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Korean Stories For Language Learners: Traditional Folktales in Korean and English
The most enjoyable way to learn about an unfamiliar culture is through its stories—especially when they're told in two languages!
Korean Stories for Language Learners introduces 42 traditional Korean folktales with bilingual Korean and English versions, presented on facing pages, together with detailed notes and exercises aimed at beginning learners of the language. The book can be used as a reader in first- and second-year Korean language courses or by anyone who wishes to learn about Korean folktales and traditional Korean culture.
This elegantly illustrated volume is designed to help language learners expand their vocabulary and to develop a basic familiarity with Korean culture. The stories gradually increase in length and complexity throughout the book as the reader improves their vocabulary and understanding of the language. After the first few stories, the reader is asked to use the vocabulary in speaking and writing exercises. By reading these classic stories, they also are given a window into Korean culture and learn to appreciate the uniqueness of the country—which provides greater motivation to continue learning the difficult language.
Cultural notes and discussion questions further reinforce one's understanding of the stories, and bolster one's language skills. Korean-English and English-Korean glossaries are included as well as an overview of the Korean Hangeul script.
Audio recordings by native speakers help readers improve their pronunciation and inflection.
Korean Stories for Language Learners introduces 42 traditional Korean folktales with bilingual Korean and English versions, presented on facing pages, together with detailed notes and exercises aimed at beginning learners of the language. The book can be used as a reader in first- and second-year Korean language courses or by anyone who wishes to learn about Korean folktales and traditional Korean culture.
This elegantly illustrated volume is designed to help language learners expand their vocabulary and to develop a basic familiarity with Korean culture. The stories gradually increase in length and complexity throughout the book as the reader improves their vocabulary and understanding of the language. After the first few stories, the reader is asked to use the vocabulary in speaking and writing exercises. By reading these classic stories, they also are given a window into Korean culture and learn to appreciate the uniqueness of the country—which provides greater motivation to continue learning the difficult language.
Cultural notes and discussion questions further reinforce one's understanding of the stories, and bolster one's language skills. Korean-English and English-Korean glossaries are included as well as an overview of the Korean Hangeul script.
Audio recordings by native speakers help readers improve their pronunciation and inflection.
347 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 11, 2018
404 people are currently reading
872 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 14, 2020
I am a bit undecided on my rating. Perhaps somewhere between a 3 and a 4. There are several problems that need to be rectified with a good edit and revision.
First, for me, as an intermediate to high intermediate speaker, I found that the vocabulary lists after each story were inadequate. The words that needed to be defined/translated from the story were not listed so I had to resort to the Korean Naver dictionary app to find them. The other problem was that basic vocabulary words that an intermediate speaker would know by this point were listed needlessly.
Second, the Korean word transliterations are old and inaccurate many times and give the reading learner an inaccurate idea of the pronunciation of the word. Korea has a standardized transliteration system that is now in use that is much better.
Third, there are several incorrect vocabulary translations that need to be corrected though this is not a major problem. The translations of the stories themselves seemed to be pretty true to the original Korean text, however, there was inconsistency in the level of the stories. Going back to my first point about vocabulary, there were some later, long stories that really needed more build up of defined vocabulary words from all of the previous stories. There were a couple of times I felt like I was jumping from a lower intermediate level to an advanced level in the next story and then down again to intermediate in the next.
Finally, the voice of the Korean reader on the cd is child-like, non-standard pronunciation and unpleasant to listen to. I would try to listen to it in my car as part of a repetitive listening program but became so annoyed by the speaker's voice that I eventually removed it from the cd rotation. I strongly suggest re-recording the cd with any future editions of this book.
I will say this though, the Korean stories are mostly tales from Korean folklore and really give you an insight into Korean culture and the historical mindset. I had a real breakthrough with this book as I have at this point become fluent enough to read a story through with only minimal word look-up. I relied on Quizlet as I got to the longer stories at the end to help remember and build vocabulary.
First, for me, as an intermediate to high intermediate speaker, I found that the vocabulary lists after each story were inadequate. The words that needed to be defined/translated from the story were not listed so I had to resort to the Korean Naver dictionary app to find them. The other problem was that basic vocabulary words that an intermediate speaker would know by this point were listed needlessly.
Second, the Korean word transliterations are old and inaccurate many times and give the reading learner an inaccurate idea of the pronunciation of the word. Korea has a standardized transliteration system that is now in use that is much better.
