Active Korean

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: Annyeonghaseyo! For those learning Korean, I think this is one of the great books out there. It has an easy-to-use explanation of Korean phonology (sounds) with a chart in McCune-Reischauer (McR), IPA, Han'geul, and plain English approximations. McR Romanization IS used in the book, but only as a crutch alongside Han'geul for about the first half of the lessons. The lessons themselves start off with several brief dialogs and vocabulary lists. Charts and grammatical notes are there to make things more understandable. Maps and newspapers are also used as learning aids. Like Japanese, Korean verbs and some nouns change to reflect politeness.. In this book, you'll learn a variety of politeness forms and intimacy levels. Sample newspapers and articles are used to give an idea of Korean in "the real world." A small dictionary and the answer key can be found at the end. The authors did a good job in their previous book, Functional Korean, so you won't be disappointed with this!

Rating:
Summary: Great independent study book.
Review: This book, "Active Korean," is really good. I picked it up in Korea after buying a half dozen other Korean study books. This one is by far the best I have seen. The layout is great, the chapters provide plenty of reading comprehension and this book shines in the exercises that it provides. The only disappointments that I have about the book are the lack of cassettes for listening comprehension and the sometimes out-dated vocab. This book is truly good. My Korean teacher switched to this book after I showed it to her. You really can learn Korean with this book.