Let's Speak Korean

Learning to speak Korean is probably one of the most difficult life goals for many people, mainly because they have to rely on printed materials and learning how to accurately pronounce something in Korean is virtually impossible – you wonder what all the different pronunciation symbols stand for and there aren’t many resources to check if what you are READING is actually how it’s SAID, and this is exactly what makes this book stand out. Format wise, it is a set of expressions used daily in Korea, in 21 different topics such as at school, at work, at the airport, and the likes. The list is quite exhaustive, starting from very basic to complicated, covering many different scenarios you might actually run into. The good thing about how they are presented is that every expression comes with what they call “grammar guide marks” – they are differently shaped underscores, and they are used to indicate which part of a Korean expression means the same in its English counterpart, making it useful in learning not only how to say it but getting a grip on how Korean grammar is structured. I believe this is a great way to familiarize yourself with Korean grammar system, even if you don’t have any knowledge in Korean prior to this point (actually, the book starts with a brief introductory session on the Korean alphabet, their pronunciation, and grammar structure) . The best part of the book is of course the supplementary audio tracks. You can download from their website or you can just stream them on their home page, depending on your study environment. Each expression is spoken 4 times – twice slow and twice at normal speed. In this way, you can hear how each syllable is pronounced when spoken independently, but also hear how it’s said when spoken together with other syllables, because sometimes pronunciations change as a result of interacting with other syllables. So as the book claims, listen to the audio tracks, repeat (or mimic), and keep repeating, and you would have learned to say Korean expressions. Some tips – don’t try to overshoot and start maybe a few expressions a day, and try to customize the expressions whenever possible, for example when you say “How can I get to Seoul?” just practice more by substituting “Seoul” to “New York” or something of your choice. Just be creative… Practice, practice, and have fun!

It's very helpful just need to find more time to study

This is making learning Korean easier.

There’s a lot to like in this book. It focuses on the phrases a traveler will most likely use. It provides romanization under the Korean words to help you learn the Korean characters, and it does a pretty good job of showing you the translation of the individual words. However, I think it would be more helpful to show the literal translation in English so that you can learn to flip the syntax into the format of the Korean language. I think one of the biggest hurdles to learning Korean is to learn to think about sentences backward from the way we think about them in English. The presentation is rather dull, and like so many other study guides, the text is so small that you almost need a magnifying glass to read it. Overall, it’s a good value though.

The most challenging part of learning Hangul (Korean language) for me is understanding word order and practicing spoken phrases. This wonderful text helps with both. The grammar guide marks (special dotted and shaded underlines) show clearly how to make sentences with subject/object/verb, and the English translations mirror the grammar marks for our subject/verb/object understanding: extremely helpful! MP3 files (included free w book purchase) on the website feature native Korean speakers, and phrases are repeated twice slowly, then at normal speaking speed. Excellent investment!

I am starting with Korean and I just received this book and I feel confident it will improve my learning experience, it is complete, the audios complement the chapters and make it easier to practice alone. I liked that it includes the romanized sounds for the phrases, it provides a clearer idea on the proper sound.

Well I’m trying to stay young and keep my mind from going to mush, so why now learn a new language. Since I’m currently into both Kpop and those damn Kdramas, why not learn Korean. So looked up here to see which books might be a good start. Got this one and it’s nice, you get a nice overview of Korean and you can even hear the sentences spoken by a native speaker. I think that the alphabet or syllabary in Korean is pretty great and this makes it quite easy to understand. But i find it odd that it doesn’t seem to have some common sayings. Or at least not listed in a traditional way. I mean how about if i just want to say Thank you, or you are welcome. Hi or goodbye. I have to rummage around the many different topics and find it. I mean I just want to count some numbers, and I don’t think that this information is in the book at all. So if you are more into situational reading of Korean then this is your book. I will say it is helpful to see how the Korean sentence structure is made up. It breaks down the sentence like in elementary school with the subject, object, verb and other parts of speech in Korean and English, word for word. But sometimes you just want some basic information, which i feel this book lacks. But i will say I know how to write and read some Korean now.

As a non native speaker who doesn’t live in country I’ve found this book helpful to work on day to day conversations and there’s even a link from the book that takes you to an audio book version that really helps with pronunciation and flow.

Love it. Any resource for Korean is better than zero. This was helpful and additional to the collections of books on Korean Language.

Excellent Book and very helpful

Ok

Ah, super bom!! A encadernação é linda, o papel muito bom. Gostei demais!

This Book is not for people who want to do some grammar or writing exercises. A bit of grammar is explained at the very beginning but this book really focuses on the oral part of the language.