2 comments about The Korean Language (Cambridge Language Surveys).

1. This solidly-written survey of the Korean language is part of the Cambridge Language Survey series. Whilst fairly comprehensive and detailed, the book maintains reader interest for most parts, being aimed at the professional or amateur linguist. For the general reader, however, the meticulous description of Korean grammar that is the final chapter becomes somewhat tedious, as does the preceding chapter on word formation.

   Sohn's survey of Korean is refreshingly broads, covering general and historical background of the language, genetic affiliation, dialects, lexicon, orthography, phonology, morphology and syntax. In general, each section is lucidly written, and, where it does not get bogged down by detail, enjoyable to read.

   The book is on the whole fairly accurate, although a few minor textual and factual errors have crept in, e.g., the statement that Chinese characters comprise 1 to 32 strokes, where in fact characters exist with many more than 32 strokes. Compared to the content of the text, however, these errors are insignificant.

   Physically, the book is well printed, the typeface being sufficient large and clear. The Chinese characters and Hangul are also clearly printed.

   All in all, Sohn's 'The Korean Language' is a solid survey of the language, on the whole fairly objective, although a certain bias favouring the Korean language is evident, and perhaps not entirely unexpected.




2. I am an ESL teacher. I bought this book to understand the phonotactic constraints of Korean. It has been immensely useful for designing more productive lessons plans. I wish I had invested in this book when it was first written.
   
   It is comprehensive and clearly written. I refer back to it on a weekly basis while planning my American English Pronunciation classes. Now I understand why my students say [wal. rut] instead of [wal.nut], replacing the onset [n] with a [r]. (I apologize for using inappropriate IPA symbols).
   
   Although, it was not the goal of the book, I would like a chapter about how to teach Korean Native Speaker English prosody within the constraints so clearly elucidated in the book.

1 comments about Korean (World Languages).

1. It used to be that anyone learning Korean had to go on a treasure hunt to find learning materials. Now that Korea is emerging as a global economic player, learners of Korean are in the enviable position of having too many language learning choices.
   
   Living Language products are sold as no-gimmick learning materials. There are no tricks, no cuteness, just you and the language. The new World Languages series features a fairly thin book and a set of six CDs.
   
   First, the good. The CDs are excellent. The Korean speakers are clearly understandable and they speak at a pace that is easy for a non-native to follow but not so slow that they sound odd. Three of the CDs are meant to be used with the book, the other three are meant as refreshers that can be used without the book.
   
   The book teaches the Korean script (Hangeul) immediately. This alone sets it apart from many of the major Korean language releases. Learning the Korean alphabet is easy and essential to full fluency. The first few lessons have Romanization but it disappears later in the book.
   
   There is good emphasis on casual speech, a topic notably lacking is most Korean learning material. Most books confine themselves to -imnida and -saeyo endings. This book teaches casual speech fairly early, an excellent move. After all, making friends is an important part of language learning and who wants to talk to their friends the same way they would talk to their boss or grandmother?
   
   The exercises are also good. The suggestion of starting a journal in Korean is a wonderful idea and has helped me greatly. Admittedly, my journal does not make for very gripping reading (mostly concerned with work, weather and what I bought today) due to a limited vocabulary, but it gives great practice in actually using Korean. And your beginner's mistakes will be a fun thing to laugh about with your Korean speaking friends once you become fluent.
   
   Now for the not so good. The book is very light on the grammar. Irregular verbs are skimmed over and conjugation is not as well covered as I would have liked. I found myself constantly referring back to my other two Korean books, Beginner's Korean (Hippocrene Beginner's Series) and Elementary Korean (Tuttle Language Library) to find answers to very basic questions.
   
   The vocabulary section is anemic. You are asked to make a Korean journal but they don't include the word for journal? Hmm.
   
   So, it it worth the money? It depends on your finances. If you are on a budget, I would recommend one of the two books mentioned earlier. They are both good as stand-alone textbooks. If you have the money to spend, the recordings are well worth the price of the set. The culture notes included in the book are also good. It will make a worthy addition to your Korean language bookshelf and will supplement your other material.
   
   I would NOT recommend purchasing this set as your lone Korean language learning material. The grammar and vocabulary sections are just too thin to be of much help to a beginner.

2 comments about Sounds of Korean: A Pronunciation Guide.

1. This is a well written and detailed summation of the main elements of Korean pronunciation. It is designed for students learning Korean; and it deals in simple, clear language (despite technical terms) with the pronunciation issues and problems the English-speaking learner of Korean will meet. I would have liked a chapter on the pronunciation problems Korean learners of English have.



