graded readers in korean

[hankmcmasters]

has anyone ever seen graded readers in korean?  i've never seen any in any bookstores. 

the best thing i could find was this:  http://www.koreanlab.co.kr/primary/p_index.asp?t_id=3

i also found some US Military graded reader that had newspaper articles from 40 years ago.  that's not really what i'm after.

i'm really looking for dumbed down korean translations of real books.  if they had some a vocab glossary in the back, that'd be swell.


thanks!

[teachermc]

I have not seen these kinds of materials for learning Korean either, though I would suggest checking out some materials on Talktomeinkorean.com.  They provide a PDF transcript of their podcasts, which are very helpful for working on reading comprehension.  Specifically, I would recommend looking through their Iyagi (이야기) series.  These episodes do not include direct instruction; they are really short conversations around a specific topic.  Also, in the store section of the site, they have several audio books that include PDF transcripts.

With Korean being in such narrow use globally, you really have to rely on local publishers.  So far, the idea that foreigners may want/need to learn Korean is not mainstream.  Nor is the idea that foreigners want to learn Korean.  My experience in receiving instruction and in looking for materials is that the same language instruction methods that I criticize being used for English instruction here (rote memorization, de-contextualized language, usage of incomprehensible materials with beginning learners, etc) are the exact ones that are turned back around on learners of Korean. 

[SpaceRook]

What you need to do is find graded English readers that have full Korean translations.

Some of these books are worthless for studying Korean, but some are really good.  The best books to get are ones that have complete Korean translations for all the English.  Browse through them and see what meets your needs.

Are you in Korea?  These books are in almost every bookstore here.  The big bookstores with huge English Learning sections will have lots to choose from. 

As for real "Korean Readers", Yonsei puts out some.  You can find them here and there.  They look like this.  I've used a couple, but they can be a little dry. 

[hankmcmasters]

it was actually the books on talktomeinkorean that inspired this thread.  i'd really like to read things like those, only i dont care much about 최경은's travel stories.

i havent looked too closely at the 이야기 books, but i feel like i have plenty of dialogs and transcripts from my seogang series books.  (although i'm listening to the sample right now and it seems OK).

also, i was able to by a reading workbook for 6,000won from my work's print shop.  it looks almost exactly the same as that yonsei reader in your link, SpaceRook.

I'd really like to read a real book, not a paragraph about how to make kimchi, but a novel.  seems like everything i've come across recently has been showing me that the best way to improve is with extensive reading.

anyways, yeah, a lot of the things that koreans force me to do to them (too many listening gap fills with brain dead dialogs) do seem to be pretty similar to my korean classes.  I wonder if me wanting to read novels is just like a korean student, too, wanting to do too much too fast.

since i'm not studying English, I guess I never looked over the graded English readers in a book store.  i'll look for some with korean translations next time i go


thanks for all the input

[SpaceRook]

hankmcmasters, I also have been focusing a lot on extensive reading.  I've been trying the scriptorium technique.  It is exhausting, but beneficial.  It is really satisfying to see my notebook fill up day by day

I'll tell you one thing that didn't work for me: Buying a Korean young-adult novel and trying to translate it word by word.  Even when I knew the words, I didn't know if the meaning was right.  And trying to understand the grammar was sometimes a problem.

Therefor, I really recommend getting texts that have English AND Korean.  I know it feels like cheating.  It isn't.  It's a more efficient use of time.

You say you want novels?  There are tons of novels that have English/Korean editions in the bookstore.  Personally, I'm going through Aesop's Fable's at the moment.  My goal is 1 story a day.  But when I finish this book, I think I'll tackle Orwell's "Animal Farm" (which I've seen a lot of in the bookstores).  There is a publisher called "Samji Books", and I like the way they format their books.  Very easy to use.  The only downside is that these books don't really give you insight into Korean culture, but hey, you can't have it all, right? 

[MissC]

You say you want novels?  There are tons of novels that have English/Korean editions in the bookstore.  Personally, I'm going through Aesop's Fable's at the moment.  My goal is 1 story a day. 

Here are the first two stories from my Aesops Stories book. I especially like this book because I can print out just the page with the Korean and the questions. I fold it over so I can't read the questions until I've gone through the story at least once.

[Setaro]

There's definitely 1 set of Graded Readers in Korean, for beginners. They come in a pack of 5 with a little hard case and CD, all Korean traditional folk tales. I've seen them in several of the book stores in Busan. They're quite good, but as the other posters said, finding good English graded readers with full Korean translations can work just as well.

[SpaceRook]

You say you want novels?  There are tons of novels that have English/Korean editions in the bookstore.  Personally, I'm going through Aesop's Fable's at the moment.  My goal is 1 story a day. 

Here are the first two stories from my Aesops Stories book. I especially like this book because I can print out just the page with the Korean and the questions. I fold it over so I can't read the questions until I've gone through the story at least once.

I'm actually using a different book...but yours is a lot better!  Where did you get that book?  Was it in the children's section of the bookstore? 

[MissC]

Yeah, the book was in the children's section of a bookstore in Daegu.

I didn't have the details with me last night, but here they are:

Aesop's Fables (이솝 우화)
Publisher: 열린생각
It's the first in a series called "영어로 읽는 명작동화"


I've been thinking a lot about your comment:

Therefor, I really recommend getting texts that have English AND Korean.  I know it feels like cheating.  It isn't.  It's a more efficient use of time.

I recently rescued an first grade 국어 textbook from the trash. The stories are at about my level, but every now and again I'll find a sentence I just can't make sense of, and I'll waste a lot of time trying to figure it out, because I have no English to compare it to. The time I'm wasting isn't valuable Korean-learning lime; it's just me-hitting-my-head-against-the-wall time. It's good to have big goals, but I need to remember the difference between "cheating" and "making use of available resources". So I'm now returning to the Aesop book, and will try your one-a-day approach.

[hankmcmasters]

it looks like this thread has gotten me exactly what i wanted!

before i read the further response here, i went to the bookstore and found a lot of books that were at my level in korean, but they didnt have any comprehension checking questions, and there definitely wasn't any English.  i also found some adult level books, mostly from ybm, that were graded readers in English, but the korean was way over my head.  i ended up reading pyongyang: a journey in north korea by guy delisle. not a bad ending all in all.

that link with the scriptorium website reminded me of a link i saw to this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1567315437?ie=UTF8&tag=toshuo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1567315437
which i havent read.  but it looks like something i might be able to read sometime in the future.  anyways, i might give scriptorium a chance. 

i found the book MissC talked about for 9,600won on yes24.com

hoop, there it is

[MissC]

I posted on this topic already (re. Aesops fables. I finished the book and it was awesome), however, I wanted to add another resource, the 기탄국어 series. There are no English translations, but there are comprehension check questions. Plus there books are cheap (7000) and are available at my local Homeplus (which doesn't have a book store, just one lonely book shelf in the childrens' department).

I'm posting one of the short stories here so you can get an idea of the books. This is from level "E". The books start a lot easier and get a lot harder, so you'll have to look through a few to find your level.

I'm backing away from my earlier "Use books that have English translations". These books have simple enough language that I do fine with just Naver's Korean-English dictionary.

[hwana]

For light-hearted reading practice, I like to read some of the Naver comics.

The easiest one is probably "Penguin loves Mev" as it has English translations too (http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=169080)

My current favourite is 생활의참견 (http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=25613)

I recommend these two as they're both set in common real-life situations so the new vocab is usually useful to learn.