivalent.

Each lesson consists of six sections: pre-reading group activities, which not only serve as a schema for efficient comprehension of the reading text to follow, but also help students broaden their relevant knowledge; an authentic main reading text on an informative and interesting topic; explanations in Korean and English of words that may be unfamiliar to students, including words indicating abstract or culture-specific concepts; explanations of idiomatic expressions; extensive exercises intended to help students master the contents of the text, new vocabulary, and grammar while improving their composition and oral presentation skills; and post-reading activities designed to further thinking and group discussion on subjects related to the main topic of the lesson.

Appended are translations of the main reading texts of all eighteen lessons and a Korean-English glossary. Overall, special effort has been made to render the volume learner-centered and learner-friendly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

great advanced-level textbook
This is an advanced-level textbook, despite the implication that it is a 'reader'.

Both the title and book-descripton imply that this is a 'reader', but I would describe it as a proper textbook. I do this for two reasons:

1. there is a huge number of excerises in each chapter: discussion questions, grammar drills, putting the correct word into a sentence, making the correct word conjugations etc. Each chapter has about 6 pages of excercises.

2. each chapter explains advanced-level grammar, which is supported by examples as well as excercises to train them.

The minimum pre-requisite for this book is Intermediate-level Korean, in my opinion. My own pre-requisite was Kim's Modern Korean: An Intermediate Reader and that worked just fine, so if you have done a similar good intermediate-level book you should have no problems working through 'Selected Readings'. Obviously this book is part of the KLEAR-series so the most obvious pre-requisites are the Integrated Korean-series.

Each chapter in the book starts with some pictures and some questions on them that you have to answer, they are about using your skills to describe things.
Next is a reading text of 2-3 pages, followed by vocabulary lists.
After this are grammar explanations - they are quite long, are easy to understand, and also have examples.
Lastly you have a large set of excercises to do and they include things such as: correcting sentences, word-matching, a number of grammar excercises, putting the correct word in the correct form into sentences, various drill-excerises, etc.
So each chapter is about 20 pages long, where the distribution is roughly: initial discussion exercises 2 pages, texts 3 pages, vocabulary list 6 pages, grammar 3 pages, exercises 6 pages.

The book has 14 chapters where the topics are focused on South Korea (Taekwondo, North & South Korea politics...), but there are a few that look at other things...such a Sweden, for some reason.

By the way there is no Hanja in this book.

This book was very nice to work with: the print is large and easy to read, the grammar explanations are easy to understand, and the exercises are well-balanced and many.
A good book I continued with after this one was the other KLEAR-book Readings in Modern Korean Literature (Klear Textbooks in Korean Language), which was a good continuation.

books don't swim
yeah...they don't ship outside the mainland USA.That sucks for me.Tt's okay.I bought it at the bookstore and got ripped off.But that's life.=) ... Read more

Product Description
Q&S ESL Korean includes the first 8 lessons from the Pimsleur Comprehensive Level I. 4 hours, audio-only, effective language learning with real-life spoken practice sessions. ... Read more

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While modern technological advances have been an impetus toward breaking down boundaries throughout the world, language barriers have yet to be overcome. Since Korea has joined the ranks of industrialized countries, there has been a strong interest in the Korean language. A dictionary easily utilized by visitors has become essential.
The McCune-Reischauer system of romanization is widely used in Korea and has been applied here to provide a convenient and easy-to-understand reference for English speaking travelers to Kroea. The softcover volume is compact and easy to carry, yet its contents are comprehensive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

together with
Pls do not forget to buy Practical Conversation English-Korean Dictionary alongside with it. Because this one do not give you the variance of meaning of the word but the latter supplies you with hundreds of examples. Two dictionaries have latin pronunciation facility for ever word even in the example sentences. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

Wrong cover
If you are hoping for the nice white and blue book you will not receive it. Instead you will receive a grayish-green textbook from back in 2002. This is my second attempt at sending the textbook to get the book that is advertised above. It is the same book as far as content, but it is an older version. I did email amazon the first time I was sent the wrong book. They said they would resend the right one, but it is the same wrong covered book again. It is like asking for an apple but instead you get an orange.

