5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Beginning Korean, February 25, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Beginning Korean (Paperback)
Excellent content but the Romanization makes the book difficult to use and compromises the text's value. This book could be improved by publishing a version in Hangul/English in the style of "College Korean" by Rogers, You, and Richards.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not good for beginners, May 28, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Beginning Korean (Paperback)
My wife and I had a lot of trouble understanding this book. It does not give enough basic rules before starting the lessons, plus it does not use Hangul at all.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great but not for beginners, February 18, 2011
This review is from: Beginning Korean (Paperback)
This is a book that focuses on spoken Korean, consequently it is written entirely in romanization. Those learning Korean are missing out on a great book if they reject it simply because it is written in romanization, self-learners in particular.
I started using Martin & Lee's book after completing a few other books on Korean because eventhough I felt confident reading Korean I was not as confident speaking it. So I decided to get a book that focused entirely on the spoken language. With this book, I feel I got more than I bargained for.
The way that Martin explains Korean grammar in such a simple yet thorough manner is pure genious, very few teachers can do such a thing. This book is very unique in this respect. If you know basic or intermediate Korean but still struggle with the grammar you should get this book. Martin explains things in a very clear and detailed way, he particularly focuses on things that Western learners struggle with, such as the different uses of subject and topic markers (i/ka, un/nun). Of all the books I've used on Korean Martin gives the most comprehensive explanations of Korean grammar, better than Francis Park even.
What makes this book truly unique and very different from others are its insightful explanations of the grammar: when you read the book you can tell that the author is a person who has spent a lot of time thinking about the language, how everything is connected and so on. You get the feeling that this is someone who knows what he is talking about.
'Beginning Korean' covers about as much as Park's 'Speaking Korean I & II', i.e. basics + intermediate + some advanced material. Martin's book is more of a 'complete grammar' book with some readings and exercises attached. I hope I get it across to the reader that Martin covers a lot of grammar, and in detail.
A nice touch is that Martin & Lee write the romanization in way that reflects the actual Hangul script: coh.a yo, chac.e yo, ilk.e yo...so that if you know Hangul already you can mentally see the words in Hangul when you read the romanization.
After using this book I do not hesitate to say that this is the most comprehensive [single] book I have ever used in learning Korean. Even though books such as those by Francis Park are essential for developing good reading skills, Martin's book was better in helping me to speak Korean well and in understanding the language itself. Great books such as Martin's and Park's should be seen as complements, because together they cover all the aspects of learning Korean.
The only negative things I can say about the book is that Martin & Lee's explanation of the Yale romanized sounds could have been better, the reader who decides to get this book should do a quick search on the web and get better descriptions of them, just type in 'Yale system Korean'. Also, there are no answer keys to the exercises, which is a significant issue for true beginners. There's no audio either.
Because the book doesn't come with any audio and does not include answer keys I can only recommend this book to those who know some Korean already and are looking to improve their knowledge of grammar and improve their spoken skills. If you have worked through Francis Park's books or similar, then this is great book to learn more detailed grammar, I think it will clear-up a lot of the issues you might have.
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