Elementary Korean: Second Edition (Includes Access to Website for Native Speaker Audio Recordings)

The information presented in Elementary Korean is essentially the backbone of my present Korean ability. In each lesson, aspects of Korean grammar are nicely layered on to what you have already learned in the previous lessons. Plus, this book forces you to learn Hangul because romanization is not given after the fourth lesson. This makes it a good resource for those intimidated by the Korean writing system.This book is an authentic textbook (like something one would certainly use in an university Korean language course), but it is well-equipped for the self-learner as well. The vocabulary presented in this text is clear and relevant; however, you won't realize this until the sixth lesson (Lesson 5 introduces some odd vocabulary like "imported goods"). Also, the grammar notes are just detailed enough so that one can grasp the information without much external help.The dialogues presented at the beginning of each lesson are informative and sometimes amusing. And, usually, there are additional sentences for reading after the dialogues. The book provides many examples for each of the Korean grammar concepts it teaches, so you will learn exactly how to use them. It should also be noted that this book mainly deals with the polite style of Korean speech, but it introduces the other styles as well.The audio CD contains native speakers acting out the dialogues and reading the example sentences used in each lesson. Unfortunately, only the vocabulary from Lesson 5 is read on the CD. Personally, I find that the readers speak too quickly, but this can be easily remedied by slowing down the audio with Windows Media Player or something similar.The end-of-lesson exercises are highly pertinent to the material presented in the text, and the answers for every exercise is presented in the back of the book. I have noticed, however, that a few of the answers are incorrect. Ultimately, I suggest buying Elementary Korean Workbook along with this text. The lessons are thoroughly expounded in the workbook, and you get additional listening practice as well.On a final note, there is an index and glossary in the back. The Hanja for certain terms are displayed in the glossary, but this feature is not that useful for beginners with no background in Chinese characters.I thoroughly recommend this textbook for any newcomer to the Korean language.

Besides the fact it took me about 8 months to finish the book, and i skipped parts I knew already, I'd say the explanations weren't as clear as in other books. The book doesn't focus enough on certain parts, and on others it focuses too much.The product itself was good, no damages or torn pages. Good for beginners but would need to watch videos or use other books afterwards to review and make sure what you learned is correct.Vocabulary in the book is huge but most of it isn't relevant for people who are learning the language for regular purposes. Overall 6/10

Before anything else, I'd like to mention that this is overall a great book and everyone learns differently, so my experience will always be different than yours.I have been studying Korean off and on for almost 10 years. Because of inconsistency I am far from fluent, but I would say that I have a very solid foundation and have completed numerous courses, books, podcasts, etc. I absolutely recommend getting this book as a secondary+ material to work through after forming a foundation of your own. I also >absolutely< recommend you grab the workbook as each lesson tends to throw tons of vocabulary at you along with a lot of just reading in English explaining the lesson's topic. Having the workbook to practice alongside the reading is a great way to exercise your brain and really hold onto what they're teaching. If anything, I'd suggest the workbook alone over this book by itself, ESPECIALLY if you have aforementioned foundation and would like to challenge yourself.I feel the need to add that you should before *anything* else learn hangul. Don't let yourself rely on transliterations. The key to language learning is avoiding thinking in your native language and learning hangul is a big step to get to that point. If you can already read hangul the whole intro is skippable.Personally, I've never enjoyed any book's hangul lessons and have found online resources to be much more helpful. Although the workbook has a great beginning section for practicing hangul, you could just as easily print out similar sheets from online via your local library, fedex, etc. All of that to say: Learn hangul and probably don't waste money doing so.OK. All of that out of the way, a big problem I have with this book is their way of trying to "simplify" things by basically teaching you the wrong way. It might seem helpful to a completely new student, but I promise it will hurt down the line when looking at other materials.Examples of this would be that they don't teach you verbs in their dictionary form. More often than not they grab what they refer to as the "verb stem" and have you "conjugate" with that. Instead what they are giving you is a partially conjugated stem and strange conjugation rules that feel like someone's cram notes. As someone familiar already with 99% of the vocabulary and grammar points used, I'm able to decipher and still take something away from this strange teaching style. In that sense it sometimes helps hearing the new, sometimes strange, methods. BUT if I had started with this book and moved on to a more standard explanation or even just encountered a new verb in the wild I'm confident that I would be beyond confused.This is just one example of many versions of their strange explanations. I >highly< recommend this book after going through one or two other beginner level courses. A personal favorite that I think is beyond beginner friendly is Living Language's 3 book set.All in all, I recommend going through to the advanced level from this series, but making sure to alternate between various sources. Think of this series as a great and thorough review with new explanations that may or may not help sometimes! Don't rely on this book to teach you your foundations, instead let it further and exercise what you already know.Finally, from one language learner to another:You don't have to fully understand every grammar point and memorize every new word, before moving on. Don't exhaust yourself repeating the same chapter over and over. Push through! Keep moving forward and exposing yourself to the language. Everything circles back around. Try working through multiple beginner courses! That one particle you didn't understand might make sense the next time it comes up! You don't have to get it all now, just keep showing your brain Korean and it will start to slowly make sense. It won't happen overnight, but I believe in you! You can do it <3