Practical Korean

Samuel E. Martin was a master teacher of Japanese and Korean language and a major force in language learning in the postwar U.S. He received his undergraduate and master's degrees in oriental languages from the University of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. in linguistics from Yale University. At Yale, he served as chairman of the Department of East and South Asian Languages and Literatures and the Department of Linguistics. He is the author of dozens of books and papers on Japanese and Korean Language, including Basic Japanese and the definitive A Reference Grammar of Japanese and A Reference Grammar of Korean. Laura Kingdon is a graduate of Yonsei University's Korean Language Institute, so she understands firsthand the complexities of learning Korean grammar. She is fluent in several languages and runs a translation firm. She has designed curricula and taught English as a second language to students of all ages, ranging from university students in Kazakhstan to elementary school children in Korea. After years of living in Seoul, she moved to Thailand. She is the author of Essential Korean Grammar.

"I have been studying this book for the last few weeks, and while I am not, by any means, fluent in Korean, I feel as if I have gained more understanding. Will you be speaking Korean quickly and effortlessly in a few hours? It depends on how well you can speak Korean before picking this gem up. If you have never uttered a word outside of 'Annyeonghaseyo', then probably not. Don't let that discourage you though! Pick up this book and see how far you can go with it." --Beyond Hallyu blog