HANGUKDRAMA E-BOOKS

Self Study Korean

it’s not impossible

Now self studying Japanese in Korean

BY SHANNA / HANGUKDRAMA
Dedication

To all my blog readers-friends. You guys are the best. Some of you I’ve met, others I have corresponded with on-
line and to the anonymous reader out there, please say hi!

To everyone I’ve met in Korea, each and everyone of you shaped my experiences here and made me love the coun-
try and the culture. Special mention goes to the LC peeps!

And not forgetting the 3 awesome girls who have been with me through the 4 years of my university life. All our
laughing sessions were the best.

Cheers to many more years of Hangukdrama which doesn’t write about dramas!

p.s. E-books are such an awesome invention. Who knew that the day will come when I can actually write some-
thing like this!

i
Foreword

Learning a foreign language is a very rewarding journey, but often expensive. A lack of financial resources, a gen-
eral dislike for stifling classes and the determination to prove that I can do as well (or even better) on my own has
led me to choose the self-studying route.

There is no one way for language learning, and this is simply a collection of my experiences and my own personal
methods and thoughts. Language learning is all about trial and error and exploring a brand new world on your
own. Where’s the fun if there’s only one fixed way of doing it?

In writing this, I hope to inspire more people to take up a foreign language. Simply for the reason that it opens up
a whole new worldview and is a lot of fun.

This book is mainly written for the self-learner in mind, but I hope that every Korean learner will find something
useful in here.

And finally.

Self-studying is not impossible.

ii
자기소개서 | About Me

Shanna. Singaporean. Just a girl who does not believe in giving up her passions and dreams just to pursue the
more “pragmatic” things in life.

She started learning Korean in Jan 2008, taking beginner lessons at a local institution for 2 levels. Decided to stop
classes and self study. Most of her friends believed that that was going to be the end of her Korean learning jour-
ney and she will somehow give up along the way.

Oct 2008: Passed KLPT Level 2

Oct 2009: Passed KLPT Level 5 (advanced) and TOPIK Level 4 (higher intermediate)

Apr 2012: Passed TOPIK Level 5 (advanced)

5 years down the road, she is still on this journey and loving Korean more than ever. She is now able to watch al-
most everything in Korean unsubbed, loves reading Korean historical novels in her free time and is currently
learning about Korea’s history in Korean.

She blogs at www.hangukdrama.com and loves receiving emails/comments. ^^

iii
B EFORE WE START

Why Self
Study?

I can list down 10 convincing reasons to

self study a language. But another person
can probably give you another 10 good
reasons to take language classes. It boils
down to choice. Still, let me tell you
about my choice.
B EFORE WE START
The 10 best reasons
10 best reasons? Nah. I’ll give you one.
I did it, so can you.
I’ve received many emails over the years, and one of the recur-
ring questions is: Is self studying possible?
I don’t know why I’m still receiving that question, even up till
now. Haven’t I shown (through my entire blog) that it IS possi-
ble?
Instead of doubting your own abilities, why not give it a try
and find out the answer for yourself?
My favorite Taiwanese author once said that many authors
like to encourage their readers to be true to themselves, go for
their dreams and give them so many convincing reasons to do
so. But he took a different path and just did it, achieved his
dreams and that in itself is probably the best he can give to his
readers.
I’m very much inspired by his thinking, as it also echoes with
mine. Instead of empty words, I want to show it through my
actions. And I’m happy I did it.
If you still want to be convinced, maybe you should think
again. Everyone is different and there is nothing in the world
that is suitable for everybody. Self studying works for me, but
it may not for you. Instead of asking to be convinced, convince
yourself. What I can offer, is my own experience. There is no
answer until you find it for yourself.
I can’t give you the 10 best reasons to self study, but I can
share with you my experiences and what I gained from mak-
ing this choice.
-----------------
Like many others, I did think that language classes is the best
way to learn a language. Self study wasn’t in my consideration
right from the start. But as I went through the lessons, I knew
that it wasn’t for me. I want to learn more. I want more free-
dom in my studies. I want to go at a faster pace.
And so, I made the decision. The decision that everyone was
skeptical about. Like I mentioned earlier on, everyone fully ex-
pected me to give up soon, but that didn’t deter me from mak-
ing that choice.
One of the best things about self studying (for me) was the
freedom it offers. I can use any textbook I want. I can study
from any materials. I do things at my own pace.
5
Self studying means that I don’t see it as a chore. Immediately
it becomes something that I am responsible for, like a hobby. I
take charge of my own learning and passion and interest drive
me, instead of scores or exams.

