Korean From Zero! 1: Master the Korean Language and Hangul Writing System with Integrated Workbook and Online Course 3rd Edition

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.

This was the first Korean textbook I bought for myself, and it continues to be my favorite. I originally chose it because I had bought Japanese From Zero and really liked its layout, so after buying that book, I decided to study Korean too. (Why not, it's not like my brain has enough languages and writing systems floating around in it yet!)This book spoiled me. It taught me Hangul, and it taught it to me very well. Now, about 10 months into studying Korean, I get annoyed at other books that have decided that they are going to have romanizations after *every* *single* *hangul* *word* *and* *phrase*... Ugh!The only issue I have really ever had with this book has been in the audio files department. When I downloaded them, some of the files weren't there because they were being updated, and it has been hard for me to figure out if/when they have updated the files. A minor petty thing is that I don't have the latest version with its cool cover art >_<. I did buy that one for my friend though.Completing each chapter has been fun. I use Instagram to chronicle when I've completed a chapter/started a new one. My Korean friends who help me check/go over my work sometimes think this book is really good, as well!I'm almost done with the entire book, and I'm so excited about the 2nd one coming out on the 20th! If you're looking to study Korean, I think this book is a super fantastic choice!

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.

I would give this book five stars if there weren’t so many errors in translation. For example, a sentence in Korean will say “Next week, I will go to Korea.” But the answer key will tell you that it says “Next TUESDAY, I will go to Korea.” If you don’t know much about Korean, this could get really confusing. Anytime I second guess what the answer key is telling me when I check my answers, I usually just check the translator app Papago. Other than that, I love this book. I will still purchase the 2nd book even with errors considered.