Klear-Integ Korean Beg:1 TX Pa

I am currently taking Korean 101 in college, and this is the textbook we are using. The textbook is very affordable and very easy to learn from. Perhaps most important is the books usefullness as a vocabular and grammar reference. Here is a short list of some of the parts of the book: -An introduction to Korean -An explanation of the Korean alphabet (easy to learn) -Short sections on Korean culture -Dialogues at the begining of each chapter and throughout the chapters -Online audio files of each dialogue and vocabulary list -Clearly organized vocabulary lists (by word type and subject) -Usefull Korean to English and English to Korean dictionary -Very usefull grammar reference at the back of the book I found the explanations very clear, and the chapters well organized. The references are especially usefull for looking up words or grammar usage. Although there is not as much Korean culture mixed in as there is in French textbooks that I have used. I don't see this to be a problem since there is plenty more up to date cultural information online. Information about how culture influences the language is mixed in, which is important for understanding concepts like which form of speech to use (honorific, polite, etc.), as well as using "Our brother" instead of "My brother." Additionaly and perhaps most important is the fact that no romanization is used except perhaps in the introductory chapter. There isn't that much audio from the book online, so I would really suggest either talking with someone who knows Korean, or listening / watching something in Korean, but that's true for any language. However, vowels are really important and you're likely to mess them up if you don't have someone correct you. My friend Leo says the cover is ugly, but I disagree.

I finished Book 1 and just started on Book 2. The material is well paced out, without too much crammed into one chapter. Good division of the new vocabularly in each chapter into Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, etc to aid learning. There is also a small section on difficult to pronounce words. The Grammar is clear but not as well organized as Ross' Elementary Korean, which I considered the best in terms of grammar exposition for beginners. Dialogs are well crafted and practical. A narrative prose passage after the dialogs summarizes the contents of the dialogs. This provides valuable training in reading prose, complementing the direct speech in the dialogs. A few easy exercises come after each topic segment covered, to reinforce the key points. Pictorial sketches go with some of the exercises to stimulate visual memory as an aid to learning, which I find quite helpful. I dont have the WorkBooks so I c'ant tell if there are enough good & challenging exercises there to reinforce the rather easy exercises provided in the text. Some have complained about the lack of a CD to aid aural comprehension. However, most of the audio material is available on the web at: http://languagelab.bh.indiana.edu/korean101.html http://www.indiana.edu/~korean/K101/week1.html I found the web material generally well recorded and adequate providing valuable aural training. Overall, this series, without doubt, ranks with Ross' Elementary Korean as best in its class.

In my previous review I told you abt the things that were great. The only thing BAD is that according to my professors, not all of the section where they tell you how to pronounce the words (as opposed to how its spelled) is correct. But only a few examples out of each group of 15 words or so. Very minor.

I've already gone through this first book and the 2nd edition of the Integrated Korean series. I didn't study by myself but with a small class and found this book to be well set up with dialog, vocab, cultural notes, grammar, and accompanying tasks to do. Also has a separate workbook for each text that you can order.The first book is more in English (roman) characters as it caters to beginners just learning but the 2nd book and onward have MUCH more hangul in it, including all the dialog which helps. BTW, all the dialog is translated at the end page of each chapter.

If you are reading this you are probably aware that good Korean texts are hard to find. Of the Korean learning materials out there I have sampled including the Korean Through English series, College Korean, FSI Tape set & book, and books published by Korean unversities not available in the US, the Integrated Korean series is by far the best. The Integrated Korean series stays away from using the arcane linguistic terminology of College Korean, avoids the oversimplification of KTE, and presents much more natural Korean usage than the textbooks published by Korean universities(including SNU, Yonsei, and Korea U). The grammatical explanations are great, the vocabulary is useful, and the cultural notes are also interesting and pertinent. Audio files for the dialogues are also available online for free on the U of Hawaii publishing webpage.