I’m no longer restricted to learning only what is covered in the

syllabus. Having classes give you a fixed routine and some
kind of guideline, but it can be restrictive. If something is
tested, naturally you will pay more attention to it. Let’s be hon-
est. Have you ever made the effort to learn a lot more than
what was covered in classes in school? The same logic goes for
language learning. Once you are in a class, it’s harder not to
put all the focus on the syllabus.

On the other hand, it’s true that there isn’t anyone there to
guide you. However, that does’t mean there are no alterna-
tives. It just depends on your effort. You may not have a
teacher, but you can gain many friends who are willing to help
you correct your sentences, point out your mistakes. There
isn’t anyone to mark your writing, but you can make use of
sites such as Lang-8 to get your writing checked. There isn’t
someone who will make sure you do a minimum amount of
studying each week, you just have to pace yourself.

If you choose self studying, be prepared to put in a great

amount of effort, determination and perseverance. In some
ways, self studying is harder than taking language classes.

Before writing something off as impossible or to admire peo-

ple who have managed to do it, ask yourself: have you put in
the appropriate amount of effort?
6
T HE FIRST STEP

The start is
the most
difficult

Taking on a foreign language is often a

spontaneous decision. You are eager to
jump straight into it and start learning
how to converse. Enthusiasm is great.
시작이 반이다. A good beginning is half
the battle. But how can you begin?
T HE F IRST S TEP
Where to start?
You have decided to start self-studying Korean and you are ea-
ger to jump into it straightaway. But the first question comes:
HOW? There are tons of learning resources, both online and
offline. The most natural thing to do will be to google “learn
Korean beginner free” or something along the lines. Or search
youtube for “Korean beginner lesson”. But is that really use-
ful?
For those who have experience learning languages, you will
know that not all online resources/books are equally good and
a bad choice will make you confused or even make you give up
learning altogether, deeming the language “impossibly hard”
to learn. I made the mistake of choosing a wrong resource at
first and I was left wondering why I couldn’t simply search for
a “word” in the dictionary and at that that point of time, I
thought that a word in Korean is equivalent to characters
joined together between spaces in a sentence. So I searched
for 즐거웠던 in my compact dictionary and needless to say, I
never got any results.
I can’t emphasize any further about the importance of a good
first resource in language learning and here are some online
resources for you to test the waters.
Personally, I like resources that do not just teach you the very
basics but those that offers some form of structured lessons
that you can keep using for a few months at least.
1. talktomeinkorean.com
You will not see TTMIK when you google “learn korean begin-
ner free”. However, they are the best free online resource for
the beginner Korean learner. Scratch that. They actually offer
something suitable for every Korean learner (beginner to ad-
vanced) but I find that they are one of the best when it comes
to beginner resources. There are more alternatives when it
comes to the higher levels.
So who is TTMIK? Headed by Hyunwoo Sun, the team is
made up of Koreans who are avid language learners them-
selves and they have a lot of experience teaching Korean to for-
eigners online. Hyunwoo Sun will not be an unfamiliar name
to language learners. He’s an amazing polyglot and he has
been teaching Korean online for years. His enthusiasm for lan-
guages is infectious and he is my role model (:
Although TTMIK is founded in 2009, Hyunwoo Sun and
Kyeongeun Choi (the two most experienced in the team) have
8
been teaching Korean online for a number of years before 2. Sogang Online Program
TTMIK and I learnt Korean through their videos and re-
So much fond memories. Because TTMIK didn’t exist in 2008
sources last time too! I was really inspired by them and that
when I first started learning Korean, I relied a lot on Sogang
was one of the reasons why I was able to keep learning Korean
Korean Program. The program is designed by Sogang Univer-
and not give up. When you have such inspiring teachers, how
sity, which also has a very popular Korean Language Program
can you give up so easily?
that focuses a lot on conversational and speaking skills. More
The site itself is easily to navigate and I recommend starting on that in another chapter, or another book.
on their Learn Hangeul category, before moving on to Level 1
Although I recommend using a number of learning resource
and progressing from there. One main reason their website is
at one time, the Sogang program is actually good enough on
so popular is because of the amount of interactive, multimedia
its own. Besides a section introducing Korea and the Korean
materials that they offer and also proximity to the teachers. I
language, the program consists of six levels and by the end of
love how they have videos and/or mp3 for each of their les-
it, you will actually have a decent proficiency level. Just did a
sons and this makes learning so much more fun. You can find
quick check on my blog and found that I finished the entire
the team on Facebook / Twitter / Tumblr / Blogs / Email etc
program in Dec 2009, which means I took two years to do it.
and it feels like they are only a tweet/email away. Even though
By then, I had actually gotten my TOPIK Level 4 (high inter-
the site is really popular, I appreciate their efforts to get back
mediate) certification.
to their users.
I loved the site for its interesting videos, interactive exercises
www.talktomeinkorean.com
and detailed grammar explanations. You can use it together
with TTMIK.

