I’ve decided that if I don’t release the e-book in parts, I’ll never get to the end of writing it. hahaha.
I need some drive and motivation to write on and also, I’ll like to hear some feedback and comments! ^^
Also, I’ve been getting many queries on learning Korean these days, especially from beginners. I’ve covered many relevant topics in this version, so hopefully it will be helpful.
Okay there are so many ideas floating around my brain right now, it’s hard to be coherent.
First, the book.
The book idea is simple. I just want to share my experience of self study Korean and also to offer some tips and methods to help everyone self study Korean more effectively.
VERSION 1 covers topics from the very beginning to the beginner stage. The final work will definitely be much more than this and will cover from beginner to advanced stage.
As I’m writing this book, I came to realize that writing is not easy and it’s hard to put everything in coherent and chronological writing. Very different from blog writing. I didn’t want this book to be an authoritative kind of HOW TO book, and I struggle very hard with trying to put that across in my writing – but failing badly. I tend to slip into that kind of writing style, with the authoritative tone. YOU SHOULD DO THIS. YOU SHOULD AVOID THAT. That is not my intention, and I definitely think that language learning is a fun process that you should explore and try out and find a learning style that is suitable for you. My method is not the only method but I just want to share my experiences to help everyone find their learning style. I can’t emphasize that more.
Writing this brings back many memories but sometimes I struggle to find back that original feeling. I try my best, but sometimes I tend to forget how it was like as a beginner and that sense of loss, uncertainty and the problems I faced back that. Looking at past entries helped, but sometimes it feels like I’m writing from the point of view as an advanced learner, and thus may have missed quite a number of important issues beginners faced.
I try to write from someone who have walked the path (hahaha), yet remember how it was like back then. ^^
In any case, I hope everyone will find this a good read and I will really appreciate comments / ideas on how to make this better.
- my writing style (and my terrible grammar)
- organization
- sections to include
- issues you want me to talk about (in the beginner section)
- issues you want me to explore next time (for beginner / intermediate / advanced etc)
- sharing your experience
- general comments etc
Everything will be much appreciated.
NOTE: Please do not re-upload this to anywhere else. Always point people back to the original download link here. Also, please don’t steal my work -____- unfinished work doesn’t mean you can take the idea and claim that it’s yours.
NOTE: Photos are also MINE. I’m so scared to use any photos / logos because I’m not sure if that’s allowed or not. ><;; sorry for the lack of visuals!
—————
I’m not sure how the final product will be (or if it will see the daylight lol). But I am hoping this book can be a project that you guys can have a part in, not just solely my work. I want to have fun with this, and hopefully inspire more people to take up foreign language learning and to see that self studying Korean is not impossible!
Being an incredibly unpragmatic person, money making is not my priority, but I really hope to see it published (physical) next time 😛 Seeing my work in the bookstore is something that I really really want. Any publisher contacts, help etc will be super appreciated!
Let’s make this work ^^
DOWNLOAD THE E-BOOK VERSION 1 HERE (Scribd) (link not available as I’m updating the draft ^^)
ABSOLUTELY FREE since all that went into it is my time and effort ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ (and this is a draft)
79 Comments
Emma
4 March, 2013 at 8:36 PMOh my!!! What a gift! Thanks a lot!!!
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:00 PMthanks for reading, Emma!
Jules
17 April, 2015 at 12:01 PMI’m learning Korean. I have some friends coming from Korea this summer. I need to be able to communicate a little bit with them. Any chance you could give me a few pointers. Or have some one on one class????
Keax
4 March, 2013 at 8:58 PMCongrats on writing this, Shanna! I’m downloading it right now, and looking forward to reading this. 🙂 You should think about pitching it to publishers (especially those specifically targeting language learning e.g. Tuttle), and possibly getting an advance if they offer you a book contract so you can devote more time to it. Good luck with the rest of it!
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:01 PMHi Keax! Thinking about it too! 😀 😀 any feedback on the draft will be appreciated!
luvey
4 March, 2013 at 9:10 PMthank you for this! and congrats on putting it together.
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:02 PM😀
Wong
4 March, 2013 at 9:13 PM정말 감사합니다
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:02 PM😀
Archana
4 March, 2013 at 9:25 PMCool idea! P.S. If you ever need a beta-reader or amateur copy editor, I can help with that. 🙂
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:02 PM😀 Im definitely taking you up on that 😛
Dana
4 March, 2013 at 9:25 PMOMG! It’s wonderful!!! Thank you! :))
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:02 PMㅎㅎ thanks!
amyhangukolic
4 March, 2013 at 9:38 PMI am downloading now. Thanks for all your efforts in doing this. ^^
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:03 PMenjoy~
Ami10
4 March, 2013 at 9:41 PMHi Shanna, it’s me, your Moroccan blog reader ㅋㅋㅋ(I don’y know why I am excited about saying this)
Congratulations on your e-book, hope you will publish it soon.
