Korean Phrases
Learning a language is never easy, but learning a language like Korean is another piece of work altogether. No familiar alphabet, unfamiliar sounds, a different way of putting sounds together, we need to tackle a lot of obstacles. I have many friends who've learned languages in a unique way, not through formal training, but starting off with a few phrases, then expanding their phrase library, and in the end they either gradually learned the language or knew so many phrases that they needed very little actual studying to accomplish it. In fact, my best friend just returned from Portugal and as it turns out he learned so many phrases, I would have sworn he knew the language.
In the end, weather you are looking into learning Korean, just traveling, or phrases in different languages are a hobby of yours you can do a lot by learning key phrases. Some of the more expensive dictionaries have phrase sections at the back, but they come nowhere near the information richness of the internet. I have found a whole lot of sites that give you a lot of phrases and I will show the cream of the crop to you here. In general I can say that a good phrase site has many phrases, it is built up in a logical, comprehendible way and perhaps even has some sort of way of learning the language through grammar and exercise. another important factor for me is if the writing of syllables can be viewed and more importantly. since the language is written so radically differently, how words and syllables are pronounced.
Those of you who are looking for the casual phrase here and there for the quick visit to Korea, or to impress your Korean girlfriend a smaller list is quite enough, for example the one at a Korean Tourism page. You can see the Korean symbols that make up the word and also listen to an audio clip of the specific phrase. The great thing here is that you can view handy categories like "at restaurants", "at stores", and so on.
A page I liked even more is at Life In Korea. My really constructive reason is that "I just like it more". To me this page is built up more logically. It has 19 sections, including one for relationships and the words are grouped into categories like verbs, adjectives and so on. You can find what you need quickly and efficiently, if you just want to learn some stuff, you can also browse pretty aimlessly.
If you are looking for a bit more than just a few phrases and words you will need to look into a language oriented site. The Korean Broadcasting Commission has sponsored a very helpful language page. It contains three parts. The first is basic Korean, learning the alphabet, writing and basic grammar. Part two contains phrases for traveling to Korea, while part three is more advanced, containing phrases to be used when living in Korea.
Another great way to get some useful phrases, maybe even some native lingo, is to go to Korean chat rooms. Many people, especially near Seoul, speak English and will gladly help you along with some phrases. Make sure they don't give you bogus words instead of the real ones, but learning this way can be more productive and also quicker, since you get the info first hand, from the "front lines" not from webpages, where content may have been created by 80 year old people.
In the end, weather you are looking into learning Korean, just traveling, or phrases in different languages are a hobby of yours you can do a lot by learning key phrases. Some of the more expensive dictionaries have phrase sections at the back, but they come nowhere near the information richness of the internet. I have found a whole lot of sites that give you a lot of phrases and I will show the cream of the crop to you here. In general I can say that a good phrase site has many phrases, it is built up in a logical, comprehendible way and perhaps even has some sort of way of learning the language through grammar and exercise. another important factor for me is if the writing of syllables can be viewed and more importantly. since the language is written so radically differently, how words and syllables are pronounced.
Those of you who are looking for the casual phrase here and there for the quick visit to Korea, or to impress your Korean girlfriend a smaller list is quite enough, for example the one at a Korean Tourism page. You can see the Korean symbols that make up the word and also listen to an audio clip of the specific phrase. The great thing here is that you can view handy categories like "at restaurants", "at stores", and so on.
A page I liked even more is at Life In Korea. My really constructive reason is that "I just like it more". To me this page is built up more logically. It has 19 sections, including one for relationships and the words are grouped into categories like verbs, adjectives and so on. You can find what you need quickly and efficiently, if you just want to learn some stuff, you can also browse pretty aimlessly.
If you are looking for a bit more than just a few phrases and words you will need to look into a language oriented site. The Korean Broadcasting Commission has sponsored a very helpful language page. It contains three parts. The first is basic Korean, learning the alphabet, writing and basic grammar. Part two contains phrases for traveling to Korea, while part three is more advanced, containing phrases to be used when living in Korea.
Another great way to get some useful phrases, maybe even some native lingo, is to go to Korean chat rooms. Many people, especially near Seoul, speak English and will gladly help you along with some phrases. Make sure they don't give you bogus words instead of the real ones, but learning this way can be more productive and also quicker, since you get the info first hand, from the "front lines" not from webpages, where content may have been created by 80 year old people.