Korean language resources I used (2014-2018)

(Integrated Korean, Beginner 2)

Hello everyone! In this blog, I will elaborate in detail on the resources that I used for learning Korean. As you may know, I'm a student of Korean Studies, and I enrolled in Korean Studies in September 2014. Ever since, I have been studying Korean very seriously. The best advice I can give you is to do something in Korean every day! Whether it is vocabulary, grammar, listening or whatever. It is true that you should eventually master all of those if you are serious about studying a language, but my point is: be consistent. The best and fastest way to make progress is through consistency.

Apart from that, let's get into this! I will go to this post chronologically - starting with September 2014, the beginning of my Korean language study. For intermediate and advanced resources, keep on reading :)
It is hard for me to come with recommendations because every learner's needs are different. So I will just tell you what I appreciated about the books that I used and what I didn't like. I hope this will be a helpful and fun reading!

September 2014 - June 2015

Books I used in this period:
Integrated Korean beginning 1
Integrated Korean beginning 2


Can you tell that I used this book a lot? It's so out-worn, haha.

My very first books for Korean were the Integrated Korean books. Current first year students of our university use the Seogang university books. I have heard good things about them too. Seogang's materials are known to be one of the best for studying Korean, so those might be worth checking out too! Unfortunately, I have no idea where my very first book is at the moment. However, I still have the Beginner 2 book. Because most of my books are from these series, I'd like to do a short review on them.

Integrated Korean









Rating: 9/10
+ English explanations and translations
+ Good explanations of honorifics and non honorifics
+ Reading, speaking, writing AND listening exercises
+ Comes with workbooks
+ Comes with cultural notes
- According to my Korean professor, some of the formal expressions are 'old-fashioned'.

I really enjoyed using these books. The grammar explantions are on POINT! They really consider the position of the foreigner since they didn't overlook notes on Korean culture. This is essential to get a better understanding of the language itself. Also, it provides exercises for all the essential parts of language learning. The Integrated Korean books are older than language study books offered by other universities. However, this did not really hinder me.
Every lesson is made up of a narration (which consists of new vocabulary and grammar) vocabulary, grammar and exercises. They also provide English translations for the Korean narrations. So, me likey!

July - August 2015

Books used in this period: 

외국인을 위한 한국어 2 (Hankuk University)
TOPIK in 30 days | Intermediate Vocabulary
New TOPIK 2 Essential Grammar 150 | Intermediate

외국인을 위한 한국어2


As far as I know, these books are not for sale online, so I will skip my review on this book. In the summer of 2015 I attended the summer school of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. At this moment, I was at a lower intermediate level. However, I had already started doing some self-study beforehand, so this level was rather boring and easy for me. I scored 93% on the exam. I used a book offered by the university. I don't know if this is available anywhere, but I would recommend the Integrated Korean series over this university book.
During my stay in Korea, I also bought a few TOPIK books.

TOPIK in 30 days 



Rating: 7/10
Vocabulary only. I liked this book because it provides sample sentences for all the words and exercises at the end of every 'day'. It also comes with related words, so you actually get more words than the usual 30 words per day. Yes, the idea of the book is to prepare you for the TOPIK test in 30 days, meaning that you have to memorize 30 words every day, for 30 days -- so your vocabulary would increase with 900 words in one month.

I think this is a bit too hardcore and I doubt whether you can really master 30 words in one day. It's going to take you longer, and that's ok. If you're looking for a book that focuses on vocabulary, this book is nice. This book needs more test examples, though. But overall, it does a good job.

New TOPIK 2 Essential Grammar 150
Rating: 8/10


A book to help you master intermediate Korean grammar. I like this book. It has English explanations. It compares and contrasts similar grammar patterns. And, also important, grammar exercises! Some grammar explanations are a bit too poor explained, though, but only a few. It gives you a good sense of all the small nuances in different grammar patterns.



September 2015 - December 2015

Books used in this period:
Integrated Korean intermediate 1
한국어 읽기 2 (Korean reading 2), Yonsei University

Integrated Korean intermediate 1
Rating: 9/10
Another Integrated Korean book which I really liked. Sadly, I lost it somewhere.

한국어 읽기 2 (Korean reading 2), Yonsei University
Rating: 10/10
I loooove this book! Favorite book ever in my whole study program! In the first semester of my second year, I used the Integrated Korean books for intermediate lessons. Aside, for reading class, we used '한국어 읽기 2'  (Korean reading 2) by Yonsei University. I absolutely loved this book because the readings were just super cute and relatable! You can absolutely tell that this book was written for foreigners. The readings are all related to Korean culture and society. So, while reading this book, you also get to know more about Korea in general. It's a win-win! Every chapter starts with a reading, followed by vocabulary lists and questions in Korean (that you are, of course, supposed to answer in Korean) on the text. In case you really don't know the answer to the question: they provide the answers in the back of the book.