http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/

9
Are you eager to start right 서 살았어요 instead of 한국에서 살았어요 (I have lived in Ko-
now?
WAIT.
Before you do anything, remember that there is no shortcut to
language learning. It’s like Jenga, if your foundation is weak,
everything will topple. So, build your foundation well.
The way to do it?
Learn Hangeul (한글) first.
I have met many people who tried to learn Korean by listening
to music, dramas or watch youtube videos that introduce sim-
ple Korean phrases. It’s great that they are learning with their
ears, but learning Hangeul right at the beginning is very im-
portant for two reasons:
1. 맞춤법 (spelling)
2. 뛰어쓰기 (spacing)
One of the first phrases one will learn is ‘좋아해요’, which
means to like. Cho-a-hae-yo. That’s what you will hear. If you
learn Hangeul later on, you might be susceptible to mistakes
like 조아해요. Sounds the same, but wrong. Other common
mistakes are 가치 (x) for 같이 (O) and 괜찬다 (x) for 괜찮다
(O). Or making mistakes with the spacing and writing 한국 에
rea). One more incentive to learn Hangeul right at the start?
It’s super easy to learn because it’s like alphabets + building
blocks. If you are a language enthusiast like me, you can read
up about the history of Hangeul and it will help you remember
the consonants easier because there is logic behind each char-
acter.
I learnt the Hangeul in a day and some people have claimed to
do it in a few hours or even lesser. Of course, practice makes
perfect and no one will expect you to be able to read Hangeul
fast at first. After learning the alphabet, I had to slowly read it
bit by bit. For example: 한글. I’ll be like ㅎ ㅏ ㄴ ㄱ ㅡ ㄹ and
then piecing it all together to say it out loud. You get the idea.
Tip: Use your ears when you learn to how to pronounce
the consonants and (especially) the vowels. Forget
about English. Don’t insist that just because ㅅ is “s” it
will sound exactly like the English ‘s’.
The difficulty in Hangeul is not learning it, but pronouncing
it. One can remember the consonants and vowels in a day and
learn to piece them into a word, but pronouncing it takes
longer than that.
Do not fall into the pitfall of comparing Korean to any lan-
guages that you learn. Forget that you know English and other
languages and approach Korean like you would for a brand
new speaking system.
10
Use your ears.
Do not be tempted to use romanization.
Do not be tempted to use romanization.
Do not be tempted to use romanization.
I think I have emphasized it enough. Do not attempt to write
down the romanization while you practice the alphabet and
more importantly, do not attempt to pronounce Korean like
you will do for English. Romanization is like a drug. Gives you
short-lived relief and makes you reliant on them. Most re-
sources will include romanizations below for beginners, and it
will be really tempting for your eyes to slide down to the ro-
manization. Resist the temptation. Trust your ears.
While on the topic of romanizations, there are a number of
ways to “romanize” Korean. I will only grudgingly agree to use
IPA but even then, it’s not good to be reliant on them. On the
other hand, looking at romanizations like mul-juseyo will just
screw up your pronunciation and looking at the McCune Reis-
chauer kach'i / mŏgŏtta will make you wonder if Korean is im-
possibly hard to pronounce.
If romanization is bad, I don’t even want to talk about using
Chinese characters to learn Korean. Saw a video on youtube
that subbed the lyrics in Chinese. 哈吉麻油 is supposedly 하지
마요. O.M.G. Let’s not get there.
Best thing? Just avoid them. It’s a personal pet peeve, but
please do not go around telling people that “I can read and pro-
nounce Korean now but just can’t understand what I’m read-
ing” after learning Korean for a week or so. I have heard this
so many times and I can’t help but roll my eyes at times.
There are quite a number of sound change rules etc that even
the advanced learners will sometimes forget. So please don’t
underestimate the time needed to learn the pronunciation!
---------------
Before we move on further, I would like to emphasize the fact
that this is not a book to teach you Korean. So please don’t ex-
pect me to teach you the Hangeul alphabet etc. Language
learning, especially self studying, requires a lot of self disci-
pline and the ability to find out things on your own. One of the
most fun parts of learning a language is to explore the world
on your own. I can give tips, but I am not a dictionary or a
know-it-all.
Because of my personal dislike for romanization, further chap-
ters will not include any romanization unless to make a point.
There may or not be English translations given after any Ko-
rean words used. If there isn’t, chances are that it’s something
simple and you can just use the dictionary.
11
T HE F IRST S TEP example you will hear 사망하다 (死亡) instead of 죽다 when
describing deaths from a landslide, for example. But if you ask
Before you dive into it.. someone to go die, you will say 죽어라 instead of 사망하라.

