I also recommend comic books to anyone studying conversational Korean. Believe me, If you can appreciate the dialog and humor in comic books than you have a real grasp of the language. One summer day I was struggling through a Korean comic book. A female cartoon character shouted at her boyfriend ¡°Kea sori ha ji ma¡±. As I translated the words to myself I chuckled. The words meant ¡°Dog sound don¡¯t make¡±. I repeated the words a couple times to myself ¡°Kea sori ha ji ma. Kea sori ha ji ma¡±. ¡°Now there¡¯s a useful phrase¡±, I thought.
The next day was hot so I went outside wearing a short-sleeve shirt. While standing in line to board a bus, I heard giggling behind me. I turned around to see two girls who appeared to be in their early twenties laughing and laughing. One girl was whisking her fingers up and down her arm saying ¡°Monkey.. Monkey¡±. I realized that I was the butt of the joke. I remembered the comic book and shouted at them in my best Korean ¡°Kea sori ha ji ma¡±. One of the young ladies gulped an involuntary ¡°Eu Ma¡± [meaning ¡°mother¡±] and the other young lady turned red in the face. An old man standing next to me just grinned.
As I sat down in the bus I thought to myself ¡°thank goodness for comic books¡±.