While living in one of the main Korean neighborhoods in Los Angeles I developed an interest in Korean sitcoms, dramas, and music. To this day that interest has survived, but after watching a number of shows and series with English subtitles, curiosity eventually got the better of me. Recently I have started studying the basics of Korean with Elementary Korean by Ross King and JaehoonYeon. I must mention that from the beginning I knew that working with this course book would instantly help me understand my favorite shows, in fact I still rely on subtitles, but my aim was to become familiar with the language and take the first step at learning the basics.
At first glance the book can seem a bit overwhelming, just by looking at the table of contents one can see that each chapter focuses on a variety of exercises, topics, and grammar structures. The book is extremely detailed, but the information is presented in an engaging way. In every chapter students study grammar and vocabulary by analyzing written or audio dialogues; each of these dialogues involve a variety of characters and situations which will hold the reader’s attention as they work with each chapter.
"I would definitely recommend this book to serious independent learners and teachers who are giving Beginner level classes."
The first few chapters of the book introduce the student to the most basic structures of the language. Introductions, greetings, and simple questions are presented to the reader and from the very beginning there is a strong focus on using and understanding Hangul. Each chapter seems to follow this structure, and at the end of each lesson a script is provided in Romanized Phonetics to help students memorize the pronunciation of all the phrases in the dialogue.
As readers continue with each lesson they will go over topics such as pronunciation, writing, vocabulary related to honorific titles, and a very detailed look at grammar. Grammar is definitely the book’s strongest feature, but many students might be put off by this aspect of the book. At times the grammar activities can be a bit overwhelming, but Korean is one of those languages with a very complex system of grammar. For this reason students should take it slow and try not to move on to the next lesson until they feel they have completely understood what they had previously worked with.
The only negative aspects of this book are the phonetic scripts and the way the book focuses on the Korean Alphabet. Rather than writing out the words the way they should be pronounced the book uses the phonetic alphabet to explain how certain things should be said. I feel that this can be very confusing for anyone who is not familiar with the phonetic alphabet. Personally I would have preferred that the authors of the book write the words out exactly how they are pronounced rather than using symbols and letters that many people are unfamiliar with. I also feel like the book should have focused on the Korean Alphabet starting from Chapter 1 so that the following chapters could be understood much better.
Despite the book’s negative aspects, Elementary Korean is still a great book because most readers can learn the language and get through each chapter without the assistance of a teacher or tutor. This doesn’t mean that teachers shouldn’t add this book to their collection. Teachers can also find a number of activities in the book to complement their lesson plan or even use the book as their main course material. I would definitely recommend this book to serious independent learners and teachers who are giving Beginner level classes.