Reading 17 is on sightseeing in Seoul, reading 18 is on sceneries from the Seoul subway and reading 19 is on subway stations in Seoul that you should definitely go to.
All the other readings are just as fun! Again, reading about interesting things is such a win-win.


March 2016 - June 2016

Books used in this period:
배우기 쉬운 한국어 3 | Sungkyunkwan University
배우기 쉬운 한국어 4 | Sungkyunkwan University
배우기 쉬운 한국어 5 | Sungkyunkwan University







Rating: 5/10. Yes, they were that bad. Sorry to say this, but please do not enroll for this university's language program. Our second year students are now in Seogang University because Sungkyunkwan's language school just sucks.
- They are, as I would like to describe them, taught in a 'Korean style': meaning that you encounter 2 to 3 new grammar patterns EVERY DAY. But because you learn new grammar every day, you don't have time at all to really master the grammar. In the end, you know the meaning, but you forget how to use it. Also, having to memorize so much in such a short period is stressful and not efficient.
+- The teachers teach 100% in Korean. This is okay if you have a decent command of Korean. However, the explanations are all in Korean in the book. Even worse, in level 5, the explanations just completely disappear. Ummm, how do I learn new grammar without explanations?

I bought the SKKU books for level 3, 4 and 5, but mainly used the latter two.
All of our university students attended Sungkyunkwan University. However, after doing the placement test, I was placed in level 4 -- whereas my fellow students were placed in level 3. The beginning was very hard for me, because I felt in an 'in-between' position: level 3 was indeed definitely too easy, but level 4 was difficult because it covered grammar that we didn't cover back home. So in addition to the already intensive language program, I had to catch up on some level 3 grammar too. On top of that, all of our classes were 100% conducted in Korean! This was also very different from my home university, where our Korean classes were taught in Dutch and English.
Also, my fellow student's classes were on the main campus, but mine were somewhere else. The first weeks were hard because I had to adapt to a totally new environment and a new way of teaching. My other level 4 class mates had been studying at Sungkyunkwan ever since level 1, so they couldn't really relate to my struggles.
In the end, I worked my ass off and passed level 4! In May, then, I started level 5 as well. These are some of the books that I used in level 4 and 5.

September 2016 - December 2016
Books used in this period:
고급 읽기 한국어 (Yonsei University) 
쏙쏙 TOPIK 한국어 어휘 고급 

In November 2016, I took the TOPIK exam (Test of Proficiency in Korean language). So, at that point, I had been studying Korean for 2 years and 2 months. I was very satisfied with my score of 175 points -- level 4! Only 15 points more and I would have scored level 5. But then, that might have been too hard to achieve in only 2 years time. I have also heard that the gap between level 4 and 5 is quite huge; level 5 is much more academic than level 4. I think that if I were to take the exam again now, after 3.5 years of studying, I would be able to obtain level 5. In my 3rd year of Korean Studies, we only had reading classes because my university's main goal is to teach us to read Korean academic articles. In this reading class, we used 고급 읽기 한국어 (advanced Korean reading) by Yonsei University.

고급 읽기 한국어 (Yonsei University)
Rating: 3/10

I'll be honest with you: I hated this book. I get that 'advanced' Korean readings aren't going to be easy, but these topics were SO DULL. What Aristoteles' thoughts were on inductive and deductive reasoning? Come on...
Anyway, better to get yourself a book with advanced readings that will interest you.

쏙쏙 TOPIK 한국어 어휘 고급 






Rating: 7/10
Another vocabulary book that resembles the 30 days intermediate vocabulary book a lot! The only difference is that this book included vocabulary for 50 days. Oh well, they are again kind of hardcore: 1 day = 30 words. 1500 words in 50 days. It's a bit dull, but in my opinion, that's the case with most of those vocabulary books. Nevertheless, the book provides sample sentences and some practices, so it's pretty OK.

2017 - present: How I keep up with Korean through self-study
Unfortunately, my Korean classes ended in December 2016. However, this has not stopped me from learning Korean at all! I still enjoy studying Korean a lot and studying it is still a part of my daily routine. I will also make a separate post on how to self-study Korean, because there are countless options and resources for studying Korean (just like for all languages out there!).

At this moment, I'm exploring the various programs that Korean TV offers through www.ondemandkorea.com. Because Korean programs ALWAYS come with intralingual subs (Korean subs), you're working on your listening skills and vocabulary/grammar at the same time. I usually just browse for a program that seems interesting to me. Some of them are:

- Seoulmate
- Welcome, First Time to Korea?
- Hyori's B&B

These are all travel programs and the first two programs feature foreigners. I write down notes while watching Korean TV. I usually write down 1) time (where did I see this word? for future reference), 2) the caption (with the new vocab/grammar) and 3) translation in English.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post! I had fun writing it. I became all nostalgic while browsing through these books again.
Also, if you want a more detailed review of one of the books listed above, let me know! I didn't want to get into the details of ALL the books, because then this post would get really long. Rather, I wanted to give a more general overview of the resources that I used. If you have any questions or requests, let me know!

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