Korean Through Folktales
The text covers quite a lot of aspects of Korean language effectively, from grammar, proverbs, and idioms to cultural symbolism behind the terms in the folktales covered. However, it doesn’t offer an index, glossary, and answer keys.
As a Korean native speaker and a language teacher, I would say that the content is relatively accurate. Particularly, with plenty of links to videos, sounds, and images relevant to the context, language learners can get a rich understanding of the Korean culture.
I wouldn’t say that the content is most up-to-date. However, I can say that the content is relevant in any period because it addresses Korean folktales to teach Korean and its cultural perspectives. The text can be used in Korean language courses, perhaps advanced levels, for many years.
The text is written in accessible prose in both Korean, the target language, and English for an explanation. But occasionally it can be confusing to Korean language learners. For example, although the author attempted to provide grammatical terminology in an accessible manner, it might be hard to understand the grammatical jargons without a decent amount of knowledge of Korean.
The structure, terminology, and framework of the text are consistent across chapters throughout.
The text can be divided into smaller sections that can definitely be assigned at different points within the course. Each chapter can stand alone since it centers around a different folktale. Teachers can choose any chapter without considering the sequence of the chapters.
The topics in the text are efficiently organized by guiding students through steps: the introduction of the stories, warm-up activities, essential vocabulary in context, multiple versions of a folktale in different difficulty levels, important linguistic forms, and creative writing activities based on the folktale.
The text is free of any navigation issues. Many useful links are embedded in the text, which would be very useful in Korean language courses. Students can hear the folktales both in Korean and English, see relevant images, get helpful information on the symbolism expressed in the stories, and take quizzes for key vocabulary. But the overall design of the text could have been more inviting.
It is relatively well-written.
The text is very culturally responsive in many ways. In addition to the fact that it is organized around traditional Korean folktales, which in itself is culturally sensitive, the text explains what central terms symbolize in Korean culture by providing explanations about the associations of particular keywords, links to images, and more.
I would have liked to see less emphasis on decontextualized grammar exercises and a stronger emphasis on activities to engage students in creative writing. One unique feature of the text I like is that folktales are provided in three different levels, from simple to more elaborate versions. Overall, the text is highly recommended for advanced Korean language courses.