2. Although almost half of the book was practice accompanied with the cd, It still made the most of what of the few pages it had. It is very detailed and its not romanized examples and practices are good for me. It brings up previous topics as a reminder when the current topic is related to it, which helps me understand and not get confused and have to go back and see what I have forgotten. Anyways, It is a very detailed and informative book that will ensure that you understand every chapter, every page, and every sentence. One of the best books on foreign language I have ever read. Take my word for it, I have read to entire book in 4 days. Thats how easy it is to comprehend, but I didn't sell it yet, I'm still working my brain muscels with all that practice with aswers at the back. So, I peaked :)

5 comments about Korean: Learn to Speak and Understand Korean with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive).

1. I got the set of 16 cd's (30 30-minute lessons + one 'reading' cd). It would've been worth the price had they included a script (in Hangeul). No script, bad price, I give it 1 star.
   
   That's the bad. The good: the speakers are /very/ natural Korean speakers. I've been in Korea for 6 months, and hear Korean spoken every day (I work as an English teacher). I've heard other Korean tapes and this one is better than most I've heard. The lessons are easy, which is good for building confidence, and the slow but sure acquisition of language basics that is the sine qua non of a beginner's progress.
   
   Back to the bad: they spend way too much time on SMALL numbers, when learning Chinese and Korean numbers is the easiest thing you'll do. I suppose it'd be appreciated by a total beginner whose first Korean language purchase was this set of CD's, but I've been practicing Korean for 9 months now, and long ago mastered the easy numbering system. Numbers above 1000 are not covered that much, and these are the challenging ones they should focus on, especially since the Won is traded in large numbers (one always has 10,000 Won in one's pocket, as it is only equal to 10 dollars). 10,000 in Korean is 'man Won.' 100,000 is 'ship man Won' or ten 10,000. 1,000,000 is 'paek man Won' or hundred 10,000.
   
   Back to the good: they spend roughly equal amount on formal and less formal Korean style of speech.



2. Subject: Customer Request - RE: Korean Compact Disk 2nd Edition
   
   Pimsleur customer service:
   
   Re: Korean (Comprehensive) By Pimsleur
   This edition: Compact Disk (2nd Edition)
   Pub. Date: 04/2005
   ISBN: 0743536134
   
   Good day to you. I recently purchased the latest Korean language program directly from Simon and Schuster. I am well into the lessons and I am extremely eager to successfully finish the program. My recent purchase was based on other Pimsleur products I have purchased. The native speaker's enunciation and speed always seemed to be smooth and easily repeatable. However, the very same quality that I found to be so valuable with your other language programs is what is lacking at times and therefore a hindrance to my overall progress.
   
   The Korean speakers used in the lessons seem to be a bit obscured at times, especially when speaking entire sentences. I have asked my native Korean friends to listen to different lessons and help me by writing what the speaker is saying. My native Korean friends confirm that the speaker may not be a native Korean and is oftentimes difficult to understand. I write to you today to respectfully request from you what I feel will be the rectification to this vexation.
   
   Please provide a text version of the script or at least a text version of each conversation piece featured at the beginning and end of each lesson. This text version should be in Hangeul and not the Romanization of Hangeul to avoid any chance of further confusion.
   
   If I had in hand a text version of the native spoken word I could in confidence champion all 30 lessons.
   
   Thank you very much!
   ----------------------------------------
   
   After months of writing to Simon & Schuster, Inc., Pimsleur for some kind of script or vocabulary list, I received this email with an .pdf attachment of only the opening phrases (limited usefulness).
   
   Hi,
   
   Your request for copies of the opening conversations for the Pimsleur Korean was forwarded to me. This is most unusual and not something which we have done previously, as the instruction is intended to be spoken only. In this case, since the script is in Hangeul, you will not have interference from English when reading the characters, so we have made an exception. They are attached below.
   
   You questioned whether the speakers were native Koreans. I assure you that the course writer, the reviewer, and all speakers are indeed native Koreans, all recently from Seoul.
   
   I would appreciate hearing your experience with the balance of the course.
   
   Sincerely,
   
   Beverly Heinle
   Executive Editor
   ---------------------------
   
   You should note that I was living in Seoul while attending Yonsei University Korean Language Program and this cd collection had little to offer. Not worth the $345 price tag or the $200 that I now see.



3. Despite the negative reviews, this is the only audio Korean set you should consider buying. The rest are complete 100% GARBAGE! This applies especially to those who are going to DLI to learn Korean, as I did. This will fill the gaps nicely, as regular everyday speech is generally overlooked there. If you know you are going to DLI and really want to learn Korean, try to learn as much of this as you can before you go. The only other resource you might need outside of what you get at DLI might be a good phrasebook or two, such as Lonely Planet and/or Making Out In Korean. Again, this will help fill the gaps.
   
