Read and Speak Korean for Beginners with Audio CD, 2nd Edition (Read and Speak Languages for Beginners)

It's a great book for beginners with no previous knowledge of Korean as it starts out slowly. It's also at a very good price. It's a really fun book, with lots of activities and a CD to help with pronunciation. You would benefit from an additional way to learn Hangul, but that's easily found online.

Love it so far, perfect for beginners. And the CD's also very useful. + the game cards' great, an easier way to remember words. :) Thank you !

I've been attempting to learn Korean for a little while now, and this is by far the best book that I have used. It breaks the learning down into small, manageable chunks, with plenty of activities that help to really engrain everything that you've covered. It focuses primarily on language useful to real-life situations, making this book particularly useful for someone such as myself who is soon to be living in South Korea. Explanations are given for much of the language used. I feel that having an understanding of the way a language works, as opposed to simply knowing what words to say and when, really helps in the long-term, so this is definitely a huge bonus to the book. The audio CD is clear and really helps to get pronunciation right, with the games and activities helping make learning Korean that much more enjoyable. The explanation of hangul, the Korean alphabet, is unfortunately quite basic, which lets this book down a little. Hangul consonants, double consonants, vowels and diphthongs are presented in a table alongside their romanised equivalents, however a little more information on correct pronunciation would be beneficial. A few irregularities with hangul are mentioned in the book, however they neglect to mention some of the irregularities that appear in the activities, which was quite confusing. Overall, I think that this is a fantastic book for the beginner in Korean, however I'd recommend that you supplement it with an additional means of learning hangul.

Much more use to me than the Learn Hangul in One Hour that I purchased. I have the Chinese version of this book too. Perfect for the total beginner like me.

This is quite a cheap book but it is perfect for its purpose. The book with its lessons and games and the CD that come with it will give you the confidence to start talking with Korean people with some confidence. An ideal family item to get everyone learning.

I choose this book because I was moving to Korea to teach for a year and needed to pick up some basic Korean phrases. However I immediately noticed that you are at a severe disadvantage if you don't already know the Korea script. The book asks the reader to try to learn to recognise the words and phrases without understanding the actual letters. This just doesn;t work for me. I struggled from an early stage so I'd warn people to first become familiar with the Korean alphabet before buying this.

Absolutely brilliant book, couldn't fault it, I have enjoyed working through it, the audio CD is good, good progression through.

i am not sure i how i am going to feel about it as i need to start the lesson but from what i looked throw the book it is defiantly a challenge especially if you can speak abit of korean by only listen to music and dramas. the spelling of the words and the pronunciation is completely different. so i will write another review after using it for a while

I have used this book for young children and it worked well for them. The CD sounds very good and the book contents are well made as well!

Non l'ho ancora usato, non lo riterrei un libro per imparare ma come eserciziario per confermare ciò che si impara sul altri libri. Mio parere personale. Sempre e rigorosamente tutto in inglese.

Is it perfect? Not it's not. But I think this book IS perfect for a total, first time learner of languages and is a bit afraid and intimidated by Korean. I am not a first time learner of a language but I have to say, the Asian languages intimidate my. This book is gently learning and while the organization is something to be desired and needs a bit of a change in order of relevance and learning, doesn't mean you should ignore it or chuck it in the bin. Yes, it uses a Romaji-ish type letters for pronunciation but I think for a true beginner, that is not a big issue, if you have a back up program that teaches you Hangul and pronunciation/reading, like Elementary Korean or go to the web and find that on YT or Google. I like the ease of use of this book and the fact that it is not a strict, in your face, grammar, textbook-like book for newbies!

I find the book really useful for learning and practising Korean writing. The layout is great, the examples are interesting and useful and it does not overwhelm. However, I find the English pronunciation of the Korean lady and gentleman on the CD really strange unfortunately, so much so that I have decided to carry on with the book without listening to the recordings, which I know is not the best thing to do. Also, some of the Korean words are pronounced very differently from the way they are written, without an explanation, which is a bit confusing. For Hangul reading, however, this is a very useful book. I do like it.

I have just completed the first topic of this book - and so far I am really enjoying it. I feel like I am actually learning fairly quickly and the course, once you start using it, is so easy to follow and understand. I love how there are listening, reading, writing, speaking (to a CD), and fun activities all included to help facilitate learning. Coming from the background of a Foreign Language/ESL teacher, this little book hits all the highlights of good language teaching - and at a bargain price.