Nevertheless, don’t be intimidated by what you read. But it’s a

good thing to get a sense of the language structure, a little bit
about the history of the language etc before you start to learn
the language. For me, I made so many silly mistakes because
this was my first experience in language learning. I am a na-
tive speaker of English and Mandarin Chinese and both lan-
guages do not involve conjugation. So I was really confused
when I first started to learn Korean and I had no idea how to
Korean is technically my first foreign language. I have dabbled
go around doing it. It took me some time to get used to the
in Spanish before for a short while and even though it’s differ-
fact that verbs are at the back of the sentences. But now, that’s
ent from English, there’s still some sense of familiarity in
like second nature to me.
terms of the writing system and language structure. I have
read an article somewhere that touted Korean as one of the Reading up helps you to build a general picture of what to ex-
most difficult languages for English speakers to learn. Is it pect in the language, but some articles tend to exaggerate. Ko-
really so? rean is not that difficult to learn, trust me (: I did it. And so
can you.
Yes and no. Granted, Korean is totally different from English,
especially in terms of grammar and sentence structure. Verbs
are at the end of the sentences. There is an elaborate system of
conjugation and if you take into account the politeness levels
and different sentence endings, that’s a lot to handle. Certain
words are changed depending on the seniority of the person
you are talking to / about. You have both the 한자 (Chinese
characters borrowed into the Korean language) and the 순우
리말 (native Korean words). The hanja equivalent is usually
used in news broadcasting or other more formal writings. For
12
Now that you have learnt the 한글 alphabet, it’s still not time
yet to dive into it.
Goal setting
Ask around and you will find that majority of the people
around you have some kind of experience learning a foreign
language. But how many of them are conversational? Very
few. And how many are really fluent? Very very very few.
Why? A lot of people tend to give up learning halfway for a
wide variety of reasons, and one of the most common reasons
I have seen is disappointment and “unfulfilled expectations”.
Not everyone have the same goals for learning a language.
• just for fun and to learn something new
• to be able to watch dramas unsubbed
• to be able to hold a conversation in Korean
• to be able to read tweets from your favorite idols
• to be able to read a novel in Korean
• to be fluent in all aspects
So many different goals. There’s no such thing as a “better”
goal and often, our goals change. Personally, I started off
learning just for fun and later on got serious about it and
started aiming for full fluency. Whatever your goal is, have re-
alistic expectations and then put in the necessary effort to
achieve it. As I have mentioned in a blog post titled: “I want to
learn just enough Korean so I can watch unsubbed Korean dra-
mas”, people like to assume that watching unsubbed dramas
