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      For most of us who are old enough to have lost our magical ability to acquire language without conscious effort, learning a new language is not easy. You need to memorize a lot of new words and expressions. Some people prefer learning new vocabulary purely through their daily activities to memorizing words in vocabulary books. However, if you can anticipate what language elements you are likely to come across while talking to someone or reading something, you can be better prepared. By studying the entries in this book, you will get a feel for what words or expressions native speakers use in certain situations.

      This book holds more than 8,000 essential Korean words/expressions marked by three different symbols / / according to their weight. There are two things I want you to keep in mind. First, use the weight symbols wisely. Do not be overwhelmed by the amount of words in this book. It can be a strategy to go for more important words first. Second, do not simply flip through the meanings of the headwords. I strongly encourage you to pay attention to the words in bold in each example phrase/sentence, which shows which word or words the headword is frequently used with. This is called collocation, a concept you will find very important as you progress in your studies.

      This is not a grammar book. I expect you to know some basic Korean grammar, and I assume that you also know how to read and write Hangul, the Korean script. Some Korean books for foreigners use romanization to write Korean words, rather than Hangul. I understand that Hangul may look strange to English speakers’ eyes at first sight. This is to be expected when encountering a new and foreign writing system. The good news is that Hangul is very easy to learn. And more importantly, all Koreans use it. In my opinion, these are reasons enough to learn Hangul.

      This book was originally published by Nexus under the title Survival Korean Vocabulary in 2007. In repurposing it for Tuttle, I changed more than the title. I’ve added more than two thousand words and rewritten almost all the examples, and I reorganized the themes and the word categorizations.

      In writing this book, I owe the following sources a great debt.

      The basic model on which this book is based is Barron's Mastering Vocabulary Series.

      I am thankful to all dictionary editors and developers. I know how agonizing the job of compiling a dictionary is. I referred to the following dictionaries throughout the time I worked on this book.

      Doosan Dong-A editorial staff. Doosan Dong-A’s Prime Korean-English Dictionary. 3rd edition. Doosan Dong-A, 2010.

      Neungyule editorial staff. Neungyule Korean-English Dictionary. Neungyule Education Inc., 2006.

      It was not easy to establish themes and categorize more than 8,000 words. The following books were a big help to me in this task.

      Darakwon Voca Club. Deongeori VOCA. Vols. 1-4. Darakwon, 2010-11.

      Kim, Eung-mo. Hangugeo Sinchegwallyeon Jadongsa Nanmalbat. Pagijong, 1996.

      Kim, Eung-mo. Eoneopyohyeon Jadongsa Naeyongyeongu. Pagijong, 2000.

      Kim, Eung-mo. Ilsangeoneo Jadongsa Nanmalbat. Pagijong, 2000.

      Sin, Hyeon-suk; Kim, Mi-hyeong; Im, So-young; Im Hye-won. Uimiro Bullyuhan Hyeondae Hangugeo Hakseup Sajeon. Hangukmunhwasa, 2000.

      Kyubyong Park

      At a Glance

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