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Colloquial Korean (Colloquial Series) 1st Edition

by Kim In-Seok (Author)
3.1 3.1 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
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These cassettes are recorded by native Korean speakers and can be used on their own or to accompany the book, helping you with pronunciation and listening skills.

These audio cassettes in the Colloquial Language Learning Series are available individually or as part of a pack. To purchase the cassettes and the book, please refer to the cassette pack listing for this language.

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  1. ISBN-10
    0415108055
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0415108058
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Routledge
  5. Publication date
    December 16, 1996
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    4.25 x 0.75 x 5.75 inches
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge; 1st edition (December 16, 1996)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0415108055
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0415108058
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.99 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.75 x 5.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.1 3.1 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

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  1. Andrew Inseok Kim

    Andrew Inseok Kim

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  2. In-Seok Kim

    In-Seok Kim

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Customer reviews

3.1 out of 5 stars
3.1 out of 5
13 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Spiridonov
3.0 out of 5 stars Spiro
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2009
Verified Purchase
Although these Colloquial ___ books are usually pretty good, this one has a major fault in that there is no Latin phonetic spelling even at the beginning to facilitate reading. Without the tapes or CDs its practically impossible to get anything out of the lessons.
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DLong
4.0 out of 5 stars GOOD BOOK. TEACHES A LOT
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2012
Verified Purchase
The reason that I didn't give it 5 stars is cause it teaches extremely formal Korean which in most settings outside of business would sound really weird and out of place to a native speaker but the high vocabulary and the advanced grammar that it teaches is awesome! The grammar it teaches is invaluable. You will learn a lot from this book! I recommend it for beginners and even intermediate learners
2 people found this helpful
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A. Holmes
3.0 out of 5 stars No such thing as a perfect language textbook . . .
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2004
Kim's text is far from useless but I think its' main problem is that it is too compact. I bought the complete book/cassetts/CD set in Taipei before coming to Korea and it was hard to follow, but that does not mean that it is useless. It's just that there's not really such a thing as a perfect Korean learning book.
His grammatical points have so far been shown to be helpful if you do as I do and use several different sources while learning. Locally-produced texts tend not to understand quite what foreigners residing in Korea are looking for (tantamount to saying that they don't understand foreigners here! ^_^) and most of what you find tends to be rather "touristy", so a good text is worth its weight in gold.
Bottom line - Kim's text is useful as long as you have either the cassettes or the CDs with the book. But learning Korean seems to be badly affected by the persistently poor quality of teaching/learning materials generally.
4 people found this helpful
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abc123
1.0 out of 5 stars Trash
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2011
Please don't waste your money on this product when there are so many better products available. There are a few reviewers who have given this product high marks, seemingly as a way to make themselves feel smugly superior to those who have struggled with it.

Daniel Maxwell and Marie Frennette offer accurate reviews of this product.

The one saving grace this product might have had is its large audio component. However it is poorly organized and generally useless. The listener is frequently told to re-listen to a conversation in order to better understand it. A fantastic idea if the conversations weren't in the middle of the track surrounded by vocabulary and review.

I've completed my second year of college level training in Korean and have studied several other languages in professional and hobby settings.

An example
----------

Dialog 2A (my own translation):

Narrator: In the second dialog in this unit Mr. Kim and Mrs. Lee exchange the following short greetings when they pass each other in the street. They may or may not have met once during the day.

...vocab...

Narrator: Now listen to the dialog a couple of times if you need to and figure out if Mr. Kim is busy and where he is going. Also, can you tell whether they have met before.

Mr Kim: Mrs. Lee are you busy?
Mrs. Lee: Yes, a little busy. And how about you, Mr. Kim?
Mr. Kim: I'm not very busy.
Mrs. Lee: Where are you going now?
Mr. Kim: I'm going to the post office. Where are you going Mrs. Lee?
Mrs. Lee: I'm going to a restaurant.
Mr. Kim: Well, goodbye (go in peace).
Mrs. Lee: Yes, goodbye (go in peace).

Narrator: So, Mr. Kim is not busy and is going to the post office. They have also met before that day.

----

I no longer have the book with me, maybe it offers a reason why we might be able to infer that Mr. Kim and Ms. Lee have met earlier in the day. Is it because they do not formally greet each other with "are you at peace?" and instead dive right into conversation? The point is that there is no way a listener would be able to infer whether they had met earlier in the day.

That the narrator sounds snide and arrogant only adds to my frustration.

Borrow it from the library if you can but don't waste your money.
One person found this helpful
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daniel maxwell
2.0 out of 5 stars Non-Polyglots Beware!
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2003
I speak numerous Asian languages but still have found Mr. Kim's product to be incredibly difficult to follow. The beginning section on learning Korean script is decent enough, but the book falls apart after that. I just finished exercises from a certain lesson which tested me on grammatical structures that are not introduced until three lessons later--rediculous!! You are constantly introduced to new material (not just nouns, which can be easily looked up in the glossary, but also more complex grammatical structures) in lessons, only to find that this material is not actually introduced (and, thus, defined) until later chapters. If you spend enough time searching through the glossary or subsequent lessons, you can eventually find the answer you seek, however, I have found this quite cumbersome and a serious impediment to learning Korean as quickly as I had hoped. Often, I have to give up searching for answers in the book and go to a Korean-speaking friend for an answer. I wouldn't say it has been a total loss though, as I have been picking it up incrementally by referring to these friends, other books, and dictionaries. I would say if this is your first experience learning a foreign language, then keep looking, but for those of you who have prior experience studying a foreign language (especially Japanese) then you may be able to survive through it as I am doing. While at first I intended this book and its tapes to be my primary source for learning Korean, it is increasingly becoming just one of many resources. Everyone learns languages differently though, so if disorganization and hair-pulling is your style, then by all means jump right in!
10 people found this helpful
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