Customer Reviews

Mastering Korean with Cassettes (Foreign Service Institute Language Series)

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

 

 

Okay, I am the first to admit that I should have known better than to think that a book and tapes could help you "master" a language, but this book is almost useless. First, I don't know why, the book is romanized, which means that it uses the English alphabet. It is so hard to learn Korean this way. Secondly, the dialouges on the tapes are extremely fast. It is hard to follow and I speak some Korean. Thirdly, the examples are mindless substitutions. Easy, but useless. Anyway, I know there are not many good texts out there for Korean, and good ones with audio are rarer still, but I don't think that this is worth it.

It's a shame that the audiolingual method has so fallen out of favor with the language teaching literati. As a former EFL teacher in Korea I can say that communicative language teaching leaves a lot to be desired; as does any "method": a motivated learner creates her own opportunities; lack of motivation, with even the best "method" leads nowhere.
And so for motivated learners, this audiolingual course is a wonder. If you have the patience to put up with the seemingly mindless drills, this one course will give you a strong, unconscious foundation in Korean grammar. Your grammar will be as instinctive as Daniel's front blocks in "The Karate Kid" after he waxes all those cars.

I completely disagree with those who say that one must learn Hangul first. To this day in Korea I read the English street signs because, even after seven years, I'm faster at reading roman letters. Why does this matter? If you follow audiolingual methodology, you're forced to repeat things until you can say them at native speed. You're cautioned not to proceed to the next lesson until you have mastered the current one at native speed. To do so, you must be able to scan the given sentences quickly so as to repeat them quickly. I still can't do this in Hangul; it's easy in the romanization. After hours of drills at native speed, then, when you talk to people, even in your fledgling stage, they're going to understand you and, in Korea at least, give you the praise that will keep you studying.

If you learn Hangul first you won't acquire that ability to repeat so quickly, as you'll be trudging through the--yes, easy and scientific, but more difficult than the roman alphabet for English speakers--Hangul. You'll also be more likely to have one of the boring, occasionally jingoistic books that line the shelves here. This book cuts to the chase: No junk about four seasons and Tangun; all hard, memory-path-building exercises about taking the bus and going out to dinner.

If you put up with negligble faults: the funky roman letters, the guy's bizarre pronunciation (One of my Korean friends thought he was a non-native speaker of Korean), the formality, and the antiquated expressions (this was written a while ago), you'll be fine.

Not everyone can learn through the audiolingual method, but this course is worth a try.

If I were a diplomat smoothing out tensions between cold war rivals 50 years ago, with brylcreem in my hair and a cigarette holder, this would be the perfect course. If you care to speak Korean the way George Plimpton speaks English, then this is what you need. Deals almost exclusively in the formal polite tenses, the romanization they use takes as much time to learn as Hangul itself, and the print is so tight that it's impossible to tell what the hangul text is half the time. The vocabulary is outdated (No one calls a post office "upyonguk" anymore- it's "uchaeguk")and the editing is sloppy. Unfortunately, the lack of decent resources in self-taught korean actually make it worth buying for the mere fact that it is in print. Buy it because you need a foundation in Korean, not because you want to dabble in Korean for fun. Unless properly motivated, this will destroy any will you have to learn Korean.

This is the only really useful book I've found for learning to speak and understand. The tapes are complete and it's harder to make tapes than to make a book. As far as the book, the romanizing is annoying and hard to read but it translates pretty directly into han-gul and you can easily get used to going back and forth between the 2 phonetic representations.

The 12 tapes were helpful for listening and speaking/fluency practice but the book was NOT. I got so confused with the sound representation and symbols because it was Romanized (except for the dialogues starting on each unit.) It could have been better if the Korean words were printed in Han-gul. If you want to practice your reading and/or writing skill, try writing everything in the book in Han-gul or better yet, buy another book that focuses on these areas.

i was pumped to get this book..it came in a set with cassettes..but the printing is tiny, the characters run onto one another in some cases, and (according to my korean instructors) the grammar in some sections is outdated...not a great investment for someone who wants to learn the correct construction of characters or current grammatical techniques..

I was really disappointed with this book. I've been using the Yonsei University books to study Korean and wanted another series to supplement them. I saw the 5-star ratings and ordered this book sight unseen. Boy was I surprised and disappointed when I received it! All the Korean in the book is romanized. As anyone who has ever learned Korean can tell you, it's necessary to learn han-geul, the Korean alphabet at the very beginning of your studies. It only takes about three days to learn han-geul and then you can read everything. To have a whole book, like this one, written in romanized script is ridiculous and tedious. I find it really hard to believe that the U.S. Foreign Service uses this awful series to train its employees, as the advertisement claims. I wish I could get my money back.

This kit has text with vocabulary (romanized and hangul) and explanations of grammar and a long pronounciation instruction. I estimate vocabulary around 1200-1500 words, audio instruction of at least 12 hours on tape, and the text is 570 pp. The biggest fault is poor printing (small and at times fuzzy) so that two vowels in hangul are difficult to read or differentiate and the system of romanization has two vowels and a consonant hard to read/differentiate because they include a small case i and a small case l and a third (vowel) in between those two;furthermore, the course is old, dating back to the l960's. A small problem is that one of the speakers on tape has poor pronounciation, but I mostly get a chuckle out of him. As for Pimsleurs, I only see available a 5 cassette course without book (and a 6th tape that is a promo not an instruction) that I would not spend my money on. There is a new Pimsleurs course for $200+ due out very soon from Simon and Schuster, and I hesitate to spend that big until I have some idea what I am getting. Peter Castine

the typing is too small, the korean characters are typed in a font which makes recognizing some letters difficult, there is also some outdated grammar shown...suggestion for barron's: find an editor familiar with the korean language! too much money (especially in $CDN)

Of the books I have seen both in the U.S. and in Korea to help one learn Korean, this is definitely the best system. It includes both Hangul and Romanization allowing the student to wean himself or herself slowly off the Romanization. The tapes are complete, understandable and helpful. This course is more expensive than most, but if you really want to learn Korean, I highly recommend it.