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[E-Book] How to self study Korean Version #1

Screen Shot 2013-03-02 at 2.55.09 PM

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)

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79 Comments

  • Reply
    Emma
    4 March, 2013 at 8:36 PM

    Oh my!!! What a gift! Thanks a lot!!!

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:00 PM

      thanks for reading, Emma!

      • Reply
        Jules
        17 April, 2015 at 12:01 PM

        I’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????

  • Reply
    Keax
    4 March, 2013 at 8:58 PM

    Congrats 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!

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:01 PM

      Hi Keax! Thinking about it too! 😀 😀 any feedback on the draft will be appreciated!

  • Reply
    luvey
    4 March, 2013 at 9:10 PM

    thank you for this! and congrats on putting it together.

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:02 PM

      😀

  • Reply
    Wong
    4 March, 2013 at 9:13 PM

    정말 감사합니다

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:02 PM

      😀

  • Reply
    Archana
    4 March, 2013 at 9:25 PM

    Cool idea! P.S. If you ever need a beta-reader or amateur copy editor, I can help with that. 🙂

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:02 PM

      😀 Im definitely taking you up on that 😛

  • Reply
    Dana
    4 March, 2013 at 9:25 PM

    OMG! It’s wonderful!!! Thank you! :))

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:02 PM

      ㅎㅎ thanks!

  • Reply
    amyhangukolic
    4 March, 2013 at 9:38 PM

    I am downloading now. Thanks for all your efforts in doing this. ^^

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:03 PM

      enjoy~

  • Reply
    Ami10
    4 March, 2013 at 9:41 PM

    Hi 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.

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:03 PM

      ㅋㅋㅋ Thanks so much! 😀 😀 I will definitely write that chapter. Took a lot of photos already 😛

  • Reply
    Celia
    4 March, 2013 at 9:53 PM

    Thank you for taking the time to write this book!
    <3

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:04 PM

      thanks for reading!

  • Reply
    Fajar Priyanto (@fajarpri)
    4 March, 2013 at 10:07 PM

    Wow!! Thanks for the hard work, Shanna!

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:04 PM

      hope it will be helpful~

  • Reply
    Koreanlearner
    4 March, 2013 at 10:22 PM

    First 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…

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:06 PM

      thanks 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 😛

  • Reply
    Karls
    4 March, 2013 at 11:24 PM

    I got super excited when I read that we can download your E-book.Thanks Shanna.You are such an inspiration.Hug

    • Reply
      Karla
      4 March, 2013 at 11:26 PM

      lol I even mispelled my name because of excitement

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:06 PM

      ㅎㅎㅎ hope you enjoyed it!

  • Reply
    Haricha
    5 March, 2013 at 12:44 AM

    Wow, this is great~ Your awesome, Shanna! Thanks ^^

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:06 PM

      ^__^

  • Reply
    iheartyogurt
    5 March, 2013 at 2:25 AM

    I 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

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:07 PM

      will take a look!! 😀 thanks 😀

  • Reply
    FaithInKorean
    5 March, 2013 at 2:33 AM

    Thanks so much! I’m so glad.

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:07 PM

      ㅎㅎㅎ u changed your nick!

  • Reply
    찰스 보트
    5 March, 2013 at 6:28 AM

    I 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!

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:07 PM

      yay!! 😀 Read the email already, twice! ^^ Thanks for all the help (: Will be replying to it soon!!

  • Reply
    Alyssa
    5 March, 2013 at 6:49 AM

    I 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.

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:08 PM

      ㅎㅎㅎ that was deliberate 😛

  • Reply
    Alyssa
    5 March, 2013 at 7:00 AM

    Also! 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.

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:09 PM

      OTL 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.

  • Reply
    Van
    5 March, 2013 at 8:38 AM

    Wow 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 😀

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:11 PM

      ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 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

  • Reply
    Jackeline
    5 March, 2013 at 8:42 AM

    Thank you so much for this, it is an amazing amazing gift! thank you for let it for free that’s very noble, 🙂

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:12 PM

      (: thanks for reading

  • Reply
    Philipp Grunwald
    5 March, 2013 at 9:28 AM

    I 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.

