REVIEW: Korean folk tales and Aesop’s fables – BY TTMIK

Later than expected but nevertheless, its here~
So without any further ado, I’ll just jump straight to the review.

Okay, so first of all, this is an e-book by TTMIK (whom you all know that I adore) and it is split into two different parts; “Korean Folk Tales” and “Aesop’s Fables”, but the assignments after each story is the same in both parts, so I won’t be reviewing them separately. I’ll try to be as objective as possible and then give you my personal opinion in the end.

Table of content from mykoreanstore.com:

Stories featured in this e-book + audio program

Aesop’s Fables:
1. Three Little Pigs
2. The Rabbit And The Turtle
3. The Ants And Grasshoppers
4. The Sun And The Wind
5. The Shepherd Boy
6. The Greedy Dog
7. The Fox And The Crane
8. Two Travelers And A Bear
9. The Lion And The Mouse Who Repaid Kindness
10. The Goose That Laid The Golden Eggs
11. Belling The Cat
12. The Donkey And The Salt
13. The Fox And The Sour Grapes
14. The Town Mouse And The Country Mouse
15. The Farmer And The Three Sons

Korean Folk Tales:
1. The Spring That Makes You Young
2. The Sun And The Moon
3. The Old Man With A Lump
4. Golden Axe And Silver Axe
5. The Green Frog Who Won’t Listen
6. The Fairy And The Woodcutter
7. The Magic Millstone
8. Heungbu And Nolbu
9. Red Fan, Blue Fan
10. Loyal Brothers
11. Kongjwi And Patjwi
12. The Tiger And A Persimmon
13. King’s Ears Are Donkey Ears
14. The Lazy Man Who Became A Cow
15. The Magpie That Repaid Kindness

NOTE: In the e-book, titles are all in Korean.

Okay so let’s get started – Here’s what you get.
1) As the very first thing in each story/chapter, you have the story 100% in Korean.

2) After reading the story you move on you first assignment which is ‘번역 연습’ = Translating Practice. Here you can try translating the entire story on your own, sentence by sentence. Below each sentence you’ll have a short vocabulary list to help you translate the story.

3) After translating the story, it’s time for ‘영어 번역’ = English Translation. In this part, TTMIK has provided an English translation which you can use to check up on/correct your own translation. In some cases they write more than one possible translation which also is super helpful.

4) Now it’s time for ‘Grammar Point’. This doesn’t really need much explanation, but let me just talk about it anyway. Here you get to go through some of the grammar that was used in the story you just read. After the grammar has been explained, you’ll get to practice a bit with a few assignments.

5) After practicing some of the used grammar, it’s time for ‘Vocabulary Quiz’.

6) The vocabulary Quiz is follow by a ‘Comprehension Quiz’.

7) Lastly you get and ‘Answer Key’ and you can once again check your answers.

This is how you go through all 30 stories. There’s about 500 pages of material to study with and believe it or not, it doesn’t end here!
Each story comes with two audio files as well. 1 audio file where the story is read aloud in normal speed, and one file with the story in fast speed.
In other words you get; 30 stories both as a book and audio book, as well as a workbook with different assignments. Obviously you can use it exactly as you want to.

My personal opinion

Good: First of all I have always loved these types of stories so I immediately knew that I needed to try this e-book, and I can honestly say that I’m not disappointed at all
The stories are good and they have the perfect length, so if you’re not a ‘reading person’ this will still be highly useful to you. This also means that it is perfect to use with your language partners, Korean friends, fellow students or teachers. You can bring a story to whatever type of sessions you might have and discuss it together, or use it as homework. The possibilities are endless!
The assignments are just as useful and most importantly they don’t overwhelm you in any way. All assignments are made in small bite sized pieces which makes it a lot easier to handle and it also means that you can make an assignment whenever you have the time. In my opinion this is 10 times better than having one large assignment. (I can’t possibly be the only one who HATES stopping in the middle of an assignment, right?).
The fact that you literally get the possibility to practice everything except speaking, is probably my favorite thing about this e-book!

Bad: I honestly have nothing bad to say about this. It is definitely on my top 10 Korean Study related purchases of this year!
The only things I can really point out so far is minor things like a spelling mistake or two. It doesn’t affect your studying whatsoever.

NOTE: I haven’t finished the entire e-book yet, so I might make an update if my opinion changes.

Final thought: Go buy this now! There’s still 3 more days with the TTMIK Christmas sale, so go make good use of your money! –> mykoreanstore

Now if you will have me excused – I’m gonna move on to the next Korean Folktale. Have an awesome Christmas everyone!