Living Louder

This is a combination personal and Korean language blog (from the perspective of someone who learned it, and is continually learning it, as a third language). If you want to talk just message, if you want to browse feel free.

[everysongaday]

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[living-louder]

A lovely discovery.

[living-louder]

Quirks

When it comes to getting to know people I think I find their quirks most interesting. Those little things that may not be common to everyone. Yesterday was a terrible and heart wrenching day for me, and even though Winter holidays and Christmas are my favourite times of the year; when I'm depressed or hurt I turn to scary movies. Even I can't explain it well. Perhaps it just matches my mood better instead of forcing myself to get over something, or maybe it forces me to see that things could be worse?

[living-louder]

My take on awkward conversations, for what it’s worth.

Do you ever get drawn into conversations, against your will, which you know are going to be excruciatingly awkward and painful? More specifically, have you ever been doing something on your phone and accidentally answered it because you were maybe typing or swiping already? I have, in fact I just got off of such a call, and it was indeed very painful to go through because I had been avoiding the other person for quite some time. And I don’t generally avoid people. The reason for this was that I know this person has feelings for me, he had made it very clear by asking me out before, however I have no feelings for him and in fact see him as more of an acquaintance then a friend. There’s nothing wrong with him, he’s...a good person, but every once in a while you will meet someone who, although is not outwardly rude or mean, just grates you the wrong way. He is that person for me, so you can only imagine how I felt when I accidentally picked up his call, knowing where it was headed. Despite this I don’t mind answering his texts because I know he is a nice person overall, and I am always flattered when someone sees something in me worth their time and feelings. But he has a way of....not taking no for an answer no matter how you phrase it, which meant I had to keep rephrasing my no as well. I am almost always honest because I feel that dishonesty in any type of relationship just leads to negativity and misunderstanding, so I told him in nicer words that I do not have feelings for him and never will, and that I am also moving far away (not a lie), and that on top of that I’ve had a really crappy past year and a half and do not want a half hearted relationship. NONE of this deterred him.  Needless to say this conversation lasted quite a while. Unfortunately. But my advice is this: no matter how you got into an awkward conversation, your best bet to never be in another one with the same person is more than likely to just be honest. It might seem harsh at the time but if you’re not mean about it and you don’t act awkward while being honest the other person/people will usually understand. Worst case scenario they don’t want to talk to you again, in which case they were probably never a really good friend to begin with so it doesn’t matter, and if they are a good friend they will get over it. Obviously there are a couple exceptions to this rule, say you’re at a funeral and pulled into an awkward conversation about your relationship to the deceased when you have nothing positive to say about them, in that case either avoid directly answering or lie your behind off. This is because that situation is not about you, its about the family and friends of that person. All, I’m saying is obviously take this advice and use some common sense and discretion.

[melofia]

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[melofia]

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Bumkey (범키) - Better Man (Feat. Tablo)

[helloiamperfectlyperfect]

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#nowplaying 정승환 - 그 겨울

* Jung Seung Hwan - That Winter

[living-louder]

Why Korean?

I would like to first state that I love Korean music and dramas as much as any enthusiast, however that had little to do with my want to learn the language itself. How I was led to Korean; Essentially long story short in high school one of my Chinese friends showed me a Taiwanese boyband called Feilunhai, Fahrenheit. As usually happens, YouTube started suggesting videos and that's how I found Korean. Why I started to learn it; A lot of people tend to focus on K-pop and dramas and want to learn Korean due to their interest in those two things. As much as I love both, my reasons are different. I genuinely love the culture and the language; everything from the way elders are treated to the way the language flows. Ever since I first heard Korean spoken I have loved the way it sounds and the way I can reconcile my Polish sounds such as cz with the Korean ㅊ. I also have a deep respect for the rich history and the way of life, for the most part, as no one is perfect. This stems largely from the fact that I'm a history nerd and I find Korean history interesting and generally cultures that are 'other' tend to be fascinating, however I have always been particularly drawn to Korean culture specifically. Not to mention the food is amazing and I could eat it every day of the week. I think the best way to describe it is that sometimes a person is introduced to a new culture and everything about it just clicks with them. How I learned what I know now, and where I learned it from. In the beginning I self taught myself quite a bit. It's actually how I realized that I have a slightly higher than average aptitude for learning languages. I used a book called 'Beginner's Korean' by Lee & Lee which is actually quite good for building a solid foundation. Later when I took Korean as an elective in University I used the 'Integrated Korean' textbooks and workbooks by Klear textbooks. They have different levels and are very easy to follow and I would recommend them to people over any language program or other book. My level of Korean right now is probably closer to intermediate. I have a better comprehension of grammar at the moment than of vocabulary, but if I was to be dropped in Seoul right now I'm confident that I would be fine and I would very quickly pick up on things I dont already know.

[living-louder]

한글 - Alphabet Basics

The Korean alphabet is one of the easiest foreign alphabets to learn. I’m going to try and break it down as simply as possible but also with enough detail so that there isn’t much confusion. Let me emphasize that these are only the basics and meant to help from the perspective of someone who has learned it as a foreigner and not a native speaker.

The Korean alphabet has 14 consonants. For now just to simplify things I’ll put the officially recognized English equivalent beside each. ㄱ= g ㄴ = n ㄷ= d ㄹ= r/l (Functions as both an L and R depending on the word) ㅁ= m ㅂ= b ㅅ= s ㅇ = (filler, will be explained later on.) ㅈ= j (Sounds like like the j in Jail) ㅊ= c (Its more of a ch sound as in ‘Chair’) ㅋ = k ㅌ = t ㅍ = p ㅎ = h The vowels are as follows, with the officially recognized corresponding sounds which will be directly beside the Korean, and my explanation in brackets.This is largely because I feel that something like ㅞ= we may be misleading. ㅏ = ah (A in Already) ㅐ= ae (A in Crazy) ㅑ= ya (Yah sound in Yam)  ㅒ= yae (Similar to ‘Yay’ but with silent final y) ㅓ= eo (Hard to explain it’s a cross between ah and oh) ㅔ= E (E in Ever) ㅕ= yeo (Yo in Your) ㅖ= ye (Ye in Yes) ㅗ= o (Oh in Over) ㅘ= wa (Wa in Want but more emphasis on the a sound than want actually has.        So the sound itself is more of a ‘Wah’ ㅙ= wae (Wh in Whale, silent h. None of that Stewie Griffin H pronounciation ;) ㅚ= wi ( We) ㅛ= yo (’Yoh’ as in Yo-yo but not when it’s pronounced yow-yow, no w sound) ㅜ= u ( Oe sound in Shoe) ㅝ= wo (Wo in Wonder) ㅞ= we (We in Weld) ㅟ= wi (We) ㅠ= yu (You) ㅡ= eu (U sound in Until) ㅢ= ui (Usually this will be pronounced as another form of ‘We’. Alone it’s similar to when someone says ‘Oy/Oi’ but with more of a ‘u’ sound.) ㅣ= i (Pronounced like the letter E.) There are also accented sounds: ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ. These sounds are almost identical to their consonant counterpart as you can see they’re just written twice. This is meant to let the reader know that this sound needs to be emphasized or exaggerated. The easiest way to explain this without a video is to say that ㄲ would be ㄱ with and angrier sound and with sounds that require you to push air out such as S you would use more pressure.  Here is a link to a reference chart for the alphabet and how the vowels and consonants can be grouped together. And here is a link to a decent video about pronunciation of vowels and consonants.

I might also make one in the future. Now that the pronunciation is out of the way let’s discuss some things. The vowels that you see above will never be by themselves as they are above, you can’t use them the way you might you ‘a’ by itself in a sentence in English. They will always be paired with a consonant, even if its to make the exact sound that they represent they will be with the consonant ‘ㅇ’ which by itself is has no sound but it rather a filler consonant.  What I mean by this is simply that if you want to write the sound ㅏ in a word, it will look like this: 아. The same goes for all of the other vowels. 

Words in Korean are also sounded out into syllables, the difference between Korean and English though, is that in Korean you also write in syllable blocks. What that means is that if someone in English said ‘Hello’ it has two syllable sounds so in Korean in would be written Hel-lo. Here are some examples of common words and their spelling to give a better example: Achim. Separated into syllables it’s Ah-cheem. (Morning) In Korean the first syllable/sound would be 아 and the second 침. Therefore Morning is written as 아침.

Naeil (Tomorrow) is two syllables, and if you write the corresponding sounds it becomes 내일.

You will notice that the way the letters are put together they end up forming little squares called syllable blocks. There is somewhat of an order to how they are places, for example: Mwo (What) combines the consonant ㅁ, with the vowel ㅝ. Because the M sound comes first it is placed in the top left corner/middle. 뭐. For the most part you don’t need to over complicate it or spend too much time thinking about it. 1. Sound out the vowels. 2. Put the corresponding sounds into blocks the way you hear them. You can refer back to morning, in the earlier example. Because this is just a basic explanation, which I may revise later, I won’t go into things such as spelling in terms of irregular verbs and nouns etc. This is just to give a basic handle. 

[living-louder]

I've become completely immersed in 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. Though I am reading an English translation from the original French -- which undoubtedly sounds far more charming -- 183 pages in I already admire the author. On a more comical note it struck me as I was reading that the beginning of the book is pretty much summed up in modern terms as: man gets falsely accused because of jealousy, is framed, sent to Alcatraz, and while incarcerated meets an elderly MacGyver.

[living-louder]

한국어- Premise

Let me first state that I am by no means an expert in the Korean language. Not even close. However, I have been studying it long enough that I can confidently say, if I was dropped in the middle of Korea right this minute I would be able to survive fairly well and continue picking up more Korean vocabulary.

There are two reasons why I am making these posts: 1) I am organizing my thoughts and getting back into study bottom up. 2) In the case that someone does come across this it may help them out as well, and to gain perspective into how to study a language. 

How to study a language?

There are many ways you can learn a language, based on time and commitment it can range from learning a couple of words a day and post its around the house, all the way to extremes like going to a country and learning from scratch being surrounded by the language. I’ve been learning Korean on and off for the past few years (more than 4), and it’s taken me a while to figure out what works for me and what doesn’t. If you take away nothing else remember this: No method works for every person. You have to adapt one based on your own needs and learning style. 

Here’s a few different options you can try.

Learning the basics first. By basics I’m not going as far as grammar. Just start of slow with the alphabet, and the pronunciation. This way you have a solid foundation to build on. This seems very obvious but a lot of people just dive right in and start learning words. Although that works sometimes there are a lot of languages which you cannot do this with, for example any Asian languages containing different tones (Mandarin, Vietnamese, etc.) or languages which have new sounds that are not common to English (Polish and Russian sounds such as CZ, SZ, etc.)

Using workbooks and/or taking classes. You can do one or both but I find this method immensely helpful for people such as myself who crave structure in these types of endeavors. By taking classes everything is laid out for you from a to z and depending on how good the teacher is it makes things a lot easier, especially when you have someone to clarify things for you. If you don’t have time for classes or it’s not your thing workbooks are also great. They are generally very detailed and specific and give you a space to practice the things you learn.

Music and Television. You’d be surprised how many things you pick up without realizing it when you hear them over and over. A lot of people first encounter Korean through music and drama’s and if you’re like me after a while of watching shows with subtitles you start to pair the English together with the words subconsciously and consciously. This can happen even without subtitles, if you tend to be an observant or detail oriented person you start putting together body language and tone with the context of the situation. There are times where I have listened to people I know speaking Vietnamese and Mandarin and understood the basics of the conversation based off just those things, to the surprise of my friends. You can also take it a step further and dissect your favourite songs; look up the original lyrics and try translating them. Although if you are using this method be careful because some words can vary in meaning based on context, and use multiple translation sources as not all places will give you the same definition. If you can, also get someone fluent in the language to look it over. This method can be good because if its a song you listen to often you will begin to remember the translation you did and it will become memorized through listening to the song. 

Flash cards and straight up memorization. For some people this is the best method to learn things. Personally I don’t have an eidetic memory and sitting still for hours at a time repeating things to myself doesn’t sound very appealing. If you’re not actually applying those words after you memorize them, the process is useless because you are likely to forget them. So first of all, take it in moderation, and learn words that are common to your everyday language as well. A good alternative that I like is using audio, save recordings of words and their meanings with the proper pronunciation and listen to them when you’re on the bus or studying. Even if you don’t focus all the time you will subconsciously retain some of the information. This is not to say that you can learn an entire language that way, likely you won’t be able to by using this method alone. 

Find someone to talk to. Using the language you’re learning in an everyday setting is essential. If you use all the methods about it may be mostly useless if you don’t put any of what you’ve learned to use. There are different ways to go about this, if you have a friend who speaks the language ask them to teach you or talk with you. They can help you fix grammar, pronunciation, and even teach you more. Just make sure it’s a friend who won’t tease you and teach you the wrong things instead. If you don’t have anyone around you who speaks the language you’re learning and you don’t feel comfortable approaching people you can do the same thing on the internet. Personally I have always liked the site “Interpals”. It’s essentially a site for pen pals where a lot of people go on specifically to find someone to practice with or just meet new people. I’m not advertising them or saying you should go on it, just that something like penpals is also an alternate idea and it helps you retain the information. Using the language in conversation significantly helps you retain the information because your brain will link learning these new things to an experience and physical or verbal que’s.

Read in the language. If you’re still a beginner this will help you recognize sounds and spelling. If you’ve got some basics in grammar and vocabulary it will also help you recognize how they’re used in sentences and retain the grammar. You might even pick up new words if you understand enough of a sentence and its structure. You can start slow with things like comics, and kids books, or you can dive straight in to literature depending on what you feel is best for you. 

I may add more to this later, at the moment these are all the different methods I can think of. There are also helpful youtube videos as well and online resources. However I can’t stress enough that what works is different from person to person so you need to adapt this to your own personality and learning style. That’s all for now, I’ll be back with ‘lessons’ in the near future. 

-Asia

[chronicindecisionn]

[living-louder]

Restless

I went out earlier today to see a younger sibling. I hadn't seen her in a while, but for some reason after I dropped her off I began to feel restless. Not quite sure what to do with myself I ended up at the park on campus just sitting in silence and trying to get my bearings. I finished Crime & Punishment last night and I feel like Razumikin. Not homocidal of course but rather not sure of what I want right now. He would often have moments of near insanity where he would be lost in his own thoughts not wanting to see people and in the next moment decide the best course of action would be to see a specific person, sometimes without a specific reason. I've been feeling like that lately. Seeing people everyday to keep myself occupied and later feeling very drained and tired from it, deciding I want some alone time I wouldn't go to see them. It lasted two days. I seem to go back and forth between wanting to be left alone and wanting someone around, perhaps to distract me from this restless feeling. I think I'll have to start another book. Reading seems like a good self distraction lately. It feels like I'm running or hiding from something but I don't know what. It's very hazy.

[living-louder]

Mission Statement,

Sort of... I'm not sure why, but I have this nagging feeling that I need to write something before I sleep. Start this somehow because it seems overdue. This isn't intended for anyone. It's just a place for me to try to keep on track and accomplish my goals. Maybe vent a little. I'm not sure how many people are like me, but I feel, at least lately, that if I'm not pressured by outside forces than I have a hard to getting things done. Ex. If I'm not pressured to get good grades I won't study Korean as meticulously. But that's another story in its own right. So here it is. A place to keep me on track, because I don't want to look back and feel disappointed and because I need to organize my shit.