let’s talk about korean grammar in use // review

Hi, friends! Let me share a few of my thoughts on this popular Korean studygram textbook! I think it's good for some, but not good for all~ Let me explain! 🙃

Korean Grammar in Use: Intermediate Links

USA Retailers

Amazon (Affiliate)

BandiBookUS

International Retailers

TwoChois

Dosoguan

//

안녕하세,유~! 안녕하세요~! Hey, you! It's Natalia and I'm here to encourage you to believe in your ability to learn Korean~!

📸 Instagram & Twitter: @Nataliaa_Garza

//

c o u p o n s / d i s c o u n t s

t u t o r i n g s e r v i c e s
🤓 italki: get $10 of italki credits after your first purchase! (Affiliate)

w e b s i t e s & a p p s (n o t t u t o r i n g)
📖 35% discount on a 1 year LingQ premium membership (Affiliate)

🇰🇷 FREE Chrome Extension Toucan (Affiliate) 🇧🇷🇪🇸🇮🇹🇩🇪🇫🇷

💙 Teuida App: get 10% off any premium membership with this referral code! (Affiliate): GARZA

//

📚 b e g i n n e r t e x t b o o k s
Integrated Korean Beginning 1 & 2

📚 i n t e r m e d i a t e t e x t b o o k s
Correct Your Korean - 150 Common Grammar Errors:

Ewha 3급

Seoul University Korean 4A

Generation Gap and Other Essays: Readings in Korean

Yonsei Academic Korean Reading 중급 1&2
↳ Intermediate 2: Not Available on Amazon

Yonsei Academic Korean Listening 중급 1&2

Complete Guide to the TOPIK II

//

🎧 m u s i c c r e d i t s
sunset (prod. lukrembo)

//

🎥 m y e q u i p m e n t
Canon EOS M50 (Video Creator Kit)
Canon G7X Mark ii (Video Creator Kit)
Neewer Ring Light Kit:18"/48cm Outer 55W 5500K
Vanguard Alta Pro 263AP Aluminum Tripod with PH-32 Panhead
Sirui 3T-35 Table Top/Handheld Video Tripod
Editor: iMovie

//

☀️ f a q

Where do you live?
↳ USA

How old are you?
↳ 25 years old

When did you start learning Korean?
↳ January 2016

What level of Korean do you know?
↳ TOPIK 4 (Upper-Intermediate)

When did you study abroad in Korea?
↳ Spring and fall semesters of 2016

Where did you study in Korea?
↳ Soonchunhyang University

//

FTC Disclaimer: I'm an affiliate of Amazon, italki, airbnb, LingQ, Toucan, and Teuida. If you click on the links and purchase a product/service through one of these companies/ service providers, I make a small commission. If you would like, you may look up the mentioned products yourself and purchase them via other websites.

[우명희-bq]

The intermediate book is what pushed my Korean grammar skills to the next level and really improved how I express myself, but the advanced is definitelty more TOPIK-esque. My native Korean friends said they couldn't recognize/never use around half of the structures in the KGIU Advanced book, but I will say it helped my reading/listening skills when people /do/ use them. I still think it's a really good series, just depends on your goals.

[Laura-wgyp]

What you said is bang on! I use this book as a reference book only, when I’ve already learnt the grammar structure and I just want to double check I’m using it correctly. Whenever I tried actually learning grammar from this book 100% of the time I would have to supplement that with my own online research from a video or website that goes a lot more in depth.

[jennuaryblinks]

Hi Natalia, you inspired me to start learning Korean. Thank You for being you, keep shining bright!

[justlandy]

I'm in KIIP Level 1 class and the Beginner book of this series has saved my life. Since the class is conducted only in Korean, I use this book to pre-study the grammar points we will learn in class.

[godspeedie]

I bought and currently studying from KGiU beginner. From all the locally published books, i think this one is the most comprehensive and high quality (im from indonesia so its v expensive to ship books from US/amazon, so i only buy local published).
But you were right, its so easy to forget what is what, and you need other resource. But its a gret stepping tool if you care about books that looks so put together

<<<this is illegal>>> but i did find the e-book version of Korean Grammar in Use in library genesis (do what u wish w the information, if u have the mkney pls support the publisher)

[guadalupemartinez]

I'm in Korean beginner😅 but I'll study hard to be in intermediate ✊fighting!

[seoul_mate]

Hi Natalia, I couldn't agree more. This series is definitely meant to supplement your main textbook. I wouldn't use this resource on it's own.

