My first attempt to learn Korean dates from August 2009, the 26th to be precise, according to my notebook. My motivation then: curiosity and the desire to learn the script (which I learned in J. David Eisenberg's excellent Introduction to Korean). I used a copy of Elementary Korean, too, which I copied fiercely into my notebook in my usual “learn like there is no tomorrow” mode. I lasted a few weeks before my studies and lack of powerful reasons to learn the language made me forget about Korean.

My second and far more successful attempt started on April 2011, the 4th according to my notes. My motivation this time: shall I confess it? I don't care about not understanding lyrics, but these girls have what could be called a “body of work” in variety shows and I don't think I've ever feel so frustrated for not understanding a language. No, not a mere “collection” or a “bunch” or “a lot”, I'm talking about hundreds of hours of radio and TV appearances which are extremely fun to watch and more often than not interesting and sometimes touching, too. Fortunately, they have an extremely dedicated team of fansubbers, but that only makes me want to learn the language more.

Grammar books

• Korean Grammar for International Learners by Ihm Ho Bin, Hong Kyung Pyo and Chang Suk In. Yonsei University Press, 2001. 442pp.
• Korean: A Comprehensive Grammar by Jaehoon Yeon and Lucien Brown. Routledge, 2011. 476pp.
• Using Korean: a guide to contemporary usage by Miho Choo with Hye-Young Kwak. Cambridge University Press, 2008. 325pp.
• 韓語發音規則 完全攻略 by 鄭吉成. 統一出版社, 2010. 160pp.

Textbooks

• 文法から学べる韓国語, by 李 昌圭. ナツメ社, 2004. 224pp.
• 韓國語快樂學輕鬆說1 by 金美順. 統一出版社, 2010, 224pp.
• 韓國語快樂學輕鬆說2 by 金美順. 統一出版社, 2009, 224pp.
• 韓國語快樂學輕鬆說3 by 金美順. 統一出版社, 2009, 190pp.

Dictionaries

• Dong-A's Prime Korean-English dictionary. Doosan Dong-A, 1996. 2621pp.
• Si-sa Elite English-Korean & Korean-English Dictionary. YBM, 1997. 893+942pp.

Others

• How Koreans Talk: A Collection of Expressions by Sang-Hun Choe and Christopher Torchia. Unhengnamu, 2002. 308pp.

• Nouns
  • Native Korean nouns
  • Bound nouns
  • Monosyllabic nouns
  • Mixed origin nouns
• Verbs
  • Bisyllabic (native Korean) verbs
  • Native Korean Verbs with 3+ syllables (without 하다 and -거리다 verbs)
  • Native Korean 하다 verbs
  • -거리다 verbs
  • Monosyllabic 하다 verbs
• Adjectives
  • Native Korean adjectives
  • Sino-Korean adjectives
  • Monosyllabic 하다 adjectives
• Adverbs
  • Native Korean Adverbs
  • Sino-Korean Adverbs
• Hanja
  • Basic hanja: list of 1800 basic hanja.
  • Words not covered by basic hanja.
• Others
  • Repeated pairs
  • Connectors
  • Adnominals
  • Pronouns