Korean Bookstore Find: Bilingual Toddlers Bible 아자아자 성경

I recently found this bilingual Toddlers Bible at my local Korean bookstore.  Unfortunately, I cannot find the publisher nor the book online.  Found it online here.  I wonder if larger Korean churches with "bookstores" would also have a copy.  The Bible was shrink wrapped but I think I chose a good one.
If you see it and want a great Bible to read to your toddler...buy it!  Here's why I think it would be perfect for me and our future child:

• Each Bible story is about 4 pages so it's just short enough to keep the attention span of a wiggly 2 year old.
• Bible Stories span from the Old Testament to New Testament
• Illustrations are very cute and colorful
• Story sentences are very simple in English AND in Korean.  Since the translation follows pretty close, it's also a great way to learn Korean.    And since the Korean is simple, even I could read it...not so fluently, but with practice, I'm getting there.

I look forward to establishing a bedtime routine of reading the Bible (Husband reads in English, me in Korean), singing a song about God and saying a few prayers in Korean and in English.

Front

Back

Sample page from "Noah Builds A Big Boat"

Korean Kids Song Sunday: I'm a Little Teapot 작은 주전자예요

"I'm a Little Teapot" is a definite favorite of kids probably due to the easy hand motions.  I'm having trouble finding a you-tube video of the song in Korean. But it is easily found in English.
So, instead, I'm including a page of my favorite Korean kids song book by Samsung Publishers.  This book/CD combo includes 40 songs, its lyrics, sheet music and illustrations of the handmotions.  I have purchased 3 books in this series and a few of their iphone apps too.



Lyrics in English:
I'm a little teapot short and stout
Here is my handle, here is my spout
When I get all steamed up, hear me shout!
Tip me over and pour me out


Lyrics in Korean:
나는 작고 뚱뚱한 주전자
손잡이 있고 주둥이 있죠
보글보글 물이 끊으면
쭉 기울 여따라 주세요


Romanization/Transliteration:
nah-neun jah-ggoh ddoong-ddoong-han joo-jun-ja
sohn-jahb-ee eet-goh joo-doong-ee eet-jyo
boh-geul boh-geul mool-eul ggeu-reu-myun
jjook gee-ool yuh-ddah-rah joo-seh-yoh


Translation: (is pretty similar to the English lyrics..but I guess the Korean teapots just don't steam and shout)
I'm a fat teapot
I have a handle and a spout
When my water starts to boil
Tip and pour me out.


PS: I entered the Lyrics into Google Translate and this is what I got:

I have a small kettle fatHandle and spout'sIf you disconnect the water SpongeBob SquarePantsPlease pay straight yeottara

Where "SpongeBob Square Pants" comes from, I really really don't know. 

Korean Kids Song Resources: Teach Me Korean (Judy Mahoney) $3.95 Audiobook

Teach Me Tapes has series of Korean-English resources, titled "Teach Me Korean and More Korean"

The classic coloring books from the Teach Me and Teach Me More series are now combined into a 48-page edition. This new edition includes the coloring pages from both titles, and a 60-minute audio CD so children can listen, learn and sing along. Teach Me Korean and More Korean features six new pages of vocabulary and activities perfect for pre-school to early elementary children. Narrated in Korean, the story includes 40 songs with lyrics and translations

and "Teach Me Everyday Korean"

Bring language alive through brilliant illustrations as you listen, learn and sing along with classic songs for children. Presented in a new dual language format, children can easily follow the songs and story as they learn a new language. This new edition of Teach Me Korean features full color illustrations and is expanded to 32 pages with hardcover binding and companion audio CD.

I downloaded the audiobook version of the "Teach Me Korean" book for $3.95 off of itunes. This version is only 30 minutes (since it's half of the Teach me Korean and More Korean 60 minute CD/Book). The "Teach Me Everyday Korean" audiobook, which is $3.95, is also available for download for $3.95. So, I probably would have just bought the combined CD/Book on Amazon for $15 and gotten the books too. I can't find any images of the actual pages of the books so if you have this resource, I'd be interested to see how the Korean/English is presented. Teaching Korean by an English/American source is hopefully more sympthetic to the non-Korean speaker/reader.



Since it's an AUDIOBOOK, the audio is in chapters, not tracks, which is fine for listening all the way through in the car, but not for skipping ahead to your favorites.



Here are the "chapters" to the audiobook: (my translations)

1. All together, let's sing

2. When the sun rises in the morning

3. Our puppy

4. Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes*

-Days of the Week

5. Rain

6. Umbrellas

-Numbers 1-10

-Hangul Letters

7. 10 Little Indians*

-Elephants swinging on the spiderweb

8. If you're happy and know it*

9. Round and Round 둥글게 둥글게

10. Wheels on the car go round and round*

11. Baby's car goes boom boom boom (

12. Daddy's crayon

13. Jump Jump Jump

14. Let's go catch a fish

15. Oh! Susanna!*

16. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star*

17. Good Night Little One

18. Good Night My Friends





*English songs translated into Korean:

observation: English songs translated into Korean sound a lot better than the attempts I've heard of Korean songs translated into English.

