Roadmap to Korean

by Richard Harris

Roadmap to Korean is the most complete and thorough introduction to the Korean language of its kind. A sweeping journey through thousands of years of history, the book is an essential study guide for students of the language, from novices just beginning their studies to the most advanced learner. Roadmap to Korean is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the country and its people on a more intimate level. By revealing fascinating insights through easy-to-follow examples and stories, the book is also a unique look into the more than 70 million people who speak the language around the world today.

Genres: Nonfiction

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Richard Harris was born in Toronto, Canada in 1974. After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at McGill University in 1996, he moved to South Korea, where he lived for 10 years. He continued to live overseas for two more years—in Spain, Australia, and South Africa—before returning to Canada in 2009.

Visit his website at:
http://harrisrichard.com/

Read his short stories at:
http://www.wattpad.com/26936364-the-l...

Follow him on Twitter at:
@harrisrh88

Visit his Facebook fan page at:
https://www.facebook.com/harrisrichard88

Reviews

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great text. The first four chapters in Part 1, on the history of the language and culture of Korea are priceless for anyone working with Koreans on a daily basis. I wish that I had read this 34 years ago. My life in the UC and relationships with Regional leaders might have been very different.



The chapter on High and Low-Context Languages gave me additonal insight into why the DP was written the way it was. It also clarifies why misunderstandings and conflicts so often arise. I highly recommend this book for anyone who works with Koreans whether you want to go all the way and learn the language or not. This book lives up to the high reviews it has received.



I have just finished Part One, and am really looking forward to getting into the nuts and bolts of learning the language. I also appreciate that the author includes the Hangeul spelling with his "English" pronunciation because I want to learn to read Korean as well as speak it. Thank you, Richard Harris!

[Iris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really nice mix of textbook and vocabular primer, and very readable in the way good chocolate is "munchable."

[Bluh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect introduction to Korean language and culture. Appendices may be useful in the later progress of studying Korean.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot of resources out there for students of Korean. Some are written by Koreans for he benefit of foreigners. Most of said resources are laughably bad while few and far between are quite good. On the other hand, some are written by foreigners for the benefit of other foreigners. Most of said resources are either for learning slang or are simply MIA. An exceptional resource is Richard Harris's Roadmap to Korean. His previous effort, interestingly enough, is also hard to find and also very valuable (Faces of Korea).

Don't let the textbook-like cover fool you because this is a resourceful heart-to-heart conversational with you and the author. Harris has compiled his personal notes, stories, charts, tips and tricks all into this neatly presented package. Imagine a super-awesome blog written on paper. It's a very light read and written casually; almost spoken-like. The author has lots of advice to give whether you've never studied the language before or have been for years. There's some history and culture as well as some grammar pitfalls and speaking taboos that are enough to learn from as well as laugh at. His perspective is golden and there's a lot to learn from his book, make no mistake.

I don't have much to say about this book that hasn't already been said. It's a great guide. The only thing I want to criticize is the author's plea to learn hanja. Although I also strongly encourage learning hanja because of its usefulness, he does little in terms of pointing one in the right direction of how to actually study hanja. A minor gripe for such a fabulous study guide. Yes, this book is enough to warrant me saying the word "fabulous".

I would also like to point out that this book is the book I should have written. If I ever had aspirations to publish a "Guide to Study Korean" book, this would have been it. Everything to the comical voice to the practical breakdown of a simple phrase such as "How are you?" Thanks a lot Harris for beating me to the punch and doing a better job than I probably would have done.

I wish I read this years ago.

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone who is trying to learn Korean. You can finally internalize why Korean is put together the way it is, and the customs, history and social structure that put the language together the way it is.

Korean is difficult. YOu need reasons to keep going. Richard Harris provides this. You can learn all the "levels of politeness" that are so difficult in Korean and "ban-mal" too (the level used to talk to children). There's a lot of fun small talk at the back of the book too, and fun idiomatic expressions to memorize and amaze your (immigrant) friends with.

Definitely written for a specific audience. That audience is very happy that Mr. Harris wrote this book.

[Stephen Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was pretty useless as an educational aid. It had some funny personal anecdotes and some interesting historical and contextualizing info, but good luck trying to actually learn anything from the language instruction. I made much better headway with this: Korean Grammar In Use: Beginning To Early Intermediate.