Customer Reviews

Essential Korean (English and Korean Edition)

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

 

 

As someone who has purchased or read just about all the Korean language books available on Amazon, I have to say that this is the best book/CD set that is available for the beginning student who wants to get acquainted with this beautiful language. While Essential Korean is designed for first-time and beginning students, I think students of the language at any level will find this resource useful mainly because of its excellent set of 5 CDs.

PROS:

As mentioned above this CD set is superb. This CD set is the best organized, has best sound quality and is LOADED with content. While essentially a vocabulary-building resource, certain stock and useful phrases are included that are indispensible in every day language.

The language is in the polite form and is consistent throughout the book. Unlike the awful Pimsleur CD set, this CD set does not waste time with a lot of filler and introduction and gets right to the point. Like it or not, repetition is the mother of all learning and this CD set has got this down perfectly. Essential Korean says the English translation once, then the Korean version twice. But here's the best part -- it moves quickly and covers a lot of ground. I find that this is a great way to learn vocabulary while driving in the car. During an hour commute you can hear about a hundred different words and then when you come home from work you listen to the same 100 words again. After a couple days of this there's a good chance that you might have most of the words memorized by heart, and for sure you'll be able to recognize the word if you were to hear it on the street.


The very best part of the recordings is that there is no attempt to speak slowly to the listener in an unnatural fashion. The words are spoken as you would hear them in every day speech. That being said, the words are quite clear and comprehendible.

Cons:

Very little grammar. Actually, to be more specific -- no grammar lessons. This is not necessarily a con because this book and CD set is not designed for teaching grammar, parts of speech. The focus is on vocabulary and "essential" phrases and this book and CD does an excellent job of sticking to what it is good at. This is also only a general overview of the language and there is no pretense made (a la Pimsleur) that you will somehow be able to converse fluently in the language after listening to the CD set. Will will be able to communicate and get your point across which is what a beginning student, businessman or a tourist visiting Korea for the first time would want to be able to do.

All-in-all, this is the best book/CD set for the absolute beginning student for the money. Even students who have been studying Korean for a while should find this CD set useful for pronounciation practice and because there is quite an extensive vocabulary on the 5 CD set, especially towards the end of the book and on the last CD.

In the book all the words are given with a romanized version of the Korean word (for pronunciation purposes and for those who don't know hangul), the English translation and then finally the word in hangul. The book and the tapes are organized by subject starting from the very basic expressions and ending with a great glossary of terms. I found the sections listing law, political, and academic terms quite useful as were the listing of all the terms for the different animals, flowers and plants. This is an excellent resource even for an advanced student!

Excellent quality. A superb attention to detail. Well planned and organized and at a decent price. I would recommend this to anyone interested in the Korean language.

This is a very helpful and thorough reference work on Korean language. It covers a number of useful situations and words and expressions, both for living and traveling in Korea and for working there. The CD is extremely useful at speaking and hearing the language at a normal pace and can provide one with immediately useful tools. Unfortunately, it does include a number of English words with Korean pronounciation; it might be preferable to have only focused on Korean words and phrases, as most English speakers will recognize any words with a Korean pronounciation with no difficulty. Overall, a good value, especially for anyone contemplating spending some time in Korea, either for work or travel.

I highly recommend Essential Korean for anyone who has little or no prior knowledge of Korean but wants to quickly learn some commonly-used Korean words and phrases. This book is particularly useful for anyone who is thinking about traveling to Korea or anyone who plans to interact with Koreans in the near future. My mother is from Korea, but I was never taught Korean as a child. As an adult, I have become more interested in learning the language, particularly after I visited Korea with my mother. I was so frustrated that I couldn't even ask, "How much is it?" when I was at the store. Essential Korean was recommended to me by a friend who found it extremely effective. I'm so glad I learned about it, because after a few short days of listening to the Essential Korean CDs in my car while driving to and from work, I learned several commonly-used phrases and words (including "How much is it?"). I was so excited to be learning and remembering Korean expressions that I called my mother to practice my new Korean vocabulary. She was extremely impressed and told me that the words and phrases I had memorized were not easy expressions to learn. Essential Korean made it easy to memorize new words and phrases as well as pronounce them properly.

I have tried to study Korean language books in the past, but my busy life has always inevitably gotten in the way of studying consistently. And when I would come back to study, I'd find I had forgotten everything I had learned before. Essential Korean has made it easy to retain what I've learned because it encourages practice and repetition of Korean words and phrases. The narrator on the CD speaks clearly and says each word or phrase three times before moving on to another word or expression. Every day that I've practiced Korean with the Essential Korean CD's, I have learned a few more words and expressions. In just a few weeks I feel like I have the ability to say and understand some common expressions in Korean and would even feel confident enough to speak Korean to a stranger who is a native-speaker!

One thing that I always worry about when I attempt to say something in Korean is that I might be using an impolite form of Korean. This book does a great job of teaching expressions with the proper honorifics so that you don't have to worry or even think about whether or not you are using a polite form of language when saying something in Korean.

I am so glad I found this extremely useful tool to help me learn Korean. For those like me who become easily frustrated when learning a new language, and for those who think learning Korean is impossible, this book will really be perfect for you. You will find that you will be speaking Korean before you know it after reading the book and listening to the CDs. If you are short on time, you will still be able to learn each day by playing the CDs and listening and practicing while commuting.

I strongly recommend Essential Korean for anyone who would like to learn some commonly-used Korean words and expressions in a short amount of time.

I bought this book because of the five star rating but I was highly disappointed. First, the actual size is so small that you have to squint to read the Korean properly. Since I know the written form (Hangul), this was extremely important to me. Secondly, the Korean speaker sounds like a digitalized voice, not a native speaker. It does, however, have a lot of vocabulary, although most of it are nouns, which is great for word recognition but does very little when actually listening to a Korean conversation.