I've spent just over a year learning Korean. I've tried books, tutors, vocabulary lists and Rosetta Stone. And I have made it farther than most American 15-year-olds, I'll give myself that. But I'm no where near fluent, and no where near a level I can feel proud of.
I was hitting Rosetta stone nice and hard for the past week spending over two hours a day on it. Out of my last core lesson, there are things I retained. 냄사-Scent 우유-Milk 범-Spring 여름-Summer 십팔- 18. Those are the words that suddenly came to mind, and I think I was given 30+ Vocabulary words. Some of which I knew already, most of which I didn't. That's a little frustrating, considering how much time I spent.
I even memorize pretty well! I can manage fairly well in most classes without taking extensive notes or studying a whole lot. It just sticks after I hear it a few times. But words are different. It's harder for Korean words to stick with me, and I'm embarrassed to admit to that. Japanese sticks well, Serbian sticks the worst. I don't know why, but it's frustrating!
So, today, a gift arrived! I was given the two levels of Pimsleur Korean! Which is about 60 lessons, give or take. They got the program from their work, but never really used it. My friend gave it to me, and she's going to regret it too. It works really well! I can't say anything about the ten day rule yet, since I've only done one lesson, but wow, it really did stick!
I can't write much down from what I learned, since the approach scratches writing.
Basically, I'm not sure if you two have ever heard of Paul Pimsleur, but he didn't like the way language was approached systematically like math or science. When we're kids we learn languages by listening, and he thought that's how we should do it when we're older too. We don't learn to write before we learn to talk, so it doesn't teach you reading and writing until level two. I know how to do that in Korean, but the spelling can be tricky.
The video up top will explain better than I will, but it really does make a difference! I started on level four, since I do know some Korean already, and so that left me in a sticky spot with one or two sentences, but I picked up on them quickly enough. It repeats the words backwards for your, splitting them up, and it'll ask you stuff from the previous lesson. I'm about to do lesson two even though you don't have to do more than one a day.
They have a 10 day course to start off with available for 10 dollars in 16 languages (no Finnish :c But there is Russian!) and I really recommend you both check it out! The full entire course is around 200 dollars from what I can see, but the basics of the language will be covered in level one, and then level two is for conversational level. They do have Finnish, shockingly! And I'm sure you can find it cheaper than 200 dollars if you shopped around. (You could even find it free without much trouble, but that teeters on the edge of illegal activities hehe) Which I was shocked to see, really! I mean that's a almost a third of the what one level of Rosetta stone costs.
It's interactive without a fancy software, meaning it can be listened to and practiced anywhere, and you don't have drill after drill after drill. Though drills are good! I think both methods can be used in each other. Anyway, I'll see how Pimsleur takes me over the next few weeks! Who knows, I might be speaking much better Korean by the time we have another meeting of the minds!
Speaking of which, since I've been cooped up inside all summer long, this idea of meeting for lunch sometimes sounds really nice! Typing and reading is invigorating, trust me, but it'd be nice for us all to converse about our summer shenanigans in person, no?
Contrary to popular belief, I've been pretty lazy this summer! I sleep a lot and just sort of play around on the computer. I work out every day, but still I feel as though I've accomplished nothing!
So, starting from today, I'm going to have a to-do list, and I'll see how many things I can accomplish!
+ Practice baking with healthy substitutions (And give away the results to some people; Perhaps MMM goers?) + Read at least 10 hours each week + Walk/Jog to LeClaire and back + Finish level 1 of Rosetta stone (Korean) + Learn 150 Kanji characters and stroke orders! +Make 50 paper doll templates
It'll be added to throughout the summer, but I think if I have some concrete ambitions I'll have more energy and enjoy doing things more. Do you guys have an summer ambitions? These will be fun to balance on top of a new summer job (regularly babysitting the most well behaved kids. Seriously! They sit there and watch B1A4 videos without any objections) and hopefully progress the summer quickly so school can start again!
This entry won't be nearly as long as the other; so here it goes.
On Sunday morning, a Korean friend of mine was studying for his English exam. He doesn't have a lot of native speakers for friends, so he called me up to practice. He had a set of questions his teacher gave him that he'd have to hold a conversation about for twenty minutes, so we started with those. Though.... They weren't all questions I'd expect to see on a college oral exam.
What are your hobbies?
Are you interested in travel?
What is your favorite food?
What do you do on weekends?
Do you and your friends enjoy drinking alcohol?
What is your father like?
What is your mother like?
In your opinion, What is Russell like?
How often do you watch TV?
What do you do when you have a hangover?
Do you drink you are healthy?
Do you do any exercise or play any sports?
What are you doing this summer vacation?
What kinds of TV shows do you enjoy watching?
