Below are 10 Best books to learn Korean that are highly recommended for beginners. Since Korean culture has been expanded throughout Asia thanks to K-pop and K-drama, the Korean language is becoming more popular among learners. If you truly want to learn Korean and speak it fluently from zero, then the collection below could help you build a firm foundation and be able to use it naturally.
1/ Korean Made Simple (Author: Billy Go)
- Full name: Korean Made Simple: A beginner’s guide to learning the Korean language
- Author: Billy Go
- Price: $23.96
- Format: Paperback
- Rating: ⭐4.7
This book is quite helpful to someone who has no idea where to begin with Korean. It is the best book for a beginner who wants to learn a lot of fundamental grammar rules and how they apply to meaningful Korean sentences. Besides, 20 fun and in-depth lessons can help you build a vocabulary bank of 1,000 common words and phrases.
2/ Korean Alphabet with Writing Workbook (Author: Dahye Go)
- Full name: Korean Alphabet with Writing Workbook: Introductory Guide To Hangeul Series: Vol.1 Consonant and Vowel
- Author: Dahye Go
- Price: $9.99
- Format: Paperback
- Rating: ⭐4.7
For many learners of Korean, one of the most difficult things to grasp is the pronunciation of the language. This workbook explains how to pronounce the consonants, vowels, and combinations simple enough for beginners to follow.
3/ 2000 Most Common Korean Words in Context (Author: Lingo Mastery)
- Full name: 2000 Most Common Korean Words in Context: Get Fluent & Increase Your Korean Vocabulary with 2000 Korean Phrases
- Author: Lingo Mastery
- Price: $13.68
- Format: Paperback
- Rating: ⭐4.6
Unlike many boring Korean vocabulary books, “2000 Most Common Korean Words in Context” provides you with several interesting learning strategies. According to a statement of a famous linguist, mastering this Korean language learning book can improve reading comprehension in 92.7 percent of oral speech and 86.1 percent of fiction literature, and even more!
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4/ Korean Picture Dictionary (Author: Tina Cho)
- Full name: Korean Picture Dictionary: Learn 1,500 Korean Words and Phrases – The Perfect Resource for Visual Learners of All Ages
- Author: Tina Cho
- Price: $12.17
- Format: Hardcover
- Rating: ⭐4.8
This picture dictionary covers 40 different themes for Korean’s learners, including basic topics like using public transit and greeting someone new to a culture-specific such as enjoying Korean food and celebrating Korean holidays. One of the very successful features of this book is the colorful hundred illustrations of photographs – which makes this book become the best interesting Korean vocabulary book unseen.
5/ Level 1 Korean Grammar Textbook (Author: Talk To Me In Korean)
- Full name: Level 1 Korean Grammar Textbook
- Author: Talk To Me In Korean
- Price: $9.99
- Format: Amazon’s Kindle
- Rating: ⭐4.7
You would definitely overcome all barriers to the Korean language with “Level 1 Korean Grammar Textbook”. This workbook, written by Talk To Me In Korean, is jam-packed with the numerous lessons available on the Kindle version, so you can delight in reading and also learning Korean on your own. Furthermore, you can get mp3 audio files including many recordings of all of its vocabulary words, illustrative examples, dialogues, and idioms used in the book for pronunciation support.
6/ Korean From Zero! 1 (Author: George Trombley, Reed Bullen, Sunhee Bong)
- Full name: Korean From Zero! 1: Master the Korean Language and Hangul Writing System with Integrated Workbook and Online Course
- Author: George Trombley, Reed Bullen, Sunhee Bong
- Price: $29.12
- Format: Paperback
- Rating: ⭐4.7
There are many excellent books to learn Korean for beginners, and there is no doubt that ‘Korean From Zero 1’ is one of the best. It includes over 600 vocabulary terms and expressions, enough to get a solid foundation in Korean. Furthermore, 90 Verbs and Adjectives Detailed will be undoubtedly an invaluable reference resource for Korean learners.
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7/ Living Language Korean, Complete Edition (Author: Living Language, Jaemin Roh)
- Full name: Living Language Korean, Complete Edition: Beginner through advanced course
- Author: Living Language, Jaemin Roh
- Price: $154.34
- Format: Paperback
- Rating: ⭐4.6
“Living Language Korean, Complete Edition” is one of the best Korean books for self-study. It includes 4 books with a group of 46 valuable lessons, additional review tasks, a grammar overview for each lesson, and a completed guide to improving writing and reading skills in Korean. Besides, 9 audio CDs and the other reference materials like quizzes, games, flashcards will guarantee to make your learning process more enjoyable than it has ever been!
8/ Korean for Beginners (Author: Henry J. Amen IV, Kyubyong Park)
- Full name: Korean for Beginners: Mastering Conversational Korean
- Author: Henry J. Amen IV, Kyubyong Park
- Price: $13.49
- Format: Paperback
- Rating: ⭐4.5
If you are bored with studying Korean vocabulary words, this book will provide you with practical phrases to help you confidently communicate. Besides, It has 40 short videos that not only teach you how to pronounce the Hangul alphabet, but also show you how to spell consonants, vowels, and diphthongs through illustrated pictures. When you buy the book, You’ll also get a free audio CD with native Korean speakers’ features, which will help beginners shadow and become a pro so easily.
9/ Korean Stories For Language Learners (Author: Julie Danron, EunSun You)
- Full name: Korean Stories For Language Learners: Traditional Folktales in Korean and English
- Author: Julie Danron, EunSun You
- Price: $14.29
- Format: Paperback
- Rating: ⭐4.8
This book to learn Korean is an awesome folktales-based textbook. It includes 42 traditional Korean folktales with bilingual English and Korean versions. Through reading these works, the textbook aims to improve a beginner’s vocabulary as well as an understanding of the language.
10/ Korean Short Stories for Beginners (Author: Lingo Mastery)
- Full name: Korean Short Stories for Beginners: 20 Captivating Short Stories to Learn Korean & Grow Your Vocabulary the Fun Way!
- Author: Lingo Mastery
- Price: $14.95
- Format: Paperback
- Rating: ⭐4.8
This is another excellent short story-based textbook. It is a good book to learn Korean with a collection of 20 attractive and simple-to-read stories that will assist you to expand your vocabulary. Additionally, The book is very comprehensive with the full Korean language guide, paragraph by paragraph translations, grammar notes, family word lists, the story’s summary, and more! — so, there is no doubt that even early beginners could benefit from it.
11/ Top FREE Korean books for beginners
You are really interested in Korean but don’t know how to start? No problem. There are plenty of functional and FREE Korean language learning books that will definitely be helpful for beginners.
1/ Learn to Read Korean: An Introduction to the Hangul Alphabet (author: Zev Handel): The first suggestion is the book “Learn to Read Korean”. It is certainly the best choice to help you complete the basic steps from spelling and writing the Hangul alphabet. We believe that after seriously learning its contents, you will be able to read Korean vocabulary words without any prior knowledge.
2/ Korean Basic Course (Author: Live Lingua Korea): This book can be described as teaching you “standard” Korean. If you can master its reference materials like the basic dialogues, grammatical notes, helpful exercises, etc in this book, you can certainly apply your knowledge anywhere in Korea.
3/ Top Korean 100 Words (Author: LinguaJunkie.com): Learning the 100 most common Korean words, such as greetings or nouns like chicken, instructor, and more, is a smart idea for you to start getting familiar with Korean.
We believe that the 10 best books to learn Korean above would promote your learning process, and we hope that you will become a Korean speaker soon. If there are any good books that we have missed in the list, please let us know in the comment box below! We’d always love to hear from our readers!
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