Third, there are several incorrect vocabulary translations that need to be corrected though this is not a major problem. The translations of the stories themselves seemed to be pretty true to the original Korean text, however, there was inconsistency in the level of the stories. Going back to my first point about vocabulary, there were some later, long stories that really needed more build up of defined vocabulary words from all of the previous stories. There were a couple of times I felt like I was jumping from a lower intermediate level to an advanced level in the next story and then down again to intermediate in the next.
Finally, the voice of the Korean reader on the cd is child-like, non-standard pronunciation and unpleasant to listen to. I would try to listen to it in my car as part of a repetitive listening program but became so annoyed by the speaker's voice that I eventually removed it from the cd rotation. I strongly suggest re-recording the cd with any future editions of this book.
I will say this though, the Korean stories are mostly tales from Korean folklore and really give you an insight into Korean culture and the historical mindset. I had a real breakthrough with this book as I have at this point become fluent enough to read a story through with only minimal word look-up. I relied on Quizlet as I got to the longer stories at the end to help remember and build vocabulary.
December 23, 2024
Moj ciel bol docitat moje prve korean short stories v tom roku a podarilo sa mi to, mozem ist na dalsie a tiez si dam na to dostatok casu :) Citam na GR vyhrady, ja som bola spokojna, clovek predsa nejde citat stories resp.texty bez akychkolvek vedomosti, uz ma nejaku tu slovnu zasobu a preco niekto ocakava iny ako formalny speech v literarnych textoch, to mi tiez hlava neberie. Ludia hladaju chyby tam, kde nie su. Pustala som si aj ku knihe audionahravky, tie budem pocuvat aj neskor, velmi zrozumitelne, pekne a pomaly nacitane pribehy.
August 29, 2021
This book really had potential to be a great way to practice Korean reading skills while learning about traditional folktales. However, the execution is so poor that it’s unlikely to really help any Korean learner with their language skills. First of all, there is no grammar explanations at all, so it’s necessary to already have a good grasp of grammar or read the book while concurrently studying grammar. Also, at the end of each story there is a list of vocabulary that appears in the story. The problem, however, is that the words that appear in the vocabulary list seem to be somewhat random; in a story near the end of book we have the word 팔다 (to sell) in the vocabulary list, despite the fact that anyone who is able to read that far should already know the word. At the same time, more difficult words don’t appear in the vocabulary lists. Finally, all the stories are written in the formal form of Korean (with verbs and adjectives all ending in -ㅂ니다) rather than the narrative form that is commonly used in writing. In sum, the book was good for introducing traditional folktales, but almost useless for studying Korean.
April 9, 2021
It was quite decent. The stories were fun and I didn't know most of them. There is a good level progression from the first story. The first one starts from Topik 1 and the last one is topik 3-4 I would say. One problem I have is that the vocab lists would include basic words that someone with the corresponding level would already know, and would gloss over some terms (especially more complex verbs or collocations) that were more advanced. Other than that, it was useful
February 1, 2022
if i hear 옛날 옛날에 one more time…
August 8, 2020
This book is a good material for Korean language learners (beginner to intermediate). It has short stories (1-2 pages) at the beginning of the book, and towards the end, we are presented by much longer stories (5-7 pages) with more advanced Korean vocabularies as well.
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The stories are mostly traditional Korean folklores that give you insight into cultural and societal beliefs towards life and beings. At the end of every story, the book provides you a list of vocabularies that are used, cultural notes, and comprehension questions for practicing and test your understanding of the story.
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As an intermediate-advanced learner, I feel like the English translations are not quite match with the nuance that the stories present in Korean language. You can say that the translations are not as expressive, and you might get the humor better in Korean.
.
The stories are mostly traditional Korean folklores that give you insight into cultural and societal beliefs towards life and beings. At the end of every story, the book provides you a list of vocabularies that are used, cultural notes, and comprehension questions for practicing and test your understanding of the story.
.
As an intermediate-advanced learner, I feel like the English translations are not quite match with the nuance that the stories present in Korean language. You can say that the translations are not as expressive, and you might get the humor better in Korean.
September 29, 2021
A great book for Korean learners, with stories gradually progressing in difficulty. The fact they are folktales and the book includes commentary on Korean culture is a bonus.
December 7, 2024
me trying to practice my Korean reading speed 😍😍😍 아직도 되게 천천히 읽어요 😔😔😔 아주 슬퍼요 ㅠㅠㅠ
January 23, 2024
3 Stars
I am undecided about this book. There are many positive but also many negative things about this book. Let's start with the positive ones.
