EPTOn September 30 2011 04:16 Xenocide_Knight wrote:
How's yo korean goin foo?
How's yo korean goin foo?
Very well. I'll write a thorough update tomorrow~
My Korean progress - Page 3
| Blogs > DNB |
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
Very well. I'll write a thorough update tomorrow~ | ||
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
Hello. A sorry for my false promise 2 weeks ago, as I resolved to post a new entry weekly even though I didn't write anything last week. In fact, as I commented here a month ago, I had slacked off a little bit last week, plus I'm tad tired writing this entry today as well due to bad sleep last night, so I may come short in content. Today is 2 months and 3 weeks since I started my Korean learning. Although it may not sound much, it's still 85 days to be exact, and you can do a lot in that time. I'm actually feeling very positive about my progress right now. You may have read my past entries from over a month ago how I was worried about the difficulty of the elementary level already, but I feel like I overexaggerated it a lot. The language is finally starting to make sense to me on the grand scheme — I'm extremely far from any decent fluency yet, but every week I can compare to the previous one and actually perceive that I'm 'more aware' in Korean, and it's a superb sensation. I'm progressing through Continuing Korean fairly quickly, although I could do better. Despite the fact that I took it easier last week, I feel like it has helped me to slow down and give my head time to clear all the dizziness that resulted from the previous self-immersion that I had continued for 2 months straight, and I find myself in a great shape again, ready to absorb more information. Analogous to what I just said about being more 'aware' by every week, I can relate my feelings to a man whom I once saw a documentary about; He used to have a maximum memory span of only half a minute due to a severe case of amnesia. When a nurse once gave him a notebook on which to jot down his current thoughts, the pages were later filled with messages where he claimed to be aware at just that very moment, and he could not believe the previous notes were written by him, since he was not 'aware' by then yet. My sentiments are somewhat similar at the moment — I just read my own blog entry from 1 and a half months ago where I claimed the same I'm doing in this entry, that the language is starting to make sense and I'm adapting to the new realm of thinking, but looking back at it now, I feel like I was not aware at that moment as much as I am now, and same thing will probably go on and on should I progress further onwards from here. A complicated analogy, but holds some truth to language learning in general. I must say, something great happened lately. A Korean friend of mine, whom I have known through the internet for a month or two, spontaneously sent me a small book written in Korean as a birthday gift last week. How awesome is that.  The book is about the Korean traditional p'ungmul drums, and contains several little stories centered around the traditional Korea in the old days. I will plan to read it later on once I get further in the language. Really cool to get some authentic Korean reading materials.As for my progress, here is a summary of the content learned during the last 1-2 weeks. Not much, but at least the previous week's rest came off beneficial nonetheless: Miscellaneous: - Conjugation of the ㅎ-dropping irregular verbs, such as 그렇다 --> 그렇지, 그래요, 그러면 // 까맣다 --> 까맣지, 까매요, 까마면 et cetera. - More ways to use the verb 말다 (말아요/-지 말고) et cetera. - The postnoun -네 attached to someone's name, meaning 'his/her family/house etc.', can also be attached to plural pronouns like we, you (plural) et cetera. - Diminutive -이 attached to names of someone you feel close to, as a way of making it sound cuter. Degrading when attached to someone's full name whom you don't even know well. One-shape verb endings: -다(가), indicating sudden shift from an action towards another, similar to English in "I did X, but then, (suddenly), Y happened". Has some contrastive usages as well when used in the past form. Two-shape verb endings: - Prospective modifier -(으)ㄹ, used in conjunction with futuric expression ---> - (으)ㄹ 때 — ' When X does...', another extremely useful pattern constructed on the above modifier ------> - (으)ㄹ 때마다/때까지/때부터 — 'Every time X does Y.../Until X does.../Starting when X does...' respectively. Built on the above form by using the particles I learned 2 months ago already, so it's very simple. - (으)면서 — expressing simultaneity of two actions by the same subject ---> (으)면서도 — similar to above, except that it has the meaning of 'even though' in English. Requires the same subject. - (으)ㄴ/-는 김에 — has a crude translation of "As long as you are at it, do X aswell" and so on. - Modifiers + 것 같아요 — a very essential pattern I've looked forward to learn for a long time. Can be used to indicate 'Seems like something was/did/is/will X...' - (으)려다가 — a combination of the (으)려고 (intent of doing something) and the -다(가) (sudden shift of an action), translating logically into something as 'I was going to, but (suddenly) X occurred...'