Teach Yourself Korean Complete Course Package(Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses)

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This Paperback Book item from McGraw-Hill was reviewed on 7-Nov-2008.

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1) Paperback Book Teach Yourself Korean Complete Course Package(Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses) by McGraw-Hill. I thought this CD was all right until I played it for my Mom. She is Korean and ripped apart this CD. She thought it was overpriced, that the speakers used weren´t that great. Her opinion was that the makers of the CD got students to do the speaking parts for a low price.

I thought that the CD would come with a book, but it did not. I also did not like how the Korean language spoken was not really translated. It´s too bad I waited past the return period to listen to it. It would have been a return.¤

2) Paperback Book Teach Yourself Korean Complete Course Package(Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses) by McGraw-Hill. This book´s introduction is very helpful. However, once you get past that it can be a little overwhelming. If lots of words all at once is what you´re looking for then it´s good. One BIG problem I find is that the exercises are in romanized English, this is not helpful even if you are trying to learn just conversation because once you learn the korean alphabet it is actually easier to use that than English. I would recommend trying to find a book that just introduces the korean alphabet with English sounds and moves away from that romanization style right away. It does have some useful phrases in it but I think there are other better books out there.¤

3) Paperback Book Teach Yourself Korean Complete Course Package(Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses) by McGraw-Hill. I find this book very helpful. It has the hangul writing as well as english. It also has romanization. I do try to avoid the romanization, however. The book is easy to follow and the CD helpful for the pronounciation. I had one copy and lost it. This is my second copy. I like the fact that it has exercises in writing/understanding to enforce learning. Between this book, my ´online´ learnkoreannow.com, and my newly acquired tutor, my progression in learning Korean has really speeded up!¤

4) Paperback Book Teach Yourself Korean Complete Course Package(Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses) by McGraw-Hill. I always (thought I) have had a gift with learning languages and Korean would be my fourth, but it has proven to be my biggest challenge yet!

When I decided to move to Korea, I went to my local bookstore and I bee-lined to buy Teach Yourself Korean because I found the Teach Yourself Bulgarian set extremely helpful in getting me started with Bulgarian before and while I lived there.

Unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed with this set. From the beginning, it was all over the place! Why wouldn´t the hangeul characters be placed next to their associated sounds? It was such a hassle to have to look back and forth from the paragraph to the printed characters to try to figure out their sounds! On top of it, the pronunciations aren´t correct (I don´t have hangeul on this computer so I can´t write them out for you), but I can safely say as a North American mid-westerner, the pronunciation given for the "a" sound is "bat" and not as it is really spoken here (as in "father"). The same goes for the short o sound which is given as "hot" but is really pronounced more like "young" here. In fact, I would say that the o sound in "hot" like way I pronounce it is much closer to how the "a" is pronounced in "father" and in Korean. So needless to say it can be frustrating to a first time learner.

Unlike most reviewers I found the romanization alongside the vocabulary to be helpful (even if the pronunciation was off). Well, that is, the concept of romanization. There are plenty of inconsistencies other reviewers have elaborated on.

Also, there are many exercises in this book but they don´t all feel related and the audio was so hard to follow. One minute the dialog is extremely slow "annyeong ha..se..yo" and the next minute they are skipping exercises in the book! It would have been helpful to say the page numbers and to give a little pause in between exercises to give time to locate the next part. Korean is spoken so rapidly and vowels are melted together, so if it pronunciation you are after, go with Pimsleur- those speakers teach you correct pronunciation, but speak at a faster pace.

I honestly stopped after two lessons and I didn´t pick it up again until after living in Korea for 10 months (I am ashamed to say without any lessons or self-study) and began the Pimsleur Korean lessons (its major flaw being how incredibly formal it is). But once I looked at this book again as more of a supplement and with the little background I have in just picking up bits and pieces around me, things started to gel a little better.

This set in no way met my expectations nor delivered on its promises to progress quickly, communicate nor learn the language in depth! I think this book actually discouraged me from learning Korean! Hopefully I will be able to get more use out of it now, but as a true beginner it was useless!

One positive thing is that after reviewing it, I have decided to use some of the dialogs with my ESL students.

Good luck in your language pursuits- but maybe shop around! I have read many reviews for other books and it doesn´t seem like this is the ONLY "best" book on the market. I also highly recommend the Pimsleur course if you can afford it.¤

5) Paperback Book Teach Yourself Korean Complete Course Package(Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses) by McGraw-Hill. This is not for beginners. I bought the "Learn in your car" series for Mandarin and that fantastic. That was truly something a beginner could learn. I wish they had a version for Korean. When I popped this one into the CD player, what I got was something completely different. I couldn´t follow along and I wondered if I had left something supplementary that comes with it. This thing is like trial by fire or for someone who has familiarity with Korean already, cause they literally just throw phrases at you without breaking it down for the learner. This is less "Teach yourself" than it is "practice by yourself"¤

6) Paperback Book Teach Yourself Korean Complete Course Package(Book + 2CDs) (Teach Yourself Language Complete Courses) by McGraw-Hill.

Bestselling language courses now with audio CDs!

From Danish to Spanish, Swahili to Brazilian Portuguese, the languages of the world are brought within the reach of any beginning student. Learners can use the Teach Yourself Language Courses at their own pace or as a supplement to formal courses. These complete courses are based on the very latest learning methods and designed to be enjoyable and user-friendly.

Prepared by experts in the language, each course begins with the basics and gradually promotes the student to a level of smooth and confident communication, including:

• Up-to-date, graded interactive dialogues
• Graded units of culture notes, grammar, and exercises
• Step-by-step guide to pronunciation
• Practical vocabulary
• Regular and irregular verb tables
• Plenty of practice exercises and answers
• Bilingual glossary

The new editions also feature:

• Clear, uncluttered, and user-friendly layout
• Self-assessment quizzes to test progress
• Website suggestions to take language study further

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 5-Dec-2008, 0071414363639785413271, 630-050-2X0-010-270-641-661-8

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