Integrated Korean: Beginning Level 1 Textbook (KLEAR Textbooks in Korean

I have several Learning Korean Books, but Integrated Korean is by far the best, and, in fact, the only Korean language course that connects the islands of learning I have had so far. It goes slow and repeats the material just enough (for me) to get it. I do only self study, so I do not need the workbooks, and since my wife is Korean, I do not need the accompanying audio.

I think Korean is too hard for someone to learn without help in any case, so even Integrated Korean may not be sufficient for someone just starting out without any Korean language exposure and without a teacher.

Coming from the perspective of someone trying to learn Korean outside of the classroom with no teacher, this book is indispensible to my collection. It is very difficult to begin with, however, since even from Chapter 1 the book does not provide a romanized version of Korean writing. Without a teacher to help with the sounds, I first turned elsewhere to learn Korean writing--especially CD-Rom programs like Rosetta Stone and Instant Immersion-33 Languages. These helped me connect sounds and Korean script. Once I had a handle on that, Integrated Korean was great for learning the basic grammatical rules, sentence structures, and foundational vocabulary I would expect to acquire in a solid language course. Unlike other textbooks which emphasize the most polite level of Korean, he book focuses on the politeness level of Korean that is most used.

I also found Lonely Planet's Korean Phrasebook a really nice, user-friendly supplement.

In short, if you want to learn Korean, don't hesitate to buy this book. But it may not be the first tool you use.

what good is a text with no answers? I found the book almost unusable, as I study by myself. There was no way to check my answers. I emailed the publisher, and they said there were no answers or teacher's book. Can not recommend a book like this.

The Integrated Korean Series is the best overall textbook for learning Korean that I have found. I contains plenty of exercises, and even more in the separate workbook. There is more vocabulary than in most other books. Much of the vocabulary has to do with college and classes, but the book teaches more than enough vocabulary that an be used in all situations. Integrated Korean explains the grammar points well, and teaches different styles of speech that are useful for talking to seniors, people of the same age, and juniors. There are many useful cultural notes which help to understand how to act when with other Koreans in Korea. It would be difficult to understand many parts of the language without knowing about how Koreans relate to each other. There are helpful appendices for regular and irregular verb conjugations and vocabulary used throughout the book.

Every chapter begins with the objectives for the following lesson. Next there are two conversations that use the new vocabulary for the chapter, and a narration which does the same. After that, there are lists of new words and expressions, sorted by the parts of speech. Next there are "Notes on New Words and Expressions" which explain specific grammar points from the conversations and the narration. Next are the notes about the culture, which help to understand what Koreans do that is different from the US culture, and the reasons why they do them. The next point is the grammar, where it explains about different styles of speech, and sentence structure. The last part of each chapter is translations for the conversations.

Overall, this is the best book for self-teaching, or for learning Korean in a class, because of its high amount of useful vocabulary, its clear explanations of grammar, and its interesting cultural notes. My advice is do not stop at the start of the book if you feel discouraged, just keep going and practicing and doing the exercises.

This was the required textbook for my Korean class and I am amazed at how good it is. While you should still have a native Korean speaker help you out, the book actually shows you how to pronounce each sound in English phonetics. It also teaches you correct grammar, something lacking in many American-born Koreans. My wife is Korean and I'm not but now I have even better grammar than her! It's great that it teaches you properly, but also easily, with conversational phrases and common words. Korean is very methodical, consistent language so if you can master this book, you should be able to pick up Korean fairly quickly if you hang around people who can translate new words for you, because the conjugation is the same.