Chocolate advertisement

I love Seoul advertisements. . . they are often very simple and yet very powerful. Another reason I like them is that the words in advertisements are there for a reason. . . because they resonate with people. In learning Korean and trying to communicate I want to know those words.

Anyway, here’s a bus stop chocolate advertisement:

Translation: If you will eat a lot you will get

2nd podcast . . . Korean singers

First podcast^^

To get better at Korean pronunciation I decided to start recording short podcasts. If you hear any mistakes or can’t understand something, please leave a comment!

Poet telling life story part II

Here is the second part of poet 도종환’s life story.

Script Part II

그리고 그것들이 뭐 그렇게 행복하게 풀어지지 않았어요.
나이 들어서까지도 계속 이런 이런 아버지가 크게 실패하고 난 뒤에
나중에까지도 이 어려운 음~ 그 가정 상황은 해소가 되지를 않았어요
그래서 중학교를 졸업을 하고 고등학교 갈 때,
늘 보고 싶다고 그랬으니까
저 인제 따로 혼자 나이도 됐으니까 공부할래요가 아니라
가고 싶은거죠 어머니 아버지 곁으로 가고 싶은 거죠
그래서 지금처럼 뭐 학교,, 부모와 학교와 성적을 가지고 상의를 해서
진학을 하는 결정하는 형태가 아니고 저의 경우에는
이렇게 고등학교도 일단 부모님 계시는 곳으로 가자
무조건 가자!는 거였어요 근데 그래서 단칸방 같이사는 그1년간은
그렇게 행복했어요
구멍가게를 하고 아버지가 국수 구멍가게하면서 아버지가 국수틀을 돌리고
직접 만들어서 팔기도 하고 어머니가 멸치장사를 하시고
그렇게 그렇게 사는 생활이 행복했어요

Poet telling life story part I

Here is the first part of the poet 도종환’s life story. The actual speaking starts at 1:06. As soon as I can I’ll upload the audio separately.

Script Part I

나한테는 문학이라고 하는 것이, 음, 그, 비유를 해서 표현하라고 그러면
음, 이렇게, 길과 같은 것이었다. 이렇게 편하게 이렇게 비유해서 말을 할 수 가있어요. 저한테는 문학이 길과 같은 것이었어요. 내 인생의 길.

제, 에, 문학이라고 하는것이, 제가 쓴 시라고 하는 것이 지금까지 살아오면서 어디로 가야 좋을지 몰라서 멈칫 거리고 방황하고 갈등하고 절망하고 그럴때 마다 그럴때마다, 음, 이쪽길로 가야한다, 이쪽길로 가는 것이 옳다라고 말해 준 것도 문학이고 그래서 그 길을 함께 걸어오면서 그 쪽방향으로 가면서, 문학이 가르키는대로 가면서 거기서 다시 만난 것이 또 그 다음에 씌여진 시이고 문학이고 살아온 삶을 돌이켜 보면 거의가 다 내 인생의 길이었고 길이 가르쳐 주는 것이었고 등대였었고 나침반이었었고 이정표였었고

그런게, 길이었던게 나한테 문학이 다는 생각을 합니다

문학을 왜 하게 되었을까? 언제부터 문학을 시작하고 가까이 하게 됐는가?

Natural speech, telling stories and discourse markers

Learning any language involves learning how to tell stories in that language. I noticed several months ago that I couldn’t tell stories well and when I did I told them more or less the way an American using English would tell them and not like my friends in my Korean Bible study sharing group.

Eventually I realised I had to learn everything all over again. I had to learn to start stories, how to fill the

God of study monologue link updated

It seems the God of study monologue link was broken somehow so I uploaded it again here.

Slow going. . . .

I’ve been trying to get some good work done but haven’t been getting too much work done unfortunately. I tried today and yesterday working specially on pronunciation. Pronunciation these days includes working on two songs — the Iris 잊이 말아요, 죽아도 봇보네. I tried also to work on 아이유’s 잔소리 but I’m not sure I can easily sing along.

I had a nice several hour visit with H* in Korean which I enjoyed a lot.

Yesterday I had a good long conversation with a new friend I made on lang8, which was a lot of fun. I hope that we become good friends and have lots of long conversations, and that I can really be a good friend to her.

Psalms

I’ve been working most of the morning and early afternoon on the Psalms in Korean. I’ve got now to Psalm 37:2 (at 14:37), and collecting lots of interesting words. I might finish my Psalm work right now though because I feel a bit overwhelmed. I have to do more that what I’m doing per day though to finish in one week. Maybe my goal is too unrealistic. I’ll keep trying to work on it. I think I started from Psalm 14 or so yesterday though so I’ve already made much more progress then I was able to do yesterday.

Week G and July

I’m obviously pretty bad at keeping up an account of my Korean activities. Partly it’s laziness, partly its form the dislike to use any free time for anything in English. Neither very good excuses.

July has been a good month Korean study wise but not as good as I was hoping. I got a lot of writing done but not as much as I had planned (a diary entry every day). I also got bunches of scattered reading done but didn’t finish any books.

I’m still meeting one of

Language practice -> language fluency

I’m trying to work on improving my Korean several different ways. I have two more weeks where I can study Korean pretty much full time and one week where I’ll only have two hours of teaching every day so I should be able to study a decent part of that time as well.

I had a lots of lots of language practice. This weekend I spent almost the whole time with H* hyeong and so was communicating the whole time pretty much in Korean with him, his friend from Daegu Ho*형 and then on Sunday with the Bible study group. At church and with the Bible study group I realized I was a lot more fluent. . . and I think it was because I had a whole Saturday to practice and get used to Korean.

I have to find a good way to balance Korean study with other things I do.

Last week I started to go to the main city nearby to study — it’s quite nice to study in a cafe and doesn’t feel as lonely as studying at home by oneself. The atmosphere is nice, and most of the places have internet so I can still do whatever studying being on the internet requires and keep in touch with people on facebook and ichat (which I’m not sure is the best way to concentrate, but oh well kk)

Goals for Week H
Finish the third volume of IQ84( till page 102)
Put all the sentences of 한국어 문법 연습 into Anki.
Write a lot of diary entries, summaries, and prayers for lang8.
Start reading news articles and writing summaries of them.
Star leraning songs.
Work on putting the movies into Anki
Finish reading the Psalms the way I’ve been doing it (시 18:15)