Customer Reviews

Korean, Conversational: Learn to Speak and Understand Korean with Pimsleur Language Programs (Pimsleur Instant Conversation)

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

 

 

You have to ask yourself what you're going to get out of a program that consists of 16 30-minute units. You are not going to be fluent in Korean at the end of this course. I still can understand only snippets of Korean conversations. However this course gives you the basics to converse simply and ask simple questions in Korean. Although it is true that my Korean friends have said that some of the language on these CD's is stilted, most of it is acceptable. With the Korean language, you speak with different levels of respect to different people; and to teach you all the different ways to speak in this course would have been impossible. I pronunced some words/phrases wrong but this was a problem of my ear...my Korean friends heard the CD and had no problem with the Korean speakers. I therefore recommend this CD...mainly because my Korean friends understood me and were glad that I was making an effort to learn the language.

My wife is a native of Korea, and I got this to better communicate with her and her family. Each day I would go through a lesson and practice what I learned with her. But more than 70% of the time, she couldn't understand what I was saying. After getting across what I was trying to say, she said only someone born before 1930 would talk like that. I gave up after 10 lessons.

There's also no mention of grammar in the lessons. Now I'm not looking for the intricacies of linguistics, but in Korean, the verb comes at the end of the sentence. This is never mentioned! Instead they force you to memorize backwards English, "Now say, I would like 2 beers - literally I 2 beers would." Very confusing. They also say, "Sometimes you add the ending 'ga' to the end of words", but they fail to mention when and why. I had to look online to find the answer.

This is not a good place to learn Korean.

I got this for my family with high hopes. We have many Korean friends and wanted to understand what they were saying to each other. After practicing a few lessons we tried it out, but no one understood what we were saying. It turns out that the language used on the CD is out of date and doesn't emulate modern speakers. This isn't so bad (my experience learning Japanese at school was similar), but it also turns out that one of the "native speakers" on the CD actually has a strong Korean-American accent.

This is the fourth Korean Language system I have bought. I have Rosetta Stone, I have two others I can't even remember the names of,and i have to say, Pimsleur is by far, leaps and bounds better than all others. The explanations are clear, the way he rehearses you through the phrases makes the sentences stick with you and the sentences themselves are phrases that get you speaking Korean right away. I am so Happy I found this set. I am confident that at the end of the 16 lessons I will feel comfortable having a intelligent conversation. I recommend it highly...don't waste your money on systems that teach you how to say "apple" and "Napkin" when you can learn to have an intelligent converstation and know what you are saying. Five Stars indeed!