Learning Korean

This downloadable audio file provides the opportunity to hear and practise the language.

Pick up the essentials of the Korean language with this easy-to-use audio introduction. Covering everything from finding your way to talking about yourself, Collins 40-minute audio can help you learn short and simple phrases quickly by just listening and repeating.

This is a good value phrasebook for Korean. The format is as follows: English word/phrase, Korean equivalent, short break, Korean equivalent. This allows you to speak along the audio. This audio is the ideal companion to the Collins GEM Korean phrasebook. If you also have the phrasebook, you can read these phrases (in Korean script if you prefer; a little browsing is required, though, since the book is not just the transcript or vice versa), but the audio works brilliantly on its own. In contrast to other audio programmes, this one is sensitive towards the particularities of Korean (e.g. the two number systems, or the fact that "goodbye" is different depending on whether you stay or leave). The programme uses useful grammar rules which are explained in accessible language. The audio quality is good, and the speakers are easy to understand. The first time a word is said in Korean, it is spoken more slowly than in the second instance. Apart from the shortness of the programme, the only aspect that could have been done better - in my view - is splitting the tracks in a way that you don't have to listen to the grammar explanations every time when all you want to simply revise phrases. However, grammar explanations are generally short and most of the audio comprises of words and short phrases. The contents are geared towards the traveller, and less towards a business traveller.