I read quickly some of it, and will be continue reading it this night.
I wanted to see your notebook’s pictures in there. It will be great if you add a chapter on how important is to write down what we are learning, It’s something I learned from my father and you hehehe. I think the note-taking is a crucial step in learning, you already blogged about it, you should insert that in your book. The note-taking is a skill not everybody can do.
Again, you are a role model.
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:03 PMㅋㅋㅋ Thanks so much! 😀 😀 I will definitely write that chapter. Took a lot of photos already 😛
Celia
4 March, 2013 at 9:53 PMThank you for taking the time to write this book!
<3
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:04 PMthanks for reading!
Fajar Priyanto (@fajarpri)
4 March, 2013 at 10:07 PMWow!! Thanks for the hard work, Shanna!
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:04 PMhope it will be helpful~
Koreanlearner
4 March, 2013 at 10:22 PMFirst of all, well done! it’s a very nice read 🙂 Reading it feels a bit like attending a conference where you are one of the speakers 😀
About your style:
I don’t think you come across as “authoritative” in a bad way at all. You speak from your experience and that is exactly what people want to read ^^ Some things just really do work better than others, and you have much more experience with Korean learning and learning material than most – especially compared to those who have an interest in reading your book! If people are already fluent, they are not really your target group so most readers are looking for some sort of… guidance in the lack of a better word. Or at least inspiration – and you provide both.
Nitpicking alert: there are a few spelling issues here and there and a place where I happened to notice that formating is inconsistent (bold marking for number 4 on page 22), but it is a draft after all 🙂
About pictures:
I didn’t feel like it was lacking illustrations. Using your own pictures also adds to the personal feel of the book; it’s your own experiences that you are sharing with us 🙂
Random stuff:
I like that you have relatively short sections and that they all answer a question. The structure makes it easy to navigate and find the relevant section as a learner who’s having a problem and is thinking “what would Shanna do??!”.
Suggestions for topics/questions:
Have you had phases where you were really frustrated with your learning? How did you move on from that?
Did the character of the frustrations change as your Korean skills improved?
About the publishing process:
I think it’s a great idea to share the work in progress with us all (again, I really enjoyed reading it :-)), but I think it would be a lot more compelling for a publisher if you don’t publish the *very final* versions of the chapters on the blog. That way the publisher knows that there is a lot of support for the book, but they also know that there isn’t a sort of “parallel market” where people can download it for free from the original author = you. Anyone else who puts it online is fair game for legal spanking.
About the publishing of future chapters:
Have you considered putting a watermark on the drafts you publish? I was thinking that that way even if a chapter suddely finds its way to a page where it is redownloaded, it is more difficult to conceal that you wrote it. The internet is great for sharing, but sometimes a bit too great…
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:06 PMthanks for the feedback!! ^^ Will incorporate the ideas into the chapters (: As for the watermark, I did think about it. But I hate looking at watermarks in general and I thought I shouldn’t do the same for my own writing too. I still have some hope in this world 😛
Karls
4 March, 2013 at 11:24 PMI got super excited when I read that we can download your E-book.Thanks Shanna.You are such an inspiration.Hug
Karla
4 March, 2013 at 11:26 PMlol I even mispelled my name because of excitement
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:06 PMㅎㅎㅎ hope you enjoyed it!
Haricha
5 March, 2013 at 12:44 AMWow, this is great~ Your awesome, Shanna! Thanks ^^
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:06 PM^__^
iheartyogurt
5 March, 2013 at 2:25 AMI believe there are also publish-on-demand places, where the author uploads a publication and the reader pays to have it printed on an on-demand basis. I’ve heard good things about lulu.com.
I think you might be interested in this article. The author, Howey, posted his book serially for 99cents on Amazon and it grew from there. I even bought a copy before I read the Slate article, because it was on the Amazon frontpage.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/03/hugh_howey_and_wool_how_the_self_pubbed_sci_fi_writer_relates_to_fans.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:07 PMwill take a look!! 😀 thanks 😀
FaithInKorean
5 March, 2013 at 2:33 AMThanks so much! I’m so glad.
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:07 PMㅎㅎㅎ u changed your nick!
찰스 보트
5 March, 2013 at 6:28 AMI sent my thoughts to your gmail inbox because I had to include some files. But I’ll be thinking about it a lot and will feed you ideas as they come. It looks incredible!
