Here are some of the books I use (: Bought most of them off gmarket as it's way cheaper, and also they hard to find/can't be bought in Singapore
From top to bottom:
-Complete Guide to the TOPIK Basic and Intermediate
-Sogang Text and Workbooks 1A and 1B
-Kyunghee Beginner's Books I and II
Kyunghee Beginner's Books
I've been using the Kyung Hee text in school for lessons so here are my thoughts on it. Basically it's not a book meant for self-learners. You really got to be there for the lessons to fully understand the grammar points, especially for beginners. There are no explanations given for grammar points, be it in Korean or English. Only a sample statement was given and you would have to infer its meaning just from that. Also if I didn't remember wrongly, the instructions were all in Korean too, and the examples given aren't really that helpful. However with some additional notes provided by my teacher in school, it was still a functional textbook I suppose. Definitely not recommended for self-learners though.
Sogang Text and Workbooks
I bought this series from gmarket as I read good reviews about it. But as it is a textbook meant for in-class learning, it is difficult to get maximum benefits out of it for self-learners as many of the activities require a partner for conversation practice. Also, it skips teaching Hangeul totally, which is not something a beginner would expect. My tutor also commented that the dialogues seem a little odd. Not too sure why though. My other gripe with this series is that they do not teach irregular verbs, as in those that end with ㅂ or 으, such as 춥다 or 예쁘다 and so on. I had a very hard time trying to understand what the stars beside these verbs meant at first. After some time I figured out that they either indicated irregular or honorific verbs. Other than that, I quite like the workbook as it gives ample practice for grammar and vocab (: Oh and see the two thin little books on the very top of the stack? They came with the textbooks and is a summary of all the grammar and vocabulary. Very handy for bringing out for a read on the bus/train! (:
Sogang Text and Workbooks
I bought this series from gmarket as I read good reviews about it. But as it is a textbook meant for in-class learning, it is difficult to get maximum benefits out of it for self-learners as many of the activities require a partner for conversation practice. Also, it skips teaching Hangeul totally, which is not something a beginner would expect. My tutor also commented that the dialogues seem a little odd. Not too sure why though. My other gripe with this series is that they do not teach irregular verbs, as in those that end with ㅂ or 으, such as 춥다 or 예쁘다 and so on. I had a very hard time trying to understand what the stars beside these verbs meant at first. After some time I figured out that they either indicated irregular or honorific verbs. Other than that, I quite like the workbook as it gives ample practice for grammar and vocab (: Oh and see the two thin little books on the very top of the stack? They came with the textbooks and is a summary of all the grammar and vocabulary. Very handy for bringing out for a read on the bus/train! (:
Complete Guide to the TOPIK
Useful book for practising for TOPIK! They separate the questions into the 4 different sections, and also give 2 mock papers at the back for practice. However, comparing the questions here to the actual TOPIK papers, they seem a little more difficult. The essay questions are definitely tougher for one. Plus answers are provided at the back which is good (:
Will continue with the rest next time! (:
Will continue with the rest next time! (:
