Korean Made Simple

Rating and giving this a read date, because today I “finished” working through the whole book (woohoo!), but obviously I'm not really “done” with it and will continue to refer back to it.

Anyway, this was fantastic and I can highly recommend it to anyone else looking for a good beginner resource. I had already learnt Hanguel and a few basic phrases before picking this up, but the opening chapters on Hanguel and sound changing cleared up so much that had been confusing. Very well presented and easy to follow, and the audio for these chapters at least really helped.

After this, each chapter focuses on a conversation or 2, introducing a couple new grammatical structures. At first, I was a bit concerned about Billy's decision to start with the formal -니다/-니까 conjugation, but by the end of the book, it became clear why he'd made this decision, and now I wonder why more beginner resources don't do it this way. I was surprised how quickly Billy introduced many, many grammatical constructions. This book is fast paced, I'd say, but not overwhelming, thanks to the extremely clear examples and explanations. Having said, you should take Billy's initial advice to take your time and not blast through all the chapters. You should make sure each new concept is clear and fully understood before moving in, even if that means doing the chapters in bit. There's nothing wrong with taking it slower!

Each chapter is then followed by practice questions. It was the perfect amount to solidify what was covered, in my opinion, although now I'm very aware I need to get writing and practising what I've learnt!

My few very, very minor complaints:

1. The audio could be better. There's not a lot of it, and some of it sounds unnaturally slow. I know we, as beginners, can't be expected to follow natural Korean at full speed, but I wonder how helpful doing it quite this slow really is. I think the audio was more to demonstrate the grammar than anything else, and now I've finished this textbook, I plan to use other sources for beginner listening practice.

2. I hate, hate, long lists of vocabulary without context. Some of the vocab was used in the example sentences, but not a lot of it, honestly. Memorising long lists of words never works for me, and I'm more likely to confuse words if I try to do it this week. So like with the audio, I now plan to look elsewhere for sources on vocabulary plus reading practice.

In summary, for grammar this could not be any better! Super! Easy to follow explanations and I can't really criticise how the grammar was presented at all. Although the vocabulary and listening aspects could have been better, I think multiple sources are always better anyway. I've got some sources lined up for that now, and I'll be back for Book 2, when I'm ready for more grammar!