Bilingual Stories and Essays about Contemporary Korea (In Korean and English with Free Online Audio)
Learn about contemporary Korea while improving your language skills!

A Korean Language Reader contains 20 fascinating stories about contemporary Korean society, presented in parallel Korean and English versions on facing pages. The stories are graded from beginner to intermediate level and written by two experts in Korean culture and language learning, Gigi Choi and Alex Runchman.

Topics covered include:

• The Hallyu Wave: A brief history of K-Pop and how it became a worldwide phenomenon
• "Nunchi" and Other Cultural Differences: The authors share insights from their cross-cultural marriage, including the uniquely Korean concept of nunchi: the art of reading what others are thinking
• Korean Words in the English Dictionary:Mukbang, Dalgona, Maknae—if you don't know these yet, you need to; the global boom in Korean popular culture has made them English-language staples
• Coming to You: A review of a Korean documentary about a support group for parents whose children identify as LGBTQ+
• "Crash Landing on You": An exploration of how this popular K-Drama challenges outdated stereotypes of North Koreans

Each story is illustrated with black-and-white photos and accompanied by a vocabulary list, cultural notes, exercises and discussion questions, making this ideal for self-study or classroom use, as well as for general readers interested in Korean culture. Free online audio recordings are available in both languages.