A book for foreign learners who want to learn the Korean language and understand Korean culture

As more and more learners study Korean, they want to develop their Korean language skills not only by learning the language but also by understanding Korean culture.
『Essential Korean Proverbs: Knowing the Proverb Makes Korean Easier』 is a book that perfectly satisfies the needs of such learners. Proverbs incorporate Korean culture and values, but also the wisdom of Koreans in their daily lives. Foreign learners who study Korean based on these Korean proverbs will increase their interest and understand Korean culture in-depth, and as a result, they will be able to speak at a higher level of Korean.

This book is designed to make learning Korean proverbs easy and fun

The Authors, who have been teaching Korean for many years, noticed that students want to learn Korean in diverse ways. They came together to publish ‘Learn the Korean Language with proverbs as the first textbook of its kind.
Initially, 200 proverbs were selected based on the 'Development of Vocabulary Contents for Korean Language Education (Stage 2 and Stage 4)' announced by the National Institute of Korean Language. Then, English proverbs with the same or similar meaning from 『The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs (3rd edition)』 were matched with their Korean counterparts. This helps with understanding the meaning of each Korean proverb as they can be compared with English proverbs.
Moreover, we prepared a systematic level of practice exercises after several trials so that learners can study the proverbs systematically and in a fun way. In particular, by adding examples of daily natural conversations in Korean, we made it easy to understand which situations Koreans use proverbs.
*Scan the QR codes in the book to download and use the accompanying audio files.

Lee Jeyseon

Jeyseon Lee is a lecturer and coordinator of the Korean Language Program at the University of California, San Diego. She holds a PhD in Korean Linguistics from the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has been selected as a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award for the 2020-2021 academic year, given by the Academic Senate of the University of California, San Diego.

Lee Youseon

Youseon Lee is an Assistant Professor at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. She received her BA in Social Studies from the College of Education at Ewha Womans University, Korea, and her MA in Sociology from Rikkyo University, Japan. She also completed Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) at the University of California, San Diego.