   For most major languages, there are 3 parts to the Pimsleur set. For Korean there is only one, so this should be considered the beginner set--"Korean I". Hopefully, there will be a Korean II and Korean III eventually, but this is certainly a good start for those who are learning Korean for the first year or two.
   
   Pimsleur language lessons are intended to cover speech only, but learning the writing helps you retain the language by putting it into a strange new context and forcing you to recognize it all over again. So when you have learned the writing and spelling of the vocabulary, it will reinforce the language to come back to the lessons and reproduce them by writing or typing. That's what I do anyway. (I can probably help the guy who wants a transcript, btw. No native Korean should have problem understanding any of this.)
   
   As far as buying audio Korean lessons, there aren't many options available: you can buy this set or get ripped off because there's nothing else available that's worth any money at all!



4. The main reason why I assume others bought this series of CDs is to hear more Korean as it is spoken to get pronounciation practice and listening comprehension. Unfortunately with this series you will find yourself listening most of the time to -- English! Yes, at least 70% of each CD is filled with someone speaking English. One would expect perhaps to hear the English version of the phrase before hearing the Korean, but this somehow doesn't suffice in the "Pimsleur Method". For their special method you need to get a long-winded introduction and redundant background descriptions of situations and grammatical lessons spoken in English. This is a waste of your time and space on the CDs.
   
   Sure the first time you hear it, it might be useful to have someone explain what you are hearing, but the real utility of a CD course is that you can listen to the Korean phrases over and over again until you hear it in your head. With the Pimsleur method after the first hearing you will find yourself wading through all the English and waiting for the Korean phrase which seems to be thrown in almost as an afterthought.
   
   To add insult to injury, each lesson starts with a review of the previous lesson and then throughout each lesson, words and phrases are included from previous lessons. Again, this sounds like a good idea borrowed classroom teaching -- its always good to review the previous lesson before starting something new -- but on a CD set, where a review can be accomplished by simply inserting the previous CD in your player, this is just irritating.
   
   By the time I got to lesson 10 I started to think, "Hmmm, here I am on lesson 10 and I haven't gotten much further than simple introductions! I hope the rest of the CDs progress much quicker!" Again, I was disappointed to find that the subsequent CDs had an equal lack of content.
   
   I think the best language learning CDs are the ones found in the Foreign Serivice Institute's CD set (although they are hopelessly outdated because I think they were recorded 30 years ago and are mostly recorded in the "formal" style of speech which is only useful for listening to news broadcasts or in highly formal business settings) because they are packed with nothing but Korean that you can listen to and immerse yourself in the language. The best way to learn any language is to listen and learn to think in it. I think the Pimsleur method is fundamentally flawed because it teaches the student to translate in his or her head -- which is NOT what you want to do.
   
   If you were to remove all the English and all the repetition from these CDs, all the lessons' content could be squeezed into 2 CDs! Worst of all is that there is very little text or grammar included along with this CD set, so if this were your only method of learning Korean you would have no context for the stock phrases you have learned.
   
   The most difficult thing about Korean for English speakers is the structure and grammar of the language. In Korean, by and large, verbs change because of the person spoken to and not because of the person doing the action. The concept of these different levels of "politeness of speech" is essential to any study of the language and yet Pimsleur neglects to really explain this. Sentence structure is demonstrated on the CDs but not really explained beyond saying that verbs appear at the end of the sentence. Again, because Koreans tend to omit the agent of the action when speaking (e.g., "I go to school." is usually spoken as "Go to school.") it is important to be able to recognize and remember WHO is doing the action during a conversation and this is accomplished through the understanding of the topic particle or subject particle -- another important concept neglected by Pimsleur. These are BASIC concepts, so if these are omitted, you can forget getting any explanation of tenses or compound sentences in this CD set.
   
   Granted, when I heard this course for the first time I had already been studying Korean for almost a year and already had a decent grasp of the basics, so perhaps for the absolute beginner these CDs might have more utility. Also I was lucky to have gotten this CD set on loan from my local library. Had I shelled out $200+ I think I would have been seriously angry.
   
   For the price of this set of CDs you can buy 10 really good books on Korean. I think you might even be better off getting some good books on Korean grammar and then getting the excellent Vocabulearn series to hear how words are pronounced to build your spoken vocabulary.
   
   There is nothing "Comprehensive" about this course. After memorizing everything taught in this set, the student will hardly be able to order a cup of coffee in a restaurant, which probably could have been learned from a Berlitz-style phrasebook. Save your money.



