Korean Self-Study Advice

It's hard enough finding Korean language classes in Korea, so I can only guess that it's nearly impossible in the States. To answer a very lovely friend's question about self-studying (shout out Maryyy!), here's what I use.

www.livemocha.com

-->Conversation/speaking, writing

-->Recommended for language partners (lots of Koreans want to practice their English, and will gladly help out if you let them speak with you for a bit). You can also write short passages and Korean native speakers will "grade" it for you and make corrections.

www.topik.or.kr

-->TOPIK practice

-->Registering for the site (free!) opens up the archives to all the previous TOPIK tests of every level ever administered anywhere in the world. The best way to get better at the TOPIK is to practice and study your mistakes, I think, and this is free.

MY FAVORITE KOREAN TEXTBOOK

Sogang University

-->Vocab, grammar, reading

-->My favorite series out of all the textbooks I've used. Some series focus on more conversation, but since I get enough conversation in my daily life and livemocha.com is free, I like Sogang best.

MY FAVORITE TOPIK STUDY GUIDES

TOPIK Essential Grammar 150

-->Grammar. Duh

-->It introduces grammar points in units organized by what the grammar points mean. For example, there's many ways to say "After .... , .... " so all those grammar points are organized together. Each unit ends with TOPIK-like grammar questions using those grammar points introduced.

-->http://item.gmarket.co.kr/detailview/Item.asp?goodscode=195796032

한국어 어휘 연습

-->Vocabulary, colloquialisms, idioms, Chinese roots

-->Words are grouped into sections and taught in units based on TOPIK vocabulary question styles. For example, a section for synonyms, a section for antonyms, a section for idioms, etc. each section is broken down into bite size study units of about 25-30 words a piece, and each piece is followed up with example questions from previous TOPIKs.

-->http://www.hangulpark.com/product/productDetail.asp?pcode=1377

Hangulpark.com has a lot of really great TOPIK study books. I would buy/use more, but I already have enough partially-completed study guides... I should just finish the ones I have.