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graded readers in korean

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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? 

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