Korean Made Simple: A beginner’s guide to learning the Korean language 1st Edition by Billy Go (PDF)

Description

Korean Made Simple is a book for anyone who wishes to begin learning the Korean language. No matter your age, you can learn how to read, write, speak and understand Korean. Learn the Korean writing system, Korean culture, and even history. Learn over 1,000 vocabulary words and phrases through 20 in-depth and fun lessons, filled with plenty of examples. Additionally, practice sections with answer keys are built into every chapter. This book also contains additional advanced level notes for more skilled Korean speakers looking for a review of basic grammar and concepts, including a full appendix covering sound change rules. Audio files for the book are also available for free download from gobillykorean.com. Start your exciting journey into the Korean language today. Let’s learn Korean!

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The book teaches in a fun and understandable way. Grammar is explained very clear and logically. I really enjoy studying from it.One of the best points is that you begin with learning the korean alphabet, and after you know the sounds of the letters the romanisation stops, this way you really learn how to use the alphabet without relying on the English alphabet.

⭐I have been following Talk to Me in Korean (TTMIK) and Go Billy Korean for a while. Korean Made Simple is organized like many language books: pronunciation at beginning, greetings then present tense, etc etc. The lessons themselves also organized like many textbooks with a dialogue, break down of the new concepts in the dialogue, some practice activities and a vocab list at the end. I’m only part way through the book (because of my time management) but what I’ve gone through has been well explained for a beginner.My main complaint about this version (I do believe he announced earlier this year/2021 that he is working on revisions of this series but I don’t know what type of revisions he will be making) is mainly in how he introduces vocabulary. Some of his vocab lists are not cohesive and seem more like a smattering of unrelated but most common words. Sometimes he will introduce groups of words that make sense together and help connect with the grammatical concept taught but then add a word to this group in the next chapter where the lone word now feels out of place/out of context. It makes more sense to give a bunch of locations all in the section about a location-related concept (like the “(going) to” particle) or keep all the food items grouped together (rather than a bunch of fruits in chapter 4 then a lone “cheese” in the next chapter).There was also a point in the book where I saw the new concept could be integrated with the previous chapter but the practice exercises didn’t include said integration of concepts. I think I found the discussion of said integration later on but, like with the spread out vocab lists, it felt out of context in a way because newer concepts were being talked about. However this was not as hindering to my learning as the scattered vocabulary.Compared to TTMIK’s more modular curriculum, I love how each lesson has the vocab lessons available without needing to reference a separate source/book but, as mentioned above, the vocab needs better organization. Go Billy Korean explains the concepts clearly for beginning language learners and includes some cultural notes throughout (I watched many years of Kdrama before committing to learning the language so these were sometimes a nuisance because I personally don’t need these cultural notes but others new to Korean culture will benefit).I haven’t checked out all his supplementary videos but I hope they do help others. This is overall a great entry-level Korean curriculum for self-learners.

⭐I’m about half way through the book so far, and I feel like I’ve used it enough to leave a thoughtful and (hopefully) helpful review. The first thing that you should know is that this probably isn’t the best “stand alone” book. It’s not a textbook, so it’s not going to have everything that you need to learn the language. It IS, however, very helpful for a beginner to gain a lot of basic understanding to the language and how grammar fits Korean sentences together. The information is pretty clearly laid out and is to-the-point. Not a lot of unnecessary confusing topics right off the bat, and then it goes a bit deeper into complex rules later on. It’s set up in a format that is really easy for me to follow. I really like this book and will definitely move on to the others as I continue learning the language.That being said, there are a few things that I would have liked to see, especially in a beginner’s book. Some of these are entirely preferential, so if you’re okay with these things missing, then that’s okay.Use of a “handwriting” font is extremely confusing. It took about 8 chapters before I felt comfortable reading the Hangul font, and I was often copying down the WRONG spelling due to my complete inability to read that font. I would have liked to see the first chapter or two have both the typical font and the handwriting font for all the words in order to better familiarize the differences between the two fonts. Only occasionally in later chapters are new concepts introduced with the cleaner font, but most new words are in the handwriting font.Though there are audio files available on the site (which are very useful), they are only of the conversations. This is good for listening practice, but there are a lot of new words introduced in each chapter and (especially as a beginner), you kind of have to guess at what they sound like. There’s an in-depth Appendix on pronunciation rules, but very few people will read and retain all the rules, and you often find yourself learning a mispronunciation and can’t identify the word if you hear it elsewhere. It’d be nice if on vocab words that have special pronunciation, if there was a bit of a reminder “hey, this looks like this, but is pronounced like this!”Not enough repetition. Again, totally preferential, but I find myself diligently taking notes through out a chapter, do the 6-10 lines of practice at the end, and then moving on to the next chapter without realizing I’m not ready due to a lack of real structure in the chapter’s end. There are lists and lists and lists of vocab words, most of which were not used in the chapter. It’d just be nice to see a bit more repetition, a bit more “work” in order to drive home concepts that were taught during a chapter.Even with these minor flaws, I still find this to be a helpful book, and I recommend it to anyone learning Korean. It’s a valuable source of information and the narration style is comfortable, easy to read (not like a dry textbook).Edit after finishing the book:Of all the resources that I’ve been using for learning the language, this one is definitely my favorite. It explains things pretty well and gives you a bit of cultural insight. Right now I’m just going through again to review each chapter. There are a few things that I’d already forgotten, but the rest of it is really sticking with me. I already purchased the second book, and I’ll definitely get the third later on. I’m updating my review from 4 stars to 5 stars. Thanks!

