Synopses & Reviews
A handy introduction to the Korean language that is concise, simple, and useful.Much more than Korean phrasebook, Practical Korean has been written to fill a specific need: that of the hundreds of thousand of people now visiting Korea for business or holidays or even living there for a year or two, who wish to learn something of the spoken Korean language around them. The grammatical structure of Korean is particularly complex, and difficulties plague foreign students learning Korean. Samuel E. Martin, renowned Asian language expert and professor emeritus at Yale University has simplified some of the common problems to acquaint the reader with the most useful way to say a lot of everyday things, without having to memorize long lists of grammatical rules. The compact size makes it ideal for traveling to Korea or reading on a plane, train or bus.
The sentences are almost all given in the polite (yo) style, which is both the simplest and the most widely useful. From this style, another common style—the Intimate style—is easily derived simply by dropping the final particle. From a practical point of view, this is the quickest and simplest way to put a foreigner into direct communication with Koreans, including the use of a Korean phrase book. The student will quickly make progress learning to comprehend and speak Korean. The material is presented using the romanization method of written Korean that is officially authorized by the Korean government as well as the native Korean script (Hangeul). Practical Korean is grouped into 47 lessons that cover all the common topics of conversation, grammar and vocabulary.
Synopsis
Initially written for the tourist visiting Korea, Practical Korean is actually a very handy reference for anyone interested in quickly acquiring a working knowledge of spoken Korean. This book provides the basics needed to converse in simple Korean. Intended for beginners, it concentrates only on key grammar and pronunciation points. Most of the lessons include exercises that reinforce vocabulary items and grammatical structures. Phrases and sentences are recycled for long-term learning. Over 200 simple illustrations allow even beginners to express themselves.
About the Author
Samuel E. Martin received his undergraduate degree and master's degree in Oriental languages from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in linguistics from Yale University. He is the author of numerous books and papers on Japanese and Korean, including the definitive A Reference Grammar of Japanese and A Reference Grammar of Korean.