Customer Reviews

Korean For Dummies

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

 

 

First of all, I'd like to admit that I don't own the book, but I used the Look Inside feature to sample it. I've been living in Korea for over 10 years, and have learned to speak Korean reasonably well. This book may serve someone who is casually interested in Korean, but for someone who really wants to learn Korean, it has at least one obvious drawback. The words aren't written in Korean. Korean has it's own phonetic writing system which is very easy to learn (I taught my mother the basics in only 2 hours). Furthermore, Korean pronunciation is significantly different from English that trying to write Korean words in English (or vice versa) is pretty futile.

If you just want to scan through, pick up a couple phrases like "Hello" and "Thank you", along with some cultural tips, this book would probably be fine for you. If you're really looking to study Korean, go elsewhere.

I really like the "For Dummies" series. So as a student of Korean, I was looking forward to this book being released, because it had been advertised for about a year before it was available.

So I rushed to buy my copy. I am so disappointed with it.

The main drawback with this book is that it does not use the Korean alphabet (Hangul) - instead it uses a system of romanization, together with a phonetic guide to the words. This combination results in amazingly stupid tables of phrases, with "korean" phrases written in romanized korean (of no use to anyone), and the "phonetic" rendition of the script given alongside. So if you want to use this book, you need to learn a romanized version of Korean script! My worry is, that if this were the first book someone tried, they would attempt to learn the romanized Korean, later finding that it was a complete waste of time. Crazy.

I cannot say the book is completely useless. I wish I could. There is value here, for example, the discussion of how to physically place your tongue in your mouth in order to make the famously difficult r/l sound of Korean is good, and I have not seen it elsewhere. However, if in a future release the ridiculous romanized script were to be replaced with Korean script (by all means, keeping the phonetic renditions - they are helpful), it would become immensely more valuable.

Overall, I cannot recommend this book for sole purchase. It may be a useful second or third string book for anyone really interested in Korean.

Korean for Dummies is a hybrid cross between a phrase/culture book and a Korean textbook. I can see why the book receives both 5-star and 1-star reviews. If you are a complete novice, this book gives you the basic phrases and enables you to hear the language on the accompanying CD. For the academic study of Korean, this is NOT a good supporting textbook. As the introduction states, "Each chapter is organized so that you can look up and say a little something in the many situations that you may encounter while shopping, traveling, eating, and so on."

The book is organized like other dummy books, in digestible-sized portions by situation. The details and the fact that it is in roman letters (instead of the native Hangul script) means an English speaker can use an alphabet they already know and get close enough in pronouncing the words to make sense, but not so close that they sound native.

If I wanted to learn a little Korean for a trip, I would read this book a few times, listen to the CD while driving around, then travel with a smaller phrasebook. If I really wanted to study and learn Korean, I would go with a full language course (Berlitz, Living Language, or Rosetta Stone), or take a formal college course.

My girlfriend is korean as many of my friends, so that's why I decided to look for different ways to learn Korean.
As other languages I've learned, you start with the basics, and the korean's basic is the Hangul, or the Korean Alphabet. This books does not have any word in Hangul, so this is the first bad feature of this book.
Another basic is some grammatic, which is not one of the features of this book.
This book basically goes through several expressions for typical situations.
If you want a tool where you can learn some words and expressions, this is your book, but do not count on any methodology to understand etymologies, neither to understand korean in such way you could create your own phrases.

This book is a great place to start when trying to learn the Korean language. I am a little disappointed in the Cd that came with the book. The Cd is made up of many different conversations using Korean. It would be better if after the lines were said in Korean, they were repeated in English. Only hearing the Korean language doesn't help when you are first learning.

Usually, I don't read any of the "... For Dummies" books, because that's a pretty strong word to use. But, this one caught my attention.

As a tae kwon do student, we learn phrases and other basics in the Korean language. But, often, I've wondered the background of the words, and the cultural details.

"Korean For Dummies" is an easy to follow guide in not only speaking Korean, but also in understanding the non-spoken, implied social rules of the Korean culture.

For those who think, "Korean? I can't use that?" I say, "Think again." We are more global. And, if you relate the words, phonetics, and the social rules to something that you are familiar with, learning Korean can be easy, enjoyable, and profitable.

Because there are many Korean Americans in my area, I find it fascinating to walk into their businesses, greeting them with the same animation as I would with mainstream American owned businesses - only this is in their language. And they appreciate my interest in who they are.

Of particular interest in this book, is what they said about writing checks. We in the US, write our checks for the amount to withdraw from our bank accounts. In Korea, you don't withdraw money from your account so freely.

"Korean For Dummies" is a great guide to help you to build rapport Koreans in your area.

The cd that accompanies this, though, is not a good tool, unless you want to use it to listen to Korean being spoken, so that you acquire a mind set for the language. There are no translations in the cd - just opportunities to hear Korean dialogues.

Very good primer for anyone wanting to learn how to speak and understand Korean. In fact, the best guide I've been able to find so far (I studied Korean while I was stationed in Korea and bought several books and tapes, but this guide has been more useful than formal classes I attended).

I bought the book in an attempt to learn some of the basics of Korean and found the book rather useless. It doesn't provide any of the background, grammar, alphabet, etc and instead dives straight into conversations. It may be more useful for someone who already knows some Korean and just wants to practice speaking.

I got this book, like, when it first came out. It was LITTERED with obvious typos! They would forget periods, to close off parenthesis, leave off half of a sentence, it's pathetic. I found grammar errors too, grammar errors that Koreans commonly make. This book was written by Koreans. I think they should have had a native-English speaker proofread it. To a native-English speaker like myself, those grammar mistakes are obvious. So it's obvious they didn't have one read it.

The book also has other, major flaws, but the other people who gave this book a negative review explain those quite well so I shall be silent.

It would get that last star if it had any hangul in it. Otherwise, it's perfect. I've learned so much vocabulary and things about culture that would've taken me ages to learn without this book. I strongly recommend it for someone who's trying to learn Korean. :)