**********
PRO
Difficulty level
I liked the gradual increase of the difficulty level of this book. As I was only one year into my Korean independent study journey—I was still a beginner really—when I started with this book, I appreciated the short and simple stories very much. I didn't feel discouraged about words or phrases in the earlier stories, as they were re-written specificially for Korean language learners. I felt rather proud of myself that I understood these stories.
As my Korean knowledge increased, so did the stories. They became longer and the writer used more difficult phrases, words, and grammar. It kept me motivated to also understand these longer stories.
Comprehension Questions and Writing Acitivies
Reading is not only about the reading part but also about the comprehension part, so adding questions and activities after every story was fun and a good way to test yourself.
Culture Aspect
The Korean culture has many fun and interesting folktales, so reading these stories is a great way to dive into and also learn more about the Korean culture.
Culture Notes
The additional culture notes after each story provide an extra insight into the story and the culture.
CON
Vocabularies
The vocabularies were so random at times and so repetitive. I stopped counting how often they added to eat (먿다), tiger (호랑이), house (집), tree/woods (나무), or to see (보다) etc. to the list, even though it should be clear and memorized by now. But the real difficult vocabs were not added. Explaining the 1000 conjunctions they used in these stories would have been more helpful.
Also the spelling or rather the spacing of the vocabularies in the list and the spelling/spacing in the text were so often different. What is correct now? The spacing in the list or text? After spending 15 months in Korea, I could tell the wrong from the right spacing in this book.
I stopped using the vocabulary list halfway through the book and looked up vocabs and grammar myself as I was not satisfied with it.
Pre-Reading Questions
Why were these pre-questions added after the stories? It doesn't make any sense to me.
Comprehension Questions and Writing Acitivies
Even though it was a fun and good way to test oneself, it's not helpful, if you have no way of knowing if your answers are correct. There was no answer sheet given in the book. I'm pretty sure that most people include this book in their independent study "curriculum", but how can these people check themselves if there is no answer sheet?
Also, if you wanted to answer these questions in Korean, who would correct your answers and text?
**********
The quality of this book is definitely improvable and should definitely be revised and proofread again.
I am undecided about this book. There are many positive but also many negative things about this book. Let's start with the positive ones.
**********
PRO
Difficulty level
I liked the gradual increase of the difficulty level of this book. As I was only one year into my Korean independent study journey—I was still a beginner really—when I started with this book, I appreciated the short and simple stories very much. I didn't feel discouraged about words or phrases in the earlier stories, as they were re-written specificially for Korean language learners. I felt rather proud of myself that I understood these stories.
As my Korean knowledge increased, so did the stories. They became longer and the writer used more difficult phrases, words, and grammar. It kept me motivated to also understand these longer stories.
Comprehension Questions and Writing Acitivies
Reading is not only about the reading part but also about the comprehension part, so adding questions and activities after every story was fun and a good way to test yourself.
Culture Aspect
The Korean culture has many fun and interesting folktales, so reading these stories is a great way to dive into and also learn more about the Korean culture.
Culture Notes
The additional culture notes after each story provide an extra insight into the story and the culture.
CON
Vocabularies
The vocabularies were so random at times and so repetitive. I stopped counting how often they added to eat (먿다), tiger (호랑이), house (집), tree/woods (나무), or to see (보다) etc. to the list, even though it should be clear and memorized by now. But the real difficult vocabs were not added. Explaining the 1000 conjunctions they used in these stories would have been more helpful.
Also the spelling or rather the spacing of the vocabularies in the list and the spelling/spacing in the text were so often different. What is correct now? The spacing in the list or text? After spending 15 months in Korea, I could tell the wrong from the right spacing in this book.
I stopped using the vocabulary list halfway through the book and looked up vocabs and grammar myself as I was not satisfied with it.
Pre-Reading Questions
Why were these pre-questions added after the stories? It doesn't make any sense to me.
Comprehension Questions and Writing Acitivies
Even though it was a fun and good way to test oneself, it's not helpful, if you have no way of knowing if your answers are correct. There was no answer sheet given in the book. I'm pretty sure that most people include this book in their independent study "curriculum", but how can these people check themselves if there is no answer sheet?
Also, if you wanted to answer these questions in Korean, who would correct your answers and text?