is something that is “easy to achieve” and that one doesn’t
need to learn Hangeul to do it. Rubbish. Bullshit. If you are
aiming for that, you are essentially aiming to be proficient in
most of the grammar structures, have a good knowledge of
slangs and expressions used in daily life, have a decent vocabu-
lary bank etc. Sure, you may not be able to speak or write that
well, but you will definitely need to have good listening skills
and reading skills by then. And let’s see... that will take
around 2 - 3 years and I’m a pretty fast learner!!
In any case, goal setting is important because it helps to avoid
all the unnecessary disappointments and you will know what
you are in for. If you are serious about it, learning a new lan-
guage is a lifelong commitment that requires constant prac-
tice, immersion and passion. The language learning curve is
also not a linear graph, but it’s characterized by periods of fast
progress coupled with periods of stagnancy and perhaps even
times when you feel like you are doing worse than before.
The book is probably written for someone who aims for full flu-
ency in the end, but there’s always something for everybody. If
you are ready, let’s go on the journey together! ^^
13
T HE B EGINNER

Beginners:
The period of
progress

입니다/습니까? Is that useful?

Grammar or vocabulary first?
How to organize a language notebook?
What dictionaries to use?
What books to get?
....... Endless questions. But so much fun.
T HE B EGINNER
“Useless?”
입니다 / 습니다
Many Korean learners were disappointed when they eagerly
signed up for Korean classes thinking that they will be learn-
ing phrases used in dramas but ended up having to start with
the formal speech style. This applies to self learners too. “Why
do we have to learn this? It’s not even useful”, said a friend.

Many people do not realize it, but often language as used in

dramas or movies are colloquial and colloquial language is of-
ten designated as more “advanced” in curriculum.

It makes sense for textbooks to introduce the formal speech

style first, seeing how the conjugation is less complicated com-
pared to the 아/어 form.

I completely understand the enthusiasm but it will be great to

channel the enthusiasm to learning from the basics instead of
wanting to skip steps and jump to the colloquial speech.

All in all, learning about the formal speech style is important

and it’s a step that all Korean learners will have to go through.

Do not skip this.

King Sejong Statue. Go behind the statue and there’s an entrance to the King
Sejong Museum located underground! :D

15
 T HE B EGINNER When we approach language learning for the first time, we
tend to treat it as another subject in our curriculum and break
Grammar or Vocabulary? them up into separate components. Grammar. Vocabulary. Idi-
oms. Proverbs. We will then start to wonder: Should I focus
on grammar first? Or build up my vocabulary? Does grammar
come before vocabulary? Or the other way round?

Thought-provoking questions. I did ask myself the same

thing, but luckily, I didn’t spend too much time agonizing over
the choice.