Who is sexier _____________or_____________?
What season is worse, summer or winter?
Which is more fun _____________or________________?
What should I do in your hometown?
Can you recommend a good restaurant?
Have you ever seen a famous person?
Have you ever fought with someone?
Have you ever done something illegal?
Have you ever gotten really drunk on alcohol?
What would you like to change about your appearance?
What is something you want to learn in the future?
What is something you hope to buy in the next year?
We started talking, and then we ended up chatting for three hours about various things. Since I talked quicker than his instructor, and I didn't have a British accent, he had a bit of trouble following, but with some typing and repetition we managed to make it through.
It was funny; We actually left the topics several times and got onto stuff that set America and Korea apart. For example, we were talking about American TV shows, and he mentioned that there was a lot of sex in them, which doesn't happen in Korea. He said that Korea has a duty to protect juvenile eyes and ears, and so they're very careful with what they put on TV or play on the radios.
Somehow, our topic changed from that to sexual education in Korea. Seonghoon said while they do have it, they don't really discuss the consequences other than it ruining your shot at an education and consequently your future. I told him about ours, and the speaker we had (a girl who had had a child at 16) and he was shocked. He couldn't believe that there were girls who got pregnant in highschool!
He went on to say that most highschools are separated. While they may have a small amount where the classes are mixed, after middle school they split the schools up. Consequently, he said it was hard for them to find time to think about anything but studying, and most parents would pay even more to send someone to a single sex school if it meant they'd focus more.
We spent a lot of time discussing the differences in music, and I showed him some kpop groups he didn't even know! Seonghoon is a very focused guy, so he doesn't watch TV or go to concerts, and when he goes out its strictly drinking with his friends. We talked about drinking culture in Korea, and the rules that have to be followed, and I told him America doesn't have such uniform traditions.
The entire conversation was just really interesting. I love to see the cultural differences between Korea and America, but Korea has its short commons in comparison. People in Korea aren't very educated about acceptance, and so Seonghoon would say kind of racy things without realizing it. But after correcting some of the stereotypes, I think he learned a thing or two about American people as well!
I'm still awaiting the results of his English exam, and I'm also awaiting the B1A4 repackaged album. \o/ I'll be studying a lot harder this week, since he wants to have a conversation in Korean before too much longer. So busy!
When I opened blogger a bit ago, I had NO idea what to write about, and in the past few minutes I thought of a dozen things... So, forgive me if this gets a bit verbose. (Since we all know I'm a person of so few words ;>)
Firstly! A slight break in at the Moore house? Last night my mother attended a birthday party, and so she was out of the house until 2 AM. This wasn't a big deal for me, and I was happy spending the night alone. Around 11 I went to grab a laptop so I could lay in bed and do some writing distraction free. I went into our front room where everything was in normal working order. Doors locked, television off.
I can't really hear when people enter the house from my room in the back, but I know I didn't hear a thing, and went to bed pretty soundly at around midnight. Yet, when my mother came home around 2, the lights were on (my doing), the front door was slightly open, and the television on. After some deductive reasoning and a few phone calls, I was able to determine that my sister had unlocked the front door, but since there was a board in the sliding track, it was still impossible to open. The back door, on the other hand, doesn't always latch 100%?
And so, what I think is, someone tried to open the front door, then went around to the back, and sat down for a lovely late night television viewing. Nothing was missing, and the culprit was watching the wedding show channel, so I'm a little confused. We're keeping very good track of the doors tonight, and I'll surely blog about anything that happens!
Aside from that... And back on the Korean track (wow, three whole paragraphs without mentioning it, isn't that awesome?) BIGBANG released a new song yesterday. It's called Monster, and wow. Total step in the most perfect direction for k-pop. Feel free to skip over this, because I'm basically going to gush about how deep and symbolic this song is.
This is the only video I could find with English subtitles, but wow. Wow. Wow. I have literally listened to this song so much in the past 24 it can't be healthy. For those of you (Alex) who won't watch the video because you don't like the way Korean sounds, the lyrics are below:
It’s been a while. Seems like you’re doing better since I’ve seen you last.
You got prettier too, though you always looked beautiful in my eyes
But you seem a little different today; you seem unusually cold
The gaze you put on me is full of pity
In front of you, I look small
I act like it’s fine, I try to change the subject.
I have a lot I want to ask, but you cut me off.
Your hair flows in the wind, and it hits me on my cheeks and leave.
You turn around and leave just like that,
would I look silly if I try to hold you back?
I cant think of anything to say.
Trembling, you take two steps back.
Your words that you are afraid of me
You are the one that makes me crazy
I love you, baby i’m not a monster
You know the old me
When the time passes, I will have to disappear
You’ll know then
I need you, baby i’m not a monster
You know me
It ends,
but if you leave me like this, I will die.
