Mastering Korean

There is no such thing as the one best book and audio program. This book has truly great audio content. However, you should start with the Integrated Korean series and use that for at least a year before using this book. The Hangul in this book is very difficult to read because it is a direct copy of a version produced by the US government 40 years ago. By the way, certainly you should start your studies by learning Hangul because it is easy and will help you pronounce much more accurately. This book cannot teach you Hangul. Again, in spite of its shortcomings, this is a great book, if you buy it at the right stage of your Korean learning.

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.

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.

Great course-- really worth the money. The 12 tapes are superb-- no annoying narrator babbling in English, or long pauses that you want to fast-forward over after the second time you listen to the tape. Material is dense and challenging, so you won't just finish it really fast and wonder what to do next. The only drawback is that it generally emphasizes formal Korean, although the informal style is covered as well.

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.