VocabuLearn: Korean, Level 1

By: Penton Overseas Inc.

Narrated by: uncredited

VocabuLearn is the only audio language learning system designed to teach the way you learn best...concentrating on vocabulary and helpful expressions. This three-hour program contains over 1,500 commonly-used words and expressions - the building blocks of language. This audio flash-card system will have you communicating effectively in the shortest time possible. Recommended by educators world-wide, VocabuLearn is prepared by professional instructors and recorded by dialect-free native speakers, giving you the authentic pronunciation of each word. VocabuLearn is ideal for those studying foreign languages. It can also help you prepare for more enjoyable trips to foreign countries...and can even improve your job and business opportunities. Best of all, you can listen to VocabuLearn anywhere...in your car, at home, or on a portable digital audio player - wherever you are. No textbook is required!

(P) and ©1987 Penton Overseas, Inc.

Not even well organized

This is a very poor learning program. The Penton programs don't explain the language. They simply provide words and phrases in English and the foreign language together. If you know the fundamentals, that can still be helpful. But this program is even badly organized. For example, you would think it would put numbers in sequence, days of the week and months in series and different phrases that show how the language works. It does not of that. It's basically a random series of English words followed by their Korean translation.

if only i had read the reviews

i bought it and it really sucks. it is as worthless as the other reviews suggest. if only i had the wisdom to read them BEFORE i bought this worthless program. good grief.

Not for serious students--painful to non-serious

It is not easy to learn the korean expressions because there is no repetition and they are often spoken too fast. Nor is there any clear logic or building. Much of the time the order of phrases seems random. Although I learned some phrases, especially when I concentrated hard--I think that I could learn more in the same time with a more systematic approach. What is more, if you are looking for an interesting and casual way of picking up korean in your spare time, this is not for you. But it is what it is--and if you listen to the sample you can hear what it is throughout.

Not Understandable

I know a tiny bit of Korean (the kind used in martial arts) and I've taught myself Hangul, so I understand the sounds that make up the Korean language. I listened to the first 10 minutes of this disk and I simply couldn't pick up anything. They say the English once, then the Korean once and REALLY fast. It's impossible to pick out the syllables. Before you really even have time to try saying the korean phrase they've already said the next English phrase. Don't buy this book. It's not good for any skill level.

A language learner needs some foundation first...

When I first purchased this audiobook several years ago, there was a companion study guide available for download on the internet. It is no longer available. That was ideal. Without a written guide, for a brand new student, this is way too deep. If you want to learn Korean, the best book available is called "Korean Made Easy for Beginners" by Seung-eun Oh. It's available in the USA for about $29 and in Korea for about $13. Once you have finished that book, then this is a nice follow-up. Korean is not an easy language. It is about as difficult as language can get for a western ear and tongue. It's a category IV language. Of course language is culture too and without that as a guide it will be even more difficult to understand. The book I recommended gives cultural tips too. Start there, then come back to this. One thing to note is that the speaker in Korean is a female. Women are required to be charming and winesome and therefore have a particularly "cute" method of speech. The women speaking is not obvious with this, but her delivery is very female. If you learn Korean from a woman, as many foreign men do, people will comment on your effiminate speech. Still, once you have a grasp of the sounds and pronunciations, which can take quite a bit of time to master, this is a very good resource if you want to learn phrases and not grammar and abstract sentence construction to actually communicate.

Actually, it's very good

If you think that the Korean is too fast, you are learning the wrong language, it is well pronounced and spoken in a natural way. I first learned Korean back in 1986 and have maintained my proficiency through the years, having married a native. It is VERY important not to ask a Korean to slow down for you, all you will have is sloppy Korean, learn it in real time, and you will be much happier. I am basing this opinion just on the sample as I won't be downloading this book, as it is quite low level, and believe it or not, spoken much to slowly for my taste.