. Also a three-shape ending: - 는데(요)/-(으)ㄴ데(요) — you will hear this everywhere in Korean. The textbook calls it the 'imminent elaboration ending', and it has various subtle usages varying from crude translations of 'but...', 'so...', 'dot-dot-dot (as a pause between two clauses)', to the indication of sudden realizations et cetera. Learning this form really allows one to sound 10x more Korean when used correctly. ---> 는/-(으)ㄴ데도 — constructed on the above form, meaning approximately something like 'In spite of X.../Despite X...'. The extended form of this is 는/-(으)ㄴ데도 불구하고, which emphasizes the meaning. I passively know about 5 more verb endings I just learned today by reading through lesson 24 in one go, but I'm not going to list them yet because I haven't finished the lesson yet. Vocabulary: As for vocabulary, only 100-150 or so learned during the last week, although I have lowered the priority for learning new vocabulary until I have a solid grasp of all the grammar in my textbook. After a month or so after finishing the book, I'm going to attempt to read some basic Korean materials with the help of a dictionary to look up new words appearing more that 2 or 3 times. Hanja: About Hanja, only 82 learned during the last 2 weeks, leaving me at the 310 mark right now, although I would be at 400 at this point if I didn't slack off during the last month with them. No worries though, I will continue as usual ~ List of the new 82 Hanja since my last progress update: 客驗式期觀試末題合主格頂會談共元首話各和戰爭樂旅運 登寫眞最讀英畵無通尊敬初等卒京獨立完院朝夕郎重要羅 忠誠孝義理勇殺果必使用事明示可味便利始作精神解球代 報歷史法待宿藥 More about Hanja: Learning them has slowly paid off, as I have been learning words even when I have not intended to do so. Knowing the roots just makes it incredibly easier. I was reading a random Korean message from a netizen on Naver (Korean equivalent for Google), and saw the the clause '본론으로 갈게요'. The -으로 갈게요 means he is going to somewhere, but I did not recognize what 본론 meant. Funnily enough, I got a gut feeling about the word in only a few seconds, I thought about the Hanja 本 for 본, and 論 for 론, meaning literally 'original discussion', and voila, I found out it meant exactly that. There are more examples. More about the original discussion of this blog entry (pun unintended), about starting to see even more patterns in the language; I find it already somewhat easily manageable to NOT miss on the structure of the language when listening to it. I picked up Korean movies again after 3-4 weeks, and in just one week I feel much more familiar with the vernacular speech styles and expressions from the movies, as I have been able to actually reconstruct them in my head and recognize why something works the way it does. Finally, I want to talk about the new attitude I'm practically forcing myself to adopt. One of my bad habits with long term activities has always been that if I work really hard for a few months on something, I might get actually proud of myself and thus lose the drive to continue learning as vigorously as before, resulting in smaller improvements and to swirling into a state of demotivation in the end. To avoid that, instead of thinking to myself I got better in something, I would just say I suck less. "I will always suck at Korean, but my main goal is to work hard in order to suck less and drift closer to the state of 'non-sucking'." That is actually one reason I dislike it when Koreans praise my skills like my level was some sort of an olympian achievement, while it is not. I know their intent is good, but I can't let it get too much into myself, as when it comes to Korean, I still suck. Hard. But the fact that I realize I suck is a good thing for me in order to ever 'not-suck'. That's it for today, I will write a shorter progress update next weekend. | ||
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
Hello. It's now approximately a week since my last update as promised; I'll try to keep this one more brief and mostly just present the material I've learned during the last 7 days. I have gone through 3 lessons in my textbook during this time, although 1 lesson took only an evening because it was basically reviewing the stuff learned from lesson 21 to 24. I just finished lesson 26 today, and will progress to lesson 27 tomorrow. Vocabulary: Recently, I have mostly focused on learning vocabulary in a more passive manner, as in being able to understand the vocabulary but not necessarily being able to recall them myself in sudden circumstances. Taking in account that, around 100-125 words learned this week. As I have told before, I don't pay heavy attention to vocabulary at this point yet. Verb constructions: - ㄴ다, -는다, -다 — This belongs to the 3-shape ending-category, but I'll present it now, since this is the plain style verb form with some following modifications later on. Not so much of a construction, but rather just another way of shaping the verb to a certain formality level. This verb form is that of neutral style, as it is used when talking towards a non-defined group of people, as in newspapers, documentaries, textbooks et cetera. Not just that, but it can also be used between speakers in more intimate terms, or from an older person to a younger person, similarly to the other more commonly know intimate speech level where you just drop the polite -요 ending. One-shape verb