Customer Reviews

201 Korean Verbs : Fully Conjugated in All Aspects, Moods, Tenses, And Formality Levels

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Verb conjugation books are extremely useful for foreign language learners. This book is the only book that presents conjugation tables for Korean verbs. Unfortunately, this book has two serious flaws. First, the conjugation tables are entirely Romanized! Any student who enrolls in a beginning level Korean course learns Hangeul the first week. It is probably the easiest alphabet in the world to learn. Since most learners of Korean acquire new vocabulary and verb endings through Hangeul not Romanized spellings, this book is difficult to use. The Romanized spellings all look like Greek to me! I sincerely hope the author of this book writes a Hangeul edition.

A second, lesser flaw is that conjunctive endings are not included. Verbs are conjugated differently when attached to conjunctions, such as "myeon" (if) and "seo" (because). Since English verbs are conjugated in the same way whether in the dependent clause or the main clause, combining Korean verbs with conjunctive endings is confusing for English speakers. Irregular verbs are a particular problem since sometimes the verb follows the irregular pattern and sometimes it does not, depending on the initial sound of the conjunction. A verb conjungation book should include the formation of verbs with conjunctive endings.

Korean is not a popular foreign language, so there is a paucity of good materials; I hope someone in the field of Korean as a Foreign/Second Language education reads this and writes a more complete, user-friendly verb guide.

How silly was this? I didn't know this book would be romanized. Could you imagine a native Korean speaker trying to learn English without knowing the Roman alphabet? His entire textbook filled with English words written in the Korean alphabet? That's exactly how silly it is to try to learn Korean in the Roman alphabet. I had no idea what those words were! Like the other guy said, "i cheakul saji maseyo"

I completely agree with the previous reviews, I'm just glad I first saw it on the local library shelf rather than in a delivery box. I went ahead and checked it out thinking I could make some use of it. Yeah, right! The fact that it is romanized is bad enough, but the romanization used is the most arcane and abstruse versions out there. I've studied Korean for two years and at first glance can't read any of it. I might try and convince my wife to translate it into hangul, but she would have to stop laughing first.

Don't waste your money with this book... I did ....it's sitting on my bookshelf.... and it really should be in the trash! I guess I'm keeping it so I can see how useless something can be when it's not written in hangul. If anybody has reached the level where they are studying verb conjugations, they certainly have learned how to read hangul....

I did not know when ordering this book it was ROMANIZED or I would have never purchased it! Due to the price vs the cost of shipping its not worth my time or money to send back.

AMAZON.COM should list in the short description the book is romanized not written in Hangul! I tried contacting the author at the university the book claims he is a professor at, he is not on staff there(8/99). The book was written in 1988.

I'm giving the doorstop three stars because it is a bangup idea. There are practically no english to korean resources on the market and to have a resource like this next to my dictionary would be great. The blows at Yonsei sure dont have a clue about good resources. (I recommend Ganada in Hongik dae [°¡³ª'Ù Çѱ¹¾îÇпø; ¿¬»õó·³ ±×·±µ¥ ¹Ý°ªÀÌ'Ù!]) To Mr. Song: please do it again, sir, in hangul. Once is never enough from a man like you.

To you money hungry publishing executives out there: I know there is a huge market out there for good and easy to use resources for learners of korean from english. Kyopos everywhere! And parents who want them to speak korean....get it? You're killing us with stuff the other way; you're also killing us with resources for Japanese and Chinese; what about some help for those of us who want to speak the korean language!

So please kyosunim, help us with better resources for learning korean. I'll buy the first one....

Like the other reviewer, I was disappointed by the lack of Hangul characters. In romanizing the Korean verbs, the author makes the book virtually impossible to use. The effort of converting the romanized syllables back into pure Korean is not worth the effort. However, if the author came out with a Hangul edition, I'd buy it in a minute!

I've done the spanish, english, and italian versions of this book, all excellent,..this korean verb book,..however,..hmm,..first of all, I wonder why they only present 200 verbs? pretty skimpy. also, I'd find this much more useful, as a student of korean, if they'd have used both the romanization AND the hangul alphabet. other than that, I am finding it useful..and frustrating. I'd give anything if they'd rewrite this book in the korean alphabet.

It always blows my mind when Korean language textbooks present the language in romanized form. Trying to learn Korean grammar, vocabulary, etc. prior to learning the alphabet is like trying to put on your shoes before your pants. Everyone who studies Korean learns the alphabet first--what are they thinking?

I got this book from the library and I wouldn't buy it either. Like it was said before, hangeul (Korean alphabet) is very easy to learn, I learned it in three days. A version of this book in hangeul would be excellent, but as it is, it's mediocre. A good concept, but poor execution. I went to Yonpoong and Kyobo bookstores in Seoul to find a good book on Korean verbs but couldn't find anything in English. I guess my Korean conjugation guide will have to be my wife, but she is more interested in learning English than teaching Korean. Oh well.