PREFACE
Setting the Scene

You’re on a sidewalk in the center of Seoul, in the ultra-hip shopping district of Myeongdong. Fresh off the plane, all you can do is stand and stare at the bright neon lights with their funny angular letters. The ample sidewalk is swarming with pedestrians, and the chattering hum of their strange, lilting language is making your head swim.

Just as you’re about to pass out from stimulus overload, you get a tap on the shoulder. He has the look of a young professional, maybe late 20s, dressed business casual, smiling widely. “Hello. Can I help you find something?”

Ordinarily, you’re wary of friendly strangers you meet in a foreign city, especially when you’re there for the first time and don’t really know where you’re going. But something about this guy tells you he’s sincere, that it’s okay to trust him. And you’re right—because you’re in Korea now!

An authentic voice

Congratulations—you just met your narrator! You may think you’re lucky to have bumped into such a helpful, charming young man. And, well, of course you are! But the truth is many visitors to Korea have this exact experience. As a foreigner, you’ll find the Korean people incredibly curious and engaging. They’re as excited to learn about you and where you’re from as they are to share their own unique culture with you.

This is your narrator in a nutshell, and Korean for Beginners is written entirely in his voice. You won’t encounter dry grammar lessons or rote vocabulary memorization in these pages. At the same time, you’re not going to see things dumbed down or oversimplified. Instead, you’ll be learning the basics of the Korean language—and the culture that created it—by way of an authentic, one-on-one dynamic. Straight from your narrator’s mouth, as it were.

It’s this authenticity that makes Korean for Beginners the best resource out there for picking up the language as it’s being spoken today—short of heading down to Myeongdong and meeting your own guide, that is!

Learning that runs deep

Your authors know the tribulations of language learning—Kyubyong as a Korean studying English and Henry as an American studying Korean. From these struggles and, yes, occasional successes, has come insight, and we’re happy to share this insight with you in Korean for Beginners.

From how to use honorifics to show the proper respect in a conversation, to what exactly a particle is. From deciphering Hangeul—the Korean writing system—to learning how to say “I can’t eat kimchi.” These are some of the essentials of Korean language learning, and they’ll be illustrated over and over again, along with many others. Heck, by the end we’ll have you saying “I CAN eat kimchi!”

Korean for Beginners is divided into 27 chapters, and each includes a core lesson on a fundamental element of the language, with plenty of practical applications thrown in. What’s more, each ends in a two-part conclusion. The first is a list of further vocabulary related to the subject matter of the chapter, designed to enhance and expand your understanding. And the second offers a relevant cultural tidbit, guaranteed to teach you something interesting about the country and its people, be it the layout of a Korean computer keyboard or the rules of a Korean drinking game.

At the back of the book, you’ll find a Korean-English/English-Korean glossary with all the terms featured in the chapters. And, perhaps most importantly of all, Korean for Beginners comes with a multimedia package that includes video instruction on pronouncing the characters and audio recordings of the example phrases and sentences in the book.

So crank up the bulgogi grill and put a bottle of soju on ice—you’re about to learn Korean!