**********
The quality of this book is definitely improvable and should definitely be revised and proofread again.
March 3, 2025
I started reading this book at upper beginner level, and could easily read about 2/3 of the stories with minimally looking up words. After that, it became a little harder but still manageable, though the last few stories were a lot harder.
I really enjoyed reading the stories themselves, and the added culture notes are very interesting. A lot of these stories are referenced in k drama en literature, so this book helped me understand and enjoy them better, as well.
I found the English translations to be helpful, and I appreciate that they are given separately, so I don't accidentally read them.
I am now going back through the book, making wordlists of words still unfamiliar and using the questions and exercises for some added writing exercise. I really love having these questions because right now, I need more output, and it's hard to do that in a structured way.
I did not use the word lists nor the pronunciation guide, which seemed different from what I learned.
I would recommend this book from mid-beginner level upwards, as reading and writing exercise along actual lessons. Really fun and helpful read.
I really enjoyed reading the stories themselves, and the added culture notes are very interesting. A lot of these stories are referenced in k drama en literature, so this book helped me understand and enjoy them better, as well.
I found the English translations to be helpful, and I appreciate that they are given separately, so I don't accidentally read them.
I am now going back through the book, making wordlists of words still unfamiliar and using the questions and exercises for some added writing exercise. I really love having these questions because right now, I need more output, and it's hard to do that in a structured way.
I did not use the word lists nor the pronunciation guide, which seemed different from what I learned.
I would recommend this book from mid-beginner level upwards, as reading and writing exercise along actual lessons. Really fun and helpful read.
September 26, 2022
I know hangul without the need for romanization. I have a solid understanding of korean grammar. I was mainly looking for easy reading material to help me practice speed reading, familiarize my brain with the hangul without having to do that mental process of matching hangul characters to roman letters, and build my vocabulary. This is definitely not a book for ~beginner~ beginners. It's simply a good supplement to bring into your self-learning regiment.
I recommend this book because it was an easy read once you have the basic understanding. It helped reinforce sentence structure and the building of vocabulary, as well as familiarizing yourself with fables from the Korean culture that helps you understand them as a community and would probably make a good topic point with natives.
I am a kpop fan and it was fun to recognize some of these stories that have been brought up by members when fondly recalling their childhood, or in games, etc.
I recommend this book because it was an easy read once you have the basic understanding. It helped reinforce sentence structure and the building of vocabulary, as well as familiarizing yourself with fables from the Korean culture that helps you understand them as a community and would probably make a good topic point with natives.
I am a kpop fan and it was fun to recognize some of these stories that have been brought up by members when fondly recalling their childhood, or in games, etc.
October 27, 2019
So far this is very good. I have been learning for 1.5 years. The stories are challenging, but not impossible to get through.
I think it will help me alot with vocabulary.
I imagine this book with take me a few months to get through as there are alot of stories.
I think it will help me alot with vocabulary.
I imagine this book with take me a few months to get through as there are alot of stories.
April 17, 2024
So I started to work through the (in?)famous "Korean Stories For Language Learners" here because aside from TTMIK's "Easy Korean Reading" it was the only other graded reader that I felt was comprehensible enough input for me to work with at my current level of Korean skill. However, while KSFLL's stories themselves are great for comprehensible input... the *translations* are either pointless (in terms of the very few and random bits of vocab they choose to have as dictionary entries after each story-- and only words, no grammar, either), or-- in the case of the actual 'translations' themselves-- actually riddled with errors + 'translations' that are just plain wrong 🤦♀️ (both in those random word translations as well as the actual whole-story translations... like, what were they thinking? Did this book just not have an editor or something??)... 😅
So, in the end, I found it much better to just completely ignore anything (supposedly) in English and just translate each story line by line myself using what I already knew, then looking up the few bits I didn't know via Naver Dictionary (Blue) for the words + other well-known and well-researched online learning resources (TTMIK, Go Billy, HTSK, etc. etc.) for the grammar (because at least I knew all of *those* would be accurate, LOL).
I gave this 3 stars purely for the Hangeul stories alone (those should be closer to 4 stars, really, but since all of the supposed English bits should be given a rating of, like, 1.5 or 2 at best😅, I had to demote the book's overall rating at least a little bit). Anyway, I guess I'd still recommend this, but *only* using the same method I'm using (completely ignore all English, just do the translating yourself). 😅👍
So, in the end, I found it much better to just completely ignore anything (supposedly) in English and just translate each story line by line myself using what I already knew, then looking up the few bits I didn't know via Naver Dictionary (Blue) for the words + other well-known and well-researched online learning resources (TTMIK, Go Billy, HTSK, etc. etc.) for the grammar (because at least I knew all of *those* would be accurate, LOL).
