Korean From Zero! 1: Proven Methods to Learn Korean with included Workbook, MP3 Audio, and Online Support

This book is a very useful and fun book to learn Korean with. It was written by George Trombley, who also wrote the Japanese From Zero books, which have helped me hugely with Japanese. I got this book because I love the way George teaches. I was definitely not disappointed with this book and it is helping me a lot. I hope to get Korean From Zero 2 and Korean From Zero 3 as well once I finish this. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is already studying Korean or wants to start learning it but doesn't know where to start.

As someone who had little time to dedicate to learning Korean, I made painfully slow progress through this book. However, that isnt a comment on the book itself. This is a fantastic guide for anyone genuinely dedicated to learning Korean. It progresses in a logical manner and nothing is sprung on the dilligent student who reviews the previous lessons. It even has a bit of a sense of humour at times, and tries to avoid being dry (although, you must accept that this isnt always possible). The MP3 files on the website (KoreanFromZero.com) were high quality and really helped me get the pronunciation as good as I could manage. There's also content on their YouTube channel which is helpful supplementary material. As other reviewers have noted, there are a few minor mistakes which should have been picked up on, but they're not worth dropping a star off for. This guide is well worth a purchase, and i will definitely be buying the other 2.

I've just finished a Korean beginners plus course at an institute in London, and i didn't want to lose what i'd already learned, so i purchased this book. I like that the lessons are short but informative, and they lose the "romanised wording" pretty quickly. There are different types of activities: matching the words to it's english/korean counterpart, answering questions in english/korean, etc. For those who don't want to buy the book you can get a pdf version of it free from their website. for me,nothing beats a physical copy. It would also be a good idea to go to the website as they have audio that accompanies the lessons. i find that having the book does have it's merits as writing in the book helps me to retain the information. it is easier to check your answers also (located at the end of the book) along with the mini dictionary.

It's a very easy book to read through. They explain the material quite well and provide a lot of examples to convey each meaning. I already had a good foundation in Korean, so I used this as a review. There were a few mistakes in the examples provided such as mistranslation or spelling mistakes. I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't study the material beforehand so that's something to look out for. Aside from that, I enjoyed the workbook section and the online audio.

Got this book a week ago and I absolutely love it. Having learned hangul before this was way better than the other source that I learned from. It gives plenty examples and allows you to practice your writing. The audio are great to look back and compare at your reading and see how you're pronouncing the words or phrases. If you're teaching your self Korean like I am or are planning to learn then I would highly recommend this book as it gives you plenty of exercises and also gives you a structure for you to learn the language.

I have been learning Korean for about 6 months and I have used Youtube video and website and I even got other books such as 'Talk to me in Korean'. However, I think that 'Korean From Zero' is definitely one of those books that are essential. All books have mostly the same content but this book just has that bit extra that makes it better in my eyes. Essentially learning any language is going to take time and effort but with the correct book, it makes like a little bit easier. I found that this book had a bit extra content that initially I didn't understand but once I read about it, it instantly clicked and made sense. By all means, buy other books because they do say that you should not only rely on one method of learning but just make sure that 'Korean from Zero' is one of the books that you have. Good luck in your studies. 안녕

I'm in love with the style this book teaches. Overall it's a good book to learn from, I really like it has a lot of pages but it is definitely worth the money. I would recommend others to buy it if you have an interest in learning Korean. This book is definitely easy to understand. The book came in good condition no rips or tears. I'm happy with my purchase.

Updated from 1 star to 3 1/2 stars - I actually really like this book now (several years later!), but I think it’s still a mistake to start with this one (despite it suggesting it takes you ‘from zero’). If it weren’t marketed as from zero, I would actually give it 5 stars at this point - it builds gradually (but does skip some early steps you will need to fill in from elsewhere) and has lots of helpful exercises. You really need to have some grounding first, or be someone who benefits from a grammar-first approach but doesn’t need everything explained (I prefer grammar-first, AND to understand fully as I go). Combined with Mastering Conversational Korean: Korean for Beginners, by Kyubyong Park & Henry J. Amen IV, this works well for a grammar-based, thorough grounding. I would still look at the recommendations at the bottom of my earlier review, below, for filling in that ‘from zero’ gap, which as you can see, took a while for me! This book doesn't work for me at -all-. Particular criticisms of the book: - Having gotten as far as lessson 6, they still haven't explained that Korean word order is crucially different from English (it is different in an easy way, that is easy to understand, if you are just told about it!). - The first lessons are just phrases, but without even explanations of what the different bits of the phrase mean - you're supposed to jump from learning Hangeul to learning sentences with only an idea of the meaning of the sentence as a whole, not the parts. My brain just doesn't work that way. - In general, the book explains slightly more complicated points of grammar before it explains basic, foundational ones. (Which it doesn't seem to explain at all). Some of the explanations are needlessly complicated and difficult to follow. - It's not very well set out. For example, when teaching you to ask basic questions, the word 'what' and the phrasing of a question using that word is given in one example conversation, but not in the intro paragraph OR in either of the boxes reminding you how to phrase a question. It's not even given as separate vocab or in the 'new words' section, just that once as part of a sentence - and then you don't see it again until a question and answer exercise! So far the most useful part to me, that I haven't found elsewhere, has been about typing in Korean. I definitely wouldn't recommend this as a 'from zero' book. It usually taxes my brain to learn a language, and to learn the grammar, but I have never before met a book that I couldn't just work through step by step (I'm studying other languages as well). So I was quite surprised to find myself stymied by a book for absolute beginners! It just doesn't teach you all the things you need to know. Don't be put off by this book! Korean is much easier to learn than it makes it seem!! I would instead recommend: - the Memrise app for learning Hangeul (it has sounds, also it has lots of repetition and jokey ways to memorize the symbols), possibly using the Poppopping Hangeul app for a bit more explanation on where to make the sounds in your mouth, and on how the symbols relate to each other, - Read and Speak Korean for Beginners for continuing Hangeul and some starter phrases (crucially made easier by including what the bits of the phrases mean, and some grammar) - Michel Thomas course Start Korean, for grammar and an easy start to making sentences (and encouragement to be speaking out loud!) - Talk To Me in Korean website free lessons, especially the beginner ones, also the Korean Class 101 website, though you have to sign up to see lessons and the pdfs aren't free like they are with TTMIK, but they still have the vocab and dialogues written out on the website - the absolute beginner ones are the best place to start there. I haven't tried any other books except for the Routledge Basic Grammar which was useful but still a little beyond me, so it's possible that there are some other good starter books out there. I honestly thought that once I'd gotten this start through other books and methods, I could come back to Korean From Zero and start learning from it again, having filled in some of the gaps, but no, it just doesn't build up step by step, and/or I haven't filled in enough of the gaps. I will use it as a back-up reference, or question bank for -after- I have learned things elsewhere.