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Anyone read Stephen Revere’s Korean book? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| nhk9 Senior Member Canada Joined 6803 days ago 290 posts - 319 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 25 of 37 01 February 2010 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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The show by Stephen Revere is quite annoying in that you can only learn about one or two words in 10 minutes. They spend too much time talking about side stories than actually teaching your more phrases.
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| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6436 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 26 of 37 01 February 2010 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | ||
Yeah I know. I was mostly interested in his book because he is a native English speaker who is (presumably) fluent in Korean. I wanted to read a book written from someone in that situation, instead of all the Korean books written by Koreans who don't have the unique "things that make Korean hard for English speakers" perspective. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5534 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 27 of 37 02 February 2010 at 9:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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BTW, Sounds of Korean finally arrived last night, but I haven't had much time to look through it (or fire up the audio CD) yet. From a quick skim, though, it seems quite detailed. It also has some exercises in the book where you listen to part of the CD then figure out which of the listed words was said, which should be quite useful.
Still no sign of the two Stephen Revere books yet, though, even though that was actually the first shipping notification I received from the various items I ordered that day (and everything else has now arrived). Perhaps it is due to the fact that HanBooks is in CA (i.e. the other end of the country) or maybe the recent winter weather storm slowed it up somewhere along the way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6436 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 28 of 37 03 February 2010 at 6:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks! Please post an updated review after you've spent some time using the book.
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| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 6185 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 29 of 37 03 February 2010 at 10:33am | IP Logged | ||
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No need to pay attention to the word 자네. It's hardly ever used, I've never had to use it myself, and as a result I can't even remember when to use it. If I recall, it's closer to "you all" though.
Personal pronouns aren't used like they are in English, but anyone who tells you they are rarely used (as in Japanese) isn't counting very well. In situations where you're the same age or older than the person you're talking to, you sometimes say "you" quite often. If you're younger then you'll probably use almost no 2nd person personal pronouns. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5534 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 30 of 37 04 February 2010 at 2:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I've read through a fair chunk of the Sounds of Korean book so far (thoroughly reading the intro, vowel, and consonant chapters, plus browsing of the adjustments chapter which I'll read more in-depth at another sitting) and this book is quite in-depth.
The description of the differences in the consonant triplet sets (like ㅋㄱㄲ) is well-written and should be useful. Also, the book describes the ㅅㅆ difference quite well (which is one of the trickier ones to differentiate) and noted that some native Korean speakers don't even audibly differentiate those two (though the "standard" Seoul dialect still does). I also learned several things I had never really even considered before, like the fact that the tongue position for the English T/D and the Korean ㅌ/ㄷ/ㄸ are not the same (even though the sounds are somewhat similar). The same is true with the S vs ㅅ/ㅆ consonants (different tongue placement, somewhat similar sound). For reference, the 봐 to 바 type sound shift is covered in section 4.4 (Diphthong reduction). The gist is that in colloquial speech the first vowel sound in "w + vowel" (and some "y + vowel") diphthongs may get weakened or even dropped entirely, unless that diphthong actually starts the word. I haven't delved into the audio yet (which, for reference, is actually an MP3 CD not an audio CD). Still no sign of the S.R. books. {sigh} 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6436 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 31 of 37 04 February 2010 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sounds like I'll be ordering that Sounds of Korean book. An .mp3 CD? How advanced! :D
Thanks for posting your review. Hopefully the S.R. books come soon. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5534 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 32 of 37 26 February 2010 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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I actually got the books a while back now (though HanBooks had to reship as USPS apparently lost the original shipment) and it occurs to me I didn't come back with an update. But first, some updates on the other two programs I noted previously in this thread:
Pimsleur Korean: The more I continue through Pimsleur Spanish (currently on lesson 55), the more I realize some of the things that Pimsleur Korean *didn't* cover in its 60 lessons. I'm assuming this was an intentional adjustment since Spanish can be learned at a faster pace for English speakers, but it is something to be aware of. Regardless, I'm still glad that I started with Pimsleur Korean for learning this language. Sounds of Korean: Don't get make the mistake I did and get too bogged down in the latter half of the "adjustments" chapter. While most of the rules in the beginning of the chapter *are* considered normal pronunciation (things like pronouncing 일년 (one year) as 일련 instead), many of the items near the end of that chapter have very strange rules (like whether the word root is Native or Sino-Korean), but those are usually the same ones that say "the standard pronunciation is still considered correct" and/or note that occurrences of that sound change are quite rare. Survival Korean: My only real complaints with this book are that it feels a bit short (but I do like the format) and that the numbers in the Korean dialogs are written in Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) so it isn't always obvious which number system to use there when reading the dialogs (though I guess using the audio CDs would make that more obvious). The book follows the story of an American named John traveling to Korea, meeting up with a Korean friend, eating, shopping, flying to Jejudo, conversing with a Korean lady on the flight, etc. Each chapter covers a different section of this story. It starts with an English summary of the scenario that this chapter covers. Then it displays that chapter's dialog in three formats: Korean (in 한글), a "literal" translation, then the more natural English translation. Afterward, they show translations for some of the various words and phrase segments in the dialog (usually just the ones that are new to this chapter). The next page is "bonus" vocab that fits in the same category (for example, in the lesson where "student" is introduced, some of the bonus vocab covers the words for "school," "high school," "university," etc. Afterward is a section called the "Korean Key" which explains the concepts which differ in Korean from how they are used in English. After that is a section explaining any grammar that was introduced in that chapter (verb endings, particles, conjunctions, etc.). The final section of each chapter contains exercises to review what was new in that chapter. There are also occasional sections between chapters explaining Korean cultural differences and giving study tips. You won't find yourself rolling with laughter or anything, but Stephen Revere's personality does still obviously come through in the explanations (especially in the "Korean Key" sections). Survival Korean: Basic Grammar: This book is in a completely different format than the original "Survival Korean" book. The first section contains several pages of "essential vocabulary" that you need to understand the examples in the book. Each chapter of the book covers a different grammar ending/concept. While you could study straight through this book (which I intend to do), the difficulty doesn't scale, so you could just as easily use it as a reference grammar by jumping straight to the chapter you need. It covers pretty much the same grammar concepts that are covered by the "Survival Korean" book, but since it is designed as more of a grammar book, there are more examples/exercises for each grammar point, and it is easier to find a grammar point by simply jumping to its chapter. My only real complaint with this book is that, like the original "Survival Korean" book, it feels a bit short. Yes, it is a "basic grammar" not a detailed grammar reference, but I still wish it covered more endings than it did. NOTE: Both of the SK series books come with 2 CDs each, but I haven't had the chance to listen to any of them (nor the Sounds of Korean CD for that matter). Edited by Warp3 on 26 February 2010 at 3:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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