You say, let us be together forever no matter what happens.
You say, let us be together when we’re happy and when we’re sad.
You don’t (won’t) say that tomorrow..
I say, let’s love today as if it’s the last day.
Yo, the world without you is like a capital punishment
The world doesn’t go correctly without you
Your existence has become an incurable illness for me
Everyone may look at me with judging eyes,
but what really hurts is the fact that you have become a part of that ‘everyone.
I love you, baby i’m not a monster
You know the old me
When the time passes, I will have to disappear
You’ll know then
I need you, baby i’m not a monster
You know me
It ends,
but if you leave me like this, I will die.
Don’t go, Don’t go, Don’t go, Don’t leave me
Don’t do this, Don’t do this, Don’t do this, You don’t seem to be yourself
Still far apart, With love still divided
Don’t look for me, Don’t look for me, Don’t look for me, Don’t look for me
Don’t do this, Don’t do this, Don’t do this,
Please remember the me that stood next to you
Please don’t ever forget me
I love you, baby i’m not a monster
You know the old me
When the time passes, I will have to disappear
You’ll know then baby
I need you, baby i’m not a monster
You know me
It ends,
but if you leave me like this, I will die.
I’m not a monster.
I think I’m sick, I think I’m sick.
I think I’m sick, I think I’m sick.
Forgetting the beautiful video, amazing makeup jobs, and all that (and the awful hair cuts vxv) the song itself... Just has such beautiful music to it, and lyrics written by the members. The line Seungri says in English gets me every time, and almost makes me want to curl up in a ball and just be sad for days. "You won't say that tomorrow." There's just... Something so beautifully depressing about the way this song is written. Like, they know they're being left behind, but they're happy for that person, which is just so... Ah. It's so hard for me to express my feelings toward this song, and this group in general. They're really a group of really insiprational guys, with lots of talent.
The music in the background is very soft and gentle and then when Taeyang sings he has this gruff almost angry desperate sound to his voice, which is really cool, and really great. G-Dragon's rap is so bittersweet sounding and absolutely perfect. Seungri has a sad sounding voice in general, and Daesung hits the vocal with power. It really feels like they're about to lose someone special to them.
Then there are so many little things in the song, like Taeyang sort of scoffing when he says "You say I scare you by now, but you're like the moon that drives me insane." Is subtle but I noticed it and I was like wow, that's great. And then you hear Seungri's voice break in the back of the chorus, and at the end, that's where the real magic of the song hits me. Throughout the entire song, if you listen, there's a heart beat at the beginning of each line, but as the boys sort of start backing off in volume, the heartbeat gets louder, and G-Dragon ends the song with the "I think I'm sick" 's, which those in themselves, hit me pretty hard, because GD's voice is in there twice. The lower steady tone, and the higher falsetto that sounds like he's about to break down. To a lot of VIPs this song was a flop, but I positively love it.
Anyway, the reason I said so much about the song was because it actually inspired a story! It's nameless as of right now, but it does have an entire plot, and I'm slowly ironing out details. Maybe I'll post some of it here for you! But it has to deal with the ideas of "monstrosities" in the world. Monsters and humans exist in opposing worlds that exist within each other, separated by mirrors, but Monsters are the civil group, while humans have lost compassion and such.
And so, the story follows a Monster boy as he befriends a human boy for a short time, before he's deemed a Monster still, and their friendship is destroyed by the idea of division of classes. I'm very very very excited to write it, and hopefully I can finish it before the end of the summer~ We'll see...
I drew the three main characters who will be in the story before I even had the idea for the story, honestly. I knew I wanted to write something, and I wanted them to be in it, and things just sort of fell into place. Like the way I keep my papers and my books, my mind's pretty disorganized, but it all works out in the end, haha~
From left to right it's Fuuta, Sera, and Cel, human, human, Monster. They were really quick ideas, but the developed into something pretty big! Fuuta doesn't look the same anymore, since I've changed him a bit, and Cel had changed a bit too. Originally, these three appeared in a dream I had, and the stood out to me a lot. Weird, huh?
I've felt extremely creative these past few days, and so I've been away from the blog, painting, drawing, writing and just thinking a lot. vxv
I had one more thing to share... But this post is getting SO long I think I'll stop for the night. Tomorrow I'll tell a few more stories of how I've been spending my time and say a thing or two about Serbian grammar~ I guess, looking back at what I wrote, my brain really works in a strange way, huh? Well, I've always thought a little differently than the people around me. I'd be curious to see an analysis of my thought patterns someday!
