The main reason why I assume others bought this series of CDs is to hear more Korean as it is spoken to get pronounciation practice and listening comprehension. Unfortunately with this series you will find yourself listening most of the time to -- English! Yes, at least 70% of each CD is filled with someone speaking English. One would expect perhaps to hear the English version of the phrase before hearing the Korean, but this somehow doesn't suffice in the "Pimsleur Method". For their special method you need to get a long-winded introduction and redundant background descriptions of situations and grammatical lessons spoken in English. This is a waste of your time and space on the CDs.

Sure the first time you hear it, it might be useful to have someone explain what you are hearing, but the real utility of a CD course is that you can listen to the Korean phrases over and over again until you hear it in your head. With the Pimsleur method after the first hearing you will find yourself wading through all the English and waiting for the Korean phrase which seems to be thrown in almost as an afterthought.

To add insult to injury, each lesson starts with a review of the previous lesson and then throughout each lesson, words and phrases are included from previous lessons. Again, this sounds like a good idea borrowed classroom teaching -- its always good to review the previous lesson before starting something new -- but on a CD set, where a review can be accomplished by simply inserting the previous CD in your player, this is just irritating.

By the time I got to lesson 10 I started to think, "Hmmm, here I am on lesson 10 and I haven't gotten much further than simple introductions! I hope the rest of the CDs progress much quicker!" Again, I was disappointed to find that the subsequent CDs had an equal lack of content.

I think the best language learning CDs are the ones found in the Foreign Serivice Institute's CD set (although they are hopelessly outdated because I think they were recorded 30 years ago and are mostly recorded in the "formal" style of speech which is only useful for listening to news broadcasts or in highly formal business settings) because they are packed with nothing but Korean that you can listen to and immerse yourself in the language. The best way to learn any language is to listen and learn to think in it. I think the Pimsleur method is fundamentally flawed because it teaches the student to translate in his or her head -- which is NOT what you want to do.

If you were to remove all the English and all the repetition from these CDs, all the lessons' content could be squeezed into 2 CDs! Worst of all is that there is very little text or grammar included along with this CD set, so if this were your only method of learning Korean you would have no context for the stock phrases you have learned.

The most difficult thing about Korean for English speakers is the structure and grammar of the language. In Korean, by and large, verbs change because of the person spoken to and not because of the person doing the action. The concept of these different levels of "politeness of speech" is essential to any study of the language and yet Pimsleur neglects to really explain this. Sentence structure is demonstrated on the CDs but not really explained beyond saying that verbs appear at the end of the sentence. Again, because Koreans tend to omit the agent of the action when speaking (e.g., "I go to school." is usually spoken as "Go to school.") it is important to be able to recognize and remember WHO is doing the action during a conversation and this is accomplished through the understanding of the topic particle or subject particle -- another important concept neglected by Pimsleur. These are BASIC concepts, so if these are omitted, you can forget getting any explanation of tenses or compound sentences in this CD set.

Granted, when I heard this course for the first time I had already been studying Korean for almost a year and already had a decent grasp of the basics, so perhaps for the absolute beginner these CDs might have more utility. Also I was lucky to have gotten this CD set on loan from my local library. Had I shelled out $200+ I think I would have been seriously angry.

For the price of this set of CDs you can buy 10 really good books on Korean. I think you might even be better off getting some good books on Korean grammar and then getting the excellent Vocabulearn series to hear how words are pronounced to build your spoken vocabulary.

There is nothing "Comprehensive" about this course. After memorizing everything taught in this set, the student will hardly be able to order a cup of coffee in a restaurant, which probably could have been learned from a Berlitz-style phrasebook. Save your money.

Despite the negative reviews, this is the only audio Korean set you should consider buying. The rest are complete 100% GARBAGE! This applies especially to those who are going to DLI to learn Korean, as I did. This will fill the gaps nicely, as regular everyday speech is generally overlooked there. If you know you are going to DLI and really want to learn Korean, try to learn as much of this as you can before you go. The only other resource you might need outside of what you get at DLI might be a good phrasebook or two, such as Lonely Planet and/or Making Out In Korean. Again, this will help fill the gaps.

For most major languages, there are 3 parts to the Pimsleur set. For Korean there is only one, so this should be considered the beginner set--"Korean I". Hopefully, there will be a Korean II and Korean III eventually, but this is certainly a good start for those who are learning Korean for the first year or two.

Pimsleur language lessons are intended to cover speech only, but learning the writing helps you retain the language by putting it into a strange new context and forcing you to recognize it all over again. So when you have learned the writing and spelling of the vocabulary, it will reinforce the language to come back to the lessons and reproduce them by writing or typing. That's what I do anyway. (I can probably help the guy who wants a transcript, btw. No native Korean should have problem understanding any of this.)