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:07 PMyay!! 😀 Read the email already, twice! ^^ Thanks for all the help (: Will be replying to it soon!!
Alyssa
5 March, 2013 at 6:49 AMI think it’s hilarious that the books in the first picture are almost all Japanese study books for Koreans… xD Keep up the good work.
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:08 PMㅎㅎㅎ that was deliberate 😛
Alyssa
5 March, 2013 at 7:00 AMAlso! You spelled 띄어쓰기 wrong on page 11. That’s the only thing I noticed while scanning through. Good recommendations, from what I can tell. 🙂 They reflect what I did when I was a beginner so many years ago.
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:09 PMOTL thanks for noting!!! omg and of all words I chose to spell that wrongly -___- my 띄어쓰기 really sucks ㅋㅋㅋㅋ One thing bad about e books is that I can’t go in and correct the error 😛 until the next version.
Van
5 March, 2013 at 8:38 AMWow this was a really awesome read! As I said on twitter, I don’t even like to read books, but this was sooooo interesting and related to me so much so far 😀 I was going to mention the mistake that Alyssa said about 띄어쓰기 also but she beat me to it haha. I especially like the part about when you were about using your ears about 좋아해요 etc, I felt the same way about that. But I learned that you have to at least see the word spelled correctly beforehand, so I was going to say dictation seems very hard with a limited vocabulary. I was going to mention about this, you know like final, middle and initial consonants, I thought this gave me a lot trouble at the beginning when pronouncing words and spelling words. Like at first I thought it was spelled 초아해요, but there is a sound difference after listening to Korean for a while. Did you have this problem also? Maybe it was just me haha 😛
Also is it possible for you to put your own watermark on your pictures so no one can be stealing them? I don’t want to see your hard work be stolen by a rude person. Also I would like to offer my services and be happy to proofread your book if you need someone 🙂 It’s funny I was never excited about reading books or proofreading books/essays before haha, Korean just makes everything better 😛
I would definitely be happy to help contribute to a future kickstarter project by you, but i just need a job at the moment.. You know “university/college student = poor” hahaha. But it would be exciting to see you start a project! Anyways keep up the good work!! Have a nice day with all these comments 😀
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:11 PMㅋㅋㅋㅋ thanks for reading!!! (: And thanks for offering to help too! ^____^
I do have that problem sometimes. When I hear a new word spoken in a drama, I’ll be thinking.. did i hear ㅋ or ㄲ or ㄱ and sometimes it’s worse when I’m trying to figure out the batchim just from hearing -___-
mmm as for watermarks, I don’t think I’ll do it. I hate seeing marks on photographs and I’ll just hope that nobody will think much of my work to actually want to steal them xD
Jackeline
5 March, 2013 at 8:42 AMThank you so much for this, it is an amazing amazing gift! thank you for let it for free that’s very noble, 🙂
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:12 PM(: thanks for reading
Philipp Grunwald
5 March, 2013 at 9:28 AMI published a little review of the book here: http://bit.ly/WIAyRo. Feel free to e-mail me any articles or lessons that you want to see publish on the Quora blog.
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:12 PMlove the review!! ^^
Hanna
5 March, 2013 at 10:02 AMHi shanna~! My first time here ^_^
Thanks for sharing your awesome book. So cool~!
You know what? After scanning through it….. for a second, I thought, why not I try challenge myself this time try to learn korean… like like more earnestly. TQ for make it easier for me, the beginner one! ^^,
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:12 PMhi Hanna! Thanks for reading the book (:
Sabah
5 March, 2013 at 10:27 AMBeautiful layout. The writing is simple and to the point. Excellently done!
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:12 PMthanks!!!
Liz
5 March, 2013 at 12:39 PMThank you Shanna for all of your hard work! I look forward to reading this e-Book ^^
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:13 PMhope you will find something useful!
ethel
5 March, 2013 at 1:12 PMcongrats! hehe 🙂 seems really useful and motivating for those who wanna pick up korean on their own! hopefully it gets published soon!
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:13 PMㅋㅋㅋ i hope so too!!!
Amber S
5 March, 2013 at 1:55 PMIve been reading your blog, but not commenting =\
But, since I downloaded your book, I thought I would take the time to.
Thank you so much for the download. I read all if it, and really enjoyed it. I was sad there wasn’t more to read, haha. It doesn’t seem authoritive to me. It seemed much more like a friend was talking to me. Which I liked. I also loved your pictures.
You are an amazing and inspiring person. Thank you.
