to the point, March 26, 2003

Living in Korea, I've seen and used several phrasebooks. In most respects, one is as good as another. But this one has the best elementary explanation of Korean grammar I've ever seen in a phrasebook; if you plan to be in Korea long enough to learn a little Korean, this will be the most helpful phrasebook that I know of.

The problem is that they created their own system of romanization and a few phrases in the book are presented in it but not in Korean. That is really annoying; the phrases are completely worthless unless you want to study LP's unique romanization.

Could do better, March 1, 2004
Reviewer: A reader
The Lonely Planet(LP) Korean phrase book contains all the things you would expect from it. Unlike other phrase books the LP book has a great introduction to the language with a brief but useful grammar section. LP phrase books always seem to be much more than just a phrase book.

However the grammar section only contains the romanisation of Korean rather than using the Korean script, Hangul. I think this would be a simple but very effective addition to the book.

Also I must say that one of the most useful and often entertaining parts of other LP phrase books I own(German and Italian) has been the "dating and romance" section. This section of the Korean book is neither useful nor entertaining. It is simply far too conservative. I assume it has been kept in line with the old confusion traditions of the country, but Korean is now a modern westernised country and far more open and liberal than in the past. It would be nice for LP to reflect this in the subject matter of their phrase book.

VERY AMAZING BOOK!, January 16, 2004

I am a French teacher, teaching students French language in Seoul. As a language teacher and a resident of Seoul, this is THE best phrasebook I've ever encountered.
If you are done skimming through this book, you can get by perfectly in Korea. The romanization system in this book is different (which I like the most!) but it's more accurate than any other system, so when you read the words out from the book to Koreans, they perfectly understand you. (This was never the case with other books. They NEVER understood me.) It's thrilling that people understand me when I simply read the romanization from the book.
The grammar section and the dictionary section are what I really needed, too. It's so easy to understand and tells you the things that you really needed to know!
Lastly, the book is so solidly made that it never falls in pieces even when you abuse the book so much like I do. (I wish the book was a little thinner, though.)
I LOVE THIS BOOK! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

Good and useful, November 10, 2003

This book is quite pleasant and useful to read and browse from..
However I missed the fact that the dictionary located at the end of the pocket-sized book only shows romanized korean (written Korean using English letters) and does not show Hangeul (the Korean letters).

Clear, current, concise!, November 2, 2003

This is the second dictionary/phrasebook I've orded and this one stands heads above the other. The background explanation of the writing system, language, and grammar are really helpful and the phrases used are current (not archaic like the other book I had). I'm really thrilled to have this in my hands--everything is falling into place now! I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in speaking Korean without formal instruction.

GREAT BOOK!, February 21, 2003

I'm Korean. I live in Busan, South Korea. And I bought this book. This book is very COOL. This book is very useful for foreign tourist. Why don't you visit to South Korea with this BOOK? We always WELCOME! ^-^