Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary Korean/English English/Korean

We are both learning beginner's Korean, and find this dictionary an excellent resource. It's clear - yes you can read the characters - and the price was considerably cheaper than we could buy in Australia, even allowing for postage. Having the Korean-English section in romanization is also helpful, when you may not know the dictionary order of Korean characters.

Hey, Im not tryin to learn Korean, but my sister is and she hasn't complained....IT must be good.

The Langenscheidt Pocket Dictionary Korean is very good for a beginner in Korean. The introduction is very useful in helping the student understand pronunciation and formation of the characters. The print is easy to read, which can be a problem with some Korean dictionaries. I recommend is as a good introductory Korean-English and English-Korean dictionary.

I am a student of Korean and this pocket dictionary was the first Korean dictionary I bought to aid me in my studies. The compact size of this dictionary makes it very easy and convenient to carry around, and it’s perfect for people on the go. (That is, no more suffering under the weight of a full dictionary!) ^^


The English-Korean, Korean-English dictionary format makes it handy to look up and translate words both ways. And the dictionary also comes with a pronunciation guide, which is also handy for beginners. I find the pronunciation guide extremely useful and convenient. In Korean, the way a word is pronounced depends on whether a particular consonant is in the front, middle or end of the word, the pronunciation guide somewhat answers this by telling you how placement of a consonant can affect the pronunciation. For example, “T” is “T” when at the start and end of the word and “D” in the middle of vowels.


Also, this dictionary is arranged according to romanization, making it easy for beginners to lookup a word by “pronunciation”. The inclusion of Hangul is another major plus since you can check how to write a particular word in Korean. The vocabulary here are written in dictionary form rather than spoken form, so if you’re trying to use certain words to SAY something, you’ll need to convert it to the spoken form. For example, in this dictionary, “to watch” in the dictionary form is “poda”, so to say “I’m watching…” you’ll need to change it to “…pwayo”. Unfortunately, the dictionary doesn't address this but then again, it's a dictionary, not a textbook. ^^ I guess this is the same with most Korean dictionaries, so you’ll need to have some knowledge of the Korean language to be able to use this dictionary to your advantage.


It’s also easy to look for phrasal verbs and vocabulary with the same “words” you’re looking for. For example, you can find under “watch” the noun and verb form (and explanation), as well as “watch for”, “watch out”, “watch out for” and so forth. This is extremely useful and convenient especially when looking out for common, everyday words. The only drawback I had with this dictionary is that certain Korean words can be really hard to find, especially in the “Korean-English” section if you don’t know the exact romanization letters.


Although I wouldn’t say this is a perfect dictionary for fluent Korean speakers as it doesn’t provide as much words and extensive information as a complete dictionary do, it is, nevertheless, an excellent dictionary and guide for everyday use and people on the move as it covers useful and commonly used words. If you're tired of browsing through “thick” dictionaries just to find that simple, everyday word you want, give this a try. :)

I recently moved to S. Korea knowing little more than hello and goodbye. This dictionary was extremely helpful in that the English section shows word usage and some phrases in both roman characters and Hangul. In the same way the Korean section is written alphabetically based on the English ALphabet and is listed by Romanization. This is really helpful when people are speaking to you. Also the dictionary has a great Proununciation chart for the Hangul letters, which helps when translating signs, and helped me learn to read Hangul.