After you’re introduced to the writing system you’re given a series of exercises. This section is much better than the reading materials for other asian languages like Mandarin and Japanese. Pimsleur Korean gives you a decent introduction to the writing system of Korean. Unfortunately Pimsleur Korean only comes in 2 levels, so you’ll be hard pressed to get past an upper beginner level with these courses. Other Pimsleur courses like Spanish and French offer 5 course levels, after which Pimsleur claims you’ll have an upper intermediate to advanced proficiency in the language.

This edition will help you speak more naturally with modern Korean speakers, and it will also help you understand what they say. Pimsleur still errs on the side of politeness but instead of the top level of formality you’re looking at a more mid level range. Recently Pimsleur revisited their Korean course to make much need improvements, and the formality issue and choppiness were addressed. Because of the highly honorific language, the original edition put you in the habit of making sentence constructions that felt unnatural when said in real life. While I haven’t used the 1st edition myself, many complained that at times the pronunciation and overall word order felt choppy. To Pimsleur’s credit at the time of the original edition the Korean language was used more formally, but in recent decades the language has changed rapidly so that older formalities are lesson common. With the old edition of Pimsleur Korean the difference was so extreme that some complained of not being able to understand common informal Korean phrases. You’re more likely to hear more informal Korean than you are formal Korean.

In Korean there are 7 levels of politeness! Learning only the most polite level can be problematic to anyone actually planning on speaking with native Koreans on street or in casual settings.

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