My First Book of Korean Words: An ABC Rhyming Book of Korean Language and Culture

by Kyubyong Park, Henry J. Amen, Aya Padron (Illustrator)

My First Book of Korean Words is a beautifully illustrated book that introduces young children to Korean language and culture through everyday words.

The words profiled in this book are all commonly used in the Korean language and are both informative and fun for English-speaking children to learn. The goals of My First Book of Korean Words are to familiarize children with the sounds and structure of Korean speech, to introduce core elements of Korean culture, to illustrate the ways in which languages differ in their treatment of everyday sounds and to show how, through cultural importation, a single word can be shared between languages.

Both teachers and parents will welcome the book's cultural and linguistic notes, and appreciate how the book is organized in a familiar ABC structure. Each word is presented in Hangeul, as well as in its Romanized form.

With the help of this book, we hope more children (and adults) will soon be a part of the nearly 80 million people worldwide that speak Korean!

Genres: Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

Published August 29, 2017

About the author

I work in the field of information technology, and have also been an editor at an educational publishing company focusing on language practice books for Koreans learning English. Although my occupation is in the field of natural language, my main personal pursuit has been aiding foreigners in their studies of the Korean language through the many titles. I live in Anyang with a woman who calls me husband. You can send an email to longinglove@nate.com if you have something to talk to me or if you need to know my home address that your generous present will be delivered to.

Reviews

[Rebecca Crunden]

✾ children’s book review ✾

A fun rhyming children's book that will help you with beginner Korean.

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[Amanda]

For teaching Korean to children this is a perfect beginner book. I always hate romanization but in this case it's understandable.

[Irina Bilyk]

Copyright date: 2012
Awards: none
Genre: Korean (international) book, ABC book, picture book

This book is an ABC book with Korean words and how to pronounce them and their definition, it mentions the Korean language as well as its culture. This wold be a great book to read to the class when learning about the Korean language and culture.

[Jami Good]

I liked learning about Korean culture, but was frustrated that I didn't know how to actually *say* the words. And then I read the preface, which has a pronunciation guide, and a link to hear the words spoken. Soooo...that was my issue. I also happened to be near a person with Korean heritage who helped me with Korean pronunciation, as well. :-)

While I thought that framing the Korean words with the Western alphabet was weird, I could see the ultimate goal of teaching Western kids using what they are familiar with. And then I wanted to keep the book so I could remember the words. I might check out a counting in Korean book, next time?

[sabioandmom]

After learning Hangul and Korean's numbers together with Sabio, then wandering inside a bookstore by herself, Mom finally bought this book. Mom was impressed with its contents.

26 Korean words are written in Hangul and then explained in English. Each word is complemented by a beautiful classic illustration. As the main characters, Ji-min and her friends, show the readers about Korean culture in their daily activities.

Overall, the nuances are subtle and warm.

[Adna]

I did not like that this book was actually about English alphabet.
E.g. "A is for Apple" but then barely mentioning what the word for "apple" is in Korean. I was expecting this to be a book about Hangul alphabet and not the English one.

[Lauren]

Cats say "yaong!" <3

[BellasCreativeLife]

Cute <3

[Autumn]

A great book to ease into Korean for younger kids. I adore that there's hangul as well, so you can get accurate pronunciation!