constructions: - 는 도중/종안/사이/... — A handy ending for expressing the simultaneity of two actions, similarly to the previously learned -(으)면서, although this one requires different subjects instead of the same subject. - 게 하다 — Causative form; Allows one to say 'X made Y do something...' etc. Adapting this form was actually more difficult than the other forms learned during the last week, but I'm confident with it now. - 게 되다 — Structurally similar to above, although this one implies that something turns out to be in a certain way or fashion, as in 'I was going to do X, but it turned out that I had to do Y...' and so on. - 는 게 좋겠다 — Used to suggest or recommend something, as in 'It would be the best to do X...' I'm not sure how abundant this form is in modern Korean, since I don't recall seeing it in movies or on the internet. -니 — A plain style question form usually used by intimates and by elders to younger people, although I've heard this ending more from women, whereas men tend to use -냐 more when talking in colloquial terms. -자 — The plain style suggestion form, as in 'Let's do X!'. I have know this for a long time, but my textbook used the more formal '-(으)ㅂ시다' for so long. - 느라(고) — Plain style; Used for verbs to imly 'because...', similarly to '-기 때문에' and the later mentioned '... 바람에'. Seems to have more of a nuance similar to the English 'due to.../on the account of...'. Two-shape verb constructions: - (으)ㄴ 후에 — A simple construction for implying something don after an action; 'After doing X...' - (으)ㄹ 'X'이다 — What I mean by 'X' here is that it's possible to use so many verbal nouns with this future prospective (으)ㄹ form, to imply planning, thinking, scheduling etc. for something in the near future. Examples are 계획, 생각, 예정 and 작정, although the last two might be somewhat formal. - (으)냐/-느냐 — Another plain style question form used in neutral speech and between intimates. - (으)라 — A plain style command form, as in 'Do this! / Do that! ...'.; This is very rarely used in spoken, colloquial Korean, but is abundant in written announcements or textbooks. - 어라/-아라 — Very similar to above in terms of both meaning and construction. Only difference is that this is the plain style command form that is used in spoken Korean. I also knew this for a long time, but the textbook has used the more formal and polite equivalent -(으)십시오 and the honorific form -세요 for commands until this point. - 어/-아다(가) — The action-shifting suffix added to the infinitive verb form preceding the final verb, emphasizing the difference between the shift of the two juxtaposed verbs. Can also be used without a verb for the directional particle -에 as in -에다(가). Although I understand when, how and why it's used, I'm too lazy to even think of starting to explain in depth it right now. Three-shape verb constructions: - (으)ㄴ/-는 바람에 — Another way of saying 'because of X, Y happened...'. The only difference of this compared to '-기 때문에' and the earlier mentioned '-느라(고)', is that this way of saying 'because' implies that the outcome is somehow undesirable or negative. - (으)ㄴ/-는 대로 — Has two major usages; Used for saying 'as soon as...' to a lesser extent, similarly to -자 마자, but mostly for 'in accordance with X', as in 'You must do according to what I say' etc. Hanja: 67 Hanja learned during this week, leaving me at 379 total right now. This week's Hanja: 鮮以傳統頭交海鐵政治經濟古第由熱有的性人別開養成順 序課聖茶席流醫在仁官博士位病友術志願勝歲因實己告命 令罪罰强張部關調査責任集團定向個決種 (Note that I actually listed 68 Hanja, but one of them is 人, the most basic Chinese character of all time, meaning 'person/human', which I have known for ages. I just forgot to list it, so I never knew it 'officially', lol.) Only about 120 more to go to finish the book, after which I'll be taking a small break from these. They have proved to be beneficial nonetheless, and I'm hyped to learn more. Random notes: I've started reading different Korean netizen materials from the internet, such as blog entries and their comments, or just general Q&A sections from Naver, and I have somewhat often understood quite a bit of the content, sometimes even without a dictionary. I'll try to do some full-scale reading after 2 or 3 weeks, such as Korean e-comics from Naver. Due to my new school term I have 2 times less free time than I used to, so naturally I won't have as much time to learn. Yesterday, I was worried of whether I could keep continuing to immerse myself to Korean media alongside learning with my new schedule, but I have decided to gather a bunch of movies during the week and watch them all on the weekend, and during the regular week, just listening to Korean music whenever convenient. It's now 3 months and 3 days since I started this arduous journey. Considering a language like Korean, I think I am on a good track so far, at least by understanding. Speaking it right on the spot is another thing, and I'm fairly convinced it's going to backfire my confidence should a situation like that ever come by, heh. Looks like this entry was not as brief as I initially planned, but I could not help it. Next time --> | ||
|
Waterhaak
Netherlands525 Posts
