Korean From Zero! 1: Master the Korean Language and Hangul Writing System with Integrated Workbook and Online Course

This text book is simply incredible. I am currently living in South Korea, so there is no excuse for me to not study the Korean language. However, it is difficult finding the time and financial resources to efficiently study Korean. Fortunately, I was introduced to this textbook by one of the authors, George. He happened to be attending a language exchange in Seoul. George is passionate, knowledgeable and experienced in teaching foreign languages, so I decided to try to use his Korean From Zero textbook.At first I used the free online pdf file, but I quickly decided to order a copy of the actual textbook since I was learning so quickly. This textbook is well organized and incredibly informative. I have previously taken a Korean language course at a South Korean university, but the course textbook gave far too much pressure to memorize vocabulary, grammar and sentences. Conversely, I have never felt any pressure to memorize vast amounts of vocabulary as I have used Korean From Zero. The main focus of each lesson is learning Korean sentence structures. Once I master new sentence structures it is much easier to learn new vocabulary words. Furthermore, the textbook itself encourages learners to go back and review content from previous lessons.I believe this is the best textbook for beginning level Korean language learners. Korean From Zero is easily accessible for anyone who wants to study Korean at their own pace. I want to take this opportunity to thank George and his fellow authors for creating this textbook, because it has given me and millions of other Korean language learners the opportunity to efficiently learn Korean without paying hundreds of dollars for classes.

After buying Japanese From Zero and seeing all the awesome supplemental materials available for free online through the website, I considered buying this textbook for myself, but I decided not to because I'm already studying Chinese, Japanese, Lakota, and Arabic on my own as well as taking college courses and working weekends. However, my mom is obsessed with Korean TV shows (Running Man is her favorite) and k-pop, and she has been struggling with the Integrated Korean textbook I bought for her last Christmas. For some reason, she couldn't memorize hangul or basic words (such as numbers) using the textbook or some of the free vocabulary sheets she found on other websites. I started to teach her hangul myself with decent results, but I realized that after teaching her the alphabet, I wouldn't be able to provide her with anything further as my Korean is very broken and my pronunciation is atrocious according to multiple Korean friends. So I went ahead and bought this book.Just like Japanese From Zero, Korean From Zero is so much simpler than any other traditional textbook on the market. My mom is terrible at learning foreign languages, but even she has been improving steadily using this book. I think that once she decides to use the Korean From Zero website, she will probably get even better. KFZ's exercises and phrases/words are more interesting and useful than the ones you start out with in other texts (my mom will probably never need to know the word "dorm room" or "major" since she's not going back to college anytime soon!) and the grammar is much easier to understand, too.

This book is single highhandedly the best introductory resource to Korean that I've seen so far... and I have tons of books. This book has explanations that took me ages to search for on the web. This is something that I wish I had when I first started learning Korean. It is really well laid out and keeps me motivated because there is a structure to everything. If you don't have Korean classes in your area this is a really great alternative. I've heard great things about Japanese From Zero and was so excited when George announced he was working on Korean from Zero. There are plenty of places to practice your handwriting in the Hangul section as well as the rest of the book. One problem with most of the books that I own is that it is laid out just like a novel with no opportunity to practice. This book allows me to constantly feel engaged. The best part is that after the Hangul section, romanization is completely absent! Including romanization in a language learning book is the absolute WORST thing authors can do. Stop it! If you seriously want to learn a language then you need to learn the alphabet. Romanization is used as a crutch and will ultimately slow you down. If you're serious about learning Korean this is definitely the book for you - for that reason alone.

I love how helpful this book is for learning Korean. You can download this book for free from the Korean From Zero website but it's best to order the physical copy, just for convenience. The grammar lessons are explained well and with the help of their website, the audio files, and their YouTube channel, learning Korean is fun and easy.I don't like the small amount of vocabulary they give you throughout the book. You would have to buy supplementary material just so you can build more to your vocabulary. I also didn't like the hangeul section of the book, simply because they said the vowels were pronounced one way, but you listen to the audo file, it's pronounced differently. I wish they were more clear about pronunciation in the book or they would write the correct pronunciation.Other than that, I would recmomend this book to anyone who wants to learn Korean.