As far as buying audio Korean lessons, there aren't many options available: you can buy this set or get ripped off because there's nothing else available that's worth any money at all!

Subject: Customer Request - RE: Korean Compact Disk 2nd Edition

Pimsleur customer service:

Re: Korean (Comprehensive) By Pimsleur
This edition: Compact Disk (2nd Edition)
Pub. Date: 04/2005
ISBN: 0743536134

Good day to you. I recently purchased the latest Korean language program directly from Simon and Schuster. I am well into the lessons and I am extremely eager to successfully finish the program. My recent purchase was based on other Pimsleur products I have purchased. The native speaker's enunciation and speed always seemed to be smooth and easily repeatable. However, the very same quality that I found to be so valuable with your other language programs is what is lacking at times and therefore a hindrance to my overall progress.

The Korean speakers used in the lessons seem to be a bit obscured at times, especially when speaking entire sentences. I have asked my native Korean friends to listen to different lessons and help me by writing what the speaker is saying. My native Korean friends confirm that the speaker may not be a native Korean and is oftentimes difficult to understand. I write to you today to respectfully request from you what I feel will be the rectification to this vexation.

Please provide a text version of the script or at least a text version of each conversation piece featured at the beginning and end of each lesson. This text version should be in Hangeul and not the Romanization of Hangeul to avoid any chance of further confusion.

If I had in hand a text version of the native spoken word I could in confidence champion all 30 lessons.

Thank you very much!
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After months of writing to Simon & Schuster, Inc., Pimsleur for some kind of script or vocabulary list, I received this email with an .pdf attachment of only the opening phrases (limited usefulness).

Hi,

Your request for copies of the opening conversations for the Pimsleur Korean was forwarded to me. This is most unusual and not something which we have done previously, as the instruction is intended to be spoken only. In this case, since the script is in Hangeul, you will not have interference from English when reading the characters, so we have made an exception. They are attached below.

You questioned whether the speakers were native Koreans. I assure you that the course writer, the reviewer, and all speakers are indeed native Koreans, all recently from Seoul.

I would appreciate hearing your experience with the balance of the course.

Sincerely,

Beverly Heinle
Executive Editor
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You should note that I was living in Seoul while attending Yonsei University Korean Language Program and this cd collection had little to offer. Not worth the $345 price tag or the $200 that I now see.

I got the set of 16 cd's (30 30-minute lessons + one 'reading' cd). It would've been worth the price had they included a script (in Hangeul). No script, bad price, I give it 1 star.

That's the bad. The good: the speakers are /very/ natural Korean speakers. I've been in Korea for 6 months, and hear Korean spoken every day (I work as an English teacher). I've heard other Korean tapes and this one is better than most I've heard. The lessons are easy, which is good for building confidence, and the slow but sure acquisition of language basics that is the sine qua non of a beginner's progress.

Back to the bad: they spend way too much time on SMALL numbers, when learning Chinese and Korean numbers is the easiest thing you'll do. I suppose it'd be appreciated by a total beginner whose first Korean language purchase was this set of CD's, but I've been practicing Korean for 9 months now, and long ago mastered the easy numbering system. Numbers above 1000 are not covered that much, and these are the challenging ones they should focus on, especially since the Won is traded in large numbers (one always has 10,000 Won in one's pocket, as it is only equal to 10 dollars). 10,000 in Korean is 'man Won.' 100,000 is 'ship man Won' or ten 10,000. 1,000,000 is 'paek man Won' or hundred 10,000.

Back to the good: they spend roughly equal amount on formal and less formal Korean style of speech.

This course is unique because it doesn't teach you grammar, reading or writing. Instead it focuses on the natural way humans learn language: by speaking.

I found this course to be absolutely perfect for my needs. There are ten, 30 minute lessons consisting of one dialogue, then repetitions of the same. Each lesson is ideal for commuters, and that is exactly how I used it.

Two things to keep in mind, which have been addressed by other reviewers:

(1) This is the ABRIDGED and INTRODUCTORY course in Korean. Speakers with a little more advanced knowledge should not buy this course unless they wish to improve their pronounciation. Pimsleur's full comprehensive courses have 30 lessons, and several books in the series. This is meant only to be a compact version.

(2) This course does not teach grammatical instruction; in fact, this goes against the learning theory of the entire series. However, if you know nothing about Korean before you begin, you will definitely have the beginning command of the language and probably a much better one than with any other language series.

In closing, this is a great series for BEGINNERS. It is a much needed introduction for those of us who have bought other language series and were discouraged by their seemingly impossible front at the very beginning.

Readers who wish to explore the Korean language further should buy the "Elementary Korean" and "Continuing Korean" series and "College Korean" for those who wish to have a master handle of grammar. But I would definitely buy this one as a stepping stone.