Intermediate College Korean [Paperback]

Clare You (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520222954 | ISBN-13: 978-0520222953 | Publication Date: November 5, 2001 | Edition: 1

This companion volume to College Korean (California, 1992) enables students to continue their development of Korean language skills and to enrich their understanding of Korea. Because language is a fundamental component of culture, the text incorporates themes relating to Korea's cultural customs and social issues, presented in the form of dialogues, anecdotes, short essays, and poems. Also included are themes tied to the country's physical geography, including major cities, islands, and historical sites.
Each lesson consists of a situation dialogue, core vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, grammar, and exercises on reading and listening comprehension. The vocabulary uses adult-level words from the media and professional worlds and ranges from computer terms to martial arts. Unlike other Korean language texts, Intermediate College Korean goes well beyond everyday survival skills and offers students a much wider exposure to both the language and culture of Korea.
A reference section includes an index to patterns and grammar notes, a glossary, spelling tips, a list of connectives, and irregular verb charts.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Clare You is Lecturer in the Department of East Asian Languages at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2003 she was awarded the Korean National Silver Medal of Culture for her work in the advancement of Korean culture, including language texts and translations. Eunsu Cho is Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (November 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520222954
• ISBN-13: 978-0520222953
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #773,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #67 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Korean
  • #95 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Korean

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super! Unbelievable! Awesome!!!, September 17, 2008

By 

Plotinus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intermediate College Korean (Paperback)

This book is excellent. It really works. If you're a beginner, then get the "College Korean" book by the same authors and work through it first. This book complements it nicely. If you are already somewhat competent in Korean, then this book is all you need. What I recommend is to copy out the dialogues, all the vocabulary, every example and all the grammar lessons in han-geul, rather than just reading them. (Don't copy the English of course! Just the Han-geul!) This makes you much quicker at learning and retaining them, and also makes you an expert speller and quick at writing. Then, do the exercises too, copying out the questions first. The dialogues cover the whole spectrum of Korean life, so they are excellent for your cultural education, above and beyond linguistic. This textbook weaves cultural and language learning together so you kill two birds with one stone, and at the same time makes it doubly interesting to study with! It cleverly chooses the most important aspects of Korean culture, so that you aren't caught off-guard or clueless about any major part of what is unique about Korean life. I can't believe how quickly my Korean is improving. Unbelievable! I am very thankful for this book! To give you an idea of how effective and absolutely brilliant this textbook is, after chapter 4 I was freely and naturally exchanging detailed emails with Korean friends, and at chapter 6 I was having long and entertaining conversations with Korean friends face to face! I should point out that I am not Korean (I'm of English-Canadian and Ukrainian-Canadian stock) and, beyond the basic, survival-level Korean, this is the only study book I have used. So, I'm living proof it's tremendously and remarkably effective! Going from mute to fluent in a month totally freaked out my Korean friends! I'm very happy with this book! By the way, this text goes beyond just an "intermediate" level. It basically takes you all the way from the end of beginner/survival level, all the way to the advanced level, which means you can talk to anyone, and are pretty handy with websites, books and magazines. Stupendous! The authors and editors are way too humble in their very modest claims of "improved fluency" et cetera. We're talking about a night and day difference between beginning and end, from being unable to really talk at all to becoming the life of the party. Amazing!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Continuation, needs one thing more, September 8, 2008

By 

Timothy J. Spencer (Federal Way, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Intermediate College Korean (Paperback)

Having worked through College Korean, this was the perfect continuation, providing review of patterns with an expansion of vocabulary. Book would have been considerably enhanced by the inclusion of an answer key for those of us doing self-study.

I learned Korean in the Peace Corps many years ago, but have forgotten much. This book is ideal for recapturing much of the vocab that has escaped me over the years.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good advanced textbook, November 16, 2005

By 

Edmund W. Poor "Uncle Ed" (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Intermediate College Korean (Paperback)

If you already know a lot of Korean, this is is a good textbook. The stories that begin each chapter follow the adventures of Hyun-bae, a US-raised Korean traveling to Korea on summer vacation to perfect his Korean skills. I really liked the first story, with him being so polite to the mother of the crying baby on the plane and the middle-aged man distracting him by asking about his studies.

The grammar explanations are clear, with plenty of examples. Pronunciations of words like chak-ha-da = cha-ka-da are given in Hangul. Some of the grammar exercises were just too hard for me to figrue out, which is the only reason I don't give it another star.