Elementary Korean 2nd Edition: Website & Audio CD with Native Speaker Recordings for Improved Language Learning

ozzy: Besides the fact it took me about 8 months to finish the book, and i skipped parts I knew already, I'd say the explanations weren't as clear as in other books. The book doesn't focus enough on certain parts, and on others it focuses too much.
The product itself was good, no damages or torn pages. Good for beginners but would need to watch videos or use other books afterwards to review and make sure what you learned is correct.
Vocabulary in the book is huge but most of it isn't relevant for people who are learning the language for regular purposes. Overall 6/10

United States on Sep 10, 2023

Judy: Arrived in good condition

United States on Sep 05, 2023

Ellie Mei: Before anything else, I'd like to mention that this is overall a great book and everyone learns differently, so my experience will always be different than yours.

I have been studying Korean off and on for almost 10 years. Because of inconsistency I am far from fluent, but I would say that I have a very solid foundation and have completed numerous courses, books, podcasts, etc. I absolutely recommend getting this book as a secondary+ material to work through after forming a foundation of your own. I also >absolutely< recommend you grab the workbook as each lesson tends to throw tons of vocabulary at you along with a lot of just reading in English explaining the lesson's topic. Having the workbook to practice alongside the reading is a great way to exercise your brain and really hold onto what they're teaching. If anything, I'd suggest the workbook alone over this book by itself, ESPECIALLY if you have aforementioned foundation and would like to challenge yourself.

I feel the need to add that you should before *anything* else learn hangul. Don't let yourself rely on transliterations. The key to language learning is avoiding thinking in your native language and...

United States on Jan 14, 2022

M M.M M.: Of the three Korean text books I have, this one is the best as a teaching material for a 20 something year old student. depending on an age of student my choice of text books might change. Haven’t read the whole book yet but especially for the Bottom consonants chapter, the other two books only touch the subjects and leaving a lot of questions unanswered while this one explains it all in full depth(almost daunting for a beginner! But my student wanted to know it all). Terminology and the explanation are quite formal so took a while to grasp the authors meaning; might not be the best choice for younger students for that reason or for the first time Korean learner for more casual conversational Korean. For my purposes though I’m very satisfied.

United Kingdom on Oct 02, 2020

Lisa F.: Ho preso questo libro per cominciare a studiare coreano da zero, dato che in descrizione si precisa che parta dalle spiegazioni più basiche. All'inizio mi sono sorpresa nel non vedere subito una tabella alfabetica ad inizio libro, infatti parte subito con un po' di lessico baso scritto in Hangul, ma anche romanizzato, che grazie al cd audio diventano più chiari. Ciò che è strano, è che dai primi esercizi ti chiede subito di tradurre della parole in hangul, quando non ti ha neanche spiegato a che suono, ogni simbolo, corrisponde. Lì per lì panico, ma sfogliando il libro ho visto che nelle lezioni successive andrà a spiegare anche come scrivere coreano, quindi anche le corrispondenze fonetiche etc.
Insomma sembra buono, è una buona scusa per esercitarsi anche in inglese e per il prezzo, devo dire, che è arrivato un bel mattone, me lo aspettavo più piccolo!

Italy on Jan 18, 2018

CaseyCasey: I bought this book a few months ago and I have to say I really love thw way it is structured. It arrived when it was supposed to be. I'm definetely going to buy the following books after this one (Continuing Korean and Advanced Korean). Loved it! I definetely learned a lot of things! It comes with a CD so it's even more useful. I skipped the first 4 lessons because those were things (How to write in Hangul, essential phrases) I already knew but after doing lesson 5 to lesson 7 I can form phrases by my own. I really reccomend this one! At the beggining of each lesson, you can see the goals for that lesson, then there are dialogues and it's fine if you can't understand them. They are notes which will explain it to you. There are grammar points, a lot of them and at the end of each lesson, bunch of exercises. At the end of the book there's a mini dictionary Eng-Kor and Kor-Eng. There are also review lessons! I really love this book!
P.S. Another good thing is, there's an answer key at the back (perfect for self studying students like me) and after they teaches you Hangul, there's no romanization.

Italy on Aug 25, 2016

silverwlf: I have been studying Korean for the past year using a patchwork of podcasts, online activities, apps and a tutor. I felt like I was spinning my wheels as I never got enough practice using language structures over and over again. I searched for the best Korean textbooks and this book came up in several searches. Because I already had some vocabulary and knew Hangul I started at Chapter 5. My tutor and I love this book because there are dialogues to read and discuss, new vocabulary introduced at each chapter and lots of practice using new vocab/parts of speech and also translation activities.
The CD is helpful because I can follow along with the text and hear it in real time. There are lots of explanations for work/grammar point use and "Caution!" sections to make sure the concepts are being used correctly.
I'm so happy with this purchase and I feel that my Korean is already improving from the specific instruction and tasks.
It does help that I have a tutor I can ask when I am stuck on activities or if I don't understand something.

Canada on Feb 04, 2016

Ella: Having only ever studied Korean by myself at home with no structure or teaching guidance for too long, I finally decided to invest in this book. For me, it is serving as a revision tool for grammar I already know, but also an introduction to new grammar and helpful vocabulary. What I love most is the plentiful exercises at the end of each chapter that continue to introduce the new grammar and vocab you learned in that chapter and to integrate the grammar and vocab from previous chapters so that you won't forget those. You can check your answers in the back of the book and simply revisit any grammar points you don't understand yet (the layout is very clear).
Someone here mentioned useless vocabulary and vocabulary specifically for a classroom setting... I know for a fact this book is used for the first half of the first year of BA Korean at SOAS and was co-written by one of the lecturers there. This 'classroom' vocab is no doubt to introduce it to the students so that the teacher can use it. But for those of us outside of a classroom, there is no problem because these phrases are left behind in the book just as quickly as they were introduced; they do not continue to be used...

United Kingdom on Aug 25, 2014

J. Roller: The information presented in Elementary Korean is essentially the backbone of my present Korean ability. In each lesson, aspects of Korean grammar are nicely layered on to what you have already learned in the previous lessons. Plus, this book forces you to learn Hangul because romanization is not given after the fourth lesson. This makes it a good resource for those intimidated by the Korean writing system.

This book is an authentic textbook (like something one would certainly use in an university Korean language course), but it is well-equipped for the self-learner as well. The vocabulary presented in this text is clear and relevant; however, you won't realize this until the sixth lesson (Lesson 5 introduces some odd vocabulary like "imported goods"). Also, the grammar notes are just detailed enough so that one can grasp the information without much external help.

The dialogues presented at the beginning of each lesson are informative and sometimes amusing. And, usually, there are additional sentences for reading after the dialogues. The book provides many examples for each of the Korean grammar concepts it teaches, so you will learn exactly how to use them. It...

United States on Jan 28, 2011