Korean Workbooks for English Speakers: Which One to Start With

Everykoreans publishes printable PDF workbooks for people who learn Korean in English. They are workbooks, not textbooks: every unit gives you something to write, and every book has an answer key at the back so you can mark your own work. You download the PDF right after paying, print the pages you want, or fill it in on a tablet.

The books are written by a Korean teacher and draw on the same material as the free lessons on this site. If you are not sure a book is for you, the free lessons, worksheets and TOPIK practice questions are a good way to try the style first (links at the end).

If you are just starting out

• Korean First Steps Workbook (A1): Hangul and final consonants first, then greetings, numbers and dates, family, food, shopping and the basic particles. Each unit has a short explanation, tables to copy, practice and an answer key.
• Korean Particles Workbook (A1–A2): 20 particles, one per unit, with the meaning, the form, examples, the trap to avoid and practice. A "Choose the right particle" part puts look-alikes side by side, such as 은/는 vs 이/가 and 에 vs 에서.

A natural order is First Steps first, then the Particles workbook once your sentences start to grow. If you can already read Hangul and mix up particles, you can go straight to the Particles workbook.

If you are preparing for TOPIK II

• TOPIK II Vocabulary Workbooks 1–3: a three-book series. Book 1 covers words 1–1,000 and Book 2 words 1,001–2,000, ranked by how often they appear in our own TOPIK II practice material. Book 3 collects 940 level-3 words that are not in Books 1 and 2.
• TOPIK II Writing 51–52: 100 original practice questions for the two fill-in-the-blank writing tasks, with accepted answers, the scoring point and the mistakes that lose marks.

Our TOPIK practice questions are original material written for practice. They are not past exam papers.

Also in the shop

• TOPIK I Essential Vocabulary: all 1,931 words of the TOPIK I word list in 97 units.
• TOPIK I Reading: 10 full practice tests, 400 original questions in the official format.
• TOPIK II Writing 53–54: 100 questions with a model answer, scoring criteria and three scored sample answers each.
• Essential Korean Idioms: 449 idioms, proverbs and four-character idioms, 30 units.

How the workbooks work

The vocabulary and idiom books share one pattern: a unit of words with meanings and example sentences, then writing practice (write the meaning, write the Korean word, write your own sentence), a short checkup and an answer key. A QR code in each unit opens a free online match game for the same words, so you can practise on your phone after you have written them out.