Korean bookstore finds: Korean sound and singing books

This weekend boasted a girlfriend getaway with my Korean college friends which included a trip to a Korean bath house, a Korean hair salon, a Korean restaurant, a korean food court, and of course a Korean bookstore.

The kids book section is very enticing at The Korean Book Center at the Koreatown Plaza in LA. It was hard choosing just one book. Lemme show you what else I would have bought.  These goodies combine 2 of my loves: books and children's music. I love that there's music attached to a BOOK and not to a screen.  I feel like kids these days (including myself) spend way too much time in front of the TV or computer screen.  So I want  to maximize any opportunities for education and entertainment that doesn't come from a screen.

1) This book by Samsung Books features the lyrics to a few favorite kid songs like the 3 bears, eensy weensy spider, and 10 little indians and when you press the corresponding button, it plays the song. It uses AAA batteries so it could provide hours and hours of entertainment.

2) This alphabet book by Edu JoyUp was considered one of his bestsellers by the bookstore owner?manager? The soundbox had buttons for each letter of the alphabet, the numbers, a few bonus words and a song about cotton candy. My friend snagged this one for her twin girls - sticker price was $35. It's also sold at Little Seouls for $29.99, but my friend still won since she didn't have to pay for shipping.  I bet it will be a well-loved book in her home.

3) This last book by Applebee books is like the first one, but I found it my friend's library.  It featured 6 songs with lyrics.



4) The last book I don't have an image to show you, but it was called Go-Mah-Wuh and had about 6 buttons in the soundbox that corresponded to different "polite" words like go-mah-wuh (thank you), mi-yan-heh (sorry), ahn-young (hi) and jahl-ga-rah (see ya later!).  It was shrink wrapped so I couldn't see inside the book.  But this one's also a keeper.







So, you're probably wondering where you would find these books if you didn't live near a Korean bookstore.  I'm wondering also.  Amazon has a great selection of Korean-English books, Hanbooks has a lot of great Childrens' Books (Newberry and Caledcott awards; in Korean), and I mentioned Little Seouls above, but their selection is limited.  Of course there are Korean online sites in Korean, but navigating those sites with my limited Korean would be difficult.  So,  I'm still on the look-out.  Any suggestions or help would be appreciated!

Korean bookstore finds

Husband and I had a GREAT weekend.  It was full of learning about adoption, meeting new friends, hanging out with old friends and seeing family.  What could be better?  Adding a bit of shopping!! After lunch on Saturday with our new friends at a Korean restaurant, Husband and I went to a Korean bookstore since we were in K-town.  It was quite overwhelming and for the first time I felt greatly grateful that we had so many Korean language resources so available to us.  I guess I have taken for granted the proximity of our Korean grocery stores and restaurants. 

 I could have spent hours browsing and trying to read the kiddie books and taking photos, but we didn't have too much time.  I bought 2 things that I thought were helpful to us now as Husband is learning Korean and for our very young Korean-learner who won't be able to use or read them for awhile, but the pictures are great!  One of the criteria for my selection of which book to buy is whether or not I can and want to read it. I read Korean at a Kindergarten level.  So, if it's cute and pretty and it catches my attention, I'll take it.  And if I can read it without my eyes glazing over with soooo many Korean words, I like it.  One of the things I bought was this Korean picture book like an "ABC book" for han-gul letters.  The publisher is Samsung books.

The book goes through all the Hangul consonants showing in full color pictures, an animal, food, vehicle, clothing or other common thing that starts with that consonant or has that consonant sound in the word.  I didn't notice too many at the beginning of the alphabet, but towards the end of the book, many of the words were Kong-lish words. For example, for the P sounds, every word was Konglish:

pizza, poh-keu (fork), jum-puh (jumper/jacket), so-pa (sofa), hah-peu (harp) and shahm-poo (shampoo).  I thought that maybe this was a Korean-English book that was trying to be bilingual, but actually I think that the Korean vocabulary just has A LOT of borrowed english words. But, the Koreans have sometimes butchered transliterated? Korean-ized the word so much, it's really almost unrecognizable.  I obviously greatly enjoy these Konglish words and find them quite hilarious.  The Koreans were not so creative in making up their own words, especially for clothing, foods, instruments and animals.  But it makes for really easy learning of Korean vocab. 

Wifebeater/tank top?  Luhn-ning-shu-che.  That's right....running shirt.  Sandwich?  Just like it sounds: sehn-deu-wee-chee.  Wrench? That's a puzzling one.  Seu-peh-nuh = spinner? oh...cuz it spins the bolt.