Author: CJ Rooney

안녕하세요! We finally started a blog! We wanted a place to share tips, tricks, ideas, activities, and resources with families wanting to teach their children the Korean language. For anyone who isn’t yet familiar with our company, let me give you a brief introduction:

I am passionate about bilingual education. As a child growing up in a Korean-American household, I was interested in learning the Korean language and my mother taught me basic concepts, such as counting, and common phrases, like “Hello,” “Good-bye,” and “I love you.” I loved to read and found myself wishing I had books in Korean, but it seemed impossible to find any at our local bookstore or library. I went on to learn Spanish and continued to try to teach myself Korean with dictionaries and by listening to pop songs. When I became a parent, I knew I wanted to raise my children bilingually, so I introduced them to Spanish and the little Korean I knew, but I still found it impossible to locate bilingual children’s books that taught the Korean language. I joined a couple of mom groups on Facebook in hopes of finding resources and books, but discovered that most families were either buying Korean books from overseas or simply using label makers to add Korean text to books they already had. This is extremely resourceful, but with over 1.2 million Americans speaking Korean, I really feel there ought to be easier access to quality bilingual books that teach the language.

I decided I wanted to create bilingual books my children would love and I dedicated every day to researching, writing, illustrating, and designing my very first Bilingual Learning book. I wanted it to not only include both English and Korean languages, but easy-to-read transliterations to accompany the Hangul (한글 – Korean written language) for anyone who cannot yet read the Korean alphabet. When I was ready, I printed out the PDF at home, introduced it to my kids and they loved it!

I decided to publish it and make it available to other families looking for Korean-English baby books. I discussed the idea with my husband, family, and friends and, after many months of hard work, I launched Aerilyn Books, which I named after my daughter. At the time of writing this, I have published two Bilingual Learning books: Colors | 색상 and Numbers | 숫자.

Colors | 색상 teaches children the colors of the rainbow, in sequence, plus other common colors. Each color is introduced by name and also used in a simple sentence accompanied by beautifully illustrated animals. Target vocabulary words are color-coded for visual learners, transliterations allow adults who cannot read Hangul to pronounce the words when reading aloud to their children, and the illustrated animals provide additional vocabulary that will maintain your child’s interest.

Numbers | 숫자 introduces children to the Korean native number system by counting fruits and veggies from 1 to 10. Each number is identified by name and used in short simple phrases along with paper cut-out illustrations of common fruits and veggies, providing additional vocabulary and reinforcing familiarity with healthy food choices.

The Bilingual Learning books are made of durable board for repeated handling by little hands, and are conveniently sized for taking along anywhere. We will be announcing the third title in the series January 2, so stay tuned for that!

In addition to our popular books, we post FREE illustrated vocabulary cards, with audio, Monday through Friday on our Facebook and Instagram pages, so you can introduce your child to a new vocabulary word every day of the school week. Make sure to follow us to take advantage of the free resources and stay up-to-date with announcements, events, and giveaways!

We will post a new blog entry whenever we have new resources to share with you: language-boosting activities, downloadable worksheets and coloring sheets, new book announcements, book-signings, and more – we hope you will find our content valuable in your journey of raising bilingual children!