I've just read the first paragraph but it seems to be quite hard for a beginner. I can read 한글 and know sort of what it sounds like. Just a question, did you find the book hard aswell when you just started? Anyway it's nice to see your took the time to make a blog and encourage others as well by sharing your experiences. 안녕히 계세요! (that took like 3 minutes ㅜ.ㅜ) | ||
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
On October 10 2011 06:05 Waterhaak wrote: I'm so glad I found this blog. I tried picking up some basics online but once I found your blog I got inspired and wanted to this this more seriously. Right now I only speak 3 languages; Dutch, German and English and since I might go to Korea in about 2 years to study abroad, it seems like the right move. I went to the library to see if they had "Elementary Korean" because you seemed very fond of the book. I've just read the first paragraph but it seems to be quite hard for a beginner. I can read 한글 and know sort of what it sounds like. Just a question, did you find the book hard aswell when you just started? Anyway it's nice to see your took the time to make a blog and encourage others as well by sharing your experiences. 안녕히 계세요! (that took like 3 minutes ㅜ.ㅜ) Hello, Thanks for your reply. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed my blog. If I ever had the chance to stay in Korea for 2 years like you, I would have even more drive to study, since right now I don't have any set plan to ever go there for a longer period as it's practically impossible for me aside from travelling there someday once more. When would you be going there? I'm surprised that you found 'Elementary Korean' in a library. You sure it's the correct one, by Ross King? I certainly liked the book, although I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Many people regard it as too dry or overly complicated, but that is what works for me as a central foundation in language learning. As you said, the book is written in a very complex manner, so it's obvious one has to read the same points several times to truly get the point, although this kind of a repetition helps to remember the material presented. To specifically answer your question — I did not find the book hard, but I just had to read some points over several times. It just simply takes some time, but that is the whole point of a 'dry' textbook, since the some other books tend to explain new points more simply, but in the end doing a disservice since you don't feel the need to read the paragraphs again and thus will forget the points more easily. At least for me. This, again, comes down to personal taste. I can perfectly understand if you find the book unfit for your style, and if you're not sure what kind of a book to get otherwise, you should ask the forums on http://www.how-to-learn-any-language.com about suitable Korean learning materials for your style. One thing about the book is that a marginal number of the expressions and vocabulary are outdated, so I tend to pay attention when learning these. Then again, the point of the book is to have a solid grasp of the fundamentals of the grammar and verb conjugations, and one should definitely not focus on learning from the book alone. Good luck with your learning! | ||
|
Waterhaak
Netherlands525 Posts
On October 10 2011 18:40 DNB wrote: + Show Spoiler + Hello, Thanks for your reply. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed my blog. If I ever had the chance to stay in Korea for 2 years like you, I would have even more drive to study, since right now I don't have any set plan to ever go there for a longer period as it's practically impossible for me aside from travelling there someday once more. When would you be going there? I'm surprised that you found 'Elementary Korean' in a library. You sure it's the correct one, by Ross King? I certainly liked the book, although I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Many people regard it as too dry or overly complicated, but that is what works for me as a central foundation in language learning. As you said, the book is written in a very complex manner, so it's obvious one has to read the same points several times to truly get the point, although this kind of a repetition helps to remember the material presented. To specifically answer your question — I did not find the book hard, but I just had to read some points over several times. It just simply takes some time, but that is the whole point of a 'dry' textbook, since the some other books tend to explain new points more simply, but in the end doing a disservice since you don't feel the need to read the paragraphs again and thus will forget the points more easily. At least for me. This, again, comes down to personal taste. I can perfectly understand if you find the book unfit for your style, and if you're not sure what kind of a book to get otherwise, you should ask the forums on http://www.how-to-learn-any-language.com about suitable Korean learning materials for your style. One thing about the book is that a marginal number of the expressions and vocabulary are outdated, so I tend to pay attention when learning these. Then again, the point of the book is to have a solid grasp of the fundamentals of the grammar and verb conjugations, and one should definitely not focus on learning from the book alone. Good luck with your learning! Oh wow, I never expected such an comprehensive explanation, thank you. I won't be staying in Korea for 2 years, but I hope to study abroad for 1 or 2 semesters in my final year, which is 2 years from now 2013/2014. I'm fairly sure I have the right book, "Elementary Korean" by Ross King and Jae-Hoon Yeon, dated 2000, so it's only 11 years old which isn't too bad I guess. I don't mind if it's just dry text with a lot of exercises, as long as you feel you are actually making progress. I haven't read past chapter 1 yet, but the exercises aren't easy, that's for sure. I will try working with this book for now, and if it turns out my progress isn't as I desire, I'll search for one that suits me instead. Thanks for providing the link for books, and once again thanks for encouraging others by sharing your experiences. | ||
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
On October 11 2011 03:32 Waterhaak wrote: Oh wow, I never expected such an comprehensive explanation, thank you. I won't be staying in Korea for 2 years, but I hope to study abroad for 1 or 2 semesters in my final year, which is 2 years from now 2013/2014. I'm fairly sure I have the right book, "Elementary Korean" by Ross King and Jae-Hoon Yeon, dated 2000, so it's only 11 years old which isn't too bad I guess. I don't mind if it's just dry text with a lot of exercises, as long as you feel you are actually making progress. I haven't read past chapter 1 yet, but the exercises aren't easy, that's for sure. I will try working with this book for now, and if it turns out my progress isn't as I desire, I'll search for one that suits me instead. Thanks for providing the link for books, and once again thanks for encouraging others by sharing your experiences. Alright! I'm a bit jealous for you being able to find a book like that in your library, heh. But to loosen your worries — The exercises are quite simple when you progress through the lesson at a steady rate. Don't make the mistake of looking 100 pages in advance and freaking out (as I used to do) — It's so easy in the end when you take it step-by-step. And there are always the answers in the back... Hope to see update from you later on regarding any thoughts you might have about Korean. | ||
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
This weeks progress (I will stop categorizing constructions by their number of endings from now on): Vocabulary: A bit more compared to previous weeks since I've done a lot of reading while looking up important words and adding them to Anki. I would say I've learned 150-175 words passively, but not necessarily being able to use them myself in proper context, although I don't worry about it since I believe it's natural in vocabulary learning — You first get familiar with the words first, but mastery comes later. Grammar: - Both direct and indirect quotations, similar to the English direct style: "He said "Come!" vs. "He told me to come". Initially the Korean way of forming the equivalent felt a bit unnatural so that is why I took the whole week to practise these. After all, quotations are of great importance in no matter what language you learn, and in Korean, you have to change the verb in different ways depending on whether you quote a statement, a command, a suggestion, a favor and so on. - 의 하면... — 'According to...' - More ways to use the -(으)로 — I was extremely surprised that this suffix has (coincidentally) very similar usages similar to the -lla and -lle suffixes in Finnish, so learning them felt extremely natural. - 수록... —'The more X, the more Y' plus a few other usages - (으)ㄹ 뻔 했다 — 'I almost did X...' - 나 보다 / (으)ㄴ가 보다 — Conjugation of a verb to imply something like 'I guess he is doing X...' or 'It seems he is doing X...' et cetera. Another two or three endings introduced outside my textbook during the last week, although in a more passive manner, so I will not include them yet. Hanja: 73 learned today and last week (452 total): 飛機變結港雲野陸廣島着到路特藝形弱例計曲 商知其服輕買價件培飮求質再效惡習善改過去 基班選制度競當落級約擧念窓船類汽展參練愛 加庭費健康晝夜充失才能功敗 My recognition speed of newly learned Hanja is starting to slow down a little bit. Only 50-60 left to go in my book, so the break after that will definitely help me to polish the first half thousand Hanja. Miscellaneous: I've been doing a lot of chatting with Koreans this week and reading random stuff from Korean netizens, and I definitely feel myself getting more and more better. I need to up my listening though — Unlike I promised, I haven't watched a single Korean movie last week. I have been watching Korean news for 30-45 minutes each day and listened to lots of music, but without movies included I don't think I will have enough Korean audio to self-immerse myself. I also translated 2 North Korean songs (with subtitles) for fun, since I could already understand 95% of the grammar, so it was just a matter of vocabulary. NK music is just hilarious overall. Update next weekend if I don't slack off --> | ||
|
oBlade
United States5294 Posts
| ||
|
Ushio
Canada868 Posts
| ||
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