I gave this 3 stars purely for the Hangeul stories alone (those should be closer to 4 stars, really, but since all of the supposed English bits should be given a rating of, like, 1.5 or 2 at best😅, I had to demote the book's overall rating at least a little bit). Anyway, I guess I'd still recommend this, but *only* using the same method I'm using (completely ignore all English, just do the translating yourself). 😅👍
November 24, 2024
I think this is great for learning new words and sentence composition and i love the layout and idea.
However, the translated phrases on the right hand page dont translate all of the words in the corresponding korean paragraph, so it can be difficult to figure out what certain words mean.
For example, if it has a certain translation on a previous page and the same word comes up later on, you would have to go back and find the already translated word to remember what it means. A lot of this is memory to be honest.
However, the translated phrases on the right hand page dont translate all of the words in the corresponding korean paragraph, so it can be difficult to figure out what certain words mean.
For example, if it has a certain translation on a previous page and the same word comes up later on, you would have to go back and find the already translated word to remember what it means. A lot of this is memory to be honest.
June 28, 2025
드디어 다 읽었어요. I agree with other readers that it's not a good book if you try to learn Korean only with this book. But it's a good companion while using normal study books. It helped me to get a feeling of sentence structures.
The vocabulary giving with each story have a weird order. A few words are explained many times and other ones not once. Also towards the end easy words like 서울 are translated but complicated words aren't...
The vocabulary giving with each story have a weird order. A few words are explained many times and other ones not once. Also towards the end easy words like 서울 are translated but complicated words aren't...
September 11, 2025
This is a great book for beginner/intermediate learners looking to improve their Korean. It starts off short and simple and gets progressively more complex. The stories themselves are fun and there’s some supplementary material that provides some information about Korean culture. It’s good for learning new vocabulary, practicing reading, and writing some easy phrases.
September 8, 2021
The stories are good and easy to understand, however I have to say that the romanization of the Korean words is not correct and a lot of times I end up pronouncing them wrong because I didn't pay attention to the Korean characters. I hope they will change this.
October 16, 2021
It had some mistakes, but overall it was exactly what I was looking for. The stories were very interesting and taught you a lot about the culture as well. I loved the cultural notes the most.
Read
January 11, 2022***still reading this, but no point in tracking pages because I reread a lot of it for study
(1월2021년부터 읽고 있다)
(1월2021년부터 읽고 있다)
January 31, 2023
amazing stories that go higher in difficulty in a nice way without being too overwhelming
April 16, 2023
SO MANY GRAMMAR/SPELLING MISTAKES IN BOTH ENGLISH AND KOREAN!! EVEN THE VOCAB LIST AT THE END OF SOME OF THE CHAPTERS HAD MISTRANSLATIONS
Read
July 12, 2023left at 23%
August 9, 2023
Beautiful book!
September 13, 2023
생소한 단어 너무 많아요.
May 29, 2024
Enjoyed reading this book with my son :)
October 29, 2025
Really good book to learn. It only lacks grammatical explanations but otherwise I wish the authors would do another book like this!
September 20, 2022
Too many errors, unnatural, grammar mistakes. Not grear for language learners.
April 16, 2020
I didn't realize that I love folktales until now. I hate "the moral of the story" part because the morals are sometimes stupid. But the stories themselves are very interesting. Also, learning a language through stories is one of the best ways to learn. You get to be entertained and be educated at the same time.
This book definitely serves its promise. Bonus points because it has relevant culture notes after the story and illustrations are great. It ranged from low-beginner to intermediate as the stories go on.
(I also wanted to complain because they didn't use ㄴ/는다 format but it occurred to me that since they're folktales told to children, they're usually narrated in 아/어요 format. It still really irked me though.)
This book definitely serves its promise. Bonus points because it has relevant culture notes after the story and illustrations are great. It ranged from low-beginner to intermediate as the stories go on.
(I also wanted to complain because they didn't use ㄴ/는다 format but it occurred to me that since they're folktales told to children, they're usually narrated in 아/어요 format. It still really irked me though.)
December 24, 2023
This book is essential for any Korean learners. Fun stories at an appropriate difficulty level.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews