Pronunciation... 참 잘했어요! (Very good job!)

"Your pronunciation... it's like a native," my Korean friend told me the other day, as we sat in a small cafe in a local square. Before you become overly impressed, let me give you the context. He was giving me nouns and verbs and I was forming them into Korean sentences that he would then read aloud word-by-word with me trying to parrot him.

(Note: Purple stamp to the left is a famous "VERY GOOD JOB!" stamp in Korea that teachers often put on student papers.)

"Subject is Kristy..." he would say, pointing to a section of my notebook in which his beautiful handwritten Korean said '침대 (bed), 자다.'

"Okay." And I would painstakingly write,

크리스티는 침대에서 잤어요
(Kristy-subject bed-in slept.)

Then, what happened next sounded roughly like this... (my friend's speech in bold italics and mine in regular italics)

Jaah-saaaaaw-yo.
Jaah-saaaaaw-yo.
Jah-saaw-yo.
Jah-saaw-yo.
Jahsawyo.
Jahsawyo.
Chim-daay-eeh-saw jaah-saaw-yo.
Chim-daay-eeh-saw jaah-saaw-yo.
Chim-day-eh-saw jah-saw-yo.
Chim-day-eh-saw jah-saw-yo.
Chimdayehsaw jahsawyo.
Chimdayehsaw jahsawyo.
Keu-ri-seu-ti-neun chim-day-eh-saw jah-saw-yo.
(Pause)
Can you say that again?
Keu-ri-seu-ti-neun chim-day-eh-saw jah-saw-yo.
Keu-ri-seu-ti-neun... chim... day... Wait, again?
Keu-ri-seu-ti-neun chim-day-eh-saw jah-saw-yo.
Keu-ri-seu-ti-neun jim-day... eh-saw jah... saw-yo.
Chim-day. Chim. CH-im. Chim. (Pointing motion to lips .)
CHim-day.
Yes.
Okay. (Sigh.) One more time?
Keu-ri-seu-ti-neun CHim-day-eh-saw jah-saw-yo.
Keu-ri-seu-ti-neun CHim-day-eh-saw jah-saw-yo. (Sigh.) Holy crap, that was hard to say.
Cham chal-haess-eo-yo! Very good! Your pronunciation... it's like a native.

And so it goes. Strangely enough, even when the sentences are ones that leave my own pen, they still have very little meaning to me as they leave my mouth. My brain still processes them as combinations of meaningless sounds that grow increasingly familiar with repetition.

Nonetheless, it was a nice moment. I do have a gift for mimicry. So much so, that I have a hard time finding my own singing voice, as I tend to copy the voice quality of anyone's song I am singing. This skill also comes in handy when singing karaoke.

Apart from the mindless repetition of practice sentences, the only words I can say with any real confidence and conviction are the ones I've heard countless times uttered by Korean drama actors and actresses. Questions like, "Oh my god, are you okay?!" or desperate pleadings like "Please don't go! I love you." I brought up the idea with my friend of recording his voice saying the sentences he's taught me. After all, it's only an audio recorder. There is nothing attaching his face to the words. Alas, he is shy. Perhaps I can bat my eyelashes at him next time and make my voice all whiny like a Korean actress. It's too bad he's younger than me, or I could drag out an appropriate, O-ppaaaaah! (+ pouty face)

I'm about THISCLOSE to buying a $10 monthly subscription to KoreanClass101 dot com because they have audio, time-spaced flashcards. It would be like having my own handy-dandy native Korean speaker to parrot anytime I wanted. For ten bucks. Good deal.

Some more interesting stuff (non-Korean).

Qué Onda Spanish. Practice your verb tenses and conjugations here! I'm going to have to do this with some of the trickier ones.

Boy am I glad I didn't decide to learn Chinese.

오모! Omo! (Oh my!)

I first watched the drama Playful Kiss in October. It was the first Asian drama I had ever watched, and it was well before I made the decision around Christmas time to actually learn Korean. Since it was long enough ago, there is really no way that I would remember what any of these characters said verbatim.

That's why I could not believe today that I almost completely followed part of a YouTube scene compliation without subtitles. Whaaaaaaaaat?! Really?!!! I actually owe a lot to the amazing teachers at Talk to Me in Korean dot com. I'll explain why after I talk about the dialog.

Here's the video (funny name): White Girl Falls in Love with Korean Guy.

Here's what the dialog sounded like to my brain. The words in italics are the words I heard and understood, the other ones I guessed from context. It helped that I knew the background story on the characters because I had seen the scenes before.

I... want to eat [name of food]. Please give me [name of food].

Then she's eating and exclaims, It's delicious!
The man motions to the guy in the kitchen and probably says something like "he made it," to which the girl exclaims again, It's delicious! And adds something that likely means "well done!"

When the girl is sitting by herself at the table, she asks the guy, Bring me a fork, please.
And he replies with, A fork?! and then, by his tone, clearly tells her that she shouldn't use a fork, but needs to use chopsticks instead. He then puts a pair in her hands and says, Here, take these.

Then there's a little musical interlude and when the speech comes back, she uses the words, drink and friend, trying to get him to try the drink. And he responds back negatively using the word friend. Like, "I'm not your friend," or something to that effect. She replies with something shocking that makes him turn around and say, What?! And then she answers boldly back with, I like you.

The rest of the scene is lost to music.

Yessssssss. In the words of Charlie Sheen, I am winning.

Now, I'll tell you why those awesome people at Talk to Me in Korean dot com deserve a giant round of applause or a big hug or something. Over the last month or so, I have been very studiously dedicating myself to listening to their leveled podcasts, reading their leveled PDFs, and watching their YouTube videos (which are fantastic and hilarious and entertaining, as well as any other positive adjective you can think of). Not only is all of this material free, but the teachers are dedicated to answering questions and comments posted to all of the lessons, even if you post today on a lesson that was created two years ago. They are amazing.

Over the course of 18 lessons, I have learned how to say, Please give me ______, I want to eat _______, It's delicious, as well as the words drink, friend, what, and like. Nearly every word that I encountered in this scene was something they created a lesson about. 멋있었어요! Meo-si-sseo-sseo-yo! (It was awesome!) I am nothing less than floored.

Now I just have to figure out why the comments are so hard to post after the lessons... one step at a time.

Not too rusty, thank goodness

Signs that my Spanish is not getting too rusty through disuse:

1. At parent-teacher conferences last week, a parent asked me if I was from Spain. (1)

2. In a cab ride home Thursday night, I noticed a Spanish typo while reading an outward-facing window sticker. Backwards. While buzzed.

3. I can read this:


(1) For all the times I've been asked if I were Spain-Spanish, I don't think I'll ever be mistaken for Korean. Just a guess.

Went to the Super88... 맛있어요!

So, on Saturday (and today after work as well), I decided to make a trip into the Super88, which is an Asian foodstore near where I used to live. I figured I'd go there to, you know... reconnect with my Asian roots.

(Joke.) You can laugh now.

Anyway, I imagined that I could put my new-found language interest into context by poking around in the Korean section of the store (which is huge, by the way). Actually, let me clarify. The store is huge. The Korean section... is non existent. Or, in other words, "Korean section eop-seo-yo." There was a Chinese section. There was a Japanese section. There was a Thai section, There was a Southeast Asian section. No Korean section. Jin-jjah? (Seriously?)

Jin-jjah. (Seriously.) No word of a lie. So, instead, I had to hunt and peck around the entirety of the store (warehouse size) and have occasional ah-ha! moments where I would realize something was Korean. A lot of dried seaweed was, so I bought that. Didn't get any kimchi because I thought the sodium content would stop my bodily functions. A jar of that stuff... 40 servings of two tablespoons? Give me a break. Who eats only two tablespoons of anything worth eating? That jar would have lasted me three sittings, tops.

What I did find (but didn't buy), was this bag of twisty-somethings. I can't begin to tell you what this says since the rest of the bag is in Japanese, but the part in red that looks like 맛있어요! is a new word I just learned two days ago. Ma-si-sseo-yo! (It's delicious!) I was so excited to recognize this word that I literally did cartwheels in the aisle.

The other Korean find that made me whip out my camera was the pack of Tako Chips below. They are (get this) octopus flavored. Blows the multi-colored shrimp chips I used to eat at my friend's house as a child clear out of the water.


When I looked up the word 자갈치 that is up at the top of the bag of chips, the Google translation is either literally Jalgalchi (apparently, Korea's largest seafood market), or the word "gravel." Eating octopus flavored chips might be right up there with gravel in the list of things I won't be eating anytime soon. Amen.

WHAT I'M STUDYING
Talk to Me in Korean: Level 1 Lesson 14 / What do you want to do? / 뭐 하고 싶어요?
Talk to Me in Korean on YouTube: Level 1 Lessons 13 + 14
Korean Word of the Week #11: How to say PLEASE in Korean

INPUT STATS
Current KDrama:
시크릿가든 "see-kuh-rit-gah-duhn" (Secret Garden)
TV hours: 16
Total TV hours: 106 (394 left to goal)

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jagalchi

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The HUNDRED HOUR Mark

This is a huge milestone in my language acquisition process. I have listened to (drumroll):
one hundred countable hours of Korean input.