5. This review is of the 30 disc Korean Comprehensive I CD edition.
   
   I have had this product for about two weeks now. I am currently on lesson 9 of 30. I have a bit of an unfair advantage as I am currently living in South Korea so I get to check my progress with friends and co-workers. I have been working on learning Korean for a while now. I started by learning to read Korea, an important first step for anyone interested in learning Korean, and I think it highlights one of the weaknesses of the Pimsleur method. The problem is that it can be difficult to understand, at times, exactly what is being said. But I can ask a Korean friend to write out the phrase in Hangul, which I can read, and then the words and their pronunciation fall into place. Now don't get me wrong, I think the Pimsleur method is the BEST METHOD I HAVE EVER USED. But I would have rated them 5 out of 5 stars if they were able to improve in this one area.
   
   The Pimsluer program can be a bit fast paced if you let it but just take your time and work through the lessons. Don't be afraid to go back a lesson or two, or to move ahead when you don't feel quite ready. They do an excellent job or reintroducing past material. If you moved ahead too quickly then just go back over the most recent lessons.
   
   My one last complaint, and it is really a minor one, is that the disc names and track titles do not import cleanly into iTunes. Some of the discs are titled with the wrong language, or a slightly different wording for the album and artist. This all makes sorting the files in iTunes annoying. But I simpy went into each file and made the required correction.
   
   Overall I would rate this product a 4.5 out of 5 stars. Korean: Learn to Speak and Understand Korean with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive)Korean: Learn to Speak and Understand Korean with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive)

No comments about Writing Korean for Beginners.

5 comments about Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook.

1. I have been in Seoul off and on - for business - for the past year. Despite rumors to the contrary, I find this an extremely difficult language. Most Koreans under the age of thirty have a working knowledge of English. Ordering coffee at Starbuck's is certainly not a problem, restaurants are often a problem, department stores pretty impossible. Once you get used to the sections in this book, at the very least you can point. Certain phrases are just good to know. It may seem stupid, but being able to say "Hello" or "Thank you" is extremely endearing to Koreans and it seems to me that this is the very least we can do. The size makes it easy to carry around and it's the least expensive phrase book I've found.



2. This pocket book has alot of great info packed inside. Something for almost everything that might come up. I am very happy with it



3. This is a real helpful book with a lot of key phrases. I really recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn the basic phrases.



4. Don't bother getting this unless you want to learn how to speak Korean. If you just want a few simple phrases and how to say them look for something else.



5. This is a great little book packed with lots of grammar, useful phrases, vocabulary and even cultural notes. This is a very useful book to use either alone, or as a supplement to other Korean texts. I really like it because it is so small that I can carry it with me in my purse and read it when i'm waiting in line somewhere, or at a restaurant, etc.
   I highly recommend getting this book. It is definatly much more than just a phrase book and I think you will find it very useful. There are lots of neat cultural references that I find very interesting. Worth the price.

1 comments about Intermediate College Korean.

1. If you already know a lot of Korean, this is is a good textbook. The stories that begin each chapter follow the adventures of Hyun-bae, a US-raised Korean traveling to Korea on summer vacation to perfect his Korean skills. I really liked the first story, with him being so polite to the mother of the crying baby on the plane and the middle-aged man distracting him by asking about his studies.
   
   The grammar explanations are clear, with plenty of examples. Pronunciations of words like chak-ha-da = cha-ka-da are given in Hangul. Some of the grammar exercises were just too hard for me to figrue out, which is the only reason I don't give it another star.

1 comments about Your First 100 Words Korean w/Audio CD (Your First 100 Words In...).

1. I am very glad there is a version of this book with a CD, because even though the words are spelled out in Romanized letters, as well as Hangul, it can still be misleading.
   The speakers have voices that are pleasant to listen to, and they take it slowly at first for beginners.
   The only problem I have with the cd is that when they phrase questions, you are supposed to repeat, and I am a little insecure because the questions are not written in the book. I like to see what I am saying and know how it is spelled, as well as hear it, when I am learning.
   
   My favorite part is that the words are also spelled traditionally, because I find with languages (especially Asian languages) the hardest part is learning to read and write in the traditional script.
   This book makes it relatively easy to memorize the letters.
   The flashcards and games make it fun.
   
   This isn't exactly an ultimate study guide and I don't think it is meant to be. It doesn't tell you how to phrase or create sentences, except for the few questions on the CD, but I didn't expect it to.
   The title tells you EXACTLY what you are going to learn: "You First 100 Words in Korean"

2 comments about Milet Mini Picture Dictionary: English-Korean.

1. I am the grandmother of a korean toddler. I thought it is very informative for the parents also. Some vocabulary words she can understand. I'm glad I bought it.



2. This dictionary is produced for children, but it is a great book for those just learning Korean to use for common, simple, every-day words.

No comments about Integrated Korean Workbook: Beginning 2 (Klear Textbooks in Korean Language).