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:12 PM

      love the review!! ^^

  • Reply
    Hanna
    5 March, 2013 at 10:02 AM

    Hi 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! ^^,

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:12 PM

      hi Hanna! Thanks for reading the book (:

  • Reply
    Sabah
    5 March, 2013 at 10:27 AM

    Beautiful layout. The writing is simple and to the point. Excellently done!

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:12 PM

      thanks!!!

  • Reply
    Liz
    5 March, 2013 at 12:39 PM

    Thank you Shanna for all of your hard work! I look forward to reading this e-Book ^^

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:13 PM

      hope you will find something useful!

  • Reply
    ethel
    5 March, 2013 at 1:12 PM

    congrats! hehe 🙂 seems really useful and motivating for those who wanna pick up korean on their own! hopefully it gets published soon!

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:13 PM

      ㅋㅋㅋ i hope so too!!!

  • Reply
    Amber S
    5 March, 2013 at 1:55 PM

    Ive 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.

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:14 PM

      ㅎㅎㅎ 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!

  • Reply
    kitkat11055
    5 March, 2013 at 8:23 PM

    thank 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.

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:14 PM

      ^___^ happy to be of help!

  • Reply
    Angel
    6 March, 2013 at 10:19 AM

    Hello, 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 ^^

    • Reply
      hangukdrama
      6 March, 2013 at 1:15 PM

      Hi Angel! (: Thanks for reading the book!!

  • Reply
    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. […]

  • Reply
    Oana
    13 March, 2013 at 4:01 AM

    Thank 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~

  • Reply
    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 […]

  • Reply
    NIna Earl
    22 July, 2013 at 11:51 PM

    i’m downloading now.. hope i enjoy it 🙂 haha

  • Reply
    Adibah
    13 September, 2013 at 12:10 PM

    Thank you so much for sharing. It’s gonna be useful for those who’d love to learn Korean. Thanks a buck . Kamsahapnida

  • Reply
    Nara
    15 April, 2014 at 12:12 AM

    I 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?

  • Reply
    [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 […]

  • Reply
    Lily
    26 August, 2014 at 12:46 PM

    Thanks 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^^

  • Reply
    Misshanakim
    7 September, 2015 at 8:24 AM

    OMG 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!

  • Reply
    [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 […]

  • Reply
    jeonjungkook'sfuturewife
    10 December, 2015 at 10:55 PM

    Hi! 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?

    • Reply
      Hangukdrama
      12 December, 2015 at 10:25 AM

      There is! (: you can download it if you go to the scribd site (web version)

  • Reply
    Starry
    27 December, 2015 at 2:16 AM

    Hi plzz.Is it only a online book??
    Can i get the link? i wanna save it plz i can’t find the link

  • Reply
    Starry
    27 December, 2015 at 2:24 AM

    Wow.Thz a lot authornim:-)

  • Reply
    Jadey
    17 January, 2017 at 12:30 AM

    Hello! 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!

  • Reply
    Aravindh
    22 January, 2017 at 2:37 PM

    Hi im so eager to download the book but scrib says it is not available for public so what should i do now 🙁

  • Reply
    maris
    1 March, 2017 at 7:18 PM

    Hi, I am trying to download the E-book version. But unfortunately i can’t download it T_T

  • Reply
    Alicia
    2 April, 2017 at 7:53 PM

    the 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>).

  • Reply
    Wilson
    13 April, 2017 at 7:24 PM

    Hello!

    I’d really love to learn Korean through your ebook but it’s currently private. Could I possibly get a direct link?

    Thanks 🙂

  • Reply
    Htennek
    28 June, 2017 at 10:14 AM

    I was not able to download or read the draft because its on private mode, if its okay can you send it to me?

  • Reply
    erika umali
    13 November, 2017 at 12:01 AM

    i want to access your pdf file pls 🙁 huhu

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