Language is not compartmentalizable (is this a word?). Focus-

ing on grammar without vocabulary gets you nowhere. Same
for the other way round. Unless you are thinking of speaking
in single words all the time and throwing the task of stringing
them up together to the listener.

So.. Grammar or vocabulary first?

Do both at the same time.

One may argue that perhaps for a beginner, vocabulary is

more important. Without knowing some vocabulary, knowing
the grammar point doesn’t help. Yes, I do agree. I did started
Busan, 2011 out learning 20 simple vocabulary and that was about all the
words that I ever memorized in 6 years of learning Korean.

The idea is not to debate over which should come first at the
beginner stage, but to recognize that they go hand in hand and
that one should not concentrate on one component at the ex-
pense of the other.

16
I do agree that knowing simple vocabulary may come first be-
fore grammar at the very beginning, but take note that lan-
guage learning is about habit/routine building. For me at
least. It’s about finding a comfortable routine and whatever
method that I start to use will end up sticking to you for a
large part of your learning journey.
Let’s say you started out with flashcards and memorization.
It’s likely that you will continue to use up to the intermediate
stage and maybe beyond. If you started out with romaniza-
tion, it may take you a long time before you break that habit.
I came to realize that separating language into components is
something of a “man made” categorization. There’s no sepa-
rate components when it comes to language, and every “com-
ponent” or “skill” is in fact, very much linked to one another.
It’s perhaps for convenience (and commercial?) sake that we
get separate books for grammar / vocabulary and even
weirder that we sometimes have books for speaking! Seeing
such books in the market reinforces our impressions that
these components can be separated but I want to stress that
it’s an inaccurate impression.
note it down in your notebook (or your memory). When you
are reading a passage and learning vocabulary, you are essen-
tially revising the grammar points and if you come across a
new one, check it out on the internet or refer to your text-
books.
Personally, I had periods of time when I focused on one more
than the other. I am a grammar geek and I remembered that
for a period of time in 2008-9, I was having so much fun learn-
ing grammar that I could spent hours on it! My grammar
bank expanded really fast then. But it didn’t mean that I was
totally neglecting vocabulary. On other times I was more in-
vested in learning vocabulary, so I would read Korean enter-
tainment articles voraciously to expand my vocabulary.
It’s one thing to be more focused and another to be learning
vocabulary through vocabulary lists / books.
Tips:
Never try to separate things that are never meant to be sepa-
rate - grammar and vocabulary

After writing so much, I don’t think I have gotten to my main

point.

My point: Don’t fret over this issue and just learn.

Whether you like it or not, grammar and vocabulary are not

separable. When you are learning a grammar structure, you
may come across new words. Just check the dictionary and
17
T HE BEGINNER
Paper vs Online vs Electronic
dictionaries
Dictionary. This is one of the first obvious tool of foreign lan-
guage learning, besides textbooks. It’s tempting to go to the
bookstore right away to purchase one, but hold on.
When I first started learning Korean, I thought a paperback
dictionary was the most obvious choice. So I bought one.
.....
And never referred to it.
Because of people like me, paperback dictionaries are fast dis-
appearing but I still think that there is no need to invest in
one in this era. If you are at home, there is the internet, if you
are out, there are always handphone apps - so why will you
need a paperback?
Language learning is already a time-consuming task, I’ll pre-
fer to immediately type in a word and get the meaning instead
of flipping through the dictionary.
My choice of online dictionary for beginners is the Naver on-
line dictionary (endic.naver.com). It’s supposed to be an Eng-
lish dictionary for Koreans, but since you can input both Ko-
rean and English in the search bar, it’s extremely useful for Ko-
rean learners.
The site is entirely in Korean and at first glance, it may seem
too overwhelming for a beginner. But I never believe that
something can be “too difficult”. Obviously it’s difficult. Every-
thing that you have never tried is “difficult”. But that isn’t the
excuse for you not to try it. Especially since it involves just
mental capacity. If you take a closer look at the site, you will
find that it’s intuitive and very soon, you will get the hang of
navigating the dictionary section.
Although I have a personal preference for Naver dictionary,
there are quite a number of decent ones out there, and it’s
about finding something that you like.
• Naver dictionary endic.naver.com
• Nate dictionary http://engdic.nate.com/
• Daum dictionary http://alldic.daum.net/index.do?dic=eng
Useful terms:
검색 - search 숙어- idiomatic expression
예문 - examples 상세검색 - advanced search
18
Electronic dictionaries. This is worth discussing. When I first stead of a phone in the class even though you may be just us-
started learning Korean, I really envied those who have an ing the dictionary function in both :P
electronic dictionary. To me, it looked really cool and useful.
At that time (2008) smartphones weren’t as popular and only
the rich and most tech savvy will have them. Needless to say,
the concept of 3G and apps weren’t popular too. Electronic dic-
tionaries seem really useful, and I thought it was great that
one can study on the go. The pronunciation function was at-
tractive too and the better ones can even read pdfs / store
mp3 files. Those were really expensive, so after much thought,
I settled on a cheaper (but still expensive) Korean-Chinese-
Japanese-English electronic dictionary.

