Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary Korean/English English/Korean [Turtleback]

Langenscheidt Publishers (Editor), Langenscheidt Editorial (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1585730564 | ISBN-13: 978-1585730568 | Publication Date: February 15, 2001

Ideal for everyday use, this Pocket Korean-English, English-Korean Dictionary contains a wealth of authentic idiomatic expressions, up to date words, and romanization of all Korean characters. The Korean-English section is arranged alphabetically according to pronunciation. Over 40,000 references.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Since 2000. Hammond, American Map, Langenscheidt Dictionaries, Insight Travel Guides, Delorme – the famous names in the Langenscheidt family. These represent the most authoritative, up-to-date, and extensive travel and reference products available. In January 2003, the renowned Berlitz Publishing became part of the Langenscheidt Group. The Langenscheidt Publishing Group, the premier group of map and travel companies, offers over 4,000 North American and international street maps, road maps, atlases, language-learning, bilingual dictionaries, and travel-related products covering countries, cities, and languages in every continent.

Product Details

• Turtleback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Langenscheidt Publishers (February 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585730564
• ISBN-13: 978-1585730568
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #841,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Korean

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great for those with no knowledge of Hangul BUT..., May 25, 2003

By 

B. Fang "Audio Mercenary" (Brisbane, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary Korean/English English/Korean (Turtleback)

I bought this at a time when I had no knowledge of Hangul at all (about 2 months ago). My oh my how much things can change within 2 months (a testament to the ease of learning the Korean alphabet). This dictionary is now only used to double check pronounciation and to look for phrases in English to Korean that I can't work out or find in my preferred Korean<->English dictionary, "Minjung's Pocket English-Korean, Korean-English Dictionary".

PRO'S: Romanization makes it easy for beginners with pronounciation of Korean. Font and typeface are very well presented. English to Korean section provides well thought out translations and variants into Korean. Compact size.

CON'S: Korean section is by romanization first, bad if you are looking for a Korean word in Hangul on the quick. Doesn't cover phrase endings (-nida, -yo, etc, etc...found this the most frustrating when using this dictionary for translation work).

Overall, this is a good dictionary, don't get me wrong about that. You'll just need to supplement it with a more robust dictionary from one of the Korean publishers (Minjung or Dong-ah) to get the most out of your Korean studies.

P.S. As other's have mentioned, if you get this with the "Elementary Korean" text, they are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE. Invest in a Korean-published dictionary if you get that text first before you get this Langenscheidt one.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compact & Useful Everyday Dictionary, January 23, 2005

By 

Hong M. Sharon "@SweetStoryCafe" (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary Korean/English English/Korean (Turtleback)

I am a student of Korean and this pocket dictionary was the first Korean dictionary I bought to aid me in my studies. The compact size of this dictionary makes it very easy and convenient to carry around, and it’s perfect for people on the go. (That is, no more suffering under the weight of a full dictionary!) ^^

The English-Korean, Korean-English dictionary format makes it handy to look up and translate words both ways. And the dictionary also comes with a pronunciation guide, which is also handy for beginners. I find the pronunciation guide extremely useful and convenient. In Korean, the way a word is pronounced depends on whether a particular consonant is in the front, middle or end of the word, the pronunciation guide somewhat answers this by telling you how placement of a consonant can affect the pronunciation. For example, “T” is “T” when at the start and end of the word and “D” in the middle of vowels.

Also, this dictionary is arranged according to romanization, making it easy for beginners to lookup a word by “pronunciation”. The inclusion of Hangul is another major plus since you can check how to write a particular word in Korean. The vocabulary here are written in dictionary form rather than spoken form, so if you’re trying to use certain words to SAY something, you’ll need to convert it to the spoken form. For example, in this dictionary, “to watch” in the dictionary form is “poda”, so to say “I’m watching…” you’ll need to change it to “…pwayo”. Unfortunately, the dictionary doesn't address this but then again, it's a dictionary, not a textbook. ^^ I guess this is the same with most Korean dictionaries, so you’ll need to have some knowledge of the Korean language to be able to use this dictionary to your advantage.

It’s also easy to look for phrasal verbs and vocabulary with the same “words” you’re looking for. For example, you can find under “watch” the noun and verb form (and explanation), as well as “watch for”, “watch out”, “watch out for” and so forth. This is extremely useful and convenient especially when looking out for common, everyday words. The only drawback I had with this dictionary is that certain Korean words can be really hard to find, especially in the “Korean-English” section if you don’t know the exact romanization letters.

Although I wouldn’t say this is a perfect dictionary for fluent Korean speakers as it doesn’t provide as much words and extensive information as a complete dictionary do, it is, nevertheless, an excellent dictionary and guide for everyday use and people on the move as it covers useful and commonly used words. If you're tired of browsing through “thick” dictionaries just to find that simple, everyday word you want, give this a try. :)

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ONE OF THE BEST, June 20, 2003

By 

Glossika "Glossika" (China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary Korean/English English/Korean (Turtleback)

This is one of the best I've seen for beginner-intermediate levels for several reasons:
The dictionary offers both hangul and romanization for everything, and this is one of the better romanization schemes I've seen because it works in the morphophonological changes to match real pronunciation. I'm good at hangul and familiar with several romanizations such as Yale like what is used in linguistic publications. The romanization used in this dictionary is very good, and I recommend it for beginners.

The Korean-English section is listed in alphabetical order by romanization. Unless you're mentally challenged, it's very easy to use and words are easy to find. For example, only the unvoiced letters are found at the beginning of words: ch, k, p, t; So there aren't j, g, b, d entries.

The English-Korean section has some of the best coverage of English vocabulary found lacking in many foreign language dictionaries, such as phrasal verbs and more colloquial usage including various uses of vulgar language. For example, almost every way we can use "take" or "get" in English is described and phrasal verbs get their own entries, such as "take out (from bag, pocket) kko(naeda; stain chiuda; appendix, tooth ppopptta; word from text ppaenaeda; money from bank inch'urhada; (to dinner etc) terigo nagada; insurance policy ...e tu(lda; take it out on s.o. nuguege hwap'urihada". All the other phrasal verbs starting with "take" have similarly detailed entries. If you want to say "crash" you'll have to know that a thunder crash (chi'da), a market crash (punggoehada), a computer crash (kojangnada), and to crash when you want to sleep (chada) all have different ways to say in Korean (but you'll still have to come up with your objects to those verbs--it does effectively translate crash). This dictionary details it all out.

The vocabulary is up-to-date including words and phrases like "surf the Net".

For people who study or have studied Japanese, the Langenscheidt Japanese one has the same English entries for easy comparison between the two languages. I use both in addition to other dictionaries by Minjung Seorim. These dictionaries have been well-planned, it is too bad that many students of Korean get tunnel-vision with their dictionaries. (The Japanese version which has been planned in the same way has 5-stars). If you can learn to read Hangul, then you can read this romanization too, and both are included in the dictionary. That makes it all the better.

I hope Langenscheidt comes out with a larger, more advanced version up to par with their European language dictionaries.