New Blog

I am now blogging over at www.mississippitokorea.com Please follow me there! Photos and more from Mississippi and Korea~!

Changes

For various reasons, I have decided to not continue with this blog. I am looking to consolidate all my blogs under one Wordpress or something like that. Until I make the switch, I will only be updating at Mississippi To Korea. Thanks!

Not So Dedicated

I have clearly not been as dedicated as I wanted. I have been spending way too much time studying photography. This time should have been studying Korean, but that is life. I started again tonight working on the Sogang series and listening to KoreanClass101. I gotta pick up a new Korean keyboard because mine is giving me fits.

My students are going crazy for Boys Before Flowers . Speaking of that show, Hangukdrama has been giving great updates on that show.My students are going crazy for it. They regularly bring in trading cards with the pictures of the show's stars, kind of like baseball cards. Note to self, I gotta get some pictures of them trading the cards. I don't watch it and have never seen it on TV, but I do watch One Night Two Days(1박 2일) My wife and I actually download it, so that I can follow along and pause when I need an explanation(which is about every other mintue). Here a couple of clips from a few episiods that we watched.



In this first video they are talking to their new team members that they have invited to join for the weekend.




Fast forward to about the 8:40 mark for the funniest part.

I really should give a better description of this videos, but have neither the time nor skill!!!

Korean Class 100

I bought a membership to KoreanClass101 last year. I bought my membership during a 추석 sale and got it for about 100 dollars. I have made a little progress going through the lessons. I do like the setup especially the way I can hear the vocabulary words pronounced in the premium section. I have had a problem with the audio not loading at certain times, but usually I just move on to another study aid and then try again later. I am currently on Newbie Season 2 Lesson Number 18.

I have learned a few things from this site, but mostly it has been review. I have not made enough progress to hit the lessons where I am learning many new vocabulary words. I should also be commenting more on their boards, but just don't have the time. They also have a pretty good blog that I follow on Google Reader.

문법 Grammar

The hardest part of grammar for me is remember exactly when to use it. I can usually understand it when someone is speaking to me, but using it myself is a totally different beast. This weeks 3 grammar points are pretty easy. I knew two of them already.

1.(으)ㄴ 다음에 - after doing something, after something happens For example:
수업이 끝난 디음에 소주를 마셔요.

I drink soju after class.


2. (으) 려고 - in order to do (some action) For Example:
한국 가족하고 한국어로 얘기하려고 한국어를 열심히 공부해요.

I study Korean in order to talk to my Korean family.
3. 고 있다 - to be doing(Progressive Tense) For Example:
저는 지금 점심을 먹고 있어요.

Right now, I am eating lunch.

Grammar that I must start using more:
아, 어,여 드릴게요 - I will do (some action) for you

*Always first person. *Respect to the receiver of the action For Example:
오늘 제가 선물를 사 드릴게요.

Today, I will buy a gift for you.

1주 동사 Part 1

I just put my good friend in a cab and now have a little time to start working on my Korean studies. Here is the verbs that I will work on this week.

2과
만들다-to make
예습하다-to practice, to preview
통화하다-to talk on the phone
회의하다-to have a meeting
알아듣다-to comprehend by listening
듣다-to listen to
(-에) 등록하다-to register 등록- registration

Verbs that I can't ever remember:
뛰어가다- to run
알아보다-to inquire about
꺼내다-to take someone/something out

Week 1~2

I use the Sogang series as my main text book. I am on Unit 2 of 2A. I really would like to finish a unit in 1 to 2 weeks, but I don't think that will be possible this week. I have friends in from Vancouver and will probably be spending a lot of time entertaining. I will post my first vocabulary list tonight or tomorrow morning. I am also going to try and complete 4-5 lessons on Korean Class 101 this week. They are short and most of the words and grammar are review for me.


Amanda made a comment about Lang 8 and I look forward to trying it. Here is her review of the site that she posted a little while ago. I look forward to trying it out. Looks like a cool site.

I am also having some problems with the font on this site. It seems, at least on my computer, that the spaces are not showing up correctly and the sentences tend to look jumbled together. I will do some experimenting in the next couple of days and see if I can figure out what is going wrong.

The Story Behind the Title

Last year I bought the book How Koreans Talk by Sang-Hun Choe and Christopher Torchia. I was flipping through it and saw an expression that described how I feel about my Korean language ability. I am hoping that after some intensive studying no one can call me a school dog. Their explanation of 서당개 삼년에 풍월 읇는다 is:

After three years, even the school dog can recite a few poems. If you hang around long enough, you'll learn something not matter how lazy or incompetent you are. The expression often ridicules someone who devotes a lot of effort to learning basic skills, but still can't perform.

Well, I have been in Korea for more than 3 years now. I have picked up a little bit of the language and am regularly embarrassed to tell anyone how long I have been here. I should know more by now. I hope that every time I see the title of the blog it will cause me to study just a little more.

The Plan

I have been sitting around thinking about how to use this site. Basically, it will be just a place to post a lot my materials that I use to study. It will also be somewhere that I can post my thoughts about learning Korean. I am not going to post any of my daily stuff or other ramblings. You can find those at Mississippi to Korea my other blog. What I will be posting are my weekly word lists, books that I am using, progress that I have made, mistakes I have made, and other Korean language oddities.

My Korean language journey has not been an easy one. I have not been as dedicated as I should have been and I should be much better at the language than I really am. That is another bonus of this site. Hopefully, it will force me to be accountable and study more regularly. I will be updating at the very least once a week and hopefully more.

My plan is to update on Sunday nights with a weekly word list and a brief review of how my studying week went. I also plan to post my Korean journal entries after they are edited by my teacher/wife. In the next day or so, I will also introduce myself and explain the title of the blog.

If you are blogging about learning Korean, send me a message and I will add you to the sidebar. Also, if you have any good Korean learning sites, let me know!

If you ever see a mistake that I make in writing Korean, please feel free to comment and let me know.

Inspiration

Under Construction

This will actually be where I post all my Korean studies. I am in the process of figuring out just how I am going to use this site. Stay tuned!

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