any recommended book for learning korean?

Books are helpful, but I think there are much better multimedia options out there--complete with videos, native speaker recordings, learning games, etc. Here are some good options.

This is a great library of (free) Learn Korean videos.

http://www.speakoutkorean.com/videos/

Here is a really good (free) Korean alphabet chart that you can download and print.

http://www.speakoutkorean.com/free-korean-alphabet...

This is a pretty good (free) Korean course.

http://www.liveinasiablog.com/learn-korean/

If you want paid options, this is the best online course (I think it's $99)

http://www.speakoutkorean.com/rocket-korean-review...

Also, this is great Korean digital flash card software. I use it every day, and I learn tons!

http://www.liveinasiablog.com/2011/07/byki-korean-...

Best of luck to you!

Ryan

My favorite Korean Language book would have to be Korean for Beginners: Mastering Conversational Korean by Kyubyong Park and Henry J. Amen IV. I got this book a year ago and it is a great resource, especially for beginners. Everything is explained clearly and written in Hangeul (한글 a.k.a. the Korean alphabet) AND English so that you can learn the alphabet as you go. I personally learned the alphabet first, but it helps reinforce that knowledge throughout the book. This book is currently available on Amazon for about $11. I will leave a link in the sources to it.

A WONDERFUL website for learning Korean (for free) is TalkToMeInKorean. They have a podcast which you can subscribe to on iTunes, and you can go all the way back to lesson one and start there. Their lessons include PDF files which are notes about what they discussed in the lesson, and you can use them to follow along. These PDF files are written in both English and 한글 with English pronunciations. In fact, you could argue that you don't even need a text book to learn Korean if you use TTMIK. They are that good.

Definitely watching Korean Dramas helps you learn Korean, because as you learn you can hear words and phrases and finally sentences and understand the entire drama (it's very cool!). It also helps you get an idea of how they speak, and the more you hear it spoken the easier it will be for you to understand when you are in a real conversation.

If you are willing to go the extra mile to learn Korean, I would recommend that once you get comfortable with the alphabet 한글 and past, present, and future conjugations, you change some of your technology to Korean mode. For example, using Facebook in Korean you can learn words like 추가하다 (to add) and as your friends upload pictures, for example, you will get updates like "Your friend's name님이 새로운 사진을 추가했습니다" which is "Your friend's name added a new photo." It helps you grow your vocabulary and affirm your understanding of conjugation, how sentences are phrased, etc.

Also, available on Amazon is a book called Elementary Korean, it's a college text book, so it is expensive. There is also a workbook to go along wit it if you choose to purchase it.

Which you could be trained korean with books from korean universities. The ones from Yonsei have some english explanations. Which you can additionally begin without cost with online websites of some korean universities (english variant).

dic.naver.com is extremely useful. It's got a fairly accurate dictionary that can go between Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, Spanish, German, and Turkish.

Phrase wise, just check out your local book store. Just make sure that it also includes the Hangul. If you get in a situation where they don't understand English or your pronunciation, you can just point and they can read. XD