On October 18 2011 05:39 oBlade wrote: What do you think the collateral return on hanja studying is - that is, if you picked up a Japanese or Chinese newspaper, how much would you understand just from knowing hanja? There have been occasions on where I have came upon a piece of text from either Hong Kong, Japan or Taiwan (where traditional characters are used aside from Japan which includes some simplified characters), and having been able to pick up some stray words from here and there, although in Korean pronunciation. But there is a difference between picking up words and picking up sole characters, since if I only know the characters, chances are I won't still understand anything. If one knew the English words 'down' and 'right' doesn't mean one would understand what the word 'downright' means. Nonetheless I can sometimes get the gist of what is being said in short statements or so. I was even able to fully understand a Chinese propaganda poster from 1951 when traditional characters were used, which was amusing. Overall, this is a funny side-effect from learning Hanja — Although numbers are pronounced differently in different languages, a Spanish and a Russian person could still understand what the number '1540' means, since numbers are a universal concept. The same is also true to some extent with the characters. On October 18 2011 07:02 Ushio wrote: How do you keep learning Hanja without forgetting all the other ones you've learned, there are alot As I have stated before, by using Anki, based on the SRS-method. Basically it reviews the characters I have added and I rate from 1 to 4 on how well I'm able to recall them, and the higher the rating, the longer the reviewing interval. Most of the Hanja I learned 1 month ago are already on a 3-4 month queue, while the 12 Hanja I added yesterday will be reviewed today again after I go home from school. On top of that, when I learn a new Hanja, I will search for some words which use that Hanja and add those words to a separate deck to review for further memorization aid. I find SRS extremely useful with learning the characters in a fast pace, provided you have the dedication to do the reviews every day. Overall, when I look at the list of the character's I've learned all and pinpoint a random character, 95% of the time, I get the meaning and pronunciation in my head in less than a second, so it's pretty effective. | ||
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
A week late on the update due to a week's vacation — I actually decided to take one week off the textbook and just do the daily Anki reviews and watching some movies every now and then, spending more time reinforcing the past material I've learned. Moreover, the new lesson included another peculiar verb form, the so-called retrospective ending, which has no English equivalent. It gives off an implication that I did just not simply do something, but I namely also witnessed it, or I heard that something happened/was done. At first this was boggling my mind, but after that I realized that this form is actually very common in Korean, and I've adopted it into my usage ever since figuring out when to use it. There are quite many ways to form these endings depending on the formality level and whether the verb implies statement, question or surprise. Here are a few of them: Formal style retrospective: (스)ㅂ디다 — According to the book, this form is nowadays used only by the people somewhere around the ages of 50 and 60, and should not be used by others. Polite style retrospectives: -데요, but also -더라고요 and -던데요 — -데요 is extremely close to the subtracted quotation (간다고 해요 --> 간대요) by pronunciation, so to remove ambiguity, one can also use the two latter forms, which I also myself witness much more often when dealing with Koreans. One can also combine the retrospective with the conditional clause, leading to -더라면, which is a more common way to imply past conditionality than simply -었으면 — Another preferred way is -었다면. All of the above forms can be made intimate, futuric, past, questioning or surprising, so due to mathematical consequences I'm reluctant to list them all.. Some other constructions: - (으)ㄹ 정도(로) — To the extent that... - 고 나서 — Another way of saying after something... - 기(를) 위해(서) — For the sake of X, I actually knew this for a long time before coming upon this in the lesson. Hanja: Last 70 Hanja learned: 葉太陽婦衣識思考舊永遠億領偉屋住終奉仕他 祝消急速料引石油常産量府財許說炭想根德君 臣幼朋進技良貴省極旗保筆陰置禮智單建仙容 桓雄救望檀樹哀束比婚 I'm now standing at 522 total. I'm relieved to take a small break from these, as I certainly satisfied my hunger for Chinese characters for the moment. It's all good, as I have other aspects in Korean I need to improve on. Miscellaneous: I downloaded a random movie I came upon while browsing hancinema.com, called The Bleak Night (파수꾼), which revolves around a father trying to figure out why his high-school-aged son committed suicide. ![[image loading]](http://cfs16.tistory.com/image/3/tistory/2011/02/11/02/32/4d54212433577) After obtaining the movie, I noticed it only had Korean subtitles available, and I could not get my hands on English subtitles. I then instead decided to watch it in Korean and see how I fare, and I was quite surprised — I can say with confidence that I understood about a thirth of the clauses perfectly. The other thirth I somewhat got the gist of due to familiar words here and there plus familiar grammar. The final thirth, I did not understand due to unknown vocabulary and/or weird grammatical forms or idiomatic expressions. Overall, my