#seoulistic

Survival Korean is slowly becoming my favourite Korean travel / daily life guide book. Even though I haven't travelled to Korea with it, I can already picture how useful the book will be when I do!

Produced by two very popular Korea related english sites, TalkToMeInKorean and Seoulistic, Survival Korean is perfect for English speakers who want to pick up Korean that can be used for every day conversations. It also has some explanations of the culture in Korea (eg. Korea does have a tipping culture), which can be very useful for those who are new to Korea. 

I wouldn't call this a proper textbook though... Because it lacks a lot of explanations on the grammar used in the phrases. However, it was never intended to be one, and should not be used as one. In fact, I think the lack of grammar explanations and other linguistics makes this guide book even better. It actually makes the book a lot more focused on its purpose - to teach people phrases that will help them survive in Korea, and to make their Korean more naturally.

I'm not sure if there's anyone like me, but I often feel that even though I've passed the beginner's TOPIK exam (Level II), I am far from being an actual Level II speaker in my daily life. This is because (let's be honest here), there are techniques that you can use to pass and do well in the TOPIK - without actually being at the supposed standard. This is why I think its very important to go beyond "textbook knowledge" and to think about how to apply what you learn in your daily life (and this goes for everything! Not only Korean!). What use is a language if you can't use it to communicate with others! And this is why I love Survival Korean - it acts as a perfect complement to my other Korean textbooks and helps me put into context the things I've learnt, helping me to use what I've learned to communicate with other people.

So... let's look at the structure of the book: 

As you can see, it's very nicely structured by themes, which is very helpful when you are in a particular situation, say shopping, and want to know how to bargain. Or when you're in a restaurant want to know how to order food. 

Also, I am usually not a fan of romanisations, but I think it can be pretty helpful in this case, especially for those who are not familiar with 한글. Imagine asking for directions in Korea and having to slowly decode the phrase you see in your book syllable by syllable... I wouldn't recommend, as always, for people to rely too much on romanisations though! Learning and memorising 한글 is like the building block your Korean learning journey... you wouldn't go far if you don't do it.

(HyoJin and Keith are so cute!! Hahaha!)

Overall, Survival Korean is a very good at what it does. And I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn every day Korean phrases and those who want to well... survive in Korea. The size of the books is perfect for traveling as well (about the size of a lonely planet), so if you're heading for a trip to Korea soon, you might want to grab a copy for your trip!

If you liked this book, get your copy today here :)

And if you liked this book review, and want to read my other reviews, go to my Korean Language Resources page :)

Edit: Literally a minute after I posted this, TTMIK tweeted about their ebook version of this, which would be even more perfect for traveling! You can get the ebook version in the above link too :)