Rating: 
Summary: Great Book....Lousy CD
Review: Fortunately for me I had learned the basics of Hangeul before starting this book. Although the book does cover the basics of hangeul in the early chapters, the CD does not adequately support the pronounciations.(CD is very limited and the speakers speak too fast)
But if you can get past this flaw, the book, from lesson 4( or 5?) is strictly hangeul and is very sytematic, challenging, but not overwhelming. I have learned a tremendous amount of Korean with this book...
Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to Korean
Review: I brought this book to help me learning Korean. It does a good job explaining grammar and is fairly complete for an introductory text book. The audio CD included with the book was a deffinate plus. This book does not include the Hanja(Chinese characters), but that is understandable for an introductory text since the Hanja are not used in most day to day writing anymore.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for conversational Korean
Review: I found this book to be good for only conversational Korean. I am currently taking Korean in college and did not find it that useful except for the vocabulary in the back. The book focuses only on informal polite (the -yo form) speech. It does not teach anything on the formal and honorific forms of the language. I was also hoping to find verb conjugations but was disappointed when I found none. If you are planning to buy this book, please note that it focuses on conversational Korean. The book will not help much if you wish to learn formal or honorific Korean.
Rating:
Summary: So far so good
Review: I liked this book right from lesson 1. Instead of the usual 'anyong hasseyo' etc. for Hello, there are many ways of saying hello and goodbye in varying situations in this book. Grammar is also explained very well in the book, much better than some other courses I looked at.Luckily I had already learned Hangeul before picking this book up, because the authors don't teach it right away. I can't figure out why not though, it is SO easy, and learning to write words when you are illiterate (in Korean) for the first several chapters must be very frustrating! Overall a good book. I am using it in conjunction with Barron's Mastering Korean text and tapes (which is dry as a bone, but LOADED with words, phrases and DRILLS).
Rating:
Summary: Alot to take in for a begginer....
Review: I ordered this book after having become semi-fluent in Japanese and being used to the romaji of Japanese (as well as the kana and kanji) . Once I opened the book, I was very overwhelmed with the Korean system of romanization, I found trying to read the romanization more challenging than actually reading the Hangul. The writing system takes very little time to learn. I also agree with what people say about the CD. The male reader does speak WAY to fast, but the female speaker speaks slow enough that even if you are new to the language, you can clearly hear all the sounds. Overall, it was a very good book, but I recommend learning Hangul with its pronunciation and not even looking at the romanization if you have ever studied Japanese.
Rating: 
Summary: A huge help!
Review: I should start off by saying that the book isn't perfect, but it's by far the best that I've found thus far. I agree that the CD conversations went much too quickly, and the emphasis is on the less formal style of speech (though I suspect they eventually teach the other styles in the higher levels). However, most Korean grammar books are like this. They focus on one level of speech for the almost the whole book, and then switch to a different style later on. So I felt there was no harm done there. What this book gives that others don't is a very thorough, easy-to-understand explanation of the grammar. I now live in Korea and have bought grammar books written by Koreans, and they tend not to have very good grammar explanations in English. "Elementary Korean" provides very useful vocabulary, and the conversations are very natural. One thing I would mention is that there are a couple of words or expressions that (according to my Korean friends) are somewhat outdated. These, however, are few and far between. I really think that this book is excellent, and I recommend it for anyone who would like a good grasp of and a good start to learning Korean.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: If I could give this book more stars than five, I would. I have been studying Korean on my own since 1996. This undoubtly is the best book I have used yet. If you're wanting to learn Korean, this book is it. Coupled with the CD, learning should be fun and easy.
Rating:
Summary: Best Korean Text, But Still Difficult to Follow
Review: Korean is admitted a difficult language, esp. in pronunciation. As someone who also knows Japanese and Chinese, my overall impression of this title is that it is very confusing if used as a self-learning text, but is still the best introductory Korean textbook I've seen. Strengths: Thorough introduction to the language; insistent use of the Han'gul (Korean script); good grammar notes. Weaknesses: VERY bad audio CD (way too fast for beginners, and not enough basic sounds); choppy English at times; too much Han'gul at the beginning which makes the first few lessons intimidating; forces you to learn their phonetic system; total lack of Chinese characters (given that most non-Korean students of the language seem to be Chinese or Japanese, it would be nice to include such characters both as a necessity to complete the course and as a study aid). All in all, it's a very difficult course to follow, but if you persevere and study the materials carefully, you'll get a good grasp of the Korean language. [If anyone knows of a Korean text for Chinese or Japanese speakers, please let me know. I'm really having a hard time with this book: I'm re-studying it for the second time and my Korean totally sucks.]
Rating:
Summary: nice book
Review: Since I am looking mostly for reading/writing proficiency I find this to be a great book. + The grammar notes are clear and well illustrated.
+ The vocabulary is a lot but not completely overwhelming. The authors try to group closely related words physically close together to reduce the cost of learning new vocabulary.
+ Better than Myondo in presentation of material. Instead of spreading out related grammar material, it tries to present them together.
+ What I think is really great are the pronunciation rules ... you won't find this kind of practicality and detail in most other text. (Now, Myondo is very detailed but describing ssang-chiut as a voiceless alveo-palatal glottalized affricative isn't particularly helpful to me).
+ No Chinese characters are used in this book which is a plus at this level since Chinese characters rarely appear in the main text of popular Korean newspapers anyway
+ The authors actually provide a decent number of exercises with ANSWERS in the back! Now what they need to publish next is a supplementary reading and exercise book. - I concur with a previous reviewer that the CD does not have enough basic sound examples. 4.5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Bit Intimidating....
Review: THE GOOD:
There's very little in the way of phonetic spelling which forces you to the Korean symbology (don't be put off by this, it's fairly easy to learn and makes you look like you're reading and writing in a secret code). The Korean type-face has a nice, easy-to-read font. In fact, it's about the clearest I've seen. There's lots of conversational text (some of it very nearly on the verge of being funny). It revolves around a family, their kids, teachers, and friends. You have a ton of honorific and relationship structures to work with. THE BAD:
The CD is 'way ('way) too fast. Not only do they speak quickly, but there are hardly any pauses between each exercise. Trying to play it and follow the text is darned near impossible. Though, it does give you a resonable idea of what a native speaker might sound like. Plus, there is a female and male voice, each with a different accent - kinda cool. ALSO:
I bought this bundled with the Langenschiedt's Korean Pocket Dictionary (the book with the "L" on it). You should know that the books are mutually exclusive. The textbook is Korean and the dictionary is phonetic. You can't use the dictionary to look up words from the textbook! Hope this helps....
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