And interesting title, I know, but today was a bit of an interesting day
Today, I decided I was going to hit the Serbian extra hard after my workout, but I like to be able to flip through pages and do stuff other than stare at computer screens. So, I went to the library to find out if I could order some Serbian resources... And it turned out there was one! Already there! In the Princeton library. Princeton; Population: 956; 99.98% Caucasian; .02% other!
I thought that would be the strangest thing, so I did a bit of reading, and discovered a new Japanese group I like a lot. (SuG, you should look at them, they're so colorful!) and I got in a conversation with the librarian. We were talking about languages and stuff, and I hadn't notice that this guy had walked in and was quite intrigued by me, I suppose.
Anyway, the guy kept talking to me and eventually asked me if I wanted to walk around town with him. Awkwardly, and not wanting to reject the guy in front of 5 or 6 other people, I said yes. And so I spent two hours walking around with a boy named Justin who was quite obviously hitting on me, who was, in return, quite obviously not interested.
Turns out he was 17, a highschool drop out, living with a strange old man in our town, smokes and drinks. I was a little shocked, so I doubt we'll be meeting again any time soon, but he was actually pretty nice! I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover or anything, but I want to avoid those sorts of lifestyles for a long time.
I posted a nervous tweet midway our hanging out session, and it was funny some of the replies I got! Alex, (the Swedish boy I mentioned before) said as follows;
It really made me laugh a lot, so I thanked him for the concern. But, the night ended without incident, and needless to say, I don't think I'll be spending anymore afternoons with Mr. Justin.
So, between boys and books, I think I enjoyed the book more! ㅋㅋㅋ
And now, I am off to prepare nine pages worth of flash cards for testing in the Anki program!
After quite a lot of internet digging I found a collection of free Serbian resources, so I'm very excited. I only opened the first pdf. so far it's 531 pages! I'll be busy for a while, haha! I also got a lot of colloquial resources, so I think it'll be really fun to start studying again. In other language news I arranged to send some Nesquik to my Swedish friend, Alex. He tried it in France when he was waiting at a friend's house for a kpop concert, but they don't produce it in Sweden! :o
Alex and I are also going to start sending each other letters, which I'm excited for. He offered to teach me some Swedish, so I better brush up on my Norwegian so I can at least guess what it says, haha! I haven't updated since I haven't done much yet. I've been writing a bit and updating a few stories that I have online and taking little writing requests from my tumblr followers, but nothing substansial.
I scanned some art yesterday though! This was my favorite, so I colored it in a bit on my computer. ^^
Wow, you two have cool posts today, so I feel a little lame! So far, I've been working on templates for my paper dolls this summer, and for a set of them, they had really intricate patterns on their shirts. Because of that I did some doodling, and I'm pretty proud of the way they turned out!
These are the two dolls I finished last night, but the patterns were a lot more intensive originally haha!
Other than that, we had a power outage for a bit. Nobody knows what caused it, but the entire town went completely out! It was the strangest thing! I'm glad power is back and working properly, but supposedly there's going to be a big storm. I only hope to survive. (||´д｀)
I just finished my last final. Biology was supposed to be the hardest, but I finished in about half an hour and then waited around for a bit before turning it in. Another hour until I'm officially on summer vacation it's back to the good ol' mill and grind of Korean lessons.
I'm working on them a bit now, and reviewing. Most of it's coming back to me now, like how to make negative verbal statements like, "Don't do that," or "Don't buy too much."
Korean's set up in a really sensible way.
All verbs are roots like "Hae-da" "Pogu-da" "Bogo-da" "Ship-da" so they can easily be put into sentences. Adding yo makes them in a presence tense, so "Bogoshipoyo" combines the verb for "want" and "see" making the sentence, "I want to see you." Which is the equivalent to, "I miss you."
Now, on the other hand, went making it negative, you have to add "Ji" in place of the "da" and finish it with "Maseyo." So, the opposite of "bogoshipoyo" is "Bogoshipji maseyo." And then adding clarifying words like "Ajik" or "Chogum" makes it more specific and can clear things up to the other party.
Does Finnish work like this? I think it's a lot more extensive and complicated! kk
In other news, B1A4's new video is out and Shinwoo looks perfect. vuv ;; From what little I heard, the lyrics are a little heavy, so hopefully it won't get banned!
Summer's fast approaching. I've never been so anxious for a school year to be over, yet still desiring for a longer term. I've really enjoyed this year, and getting a chance to meet with the both of you. This summer is going to be loads of fun, and we'll have a lot to talk about! This summer is going to be full of lots of language learning for the three of us. I suggest that we all compare grammar trends, and share what new words we learn! I wish Mrs. Laber luck with her Russian learning, and Alex doesn't need my well wishes for his Finnish, but I'll give them anyway.
Let's keep these blogs going for a long time; Throughout the next year too.