I really regretted the purchase. I barely use it and some of the

words I wanted to check weren’t in the database. I rarely do
my studying outside (even though I thought I will) and when
I’m at home, the laptop screen is so much conducive than the
small electronic dictionary.

Another important point is that an electronic dictionary can

serve you well enough in the beginner - intermediate stage,
but once you start to learn the harder vocabulary, you may re-
alize that your electronic dictionary may sometimes fail you.
As you delve deeper into the language, you will come across
slangs and jargon that will not be available on electronic dic-
tionaries.

That being said, I do have friends that invested in a good one

and really like it. Most of them attend language classes and
perhaps it’s better to be seen using an electronic dictionary in-

19
T HE B EGINNER

The beginner
textbooks

Now that you have learnt Korean online

for a while, you may also be considering
getting a few books for some offline
study. Choosing a good textbook is a skill
in itself.
T HE B EGINNER
How to choose a beginner
textbook
Before launching on some tips and advices of choosing a text-
book, I would like to talk about WHEN one should start buy-
ing foreign language textbooks. Although foreign language
textbooks are cheaper than lesson fees, most of them will be
very expensive. In Singapore, such textbooks can range from
anything between SGD $15 - $100+. Unless you have the fi-
nancial resources to splurge on them, you should think twice
before buying them.
I have seen some friends who were so enthusiastic about learn-
ing a new language that they go to bookstores the next day
and start purchasing piles of phrasebooks, dictionaries, text-
books, guidebooks, exercise books, CDs etc. It’s good to have
enthusiasm, but perhaps you shouldn’t channel them to pur-
chasing all these stuff and think that they showcase your deter-
mination to learn a language.
I was guilty of it too. So now I have a Spanish dictionary, a
phrasebook and a guidebook rotting on the bookshelf and an
untouched Korean-English dictionary by the side.
With the amount of learning resources online, I think it’s
smarter to start online. I have already introduced two wonder-
ful sites for learning Korean in the previous chapters and they
will serve you well for quite a while. You should start thinking
of textbooks only after 1-2 months for two reasons:
1. This is when you will probably know whether you want to
give up or continue learning
2. Spending a few months learning Korean gives you some
knowledge of what to buy and what not to buy.
Quick Tips - What To Avoid!
• Phrasebooks - you are not going on a holiday
• Generally avoid textbook sets mass published for all dif-
ferent kinds of languages
• Dictionaries - You get them free online
Instead of going straight to recommend good textbooks, I
think it’s important to talk about some tips on choosing a
good textbook. This may seem a little obvious to the seasoned
learners, but for a beginner, telling the difference between a
good and bad textbook may not be so easy. After looking at so
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many different textbooks, I think I have developed a pretty
good eye for them. (It’s like having an eye for fashion)
Having written a blog post on this topic (The importance of a
good 1st textbook .. and how to choose them!), I’ll simply re-
peat and talk more about the points in the post.
1. Avoid books with romanization
This is a very general rule. I’m not saying that all books with
romanizations are bad, but generally, I dislike books that keep
the romanizations for more than a few beginner chapters. If
you are buying Chinese books, please chuck them back onto
the shelves if you see Chinese pronunciation like 撒嚷嘿哟 be-
neath the Korean. Enough said.
2. Master Korean in 30 days? Yeah Right.
Read Korean in a week. Speak Korean in a month. Whatever.
For some reasons, I see more Taiwanese / Chinese books that