My method of countable native speaker input has been largely via Korean dramas, which--thanks to Netflix, YouTube, and a variety of other streaming video sources--are ridiculously easy to come by. Since I am not including time I spend listening to audio podcast lessons on constant repeat, this is a gross underestimate.

I am testing out the worth of the TV Method as a language learning approach, although I am not being super scientific about it, as it is not my only approach. I can only vouch, then, for its usefulness in aiding language acquisition, and not as the sole tool in my toolbox. I have 500 hours as a first goal, but I think even 800 to 1000 might not be out of the question. I certainly love this method, as it gives me permission to watch hours and hours of cheesy romantic plot lines with attractive male actors. Don't dismiss an attractive face as an outstanding motivator. Whatever carrot you need to dangle from the string is up to you.

If I were to guess, I might say that I understand about 5% of what I hear.

Tonight I had my fourth meeting with my Korean friend. I'm trying to think of how best to use him as a resource. This will be my task this week. How can I squeeze the most from my time with him? The good news is that he will be moving to a new apartment that is one stop away on the subway from me. That will make meeting more than once a week a possibility.

WHAT I'M STUDYING
Talk to Me in Korean: Level 1 Lesson 11 / Please give me / 주세요
Korean Word of the Week #4: BROTHERS & SISTERS in Korean

INPUT STATS
Current KDrama:
시크릿가든 "see-kuh-rit-gah-duhn" (Secret Garden)
TV hours: 10
Total TV hours: 100 (400 left to goal)

Useful stuff I can say in Korean: A Comprehensive List

Well, this is actually just a small section of my comprehensive list. This is only a comprehensive list of the common Korean phrases I've picked up since the end of December, and does not include lists of nouns, verbs, adverbs, and question words that I know... nor does it encompass the extent of my grammar knowledge. Looking at this, however, I'm surprised by how much I have learned! Studying is paying off.

Please leave a comment below about what other phrases you feel I should learn right away. Funny or serious.

EVERYDAY PHRASES
Hellos and Goodbyes
안녕하세요. Hello.
만나서 반가워요. Nice to meet you.
이름이 뭐예요? What’s your name?
자는 크리스티 예요. My name is Kristy.
가지마. Don’t go.
가자! Let’s go!
안녕히 가세요. Goodbye (other person is leaving).
안녕히 계세요. Goodbye (other person is staying).

Being agreeable (or not)
나 도. Me, too. / Me neither.
그래. I agree. Okay.
네. Yes.
네, 밎아요. Yes, that’s right.
아니요. No.

Being a considerate human being
화이팅! Good luck!/Cheer up!
괜찮아요? Are you okay?
죄송합니다. / 미안해. I’m sorry.
저기요. Excuse me.
잠시만요. Just a second.
감사합니다. / 고마워. Thank you.
아니에요. You’re welcome.

Levels of understanding
압니다. I know.
몰라. I don’t know.
진짜? Really?
알았어. Got it.

Interjections
진짜? Really?
아이씨! @$#&!
아이고! Oh my god!
야! Hey!
가자! Let’s go!
진짜 멋져요! Wicked awesome!

Misc.
배고파. I’m hungry.
잠시만요. Just a second.
찾다. (Let’s) find it. (I’ll help.)
찾아. (You) find it. (I’ll watch, biatch.)
재미있어요. It is interesting.
재미없어요. It is not interesting.

It's really working!

I'm about ready to leap into the air with joy. Shin-nan-da! How exciting! I just re-watched the first three and a half minutes of episode 13 from City Hunter (I've previously watched this drama). In those three minutes, I was able to piece together so many familiar words in the course of the characters' interactions, that I was following the conversation. Of course, it helps that I have a lot of background knowledge coming into the scene. It was AMAZING, though.

This TV method really works.

I've been using the subtitles, but they definitely teach me a lot of words. Every time I watch, I have my notebook next to me, making notes of commonly heard sound combinations and match-ups that I notice between the subtitles and the words leaving the actors' mouths. Today alone, I picked up on how to say, "Find it," "I know," and "fine." I recognized the questions "Where is it?," "What is?," "Where are you going?," and "Why? Why not?"

I've been combining the drama-watching with audio lessons from Talk to Me in Korean dot com and video lessons from KWow (YouTube).

The more words I learn, the more I recognize. It's like this gargantuan puzzle that's slowly coming together before my very eyes.

I have to recommend this very quirky romantic drama Flower Boy Ramyun Shop. It was easy to get sucked into and fun to watch.

Meeting with my Korean friend tomorrow. Yay!

INPUT STATS
Current KDrama:
시크릿가든 "see-kuh-rit-gah-duhn" (Secret Garden)
TV hours from last drama (Flower Boy Ramyun Shop): 12
Total TV hours: 90 (410 left to goal)