Book Review: Korean From Zero! 1

Full Title: Korean From Zero! 1: Proven Methods to Learn Korean with an Integrated Workbook.

Authors: George Trombley, Reed Bullen, Sunhee Bong

Published: first published March 20th 2014, This book was published on May 1st, 2014

Publisher: Korean From Zero

ISBN: 9780989654524

Pages: 360 including bilingual glossaries and the answer key.

Extra Information: You can download MP3 files for the book online.

Synopsis: Korean From Zero! is a fun, innovative, and integrated approach to learning Korean created by professional interpreter George Trombley, Korean linguist Reed Bullen, Professor Myunghee Ham, and Sunhee Bong. Using up-to-date and easy-to-grasp grammar, Korean From Zero! is the perfect course for current students of Korean as well as absolute beginners.

Features of the book:

* Integrated Workbook with Answer Key
* MP3 Audio * Online Support
* Over 600 New Words and Expressions
* Learn to Read and Write Hangul
* Extensive Grammar
* 90 Adjectives and Verbs Detailed
* Bilingual Glossaries with Hangul and English ...and much more!

Review: I seriously don't know how to review this book. I've seen a lot of good reviews of this book and I wanted to share my own experience with this book since it was different.

Let me start by saying that I wanted to study this book as a way to review the basics of the Korean language since I was getting into the intermediate territory but still feel a little shakey with the basics. I was studying it alongside Talk to Me in Korean Level 3 (reviewing it) and 비타민 한국어 1. 

So let me tell you what I liked first. I liked the 한글 section because it had some good explanations of how letters can be pronounced when combined together and I think this comes from the fact that most of the people who wrote this book are actually foreigners and had to learn these things like we do. In some of the chapters, there are formulas that you can follow when dealing with certain concepts or verbs or verb conjugations. I liked that they grouped vocabulary words into themes like body, office, sports...etc, and then used them in the chapter. I liked that at the beginning of each chapter you knew what you needed to review and know before going on to this new chapter and the grammar concepts that are coming up.

What I didn't like was that the "Integrated Workbook" was just a few pages of exercises at the end of each chapter. I noticed when I did the exercises that there were mistakes in the answer key or that they didn't acknowledge there was a different possible answer. I didn't like the way they explained the conjugation of verbs. I found it confusing and I had already learned how to conjugate before! Now think how a newbie would feel about that if they were like me. My brain just did not compute the way they explained conjugation. In fact, in all the classes I took and the books I read about conjugation I've never seen an explanation like the one in that book.

The book has levels 2 and 3; I have both books and I'm not sure whether I will go on to study them or not. I have a few days before the beginning of September to think about it. I don't know if I am just going to write off these books or "read" them to get some formulas and maybe some vocabulary and just not seriously study them. 

Because I have read reviews where people loved this book my advice for you would be go to the website associated with the book and download the pdf versions of these books for free, check them out and if you still want to own the physical copies go ahead and buy the books from amazon.

Their Website: Korean From Zero

Learning Korean

       I've been learning Korean off and on since the second half of 2018. However, I decided to finally take it seriously these past few months and since I know quite a few people might benefit from this I'm going to compile a list of resources for you all to look at if you are interesting in learning Korean.

          My first bit of advice is that if you can find a class in your country/area then take that class! It makes all the difference to have someone in front of you checking on your progress as you go. If that is not possible then check out the following websites, books and YouTube channels.

Books: These are ones that I have used or that my teacher has recommended.

1.Hangeul Master: The best way to learn the Korean alphabet.
2. Talk to Me in Korean grammar books Levels One - Six. As well as the Workbooks from Levels One - Five. 

3. My First 500 Korean Words by Talk To Me in Korean.

4. The Korean Verbs Guide Volumes 1 & 2 by Talk To Me in Korean

5. My Daily Routine in Korean by Talk To Me in Korean.

6. Korean Grammar in Use: Beginning to Early Intermediate by Jean-Myung Ahn (Teacher Recommendation I liked it better when my teacher used this book then when I studied it on my own)

7. Real Life Korean Conversations Beginners & Intermediate by Talk to me in Korean

8. Korean Q&A Sentence Patterns by Talk to me in Korean.

9. Sogang Korean 1A: Student's Book by Song-hee Kim and Sogang Korean 1A: Workbook by Song-hee Kim (Teacher's recommendation: This was made for a class though so it might be one you want to skip)
10. Korean from Zero: They have three levels so far and they are really good resources.

Websites: These are ones that I found helpful in my search for knowledge.

1. http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/: this site has a lot of free resources including the grammar books mentioned above with audio files and they go all the way up to level 9. There are no workbooks with them though. They also have a lot of video courses some free and some you have to buy but they are totally worth it.

2. http://www.hangulsoup.com/: this site will help you with verb conjugations.

3. http://www.howtostudykorean.com/: this site has a lot of good lessons.

4. http://www.koreanfromzero.com/: You can find free versions of their books on site as well as the audio files.
5. http://www.koreanclass101.com/: I have to admit I have not used their website a lot but I have used their YouTube Channel quite a bit.

Youtube Channels: Some of these are ones that belong to websites and others are ones that I came across that give great information.

1. Talk To Me in Korean

2. Korean from Zero

3. Korean Class 101

4. Korean Unnie

5. Professor Yoon's Korean Language Class

6. Minji Teaches Korean

Phone Apps: These were the ones I used continuously.

1. Naver Dictionary: Very Important that you get this.

2. Papago: Translator, much better than Google translate for Korean.

3. HelloTalk: if you want to ask questions from Native speakers use this app.

4. Talk To Me in Korean app: has all their lessons and video on it.

Finally, a piece of advice. Watch as many Korean dramas, and listen to Korean music so that you can understand how the language sounds and your ear gets used to distinguishing sounds.