have such titles. Beware when you see such titles. They aren’t
usually good resources and nothing will be explained prop-
erly. All you get are chunks and chunks of sentences that ‘are
used in the everyday life’. Foreign language learning is not
about memorization of sentences. Well… I’ve yet to come
across people who actually remembered the sentences without
knowing the grammar underlying it.
That’s not to say that there aren’t decent books with such ri-
diculous titles. I have a couple of them which are quite good.
With slightly more decent titles like ’50 grammar structures in
50 days’. I guess they are forced to use such titles as a market-
ing strategy for the time-strapped language learners
3. Avoid 123084 ‘must-know’ words for TOPIK Basic
Another type of books that I hate. I’m convinced that such
books are out to cheat your money. First, language learning is
not… a school subject. There’s no such thing as “chapters
tested” that guarantee only certain words will be tested. Even
if your sole goal is to pass TOPIK basic, I’m sure that certifi-
cate is used for some other purposes that will require the use/
knowledge of Korean, which I think you will fail if you only
know that 2500 words. I may sound harsh, but I’m really
against the idea of ‘must-know’ words.
It’s one thing to use that as a guideline and another if you are
too fixated with knowing that 2500 words. Also, personally I
don’t see the point of shelling out money for a vocabulary list.
I’m sure you didn’t learn your first language by reading a dic-
tionary, and I don’t see why it will work in the foreign lan-
guage.
4. Choose a book with mp3 / CD included
Most decent beginner books will include mp3 files for the dia-
logues. The beginner stage is where audio input is the most im-
portant and you need to keep listening to be able to grasp the
intonation, get used to the speed and pick up listening skills
etc.
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5. Get those in a series
Personally, I like some kind of structure in my language learn-
ing and having a series makes me feel that I can progress
steadily. It’s just a personal learning style. But most series are
pretty good, especially those published by universities in Ko-
rea. Readers of the blog will know that I favor the Ewha Ko-
rean and Yonsei Korean series.
Quality over Quantity
If you have the financial resources, it may be tempting to get a
large selection of textbooks. Unless you really have a lot of
money to spare, don’t do it. Determination to learn a language
is reflected in the amount of effort you put in, not the number
of textbooks you have on the bookshelf.

If you are a bilingual or multilingual (lucky you!) already, you Personally, I do like to study from a wide range of books. I
have the additional factor to consider: Which language should don’t purchase everything, only those that are the most useful.
I study Korean in? Well, I’ll say it’s very much up to you. The rest, I borrow from the library.
Based on personal experiences, I like using books both in Eng-
Most beginner textbooks are roughly the same (decent ones at
lish and Chinese. English books because most translated Ko-
least), content and style wise. There is no need to buy many
rean textbooks will first be published in English. Chinese
beginner textbooks. Save your money for the intermediate and
books because they are much cheaper and somehow I find the
advanced materials! You are likely to discard your textbooks
Chinese explanations of Korean grammar easier to digest. It’s
and not refer to them anymore after you are done with them,
very much personal preference, just like how I prefer to learn
but a good novel stays with you for life.
Japanese using Korean textbooks/guidebooks!

Because this e-book is meant to be a general guide, text-

book reviews / recommendations will not be included (as
of now). Check out the blog category “Korean textbook re-
views” or the Korean resource page!

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