[TEXTBOOK REVIEW] Hello Korean 안녕하세요 한국어 1

독자 여러분들, 안녕하세요! 오래만에시죠, ㅋㅋㅋ. 제가 드디어 돌아왔습니다. 지난 주에는 제가 두 시험을 봐서 다 잘 봤으면 합니다. 오늘은 한국어를 배우기 위한 책을 또 보여드리겠습니다!

How was that, everyone? Although I think I am capable of producing a greeting much better than this, it will have to do! So it is pretty obvious what I am about to review today, right?

The most recommended set of (text)books for learning Korean, (as recommended by me and many others before me)… Hello Korean 안녕하세요 한국어 1 & Hello Korean 안녕하세요 한국어 2! I will review the second one in a couple of days, pinky promise!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR SELF-LEARNERS FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE.

So what are my thoughts about this pretty pretty book? First, some details!

ISBN: 978-89-94011-15-8 (Hello Korean 1), 978-89-94011-13-4 (Set)

Price: 23,000won / SGD 56 approximately at Kinokuniya Singapore / USD 23 (excluding shipping fees) at twochois.com

Firstly, this set of books boasts an impressive team of authors; both Ji Young, Park and So Young, Yoo have a degree each in language education so you can rest assured that your needs as a student will be met when using this set of books.  Both are prominent figures in their respective fields, having spearheaded many events and programmes which taught Korean to foreigners.

Not only that, Lee Joon Gi lends his voice to aid your learning experience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secondly, the book comes with two audio CDs to help you with your pronunciation! Not only that, they contain audio clips for the listening exercises in the book. This is extremely beneficial to the self-learner, when you have no one to speak Korean with you! Very few textbooks out there come packed with CDs. Most of the time, they are bought separately or found online, both of which can be rather inconvenient. 😡  Trying his very best to articulate each sound and syllable as clearly as he could in the audio clips, who could ask for a better voice than Joon Gi/Ki, Lee’s (King and the Clown, Iljimae, upcoming drama Joseon Shooter etc.)? HAHA it’s as if I’m promoting his voice. Well, I was a very big fan of his when I was younger. :> Kinda excited for his upcoming drama too! Heh. Anyway, on to the third point!

 

Summary of Chapters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thirdly, the book comes with explicitly detailed explanations for vowel pronunciation! And no, they were not too technical at all, unlike Integrated Korean 1. 😡 Explanations were simple and could be easily followed. Overall, I think it was really cute how they included pictures, because they actually were useful! If you are still unsure, you could go online and check out some videos on Youtube. Plenty at your disposal. 😉

When you have finished learning 한글,  you can now move on to the chapters! Every chapter begins with a simple dialogue about a certain situation such as the location of one’s home, how to ask a stranger on the street for directions etc. Another reason why I think this book is really awesome is that it introduces a variety of situations, not just those confined to a campus or to a young student. The brightly coloured cartoons are ‘just’ a bonus. 😛 Don’t feel childish using it! You have no idea how useful they can be. I would say this could be Korea’s equivalent of ‘Alter Ego’, a really good French textbook which is written purely in French. If they ever make a Korean textbook in the style of the latter, I would buy it. No hesitation. Really. *___*

 

Fourth, the book comes with answers to all the exercises! Answers are important, WHY? They keep you on the right track in terms of grammar structure! Most textbooks come without answers, unfortunately. It could be because of the variety of answers one could get for the same question, but still!

Fifth, each chapter ends with a short section on Korean culture and two pages of new vocabulary to learn! The amount of effort and detail put into each cartoon and section… Very impressive, to be honest.

So if you just wanted to know the pros and cons, here they are!

Pros

• Knowledgeable authors, who have teaching experience
• Audio CDs for aural learning
• Cute Phonetic charts for learning 한글
• Answers!! To the questions!!! YAY
• Engaging sections on Korean culture, complete with pictures to boot :>
• Very fun and engaging book 🙂

Cons

• Cons? What cons? Alright, maybe there is a few…
• Compared to other textbooks, the total number of grammar points taught (combined with those from book 2 as well) is a little lower than usual.
• If you are planning to continue learning Korean after finishing this set of books, you might not be able to skip to level 2 of most of the Korean textbook series. SNU’s Korean 1 definitely covers a lot more than Hello Korean 1 & 2 would, so I would advise you not to rely solely on this set, if you are planning to take TOPIK Beginner.
• The set is a little pricy, considering the amount of grammar points taught as compared to other books which are priced at a similar cost. However, I believe that the engaging way the chapters are taught more than make up for this con. 🙂

I hope you enjoyed reading my post! I really like this set of books and it’s definitely for the non-academic-focused 한국어 learner… 😉

• Hello Korean 1
• Korean Review
• Korean Textbook