Korean Folktales for Language Learners: Traditional Stories in English and Korean

by Sukyeon Cho, Yeon-Jeong Kim, Andrew Killick

Learn about Korean culture while improving your language skills!

Korean Folktales for Language Learners presents 36 traditional folktales in parallel Korean and English versions on facing pages, with detailed notes and exercises aimed at beginning to intermediate language learners. Free online recordings of all the Korean stories are available to help students improve their pronunciation and comprehension skills.

The stories--which gradually increase in complexity as the book
This elegantly illustrated volume is designed to help language learners expand their Korean vocabulary and grammar. The Korean vocabulary lists, exercises and audio recordings are designed as practice for first- and second-year Korean students. This entertaining anthology in English is complemented by cultural notes and discussion questions that further reinforce understanding Korean culture.

Genres: Language, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2022

Reviews

[strôbeari · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5

A good resource for learning Korean grammar and sentence structure though some of the vocabulary words are historical/dated and I wish some alternatives or their modern equivalent were provided.

[Floriane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still have a lot to take away from that book and will without a doubt continue studying with it but since I've now read all stories, I'll mark it as read. It was really enjoyable, the stories get harder and longer but rely on previous vocabulary and structures that you learn/discover progressively so it doesn't feel like too much of a jump. English and 한글 would have been sufficient in the vocabulary list, I feel like if someone is able to read the text in 한글 only, they definetely don't need to have the voc written phonetically using roman letters, it just creates unnecessary noise but this is a minor critique. Overall I really recommend it (although not for true beginners)

[Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories are not overly amazing, but I do like the notes on Korean culture at the end of each story. Personally, I’m not using this to learn Korean, but if you were using this to learn Korean, it would have a much higher star rating. There are a lot of complex words for the vocabulary as well as grammar points, which would be super helpful for somebody who is learning Korean.

Hysterical story:
The farting daughter-in-law

Term I learned:
Sheaves of rice
Sheaf of rice