Billy Go's Korean Made Simple 1 Grammar Book Review

Just in case you don't know by now. Billy Go is an American, Korean teacher who makes videos explaining grammar and sometimes various aspects of the Korean language through slightly comedic videos. For the past year he has regularly been streaming on Sunday's on various topics voted for by subscribers.

According to his website, he began learning in 2005 and has lived in Korea for multiple years and now visits there for a few months every year. He started his YouTube channel in 2012 and released Korean Made Simple 1 in 2014. It was then followed up with Korean Made Simple 2 in the same year and Korean Made Simple 3 a few years later in 2016.

He recently started a Beginner video course that is completely free on YouTube that is set to span 100 videos. Although personally I would recommend the books due to it being quicker to go through overall or possibly playing the videos at 2x speed.

I personally used all 3 Korean Made Simple books when I was starting out, so I will also share a few tips on how to use the books throughout the review. Hopefully this review can help you make an informed decision on whether or not you wish to purchase the books.

Korean Made Simple grammar book front cover

Lingo Mastery's 2000 Most Common Korean Words in Context Review

My number one factor of a good vocabulary resource is that it gives you an example sentence for each word. Simple sentences are simply the best way to acquire new words and grammar. Simple sentences are great because it gives you a much higher chance of comprehending a word, even without context.

By now you may have heard of Lingo Mastery. They have released a few books in various languages such as, German, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Spanish and have many different types of resources including, conversations, stories and vocabulary books. You can pick them up in physical or ebook form, the former of which is quicker and cheaper.

Here I will be reviewing the 2000 Most Common Korean Words in Context e-book. I was surprised to see that they had spread out to Asian languages after discovering their Italian content. If you would like to see all the content they have to offer click here.

How to Use Ridibooks(Korean Ebook Store)

Depending on where you live, it can be very difficult to get your hands on Korean books. Here in the UK I imagine there are only very specific areas in London that have a Korean populace selling their old books. This leaves us with the options of flying to Korea to pick up books and maxing out our luggage weight or doing the simpler and (sometimes) cheaper option of buying E-books.

Smartphone Apps for Learning Korean

 

When you think of or ask about language learning apps, the first thing to come up will likely be Duolingo. Sadly it has a lot of drawbacks, it's slow to update despite having ads and subscription options, the courses are community made and pretty low quality and overall it doesn't contain enough content to actually get anywhere in the language you're studying.

How to Type in Korean and How to Practice Typing Faster

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When learning a new language with a new writing system many people like to focus on how to write or type in the language. While writing is not strictly necessary unless you live in the country, typing will be very handy for when you need to look up a word, search for things or even have conversations. So how can we go from not having a clue where the keys are to touch typing. While this guide is aimed at Korean, the tips can be used for any language.

Talk To Me In Korean Book Review and Thoughts on the Curriculum

If you are reading this I will presume you know who Talk To Me In Korean (TTMIK) are. Firstly let's talk about the free content available on the site. This book and curriculum review will be focused on the views as a learner and the worth of the content being provided in comparison to it's cost. It is perfectly fine to disagree, I am not affiliated with TTMIK, neither do dislike them, any criticism should be seen as constructive as I do honestly believe as the most influential figure they have the power to improve the community in turn.

Since the reshuffle of the website it now requires you to log in to view the free course material, although it is slightly inconvenient and may turn a few people away it, they are still the most popular recommendation when it comes to learning Korean. The main curriculum which can now be found in the courses section remains free to use, however the paid content is now the main attraction. I have not used a lot of the paid content so I will mostly be writing about the content I have used.

The Curriculum levels 1-10

7 sources from which to learn 경상도 사투리(Gyeongsang dialect)

Luckily due to it being the second biggest dialect in the country there is a huge variety of content that has been produced by speakers of the dialect and often a setting in movies. Much like the UK and many European countries you will find differences in peoples accent and words they use can vary even a village away.

Thankfully due to mass media we generally grow up hearing a wide variety of accents and although we will still likely not know every dialect specific word we can easily pick them up by spending time with or listening to natives of that region. 경상도 is also known as 영남 지방.

15+ Nintendo Switch Games to play in Korean

Switching up your immersion

Playing videogames has become the hobby of choice for many individuals and if you're like me has been a large part of your life since a very young age. Any serious learner will know, while trying to learn a language we have to make many sacrifices on how we spend our time, sometimes forgoing our regular hobbies to spend time on improving our language skills

The following games will be a great way to spend your time when you want a change of pace, they have varying levels of difficulty and text density. Sadly as of yet there are not any Korean dubs for Nintendo games which is a fine choice for some as they have no audio or their characters speak gibberish but if it were available it would enhance the immersion quality of a lot of them.

5 Korean Movies Based on Real Life Events

Korean Kino

With a thriving movie industry and the popularity of 봉준호 (Bong Jun-ho)'s 기생충 (Parasite), many people may be left wondering what else the world of Korean cinema has to offer. Although the emotions of a fictional movie with developed characters can be quite high, nothing quite hit's home like a movie based on events that took place in the real world with actual people and real consequences. I have only included movies that I have watched myself, they are listed in order of their abundance of emotion. If you have any recommendations please comment below

Anki Decks for Korean Learners

Anki and Anki Settings

I'm going to presume you found this article because you have downloaded Anki but are looking to find some decks to use with it. The decks I have made are for varying levels so please take a look and download the ones that you believe would be best for you. Most of the decks have audio and contain a picture one the front and sentence on the back. Anki has a lot of personalisation and for good reason, every one will always have a preference for 1 setting over another, so it is  always good to experiment with new settings so that you can find what works for you. 

Should We Learn Hanja(한자)[漢字]?

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What are 한자(漢字)?

Shortly after you begin studying you may come across the statistic that 70%  words used in the Korean language are of Chinese origin. These were originally represented by Chinese characters. This logo graphic writing system was invented thousands of years ago and have continuously developed as more concepts needed to be expressed.

Initially only used by the higher classes due to lack of public education. In the current age it is easy for many in the developed world to spend time on learning the characters due to an abundance of information and resources available via the internet.

Talk to Me in Korean Hanja (Word Builder) Reference List [Level 3-9]

From level 3 to 9 TTMIK have lessons based around a single Hanja where they show examples of words that use that Hanja. You can see my thoughts on TTMIK's Hanja guide in my TTMIK curriculum and book review. I have also compiled a Hanja deck from a book called 날로 먹는 한자 that contains almost 2000 Hanja.

• TTMIK Grammar points list
• Advanced idiomatic expressions list

Talk to Me in Korean Grammar Points Reference List [Level 1-10]

This list has been made due to the change of the TTMIK website where the lessons used to be nicely listed. I have compiled the lessons that just contain grammar points with links to the lessons so that they can be more easily accessed and can be used as a checklist to see if you understand them.

• Hanja(word builder) lessons list
  
• Advanced idiomatic expressions list