Best Intermediate Audio Course There Is!
This book's audio CD has done absolute wonders for my Korean ability! I listen to it in the car and while doing dishes every day. It is at a solid intermediate level, which means that when you master its contents, you are fluently able to understand and to speak Korean (but you're not quite there when it comes to watching TV and reading adult-level books for pleasure.) The written activities are very thorough, with multifarious examples, so there is plenty to read as well. In my case I was already beyond the grammar level of the book by the time I came to it, but was behind on a bit of the vocabulary and at the ability to understand the spoken word and to speak from my hear on the spot. The audio CD for this course changed my (Korean-speaking) life! Good job Ross King (a fellow Canadian!) and friends! Thank you! I personally think that if you team this book, which deals with overall ability, with Andrew Sangpil Byon's book, "Intermediate Korean: A Grammar and Workbook" which deals primarily (and teaches everything there is to know about it) with grammar only, you will be 100% able to exchange emails and to translate Korean as well as to carry on conversations with people easily. There do not seem to be any "advanced level" Korean study books available, so I guess the next step past intermediate is to actually just do lots of reading et cetera with a dictionary.

Good book in 2 different commercial versions --- please comment!
Good book in 2 different commercial versions --- please comment!
I ordered this book from amazon several times. The received parcels contained a different version of the 1st edition, i.e. an older version (and thus, printing), of the book than displayed here on the amazon webpage. Surprise, surprise! :) If you google "Continuing Korean", you will find out that the original printing (1st edition, 1st printing, 1999-2002) is still being sold and widely available. The original (=old) version has "green boards", i.e. the front/back hardcover is in darkgreen with white and red letters. The here displayed product version (released in 2004, with the same ISBN) is in turquoise and beige, with red and black letters. And it has different dimensions and number of pages, although the contents are the same. Furthermore, the new book version has white, new page paper whereas the original book version has beige, old page paper quality. I like the contents of the book very much, as you can check yourself with Google Book Results. The book 'Continuing Korean' covers all the basic plus intermediate grammar necessary to pass the TOPIK Beginner's Level examination. If you need a textbook which covers more or much more grammar, e.g. for the TOPIK Intermediate Level exam, then I would recommend the grammar books and workbooks by Yonsei University Press! 'Continuing Korean' is a great sequel to 'Elementary Korean, 2nd Edition, 2009' --- just be sure that you dont keep the darkgreen version of it ;)
Feel free to comment which version of the 1st edition you finally/actually received from amazonDOTcom, thanks!

The yardstick by which all textbooks should be measured
This book is perfect in every way and was the major, if not central, contributor to my fluency in Korean. The grammar is perfect for the second and third year of a Korean course and the dialogues have a very rich and native flavor to them. The vocabulary is extremely useful and complete. I believe that complete is the exact word for this. This book is complete in every way from the table of contents to the very accessible glossaries in the back.

With the CD that comes with it or a standalone textbook, this book is ideal. The exercises within it are perfect and they reinforce what was learned in the previous chapter. Even the cheesy reading passages are appropriate for the corresponding skill level of a learner at the corresponding level for every chapter.

The color of the cover, the layout of the book is perfect; the font is perfect. The quality of the paper is perfect. Even the introduction is perfect.And the mistake count? To be honest I read this whole book and it only has 4 mistakes in all of its 500 pages. That's like less than 0.01% - as flawless as a book gets in my book.

The only problem I found with this book was that the subsequent volume that Ross King promises within it has not been delivered. Long story short, if all foreign language textbooks were like this, the world would be a more polyglotal(polyglotish?) place.

continues, but leaves out alot
This book finishes where book one left off with more advanced grammar and vocabulary. However, the included cd only covers the dialogue, leaving the example sentences with no audio examples, which is unfortunate. There are cheaper and better audio courses available. For example, the Kanada course comes with five audio cds and runs only $20. This course also covers more territory and grammar. So for about the same price as continuing Korean with postage, you could get four books and 16 cds from the Kanada course. Try that instead. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides a practical approach to learning an essential part of the Korean language. The 500 most important Korean adjectives have been identified and presented in alphabetical order. For each vocabulary item, you can see its pronunciation, Romanization, meaning, and the model word for which it follows the same conjugation rules. There is also the adjective s table of conjugation, some familiar related words, common sentence patterns and some sample sentences. An mp3 CD is also included. This book is a helpful guide to learning Korean adjectives as well as a handy reference tool. You will also find the book 500 Basic Korean Verbs helpful as well. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

korean adjectives
This is a very good book that put didactily the adjectives in korean language. the adjectives in korean are conjugated similar to the verbs and by this it is necessary to know how they are built in a sentence. ... Read more