Elementary Korean: Second Edition (Audio CD Included) [With CD (Audio)]

Very nice. For those who are serious about learning Korean. I use this book along with Talk to me in Korean curriculum and it is so helpful.

This book is very helpful. I think Amazon is the best way to order these kind a things cuz they come up with their delivery's very fast. Thank u amazon

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.

Full of non PC sentences like calling a wife a jibsaram. This would be frowned upon for being sexist. Conversations are of buying alcohol or cigarettes? Dated examples. Would not recommend for female learners.

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 throughout. Having said that, some are useful in a more general sense anyway. The rest of the vocab is extremely useful; you might not use every word everyday but certainly while I was studying from this book during a trip to Korea this summer, I found myself being able to utilise a lot of the vocabulary there, which proves that it is not useless lists of vocab. The amount of new words introduced in each chapter may seem daunting sometimes but if you're studying by yourself then you have the freedom of setting your own pace. The SOAS students cover between 1 and 2 chapters every week, which does seem an advanced pace but then again, they have access to teachers and taught-lessons.Contrary to another review, this book does teach you the days of the week; they're included in a time phrases section which is really useful! I love that this book does not just bombard the user with lists of colours and farm animals as with a lot of language books. If you want to know those words, go study them yourself! How can you expect to learn everything from one book? Learning a language competently requires an effort on your part, so you can't rely on a book or a teacher. If you love the language,you'll make the effort. Languages are tough but they're worth it in the end, and this book teaches you Korean language in a way that you can utilise from the start, rather than messing around learning what is in your pencil case...Once you've finished this book (and possibly the separate workbook too) you can avoid flailing around looking for something to progress you learning now and just buy the second book, 'Continuing Korean'. This should bring you up to intermediate level (after that book, the next step for the SOAS students is the Korean year abroad!).Pros- great layout-many examples and sample dialogue- language you can utilise- exercises and 'review chapter' after every 5- forces you to use hangul almost straight away so you improve quickerCons- vocab lists are a little big to digest, but you can do it in small chunks- you have to buy the workbook if you want even more practise

This is not the best book to learn Korean with as it starts out with 'useful' phrases; however I wanted to learn how to form sentences straight away. I still haven't finished the book, but I guess those 'common' phrases help with practice and helps to spot the structure and grammar later on.The CD audio is nice as well, but I wish there was a online application or a download for the phone :/

Great book for korean study but some terms used in book can be outdated/no longer used within korea.