Tigers, Fairies, and Gods: Enchanting Folktales from Korea (Includes Audio Download)

Click here to access the audio files 

Click here to access to a video about one of the stories

Tigers, Fairies, and Gods: Enchanting Folktales from Korea is a book with readings with different levels of difficulty about Korea, its culture and its traditions. It is a great material to practice reading and listening comprehension in Korean and at the same time, learn about Korea. 

The book contains a total of 21 stories divided in 3 sections (7 readings per section), each part belongs to a different level of difficulty: Beginning, intermediate and advanced. For this reason, students can choose the readings that best fit into their current level. Vocabulary and grammar are adapted depending of the level of difficulty: while students advance through the book, they will encounter more complex readings. 

After each story, there are a series of reading comprehension questions and some others like: What was the moral of the story? Is there any similar tale or story in your culture? Each reading also contains lists with all vocabulary and translations of the whole text. 

At the beginning of each story, there is a QR code with which to listen the whole tale in Korean. Audios can be also found on top of this file. Through the YouTube channel of Kong & Park publishers, there is a video of the tale number 7: Sister Sun and Brother Moon. the link can be also found on top of this file. 

Tigers, Fairies, and Gods: Enchanting Folktales from Korea has very attractive design and its edition has been carefully made with color pages and beautiful illustrations. 

Description by the publisher 

This book is for Korean language learners who want to improve their proficiency while learning about Korean culture. Reading the folktales in this book, students will gain a deeper understanding of Korean culture and improve their communication skills in the language. This accessible book is suitable for a range of levels, from beginners to more advanced learners.

The book is organized into three sections according to language proficiency levels. The stories in each level contain level-appropriate vocabulary, expressions, grammar, and sentence types. It also provides a sequence of readings and activities that progressively increase in difficulty, enabling students to practice grammar structures and learn new ones.

The beginning-level section includes short traditional stories that introduce basic vocabulary and grammatical expressions. The stories in the intermediate-level section are relatively longer than those in the beginning level, utilizing complex sentences. The advanced-level section contains narratively complex stories that are much longer than the beginning and intermediate-level stories. They are written in a more formal, descriptive style using expressive vocabulary and highly complex grammatical expressions. These tales are based on historical novels or pansori.

This book may be used as a reading text for self-studying learners, or as a supplementary text for Korean language classes of all levels. Containing a full list of vocabulary and expressions in addition to the translations of each story, the book permits students to fully understand the content of each folktale. The book has accompanying on-line audio-visual materials.

Contents 

Preface

Acknowledgements

-Beginning Level-

1. 청개구리 The Tale of The Green Frog

2. 혹부리 할아버지 The Grandfather with The Lump on His Face

3. 의좋은 형제 The Friendly Brothers

4. 호랑이와 곶감 The Tiger and The Persimmon

5. 소가 된 게으름뱅이 The Idler That Became a Cow

6. 금도끼 은도끼 The Golden Ax, The Silver Ax

7. 해님 달님 Sister Sun and Brother Moon

- Intermediate Level-

8. 흥부와 놀부 Heungbu and Nolbu

9. 단군 이야기 The Tale of Dangun

10. 효자 호랑이 The Filial Tiger

11. 거울을 처음 본 사람들 Those Who First Looked in the MIrror

12. 우렁각시 The Snail Bride

13. 젊어지는 샘물 The Stream o Youth

14. 은혜 갚은 까치 The Grateful Magpies

- Advanced Level -
15. 선녀와 나무꾼 The Heavenly Maiden and the Woodcutter

16. 콩쥐 팥쥐 Kongjwi and Patjwi

17. 토끼의 간 The Rabbit’s Liver

18. 견우와 직녀 Gyeon-woo and Jik-nyeo

19. 효녀 심청 Shim Chung The Filial Daughter

20. 홍길동전 The Story of Hong Gil Dong

21. 온달과 평강공주 Ondal and Princess Pyeonggang


Glossary