understanding was still on the level that I could actually enjoy the movie, although a part of my understanding owes to the fact that the content of the movie revolved around people and their actions, not academid topics, as I would have been lost in that case. I also liked the movie due to it's dark and melancholic atmosphere, showing another, maybe a more realistic perspective in the Korean way of living in contrast to the romantic and happy-go-lucky-mindset that is otherwise so abundant in exported Korean popular media. Subtitles were an absolute must though — It is amazing how much Koreans contract their languages in live speech, and this will most likely be the largest obstacle along with speaking. No worries though, time will resolve things. Talking about speaking, my Korean friend introduced me to a Korean program called TalkOn, where you login with your Nate account and can find various voice chatrooms varying on the topic. I have only spent 2 evenings there, yet listening to all the spoken speech has really upped my understanding. My friend introduced me to his friends and we had quite good time in the chat for hours. However, the time I tried to talk was yet again a situation where I had to submit into trying to speak on the fly and I was stuttering horribly. This is normal though, and I plan to repeat it every day due to having neglected speaking for so long. When my friends went to sleep, I joined some of the other rooms, but after being bombarded with amusing remarks such as 병신 개새끼 씨발놈아 due to not being able to introduce myself in mere seconds, I thought it would be a better idea if I just remained silent with the people I didn't know. More on that, I wonder how Koreans are able to talk so much about whatever subjects — In just 5 minutes the topic of the conversation shifted from whether the South-Korean government should raise taxes, to who exerts sovereignty over the Liancourt rocks, to the trading relationships between Korea and the U.S., and finally ended to a mutual pondering over a Korean grammatical verb form of which even the Koreans themselves weren't too sure about. More on Korean chatting — It never ceases to amaze me how colourfully Koreans chat together. I love the English language due to its lexical depth, as one can paint an intricately described thought merely with the fabulous vocabulary it offers. On the other hand, Korean is different, but equally as perplexing. While I'm not even near the the level where I could enjoy the lexical richness of the language (which I'm sure it also has), listening to Koreans chatting, the way they shift word orders to alter emphases and combining all the rich verb conjugations is truly befuddling, which in my head keeps swirling down into an exquisite emotional cluster of hidden indications and disguised statements; The fact that one can seal so much sentimental information in mere tiny syllables in Korean, is what, to me from a linguistic viewpoint, makes it like a language like no other, and I'm enthusiastic to go on. | ||
|
rawb
United States252 Posts
I think it's pretty awesome that you're able to teach yourself this well, and I can only hope the motivation remains for me when there isn't the threat of failing the class if I give up. How did you fare learning to type relatively quickly in korean? Typing Japanese isn't really comparable to korean, as you just type the romanization and get the japanese characters. | ||
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
On November 03 2011 11:00 rawb wrote: I sent you a skype request, as well as purchased the "Elementary Korean" book through amazon. It should be here on friday, I'm actually quite excited to get started on it. I'm taking japanese classes for elective credit at school (booooo engineering) but can't continue after this semester, so I thought I'd try my hand at teaching myself Korean at my own pace. I think it's pretty awesome that you're able to teach yourself this well, and I can only hope the motivation remains for me when there isn't the threat of failing the class if I give up. How did you fare learning to type relatively quickly in korean? Typing Japanese isn't really comparable to korean, as you just type the romanization and get the japanese characters. Hello, I'm glad to receive your message, although I did not receive any Skype requests this morning. Are you sure you typed out my address correctly? I described Elementary Korean previously as a somewhat 'dry' for a dynamic social learner, but when worked through in a steady, systematic manner, it will provide a good foundation with the grammar, more so than with Integrated Korean in my opinion, although IK has its advantages as well. Some advice about Elementary Korean though — I would highly recommend you learn the basics of Hangul pronunciation from somewhere else than the book, since the explanations provided there are somewhat erratic. Other notes are that sometimes the answers for sentence translation drills might use a different word, so it may be somewhat confusing at times, but from my recollection, 99% of the book is pretty solid. I just want everyone who gets that book to be aware of these things, as some people might dislike the book; I don't want people to get it just because it worked for me, you see. I would say, do not worry about motivation — It is the same thing as with physical exercise, you just have to do it. Daily routine works the best, as even just 30 minutes of efficient study per day with a language can get you quite decent in the long run. I have been typing Korean for 3,5 months up to this point, and compared to when I first began, I'm quite a deal faster and more accurate. There is still lots of improving, but in the end it will take just as much (or little) time as it takes for a person to write on a QWERTY-keyboard, although I feel the Korean keyboard is better, because consonants and vowels are distributed on different sides of the keyboard, making the whole typing process much more swifter and ergonomic. | ||