[hoshisbones]

I think the fact that the sentences or expressions are worded “awkwardly” is a VERYYY common thing in language textbooks 😭 In school I’d learn English (German to English) and of the textbooks we had ONLY included awkward and very unrealistic interactions between fictional people. But that’s exactly what it is. NOT REAL, FICTIONAL INTERACTIONS. And it’s not even a problem for me. Because you are still getting to know the rules and possible ways to express yourself. You gotta learn the rules b4 you break them. Once you know how it’s formally done, you can get to know the “real” way of speaking through TvShows, memes or even native Koreans (social media)...and that’s exactly how I learned English. I always told people that I mostly learned English through watching Cartoons and interacting with English native friends online...but looking back I’d probably b very bad at English if it wasn’t for the Awkward Textbooks we had 😭😭 and now that I’m in Highschool we don’t really use textbooks anymore but my English is still VERY GOOD (hehe)
Sorry for this long ass texts but I just wanted to put this out there MWAH 🐶🧸

[LexaBerlin]

Thank you for this review. I was overwhelmed, all these grammar points. BUT I use it as a reference book and it is one of a few books in German, so I bought the beginner and intermediate books.

[annachovancova]

I totally agree with the statement that it's more like a reference book 👌 I'm using multiple sources to learn Korean but once I've found these books it ACTUALLY-finally Explained some of the grammar that I couldn't find anywhere 💕 I'd recommend this book to a person who actually knows how to study a language by himself, if not.. they'll get confused ❤️ loving this video thank you ❤️

[paulwalther]

I bought it twice :). My impression of it is the same as yours. It’s a better reference book than a textbook that you go through from start to finish. Which seriously disappointed me because the one for beginners was so much more digestible. Despite being setup like a reference book, the beginner book seemed to stick well. The intermediate version does not stick at all. I think the reason is that they do not keep the explanations simple but rather go very in depth so as to be the most correct explanation possible. And the examples they give are also more complicated. They aren't just one sentence but rather a couple of sentences which doesn't seem like a big deal but when you're getting introduced to a new grammar concept you really want it to be as bite size as possible. I didn't find the intermediate examples to be bite size. I bought it twice because I sent the first one off to be scanned into a PDF file but later found that the concepts weren’t sticking and thought maybe a physical copy would be better (it’s not really). I don’t have other books so I’ll likely just use it to the end after spending all that money. /sigh. **EDIT 2/21/23 *** My Korean has slowly gotten better and now I find the examples to be very bite size and the explanations stick better too. My impression when I got the book was that it should be understandable to beginners too and maybe it should but if you're low intermediate I think you'll really like this book.

[lucyatkinson]

this is so weird i was talking to myself about needing to learn grammar and needing to get a korean book for grammar and you did a video on it lol it’s so weird yet funny 😁

[deborahperrot]

If you use the book sequentially, like as in lessons, then yes, that book will be totally worth the money. That way you've been introduced to the grammar points in there. Then keep it for reference after. :)

[SomedayKorean]

Totally agree with you here. I went through the entire beginner book several years ago, but only because I had already learned 95% of the grammar structures and wanted to review and see the comparisons between the different structures, etc. For the intermediate book, I've only used it as a reference book and then occasionally if I'm feeling grammar-y I might pull it out and read a lesson or two. I don't think I'll pay for the advanced book (at least not in the near future), for the same reason you pointed out - I haven't even used my intermediate book enough to justify its price, so unless it's given to me as a gift or something, I can't see myself paying that much again just to get the "full set".

I do really like how in the intermediate book the explanations are in both English and Korean. Even being at an advanced level in Korean, I don't often search for grammar explanations purely in Korean because they include a lot of vocab I'm not familiar with, so it's nice to pick up terms through the Korean explanations in this book with an English translation directly below it (awkward phrasing or not haha).

[izl]

i use that book series...love it. But I may use it differently than you for why I love it. I use it to create my own sentences, check grammar, and also understand why a word has a certain ending. But, definitely as you said..not so much a book to study through, but to supplement. But, still enjoy how quick it is to find a grammar point in the book and try to understand/apply it in practice.

[hannahmay]

hi! i just wanna thank you because you helped me learn korean and im very thankful for people like you💜

[mickey]

I need an updated room tour! those BTS pics 🤩

[sofialondono]

Yeah took me a year after I actually finished other intermediate resources to realize it was nearly impossible for me to use KGU as a main resource from start to finish, I thought at first it was actually realistic to learn solely from the whole thing in order 😂 maybe it also depends on the person 🤷🏻‍♀️ nevertheless it is really helpful study material at times but yeah very expensive. Glad to see a more detailed and a tad more honest and realistic review abt KGU cause all I’m hearing from other Korean-learning content creators is “BUY IT, YOU NEED IT” but they didn’t really explain other aspects of it like you did😁 If I had seen your review first I would’ve probably given it a second thought cause I just blindly followed every other advice and ended up w a pricey grammar book (helpful at times) sitting on my bookshelf for half the time when I could’ve just gotten the pdf

[shinlizy]

Completely agree with this opinion! I use those books for reference, and it helped me a lot to understand the grammar point and how to use it in a sentence. Unfortunately, in my main resource, sentences are only in Korean, and I am not always sure how to translate them. This book is my go-to in cases when I am confused.

[HNEYBRED]

i'll be honest, i love my version of kgiu — but i got my copy for free through a friend so i would probably feel differently if that wasn't the case hahaha. also i love the new artwork in your video!!!