⭐This book is informative, it does unlike other text books i’ve looked through stress the importance of how to write hangul not just knowing them. It also gives detailed explanations when it comes to things like grammar and the ‘Culture Notes’ included throughout are very useful.However if you are a complete beginner starting from 0, I don’t think this book past maybe the first few chapters will help very much. Particularly as it doesn’t include any romanizations or help with pronouncing hangul characters. The author Billy simply compares the pronunciation to english sounding letters which at times is not as useful especially if you want to get a grasp of how the Korean language is naturally spoken.There are audio files that do help, but unlike other textbooks i’ve looked at, you have to heavily rely on the audio files to go through this book – other textbooks don’t require such heavy reliance. I had to find additional material to help with pronunciations.Overall, I like this book and the author explains things clearly however I wouldn’t recommend it for a complete beginner.If you’re slightly familiar with the Korean language then this book will be helpful.

⭐Having recently decided to learn Korean myself and checking out a number of online resources, none of which seemed to give me what I was looking for, I came across the Go Billy Korean YouTube series and began watching them – obviously taking Billy’s advice and first concentrating on learning Hangul. I have to say, the way it was explained and taught made the experience a pleasure rather than a challenge.I decided to buy this book since it does accompany the video series and I have always preferred to learn from a text book – which is extremely difficult when it comes to languages. Having the short videos online and the book made it so much easier – and Billy’s own website contains free audio files for each of his books that can be downloaded so that readers of the book will always be able to hear the correct pronunciation.At first, Hangul (the Korean writing system) looks really complicated, almost like trying to transcribe some script from the side of an alien space ship! But following the early part of this book slowly, practicing every character many times, ensuring each character is written with the correct stroke order, it all actually makes a lot of sense. I have to admit that I was amazed. Okay, learning any language takes time, patience and a huge amount of effort, and having to first learn a totally new writing system adds to that, but Billy really does take his readers by the hand and guides them one small step at a time.Although I had expected to try and learn Korean, having to learn Hangul first did come as a big surprise but I am thoroughly enjoying it and, thanks to Billy’s guidance, I know that without learning Hangul any later progress on actually learning the language and vocabulary would be greatly hindered. Although I have only been working for a few weeks (both book and online video content), and although Hangul can seem confusing, I am persevering because each day I realise I have remembered more from earlier study sessions – all a bit like building a house, it has to be done one brick at a time.This is a large format book, beautifully printed, plenty of white space on each page so there is no mass of text to plough through. Okay, the Hangul is often printed quite small on a line when it has to be matched up with English but, on the whole, there is no problem.Korean Made Simple is a funny title because nothing new is ever simple to learn, but this book is so interesting, so well-written, that it is a pleasure to pick up and work through, even if often I can only manage 2 pages (a lot of time at the moment I spend writing out the characters and syllables, but that is essential no matter what language you try to learn).This is the first in a series of three, designed for the complete beginner – hence the large portion on learning Hangul right from the start. Don’t let that put you off, it is explained perfectly and only takes practice and repetition to get the different writing style into your head. I shall certainly (hopefully) continue with this book and the online videos. The author has made the whole experience highly enjoyable, not like learning at all provided you are happy to keep practicing and writing out the characters and syllables (which is actually quite easy once you get going).There is a Workbook associated with this volume which I will likely get as a good revision aid once I proceed further. There are also 2 other books (along with their workbooks) in the series which should, if a learner has given good study time, should be sufficient to bring someone up to intermediate level Korean.Perhaps not the cheapest of language books to buy but it is definitely worth every penny and I can fully recommend this series to anyone with an interest in Korea, the language, Korean culture and history.

⭐I’ve been learning Korean for about four months now, using various free and paid apps, online resources, K-Dramas, BTS songs, you name it! But what interested me more was knowing the grammar and WHY things are done a certain way as a lot of these free apps don’t go into explanation as to why you would use 는 instead of 은 and how important honorifics are. I needed to know more and having some sort of textbook like the ones you used to learn languages in school was something I really wanted for my study.I did a bit of research and came across this book which I like for various reasons. 1. It explains why you are doing something. 2. It explains formality levels and when to use them. 3. Has information about Korea itself and its culture. 4. It has an answer key! You wouldn’t believe how many reviews for other books complained about it with other textbooks. What is the point in learning if you have no idea if you’re doing it correctly! 5. Lastly, it gets me away from using romanisation as a crutch. Native Koreans don’t use it so we probably shouldn’t either and it can be a bit confusing as the words don’t sound out phonetically in english.All in all, I’m very happy with this book so far. I feel it’s good for all difficulty levels, even if you have an intermediate knowledge of korean, it’s good to brush up and there’s some good tips in there too.

⭐I follow Go! Billy Korean on YouTube and find him an uplifting and enthusiastic teacher, so I bought this textbook to help me keep all my notes together in one place and practice what I’ve already learnt from him.

⭐As someone who had no idea where to start with Korean, this book is so helpful. You can go through at your own pace (which for me is very slow!) and it’s written in a way that really guides you through and explains things well. Thanks Billy!

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