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
It is midnight here and I have a test tomorrow, but I finally wanted to write something nevertheless. The truth is, for the last three weeks, I have almost entirely neglected my Korean apart from doing the daily vocabulary reviews. This term's amount of school really grew on me, draining my energy for the rest of the day after school, leaving me apathetic in my room. I hit upon a temporary angst about Korean as well, because this is the first time I have doubted my decision to embark on this journey which I so much touted at the beginning. And this blog — I thought to myself that it will be O.K. even if I ignore updating this blog because I'm only doing it for myself as a way of recording my sentiments on a longer timeline, and I never even expected for people to be interested in this blog. However, every day I checked the view count for this blog even after it had sunk to pages afar from the front page, and I was surprised to see the view count increasing nonetheless. Most of those are probably from people who browse the forum randomly checking out older threads, but I'm sure there is at least one person who follows this blog; Whoever that may be, even if for one person, I will keep updating this blog as long as I'm doing anything significant in Korean. Last three weeks? I feel like a slob. The last three weeks I have learned the amount of material I used to learn in three days before. Spilled milk though, I'll have to look forward. I've finished Continuing Korean and I will order new books this weekend. Progress since the last update? Around 60 new words or so. I managed to translate one Korean e-comic, only a few sentences gave me trouble; One of them was even unintelligible to my Korean friend, so I guess that's fine. I have a shortage of Korean media right now — If anyone happens to know some good TV-channels, programs, dramas, whatever, you can freely PM me. Since I'm waiting for my next textbooks, I figured out I could try to focus on learning a bunch of vocabulary during the upcoming weeks. Let's see how I do... | ||
|
Mysti_
France185 Posts
First i want to tell you that i love reading your journey! I think it's really inspiring and useful, it gave me so much motivation to do the same, seeing how you progressed through the weeks / months. Your blog is even in my bookmarks and i plan to start learning korean next summer! Even if your rythm kinda slowed down for the past weeks please don't give up this blog, even if you don't update it often i'll still enjoy a lot reading about your progress! Just update it whenever you have time or want it and don't force yourself. Thank you and lots of cheers for the future ! <3 | ||
|
impression
413 Posts
I'd like to learn more in depth though too. | ||
|
DNB
Finland995 Posts
On November 24 2011 22:18 Mysti_ wrote: Hello. First i want to tell you that i love reading your journey! I think it's really inspiring and useful, it gave me so much motivation to do the same, seeing how you progressed through the weeks / months. Your blog is even in my bookmarks and i plan to start learning korean next summer! Even if your rythm kinda slowed down for the past weeks please don't give up this blog, even if you don't update it often i'll still enjoy a lot reading about your progress! Just update it whenever you have time or want it and don't force yourself. Thank you and lots of cheers for the future ! <3 What an uplifting reply, thank you. I am flattered, as I didn't expect anything like this.You are very right, I should not force myself, because learning a language like this is entirely by volunteering, so I might as well as make it as enjoyable as possible. I also wish you luck in case start Korean as well, and I hope I can provide you more inspiration through this blog later on. On November 25 2011 02:35 A_Bandersnatch wrote: ^^ that is a really cute post. I started learning Korean about two weeks ago, but have been really busy since. I have trouble pronouncing some of the words though, and I am learning from the site talktomeinkorean.com which is a really nice way to start I think. I'd like to learn more in depth though too. The pronunciation rules can be difficult at the beginning, and I find them not explained that thoroughly on TTMIK — If you have any questions, PM me. I'll gladly help you out. | ||
Chill
Calgary25963 Posts
(because your pace is 100x mine). | ||
|
Mysti_
France185 Posts
Edit: Sent you some questions in pm. I'm gonna start tomorrow | ||
| ||
