Dirty Korean: Everyday Slang (Dirty Everyday Slang)

I can already speak Korean. Just so you know.I don't live there, but I know enough Koreans who do, to have a decent opinion ofthis book.It's okay. Koreans don't always say any one thing any one way - so it comes closeto what most say (and they will understand you.)The book however, comes with one fatal flaw that works in my favor.The Korean hangul itself isn't typed, it's hand written. This isgoing to be very very bad for anyone IN Korea or learning Korean whoneeds to see the typed hangul (because the written is harder to read -if not impossible in this book in places).BUT FOR ME, it's good! Great practice in reading hand written Korean.Sloppy as it is written, it is like something you might scrawl across apost-it in English...and so, this is what you might see if a Korean leftyou a post-it note.Since I don't have much chance (here in the USA to actually see writtenKorean hangul, this book will hopefully train my eye to the written formof the language (visually).But, again, to the visitor, tourist or true beginner - the book isn'tideal exactly because of this MAJOR flaw. Best of both worlds theauthor should have included both --- and is probably kicking herselfnow after all the scathing reviews complaining about this aspect.It'll be fun for me. And all those culture thumpers out there worriedabout impressions of Korea and Koreans? Forget about it. Korea is acounty as different and as the same as any other. Every country hasit's dark side and it's bragging points.Whatever you really need to learn about the people of Korea, you'll learnwhen you go there... and this book doesn't pretend to teach you THAT.It just gives you some fun phrases that some Koreans say (depending onthe city/socioeconomic level and age.)Enjoy.

I bought this to fill out my Korean language collection. This inexpensive book is well written and full of youth culture speech. As always it is amusing to see Konglish adaptations such as Snowboard ''' (seunubodeu) which spoken fast must sound close to right. Under drinking games, the first listed is The Game of Death ''''''' (Deo game ob desseu) "...a no brainer. You chant "the game of death" and point at someone you'd like to see drunk. The one with most fingers pointed at has to drink." I was pleased to come across Fan Dance ''' (Buchaechum), which is a Busby Berklee type festival dance, see youtube. Culture gets good coverage, high (not so much) low and middle. The book is fun and interesting. Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook College Korean Sounds of Korean: A Pronunciation Guide Berlitz Korean Dictionary: Korean-English / English-Korean (Berlitz Concise Dictionaries S.) (Korean Edition) Looking for a Mr. Kim in Seoul: A Guide to Korean Expressions (English and Korean Edition)

I am a beginner in Korean language so I can't offer insight as to how accurate the words and phrases are in the book. What I can say is it is written in a tongue-in-cheek manor. It manages to be humorous and informative at the same time. I like that it offers additional insight about Korean pop culture references, TV shows, movies and music though I don't always agree with the author's opinion (they say Rain is crap but I love his music). It is nice to be able to express myself in a "dirty" manner. This really is the kind of stuff you won't learn in a class and only a Korean friend would teach you. The romanization is pretty accurate as well. My only gripes are translation and hangul font. I don't know much hangul at this point but I know enough to know that they dumb some stuff down for you. One phrase the book gives is "Should we go to a coffee shop to talk?" The romanization they give is "Uri coffee shope gaseo yaegihalkka?" Coffee in Korean would be romanized and pronounced as koppi. I guess if you just said coffee a Korean person would understand but for the sake of authenticity, this irks me. The last gripe of mine is the font they use for the hangul. I am literally just learning to recognize the characters as written with a standard font. I don't know exactly what font they use in the book but it isn't standard and that makes it hard for a beginner like me to easily recognize the hangul. I am not familiar enough with the characters to be able to easily read hangul in any font. It is similar to someone learning to read the English alphabet written with a standard font and then having it thrown at them in a scripted font. I do not approve. All in all this is one of the better "phrase" books out there if you're into that sort of thing.

Well, I now know words and phrases that would make my mother blush . . . if she could understand Korean! Heavy American influence, but understandable considering the author lives in California and the more than 65 years of American forces presence in Korea. As an 'English gentleman'(as we are known to the Koreans) I would have liked to have learned more of the home-grown insults and abuses (I do get more than slightly bored with the American'isms that permeate the world - all conquering heroes my arse!). If you're interested in some good examples of other home-grown stuff some can be found in 'The Art of the South African Insult' by Sarak Britten, published by 30 degree South Publishers.But back to 'Dirty Korean'. I presume that the chapter titles are the same in all of the other 'Dirty . . . .' titles but words and phrases in the 'Howdy' and 'Friendly' sections are hardly dirty (unless you're a pre-teen or something). The 'Poppy' (whatever that means), the 'Sporty' and the 'Hungry' sections left me thinking that I had entered a Berlitz Phrase book, they were shocking only by their lack of shock. The worst insult in the Sporty section was 'The referee got paid off'. That's hardly likely to provoke a diplomatic incident - and I think that's the trouble with the contents of this book - it's quite sanitised; perhaps the American (Californian) publisher didn't want to offend anyone, but isn't that the whole point of this kind of book in the first place?!I hope the next edition will be a more adult version, something you can really get your teeth into, and probably get arrested for using!!

The book is really good and funny. Wife is learning Korean and says that it's actually really helpful in the context of words in sentences.My only mark down is that when it was recieved it had a foot print on the side of the book, but that's just my luck and may not happen to anyone else, just luck of the draw.

came early and is in very good quality really worth buying and is very amusing i loved having a quick flick before wrapping it up as a Christmas present

I am completely satisfied with the product, the service, the delivery timing. Everything is perfect and well done from the UK. Much thanks and keep on working in this way !!!

it was a gift and an absolute hit, great book that covers just about any part of our daily lives and is great fun