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:14 PMㅎㅎㅎ thanks for the first comment!!! 😀
I’m glad I didn’t sound authoritative (: hopefully the 2nd (or final) version will be out soon (: I’m working hard on it!
kitkat11055
5 March, 2013 at 8:23 PMthank you so much. I’ve been self-studying for some time and found it difficult. With what you wrote, I hope it helps me to do better. thanks for helping ones like me to make transition into self-study easier.
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:14 PM^___^ happy to be of help!
Angel
6 March, 2013 at 10:19 AMHello, Silent reader here. Thank you so much for this ebook!!! I’m learning Korean right now and I hope this ebook can help me learn better ^^
hangukdrama
6 March, 2013 at 1:15 PMHi Angel! (: Thanks for reading the book!!
감사합니다 | Hangukdrama and Korean
8 March, 2013 at 10:36 AM[…] Really quite surprised at the number of downloads / views of the e-book on How to Self Study Korean. […]
Oana
13 March, 2013 at 4:01 AMThank you so so so much for this,Shanna!You did a great job.We really appreciate it.
I really enjoyed reading the book;it motivated me immediately.
I can’t wait for the other parts~
How should I think before diving into a new language? | Wait for me Korea
16 March, 2013 at 11:06 PM[…] I was reading Shanna’s book Self Learning Korean and I got stuck reading the ‘goal setting’ part […]
NIna Earl
22 July, 2013 at 11:51 PMi’m downloading now.. hope i enjoy it 🙂 haha
Adibah
13 September, 2013 at 12:10 PMThank you so much for sharing. It’s gonna be useful for those who’d love to learn Korean. Thanks a buck . Kamsahapnida
Nara
15 April, 2014 at 12:12 AMI am very grateful for you to put this online, but somehow i can’t download neither link. which is very sad…is there any other solution?
[Review] Korean Made Simple - Hangukdrama and Korean
30 June, 2014 at 9:03 AM[…] learner. How awesome is that? Writing your own book is no mean feat – I started writing my e-book before Billy Go started on this (I think) and he has completed his awesome book while I’m […]
Lily
26 August, 2014 at 12:46 PMThanks for sharing! I really helps with using TTMIK and not using romanization, I was used to it, but now trying not to write it down^^
Misshanakim
7 September, 2015 at 8:24 AMOMG this is so inspirational and very true!!!! I fell in love with korean language and decided to self study couple of years back but stopped cause of other commitments. You know how frustrating it is when you’re watching a show but you understand nothing? So that was how I started. But then I had to stop. Now I’m starting to learn again but the wonderful part is that I still remember almost 90% of what i learned back then. As you said, I guess Its because its my responsibility and my own way of finding the fun in learning that makes it easier. I am still a beginner and thanks to you I am now eager than ever to continue learning. I cant wait for the day when I dont have to rely on the subtitles to know what they’re talking about. THANK YOU SHANNA!
[E-book] How to Self Study Korean Ver 2
29 October, 2015 at 3:59 PM[…] second version, but in the end I decided to upload now to get more feedback from you guys! ? The feedback and suggestions from the previous version would definitely be taken into account in time to come! Feel free to let me know what you […]
jeonjungkook'sfuturewife
10 December, 2015 at 10:55 PMHi! This is such a great gift! Thank you! You’re a great help to us! Uhm, I wonder if you have a pdf version of this?
Hangukdrama
12 December, 2015 at 10:25 AMThere is! (: you can download it if you go to the scribd site (web version)
Starry
27 December, 2015 at 2:16 AMHi plzz.Is it only a online book??
Can i get the link? i wanna save it plz i can’t find the link
Starry
27 December, 2015 at 2:24 AMWow.Thz a lot authornim:-)
Jadey
17 January, 2017 at 12:30 AMHello! I’m really sorry to bother you but I realized that the link is not available for your E-book! If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind letting me know if you will be including the link again anytime? Thank you very much!
Aravindh
22 January, 2017 at 2:37 PMHi im so eager to download the book but scrib says it is not available for public so what should i do now 🙁
maris
1 March, 2017 at 7:18 PMHi, I am trying to download the E-book version. But unfortunately i can’t download it T_T
Alicia
2 April, 2017 at 7:53 PMthe e book cant be downloaded and it said the author make it private and not available to download :’C. Could you pls make it public or send it to my email please? im really eager to learn Korean and i hope your ebook can help me x>).
Wilson
13 April, 2017 at 7:24 PMHello!
I’d really love to learn Korean through your ebook but it’s currently private. Could I possibly get a direct link?
Thanks 🙂
Htennek
28 June, 2017 at 10:14 AMI was not able to download or read the draft because its on private mode, if its okay can you send it to me?
erika umali
13 November, 2017 at 12:01 AMi want to access your pdf file pls 🙁 huhu